Masquerade - John F. Desmond

On a routine ride-along, Officer William Crowley expects a quiet shift with a polite student interested in police work. Instead, he gets Katie Riley-a blunt, observant junior who sees the world differently and isn't afraid to ask the questions no one else does. Within hours, she's challenging his assumptions about the rules, reading crime scenes like a natural, and dismantling the careful walls he's built over a lifetime. Katie expected order. She expected clarity. What she finds in Crowley's cruiser is coffee cups, contradictions, and a man whose uniform fits better than his life seems to. Together, they respond to a vandalism call that's not what it appears-and in helping a grieving woman face her losses, both officer and student begin to confront their own. Masquerade is a story about the masks we wear to survive-and the rare, disarming people who help us take them off. Funny, tender, and sharply observed, it asks what happens when two very different people spend a few hours truly seeing each other.