Читать книгу The Sheriff's Secret - Julie Anne Lindsey - Страница 11

Chapter Two

Tina climbed inside the sheriff’s cruiser, shaking off memories of similar rides as a girl. Every time her dad had caused a scene at a park or ball game and was hauled in for a night in the drunk tank, Tina was escorted home by a nice deputy, often by the former sheriff. West’s dad. Eventually, she’d smartened up and steered clear of her dad before he could insist they go anywhere together.

She buckled in and winced as the condition of her hands and clothes registered. “Oh.” She rubbed her stained fingers against the ruined material of her pants, but it was no use. A tremor rocked through her as memories of the gunshot came rushing back. Tina shook her hands out hard at the wrists and released a shuddered breath. “Can...” She swallowed against the painful lump in her throat. “Can we make a pit stop at my house? I’d like to get a dry change of clothes before we go to the station. I don’t think I can concentrate like this.” She bent and stretched her fingers in the air above her lap. “Please.”

West gave the gas pedal a break, seemingly torn between giving her what she wanted and following his protocols. West had always been a stickler for doing the right thing, and that probably didn’t allow for a trip to an old girlfriend’s home before taking her formal statement.

“Which way to your place?” He dropped his sopping wet hat between them, then ran a hand through his hair.

She raised her brows in surprise. Maybe she wasn’t the only one who’d been changed by time. “Left on Canyon Drive. We’re in the River Park neighborhood.” She balled her shaking hands into fists and set them on her lap.

“Who’s we?” West asked, sweeping his gaze to her naked ring finger.

“Just Lily and I,” she said. “My daughter.” A hot tear stung the corner of one eye. Lily had come too close to being an orphan today. She pushed her focus beyond the passenger window. “And Ducky.”

“Ducky?”

She sighed. “The dog.”

“No Mr. Ellet?” he asked. “Or maybe you have a new last name?”

Tina touched the bare skin where a wedding ring had briefly dared to dream. “We weren’t married long enough for me to get it changed. I hadn’t realized there was a hurry.” She turned her stricken face to his, chin up, jaw tight. “I met him about two years ago, right after I moved back to town. We were married after a few months, and he died four weeks later. I never got to tell him about Lily.” She silently cursed her chattering teeth for betraying her show of strength.

West gave her a long, silent look. “How old is Lily?”

“Four months.” Tina had seen the expression West was giving her before, though never from him. Pity. “It’s fine. We’re okay. He was here and gone like a dream. Sometimes, I think if it wasn’t for Lily, I’d wonder if he was real.” The pain was real. The loss. But it was true: her short time with Thomas had felt more like a movie she’d seen long ago than an adventure she’d truly been part of.

“I’m sorry about your loss. Lily’s, too. Is she home now?”

“No.” She batted stinging eyes. “She’s at Mary’s. That’s the sitter.” Somehow West’s condolences to her daughter meant more to her than anything else he could have said.

“What happened?” West asked. “I’m not trying to pry. I’m just getting caught up. It’s been a long time.”

“I don’t mind.” It was strange being on the other side of a confessional for a change. Her spilling her troubles and someone else nodding patiently as the story unfolded. “Hunting accident.”

“You didn’t know him long before you married.” A hint of agitation edged his voice. “Then he just died?”

“Basically,” she answered. “He went up to the mountains for the weekend and never came home.” He’d asked her to go along on that trip, but she wasn’t feeling well enough to make the hike to the cabin. It wasn’t until after he’d left that a pregnancy test confirmed the reason for her fatigue and nausea. Lily was on her way. Tina had had big plans for springing the news when Thomas returned, but fate had other ones. “Two State Highway Patrol officers came to my door.”

“I’m sorry,” West said again, before she went any further. “I wish you hadn’t had to go through that.”

“Me, too.”

When he glanced her way again there was curiosity on his brow. “How’d you meet him? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “He spoke to me at the garden center a few days after I moved back here. I was buying redbud trees.” A small smile touched her lips. “He helped me plant them in my backyard.”

West grunted. His eyes narrowed, but he kept them focused on the road.

“I asked him once if he knew you,” she said, feeling a little guilty for having asked one man in her life about another.

“And?”

“He laughed. He said he’d never had any reason to run into the sheriff.”

“Lucky guy,” West muttered.

Tina tried not to wonder if there was a dual meaning behind his words.

The pair rode in silence for several long blocks. West turned sharp blue eyes her way from time to time, rubbing the dark shadow of stubble on his cheeks without speaking.

“What?” she asked.

He shot her a small smile. “I shouldn’t be surprised you’ve done so well despite it all. Remember that time you dared me to jump off that old rope into the swimming hole on New Year’s Eve?”

“Like it was yesterday.” She’d goaded West endlessly, daring and challenging him to be reckless, testing his stock. But West wasn’t reckless, not even as a teen. He’d been the first man to show her they didn’t all become monsters when the mood struck. West was as sensible as the day was long and a Garrett through and through. Hell-bent on saving the world. Garretts were soldiers and law enforcement officers. If rumor served, one of West’s brothers was a federal agent and the other was a US marshal.

The cruiser took a slow turn into her neighborhood and stopped at the first crossroads. The rain had stopped, and muted sunlight streamed from behind thick gray clouds. Emerald green lawns stretched before them, lined in newly blooming mums and anchored in elaborate pumpkin arrangements showing off for Halloween. Lily was too small to know, but she was going to be a princess this year. Every year, if Tina had any say in it.

River Park had been an up-and-coming neighborhood when Tina was young. She’d stared through dirty school bus windows for years as classmates poured on and off with clean clothes and new shoes every fall, and she’d dreamed of living there. Now, the homes were older and in her price range as long as she budgeted. Lily would have safe streets to ride her bike on and neighbors who knew her name. Maybe even a few folks who cared where she went and who she was with.

“Here?” West asked at the next intersection.

“Two blocks up, on the left. The white farmhouse.”

West accelerated to the posted speed limit. “I think you should see a doctor before we go to the station.”

“No.” She watched her unsuspecting neighborhood crawl past. Did the neighbors have any idea what had happened today? Was it on the news? Steven was dead. Pointlessly murdered by a coward with a gun. How did a community move on from that?

“I’ll swing by the hospital on our way to the station. Better to be safe.”

“No,” she repeated, a little more forcefully this time. “I wasn’t hurt, just shaken, and every minute counts right now. I want to be helpful.”

West huffed, but didn’t argue.

“Here. This one,” Tina said as her little home came into view, all country with a wraparound porch and a tree in the front. “I won’t be more than five minutes.”

Confusion pinched her brow as Ducky, her golden retriever pup, jogged toward the car, tail flopping.

“You know that guy?” West asked, watching the happy dog outside his window.

“He’s mine,” Tina whispered, “but I left him in his crate when I went to work this morning.” Her heart jammed into her throat, making it impossible to swallow. “Someone let him out.”

* * *

THE CRUISER JERKED to a rocking stop. West was on his feet and striding toward her home a moment later. He notified Dispatch of a possible break-in, then unholstered his sidearm. A break-in and a shooting involving the same woman on the same morning wasn’t a coincidence.

Tina was on his heels, teeth chattering intensely behind him.

He stopped her at the front door. “Wait in the car. Lock the doors.”

“I can’t.”

The terror in her voice tugged his heart, and West weighed his options. Taking her along could be dangerous. Leaving her alone could be deadly. He turned the knob, and her door opened. “Stay behind me.”

Her small fingers slid against the material over his back, and he hated the pleasure it gave him to be near her again.

Inside, the house was silent and spotless. “Cade County Sheriff,” West announced, edging past about a hundred pairs of shoes by the front door.

“Woof!” Ducky called from Tina’s side.

West reached around Tina and let the dog in.

Ducky barreled through the house, barking and protesting. He slid around a corner and out of sight.

West motioned for Tina to wait as he followed Ducky down a short hallway toward the back of the home. The dog stopped in the mudroom, pawing and barking at a narrow closet door.

“Cade County Sheriff,” West announced again, stepping carefully into the small room. He moved into position, gun drawn and faced off with the door. “Come out with your hands up.”

A blinding pain split the back of his head and loosened his grip on the weapon. Flashes of light splintered his vision. His knees buckled and he tumbled forward against his will. One palm landed against the floor in support.

The back door swung wide and a figure dressed in black bolted into the yard.

“Damn it.” West shoved onto his feet and forced himself through the door. He slid in the wet grass on uncooperative legs. “Freeze!” he hollered.

A fresh blast of pain punched through his skull at the sound of his booming voice. He pressed one hand to the back of his head and groaned. The goose egg was already forming, and his palm slid against something warm and slick. A quick look confirmed the substance as his blood.

West angled between the next set of homes, hoping to get a glimpse of the getaway car or a look at the man’s face. The figure had doubled the distance between them, clearing the next hill and vanishing before West could manage to gain any speed.

West holstered his sidearm and radioed Dispatch. “Suspect is fleeing on foot, moving southwest toward Main from River Park Estates.” He’d be lucky if a deputy was anywhere near his location. The Cade County Sheriff’s Department was small, just six including himself, and not everyone was on duty. Those who were had their hands full with the shooting.

He paused to curse and allow his vision to clear. What the hell had he been hit with? And what was the dog barking at if not the intruder?

West climbed the steps to Tina’s front porch slowly and with a little effort. “He got away,” he said, sliding inside and forcing his posture straighter. “Got any ice?” He scanned the empty living room. “Tina?”

Ducky jumped at his feet, a leash in his mouth. “Now you want to go out?” He sidestepped Ducky and fought an irrational wave of fear. “Tina?”

“West.” Her trembling voice sent him in the direction of her kitchen.

He cut through the living room, taking in as many details as possible. Everything smelled like Tina. Vanilla and cinnamon, warm and inviting. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture, but the baby seemed to have more than any one child could ever need. Infant seats, swings and play sets dotted every inch of space he passed, accompanied by a barrel of stuffed animals in the living area.

Tina stood alone in the kitchen’s center. The table had been set for two, complete with hot pads in the middle, as if standing in anticipation of a meal yet to come. She shook her head, clearly baffled. “I didn’t do this.”

West’s muscles tightened. “Don’t touch anything.” He dialed Cole as an icy swell of fear rose through him. West knew exactly the kind of person who’d break into a woman’s home and stage a scene like this. A dangerous one. Maybe even someone capable of shooting a man right in front of her just to get her attention. He turned away from Tina as he relayed the situation to his brother. The pain in his head grew by the second. West checked again to see if the blood flow had slowed.

Tina gathered ice into a dish towel and pushed it his way.

He gave her a sour face, but accepted the offer. “This is the opposite of not touching anything.”

“Yeah, well, you’re hurt,” she said. “Don’t bleed on my carpet.” The attempt at levity was lost with the crack in her voice.

Tina was scared, and West needed to fix that.

He cleared the rest of the house, room by room, then took a break to let the ice do its work. “Any idea who’d pretend to make you dinner?” He winced as the towel slid against his hair.

“None.”

“Are you seeing anyone?”

“No.”

“I think you’d better pack a bag. I need to get a team out here to pull prints off the dog’s crate, your doors and everything in the kitchen.” He gripped the back of his neck. “As soon as they finish at the medical center parking lot.”

Tina followed him into the bathroom and retrieved a first-aid kit from under the sink. “The house is clear. Now hold still and tell me what happened.”

“Ducky was barking at the closet door, and someone jumped me while I was distracted.”

The pup appeared at the sound of his name. “Woof.”

Tina took the lead from his mouth and set it aside. “We keep his leash in the closet. I take him for a walk when I get home.”

West rolled his eyes and regretted it. “Ow.”

“Here.” She tossed a bloodied cloth into the sink and handed him a bottle of aspirin. “I don’t think you’ll need stitches.”

“Great. I wasn’t planning on getting any.” He tossed a pair of pills into his mouth and scooped a handful of water from the bathroom sink.

He led her to her bedroom and made a slow circle through the room. “We know someone has been inside. We don’t know for how long or how often.” West peered through the curtains into the back and side yards. “Crimes like this are predominately orchestrated by men. Are you sure there isn’t anyone you can think of who might have some fixation on you or infatuation you weren’t aware of?” He ignored the fire burning in him at the thought. He couldn’t let this get personal. Couldn’t afford to have clouded judgment.

“I haven’t dated since I met Thomas. That was two years ago. There was nothing serious before that.”

West ignored the strike to his chest. He thought that they had been plenty serious once, but then again, she’d already made it clear he was wrong.

Tina wrinkled her nose. “There was a man at the hospital who asked me out a few times while I was pregnant. I thought that was weird, but he eventually took no for an answer.”

“Who was that?”

“Chris something. He worked at the pharmacy on the main floor.”

West released the curtains in favor of his cell phone. “Go ahead and gather whatever you need,” he instructed, tapping the tiny screen. “You can shower and change at the station if you’d like. Your soiled clothes will need to be bagged as evidence. We can come back for Ducky once we finish there.”

“How long will I be gone? How much should I pack?” Her mind raced with questions. Where should she and her daughter go? Was anywhere safe?

“Take enough to last you a couple days, Lily, too.”

Tina braced her hands against the bed’s edge. “Do you think the shooter did this?” Her ivory skin whitened further.

West sent a quick string of orders to his deputies via text message before turning his attention back to Tina. “We can’t know for sure. Not yet.”

“Was it him?” She choked. “Could the shooter from my office have been here? Inside my home?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”

“Damn it, West!” A flush of frustration bled across her pale cheeks. “Stop dancing around and just tell me what you really think happened here.”

West wedged his hands against his hips, struggling to deliver the impossible truth. As if playing witness to murder wasn’t enough horror for her to experience today, the psychopath had to invade her home and do who knew what while she was trying to save the life of her patient. “I don’t think this is a coincidence.”

She nodded her head, an expression of disbelief on her brow. “So, this is about me? The shooting, too? Steven died because of me somehow? It’s insane! He’d barely begun his recovery.” She stopped. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“You’re probably in shock.” West offered a hand to help her onto the bed. “Sit back. Put your head between your knees and breathe.” He waited for her to comply. “You okay now?”

“No.”

West turned to lean against the bed at her side. “None of the things that have happened today are your fault. None of them. Whoever’s doing this is unstable. Deranged. He could’ve picked anyone to unleash his anger on. It had nothing to do with you. It could just as easily have been the neighbor, or the grocery clerk, or the librarian. Understand?”

She sobbed against the back of her hand, but nodded her agreement.

West stepped away from the bed. He needed to get her out of there. “Do you want me to pack the bag?”

Tina slid onto her feet. “Don’t you ever get tired of bossing people around?” she grouched.

“No. Where are your bags?”

“Oh, my gosh! Lily!” She dug into her purse and brought out her phone. “I have to call the sitter. If this is about me, then Lily’s in danger!”

West moved into her line of sight. “That’s not a guarantee, and I’ve already sent a deputy to check on her.”

“How did you know where she was?”

He smiled. “There’s a giant pink heart on the refrigerator with Lily’s schedule and Mary’s contact information. I saw it when you got me the ice.”

Her lips lifted into a small smile. “Right. Thank you.” She adjusted the phone against her cheek. “Mary? This is Tina. How’s Lily?” Tina’s voice cracked on the last little word. Tears rolled over her cheeks as her smile widened and turned to laughter. “Thank you. Okay. Thank you.” When she disconnected, Tina looked weightless, as if everything awful in her day had been forgotten. “Lily’s okay. Mary saw what happened on the news. She’s been worried about me, but they’re both fine. They’re eating applesauce and blowing bubbles. She said I should take as long as I need. She knows I have things to sort out, but I just want to end this awful day and pick up my baby. The sooner I have her back in my arms, the sooner something might make sense again.”

She stuffed her things into a bag from the closet then looked at the bathroom door. “Should I bring a towel for the shower?”

“No.” West marveled at the way the promise of seeing her baby had rejuvenated and refocused her. “We have towels at the station.”

“Okay.” Tina rolled her shoulders back and hiked the bag over one shoulder. “Let me grab Lily’s things, and we can go.”