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“I know you will, Lumous.”
Mason didn’t waste another second, but turned and barked at all the other units. “Everyone move out. Formation Alpha-3. Once everyone’s in position, Lumous is going to reach out and try to talk our perp down.”
It had been a long night,and an even longer morning. The sun had been up for five hours by the time Doug, hoarse from all the back-and-forth negotiations with the offender, had managed to talk him into surrendering.
Doug had thought, a few hours into negotiations, that his LT who had shown up would relieve him of command, but Talia had seemed content to take a back seat while Doug used every one of the skills that he’d picked up—while paying attention during other ops—to talk the guy down.
It had given Doug a boost, to know he not only had Mason’s faith, but his boss’s, but he hadn’t once considered that giving up or going in with guns blazing was an option.
He’d made slow headway with the guy. He’d cajoled. He’d promised. He’d offered help in the form of social services and therapy when he found that the man had been laid off from his construction job the previous day because his boss’s son had absconded with all the company funds. That was the reason he’d been drinking so heavily and had become despondent.
The man, just a few hours ago, had finally given up and come out, laying his gun on the ground, and allowing himself to be frisked…as long as Doug stayed with him.
Which he did, while the rest of his team searched the house.
As it turned out, the man hadn’t secreted away a single stick of dynamite, or a spec of C-4. It had all been bluster.
Doug had seen it before. Despair, followed by actions that were designed to end in death-by-cop. But Doug had quickly determined from the moment Mason had trusted him with the bullhorn, that’s not how things were going to play out this time.
And they hadn’t.
“Nice job, Lumous,” Mason had clapped him on the back once the prisoner had been taken away in a patrol car. Talia had come over and mimicked the gesture on his other side, and amazingly, Doug hadn’t shied away. Which was cause for some head-scratching. If the LT had tried to touch him a few weeks ago, he would have pretended to be okay with it, but would have shriveled up inside. Today, her gesture hadn’t even made him flinch.
There were so many things about the previous twenty-four hours that needed dissecting, but there had been no time. Doug had promised the perp, after the guy had been peaceably handcuffed, that he’d meet him back at the local PD, advocating for him and keeping the promises he’d made to try and help the guy sort out his future.
In that regard, things had soon begun looking better than what Doug could have imagined. It seems the owner of the bar that had been shot up knew the offender, and had already reached out with an offer that had the jailed man in tears. The deal was, if the guy came in and cleaned up the mess he’d made, replacing the windows on his own dime, the owner wouldn’t press charges, and would find a place for him on his brother’s crew; a highly reputable construction firm with many ongoing jobs in nearby Bangor.
Doug had insisted on one additional step after that bit of good news, and had called Will to have him refer the guy to a local therapist he deemed worthy.
With all that wrapped up, and with the man’s tearful thank-yous ringing in his ears, Doug had finally left to head back home.
It was late afternoon,and…Yeah. He didn’t need to go back to Talia’s because the LT was home by now, and Pixie had probably already left to go back to Skowhegan.
That didn’t make him happy.
He tried to convince himself that his displeasure was primarily because someone was stalking her and he couldn’t be on hand to help. Not that he didn’t want to, but the damned callout had rung him dry. He needed some sleep so he’d be coherent for his early morning OPD shift. But he’d already called Detective Roper a few minutes ago, and the man was going to make sure their school resource officer watched over Pixie while she was at school this week,andhe was having a cruiser follow her to and from home until things settled down.
The detective hadn’t found anything suspicious up at the site in the back field, but he wasn’t fluffing off Doug’s concerns, and that was a good thing. As a matter of fact, he’d told Doug he was going out in the morning to have a chat with Harlan to see what was up.
Doug had found himself relieved.
What was really irking him, if he were honest, was not being able to see Pixie.
Less than twenty-four hours had passed, but he’d grown accustomed to having her close; seeing her face, hearing her laugh, and waiting to see what kind of shit she’d give him when they disagreed on things. It was an actual craving. A yearning down deep to have her near enough so he could talk to her and smell the chalkboard and markers aroma that for some reason always clung to her skin.
Before he could talk himself out of it, he picked up his phone and hit her number, putting her on the truck’s Bluetooth.
“Doug?” Her voice was perky and…she sounded pleased he was calling.
“Yeah. It’s me. I just got off the case.”
“Talia told me what you did last night and this morning. How you talked the guy down. That was awesome, Doug.”
He’d been praised by Talia and Mason, but somehow the words coming from Pixie meant even more.
Pixie continued. “She also let me know you’d be tied up at the police station today until late, so I, um, went home.”
“I figured as much,” Doug sighed. “But I wanted to let you know, on your stalker situation, that the SPD is going to be watching out for you. Detective Roper has assigned a squad car to follow you to and from work, and the officer they have in your school will be keeping an eye on things in and around the building while you’re on premise.”
