Chapter20
Tessa
I never gotto Clem’s place last night.
First of all, it took us half the night to get control of the domestic situation out on Ridge Road, twelve miles north of town.That resulted in a bruised hip and farm muck and manure all over me when I ended up tackling the suspect, who ran after jumping from a rear window.I jumped him in the half-frozen pig pen behind the house.
Warren Burns and Ziggy Brenner, the two deputies out there with me, were laughing their asses off when I marched the handcuffed suspect around to the front of the house, both of us shivering from the cold and covered in pig shit from top to bottom.
Nothing is worse than the stench of pig manure.
They were still laughing when I drove off five minutes later, the suspect in the back of my own cruiser—because why stink and dirty-up two cruisers if you don’t have to—and my windows rolled down for fresh air, even as my lips were turning blue from the cold.
The snowflakes started coming down as I was driving back down the mountain in a freak, early winter storm.By the time I had the suspect booked in back at the station, and it was coming down in earnest when I was headed home for a shower and clean clothes.I’m no stranger to snow, having lived in Spokane almost all of my life, but not as early in the season and not at those quantities.Snow in the mountains is a different beast altogether.
I barely got home in one piece, and never made it back out the door.I wrote my report from home and then shot Clem a quick text, telling him I was staying put for the night, but would catch up with him in the morning.
Looks like that’s not going to happen either, since Mancuso is just shooting me a text as I’m getting out of the Jeep.
Sent you an email.
Call me when you get to the office.
Shootinga longing glance in the direction of the firehouse, I turn and head for the station.Sadly, Clem will have to wait, I’m eager to find out what Mancuso wants from me.
I already heard from my older kid, who called me on his way to school after I’d sent him a text.He was okay, but ready for his own bed.After spending last night alone in my unusually silent house, I never thought I’d be longing for the sound of my boys bickering.It’s not like I’ll have them around forever, next year Linc will go to college somewhere.He’s been talking about UCLA—mainly because of their football program—which would mean he couldn’t just come home on the weekends.
As much as those kids can be a pain in my ass, I’m not ready for this next stage where I end up an empty nester.Not ready at all.Hopefully, Mancuso has some progress to report, and I’ll have both boys back home soon.While I have the chance.
“Good job catching Cletus Farnsworth last night,” Hugo compliments, when I walk into the station’s bullpen with a cup of Brenda’s wake-up potion.“Ziggy told me all about it.”
I dart a narrowed glance at the grinning deputy, pretending he’s engrossed in something on his computer screen and not listening to every word that is being said.I’ve already discovered he’s a bit of a practical joker.A class clown, if you will.I’m guessing he’s probably not much younger than me, and is one of the newer Edwards County Sheriff’s Department recruits.
I don’t really know his background, but if that man wasn’t wearing a uniform identifying him as one of ours, you could easily mistake him for some biker skinhead with his tattoos and shaved head.
Despite his deceiving looks, he seems to be a good cop.
“I bet he did,” is all I’m willing to comment.No need to give Ziggy any more encouragement.
“He’s stinking up the holding cell though,” Hugo continues.“Lloyd is in there trying to hose him down, and get him into some clean clothes so he’s at least a little presentable when he’s arraigned in front of Judge Crombie this morning, but he’s meeting some resistance.”
Lloyd McCormick is one of the older guard deputies and has significant arthritis.He tends to prefer either community foot patrol or guarding the holding tank when someone is in there.In any big city department, he’d be relegated to desk duty or, more likely, be urged to take early retirement, but in this small community they still value his experience and community connection as an asset.
Another reason why I’m really glad I took the jump and moved here.
“Maybe if Ziggy’s not too busy, he can give him a hand,” I suggest, almost laughing out loud when I see the horror on the guy’s face.
“Good idea,” Hugo affirms, playing along.“Ziggy, go see how Lloyd is making out.”
Ziggy walks out, shooting me a dirty look.Hey, you asked for it, buddy, don’t dole it out if you can’t take it.
“Mancuso wants me to call him.He sent me something, so I should hop on my email,” I tell the boss.
“Come talk to me after.”
Slipping behind my computer, I open my inbox.The email the agent sent has “Have a look,” in the subject line, and just a zipped file attached.I click on it and it opens as a video file, which I play.
It looks like the security feed from inside a coffee shop, until I notice the individual cubbyholes with a computer in each one of them on the other side of the coffee counter.It’s an internet café.
