Gard had to work hard to make sure his voice was devoid of any kind of emotion. “That’s her.” And just like that, any good feelings he’d had about today were completely gone. There was nogoodreason Dani was in a picture Beckett was showing him.
“You’re sure?”
Gard gave a sharp nod. “Where is this?”
“A warehouse outside of Hardy. A Bent County deputy witnessed a drug deal going down. Intervened. He was on his own, so only managed to arrest the buyer. We’re trying to identify all the players. Investigate.”
“Well, Laurel’s right about that ID. Dani Fairhurst. No doubt. I don’t know the guys.”
Beckett nodded. “And you don’t have any idea where your sister is staying?”
Gard thought about the address on her computer, but no one had been living there. No doubt she’d been there, done drugs there, but she wasn’t staying there. “No.”
“Not going to be awkward if I have to arrest your sister, is it?”
Gard sighed. “No. Just life.” Gard tried to keep his tone even, but it was a hard-won thing. “So, she wasn’t selling?”
Beckett shook his head. “Didn’t look like it from Stanley’s body cam footage. Just hanging out with the seller.”
And Gard’s experience with Dani and drugs was just complicated enough to feelsomerelief over the fact she was just a bystander. When being a bystander wasn’t much better at all.
“Look. This case is mainly Hardy’s, and I can let them handle it and her if you want to keep this separate,” Beckett said, a certain softness to his tone that hadn’t been there before. Or maybe ever. “Or I can wade in and take over the part that deals with her. Take a softer approach, if that’d be better for you.”
It was…a kindness. Gard knew he should take it, no questions asked, but… “Not exactly known for your soft touch, Beckett.”
He snorted. “No. But I’m getting married next month. According to my future sister-in-law, it’s turned me into a big softy.”
Gard wanted to be amused by that, but he couldn’t find any levity. “I’d appreciate it then. Look… I know what this is going to sound like. But she’s no hardened criminal. She’s got a drug problem, and I’m not saying she hasn’t broken any laws, or that you shouldn’t arrest her if she has. But she’s… She tries. For her kid. She just can’t resist that addiction. Any way this can be a little soft on her, I’d be appreciative.”
“Got it.” Beckett picked up the laptop.
But as some of those details meshed in Gard’s head, he had more questions. “I thought you were helping the Hardy copswith a human trafficking case? What’s that got to do with a drug dealer?”
Beckett nodded. “Yeah. It all connects, or at least we’re trying to prove it does. We’ve got some names, some theories, and they all connect to that address on Dry Road. That’s technically unincorporated Bent County, so we’ve got the jurisdiction on that, but most of the players are in Hardy.”
Connects.
“Can you email me that picture?”
Beckett hesitated, then shrugged. “Yeah, I guess that’d be okay. I’ll send it over in a minute.”
Gard tapped his fingers against his desk. Grasping at straws again. She’d looked just fine in that picture, hadn’t she? Standing next to a drug dealer. Hardly the first time. Even if thatwasmixed up in some human trafficking group, it didn’t mean Dani was being held against her will. Clearly she wasn’t.
But when his email pinged with the picture,andthe body cam footage, Gard set aside the work he should be doing and studied both.
Coming to no conclusions except that this nagging feeling ofmissing somethingwasn’t his gut, just wishful thinking.
Wishful thinking only ever hurt Sammy. It never solved any problems. So he had to set it aside and away. And hope that whatever Beckett’s investigation found, it was soon, and got Dani off the streets.
Lia stood outsidethe Simmonses’ house with nerves battling around in her stomach. She didn’t know exactly what she was hoping to get out of this. She just knew…
She couldn’t keep holding parts of herself back from Gard. And she couldn’t put anyone in Hope Town in danger by telling him about her past.
Which left her sitting between a rock and a hard place.
And Lia was used to dealing with her own rocks and hard places, but… Ever since her first real date with Gard, she had been trying to decide what to do, how to approach this. She didn’t have the answers when it came to Gard, couldn’t find them.
Which meant she needed help. Something she was definitely not used to asking for.
