AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I hope this gives her the answers she’s looking for. I’d like to bring an end to whatever the hell is going on here, because Iknowsomething is. Tell her if there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.”
“Will do,” Cameron said as he stood. “I’ll see myself out.”
Sonny followed him to the door, frowning as he watched Pope striding up the hall and out of sight. “Yep. Something is going on for sure,” he muttered, then went back into his office and closed the door.
Cameron folded the pages lengthwise and put them in the console, then gave Ghost a gentle stroke across his head and down his back. The muscles rippled beneath his hand, a reminder of the big dog’s size and endurance. But for Cameron, Ghost was still that stray puppy who’d wandered into their camp, filthy and starving. They’d both come a long way from that day, but they’d done it together.
“Well, what’s for supper, big guy? Rusty said we have to choose.”
Ghost’s ears twitched at the sound of her name. He looked up at Cameron and whined as if to say “Don’t lay this on me, pal.”
Cameron laughed, then backed away from the curb and drove away.
***
It was Melinda Lehigh’s day off. She’d gotten her brows waxed, had lunch out at a diner she liked, then shopped for groceries before heading for the bus stop. The bus was just pulling to a stop when she arrived and ran to get on, juggling her purchases as she climbed in, then flopped down in a seat near the front.
Ten minutes passed, and she was thinking about making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and wondering what to wear to work tomorrow, when she realized the bus had reached her stop. She gathered up her things, shouldered her handbag as she disembarked, and headed home. The air was cold enough it made her eyes water, but the streets and sidewalks were clear.
Her apartment was less than a block away, and she was thinking about a hot cup of tea when all of a sudden multiple police cars came flying at her from all directions, with lights flashing and sirens screaming.
They all skidded to a stop, and when police began spilling out of the cars and shouting at her to drop her things and put her hands in the air, she started screaming, “What’s happening? What’s happening?”
They were restraining her and shouting back, “What’s your name? State your name!”
She took a breath, her voice shaking as she answered, “Lehigh. Melinda Lehigh.”
“Melinda Lehigh, you are wanted by the United States of America for questioning regarding murder and human trafficking. You are being taken into our custody and will then be transported to the border and handed over to the FBI.” Then they cuffed her and put her into the back of a patrol car.
She looked back as they were driving away. Her groceries were scattered everywhere. There would be no hot tea. No spaghetti and meatballs for her dinner. She wouldn’t show up for work tomorrow, and they’d wonder for a while what had happened, where she’d gone, and then forget she ever existed. She was sick-to-her-stomach, out-of-her-mind petrified. She didn’t know how they’d found her, but she knew why it was happening. She wasn’t nearly as smart as she’d thought she was, and that was her revelation.
***
It was almost sundown when Cameron pulled in beneath the carport. He came in the side door with a sack full of fried catfish, hush puppies, and coleslaw, and the list of names Rusty wanted, while Ghost was making the rounds in the backyard.
“Something smells good!” Rusty said as Cameron put everything on the counter.
When he saw her walk in, he swooped her up in his arms and nipped the lobe of her ear, then buried his face in her curls as she was laughing.
“You are a crazy man,” Rusty said, and slid her arms around his neck.
“You make me crazy,” he whispered, then kissed her senseless.
It might have gone way past just kissing had Ghost not decided he wanted back in the house. He was standing at the back door, barking.
Cameron groaned as he pulled away. “I am being paged,” he said. “Hold that thought.”
He let Ghost in and fed him, while Rusty began getting out plates and flatware. They filled their plates from the to-go containers and carried them to the table, then Cameron went back to get the list.
“Oh, you got the list!” Rusty crowed, as he laid it beside her plate. “Way to go!”
“They had an attempted robbery in town at one of the gas stations. I think that’s why you never heard from Sonny. I didn’t even mention to him that you’d called. I just told him I was running an errand for you. He bowed up a little about the list. And then I told him I thought it had something to do with the Emily Payne arrest. After that, he was fine,” Cameron said.
“I’ll run through the list later and see if anything pops. For now, we eat this wonderful food before it goes cold.”
***
Agents Howard and Pickard learned of Biggers’s death about the same time they found out Melinda Lehigh, a.k.a. Lindy Sheets, was in custody. They celebrated her arrest by paying a visit to the jail where Dewey Zane was being held. Their thinking was that if Zane knew Biggers was dead, he might be willing to talk. They had no idea Zane had already had one visitor while he was in jail: his wife, Carly. And she had received a threat she couldn’t ignore.
