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“Luna, get back inside.”
The dog turned and looked over her shoulder at him, a decidedly contemplative expression on her face, as if considering whether she would come or not.
“Come on, get your furry butt inside.”
With a defiant last sniff at a random clump of grass, Luna reluctantly made her way back to André.
“Good girl. We’ll get you breakfast as soon as we can.” As she slipped past him into the house, André dried her off with a kitchen towel.
“I guess I’m going to have to do laundry at some point.” He hung the damp towel on the door handle for the time being.
Soft footsteps sounded behind him. Turning, he saw Dante coming toward him.
“What’s the plan?” Dante asked, moving further into the kitchen. His hair was damp, so he’d had a quick shower, and he was already fully dressed. André was disappointed he’d missed naked shower time.
“Make coffee. Head to the station and touch base with Lani. Track Trent down. With everything going on around here, I don’t appreciate whatever game he’s been playing.”
“Oh, yeah? I knew he was an issue. What’s his deal?” Dante started to lower himself into one of the chairs but stood up again, obviously too restless to sit.
André grabbed pods for his espresso machine from the cupboard and lined up two of the many to-go mugs he kept on hand. He probably had more cups with lids than regular ones. Thinking about the day ahead of them, he grabbed two more coffee pods. They were going to need double shots to start their day.
“He’s a relic I inherited when I accepted the job. I’ve done what I can to remove him from as much forward-facing police business as possible.” André dropped a pod in, set one of the cups underneath the nozzle, and pressed the magic button. “Unfortunately, he complained to the union. So, I’ve been sending him and Lani to as many courses as the department can afford to try and bring him up to speed, both as an officer and human being. Which so far has been two.”
“Has it helped?”
“Nope. He continues to act as if the town is supposed to appreciate his thirty-five years on the force, during which his greatest achievement has been tonotbe sued by the high number of women and minorities he’s handed out various tickets to over the years. As if we owe him something.”
André thought about the spreadsheet he’d put together and shook his head.
“You were there when I learned purely by chance that he did nothing when Xavier Stone was set up and beaten by his supposed date. That was over twenty years ago, but Trent hasn’t changed much since then. I’ve also heard through the grapevine that he was very unhappy when Mayor Moore chose to hire from the outside instead of promoting him to the chief’s position.”
“What a lovely person to have representing the Cooper Springs PD. Deputy Cooper seems much better qualified.”
“My thoughts exactly. And you’re right, Lani would make a good chief. But she doesn’t want the job.”
André handed Dante the first cup of coffee and then made his own.
“I’m going to take a quick shower too, then I’ll be ready to go.”
“I’ll get Dani up.”
Grabbing his coffee and following Dante, André veered into the bathroom and took a quick shower, not bothering to shave. Cooper Springs would just have to deal with a scruffy police chief. Returning to his bedroom, he pulled on blue jeans instead of slacks, then a t-shirt, then a thick CSPD sweatshirt over that. If things kept going sideways like this, he was going to have to invest in a few more uniforms.
Dani and Dante were waiting in the living room for him when he emerged.
“Ready?” he asked and received two nods in response.
As they’d expected, Glenn Woods refused to answer any questions when his lawyer arrived. The defense attorney, Bradley Cooper—no relation—requested that his client be transferred to a “more humane” holding cell in Aberdeen while they waited for the judge to rule on bail. That request had been easy to agree to. For the time being, he was being held as a flight risk. Miami was a long way from Cooper Springs.
André spoke with the Grays County prosecutor on the phone. Tillotson agreed to have Woods moved to Aberdeen, and at just after nine a.m., he and Lani Cooper were watching a Grays County sheriff’s vehicle head south with Woods in the backseat.
“That’s one down,” said Lani. “And good riddance. He made my skin crawl.”
André wholeheartedly agreed.
“Have we heard from Deputy Trent yet this morning?” he asked Lani.
“No. I had Carol call him when she arrived, but he didn’t answer and hasn’t called back yet.”
