AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Police Sergeant Luke Hawling rode in the family limo with Sheriff Gil Remington, along with his nephew, Deputy Wheeler Remington, and a few other family members. An official memo had been released two days ago, informing the town that Luke would serve as acting sheriff until further notice.
As the gates of the cemetery drew into view, Shep caught a flash of movement from the corner of his eye. He glanced through his side-view mirror to watch the line of cars behind him and discovered an apple red Mustang weaving in and out of the funeral possession. The driver kept slipping into the passing lane, moving up two or three cars at a time, then cutting back in line.
It took Shep another couple of seconds to realize that the Mustang driver wasn’t the only one doing it. A silver Corvette was up to the same nonsense. He didn’t recall either vehicle being present in the parking lot at the church, which meant they must have joined the line of cars somewhere along the way to the cemetery. One of the exits they’d passed led to the rez, which probably meant they were friends of the Paddocks.
That figures.Mato Paddock and his punk friends had no respect for authority, so it only made sense they’d have no respect for a funeral procession in honor of the Heart Lake sheriff’s late wife.
It was a two-lane highway, so they were probably trying to work their way up to the front of the line so they could pass the entire train of cars. It was foolish of them, since the procession was being led by uniformed policemen. The moment they made their move to pass, Shep would have the authority to pull them over and issue a citation.
Not wanting to create a scene, Shep radioed Linc in the cruiser next to him. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“Yep. How do you want to handle them?”
Though they were short-staffed today, Shep didn’t like the idea of allowing a few impatient snotheads to get away with horse playing through a funeral procession. Because it was being led by policemen in cruisers with flashing lights, all other drivers on the road were legally obligated to pull over and yield the right-of-way.
“Tell you what,” he growled, “if they keep driving instead of turning into the cemetery, that’s when we’ll make our move.”
“That’s a big ten-four,” Linc agreed. “You take the one on the left. I’ll tackle the joker in the Mustang.”
“Consider it done.”
Shep was almost disappointed when the two sports cars turned into the cemetery with the other cars. They immediatelypulled to the side of the lane and allowed the procession to pass on ahead of them.
Shep gritted his teeth, realizing they were about to make a run for it, after all. While he debated what to do, Police Sergeant Luke Hawling called him from the limo.
“Did you get the license plate numbers of those two punks?”
“I did, sergeant.”
“Then let ‘em scoot. We’ll run the plates after the ceremony and mail their citations.”
“Roger that, police sergeant.” Shep was inwardly fuming as he watched the Mustang and Corvette curl away from the end of the procession and high-tail it up the highway, away from Heart Lake. Wherever they were in such a hurry to be, he hoped it was worth the price of the tickets he planned to write up for them.
Prim met him at the grave site and took her place by his side. It was too windy for a tent. As the mourners gathered around, the mountain breeze whipped at their hair and clothing.
Shep reached for her hand, not caring how many curious stares it drew from his friends and coworkers. It had been a long, emotion-charged last three days for the Heart Lake Police Department, during which he’d gotten zero alone time with her. He needed to feel her hand in his right now.
She wordlessly curled her gloved fingers around his. She hadn’t played it safe in the blustery March weather like so many of the women present had. Instead of slacks, she had on a black velvet dress. No jacket this time, so he was able to enjoy the full outline of her hourglass figure.
He gave her black stockings and heels a discreet sideways glance. Man, but his girl looked hot in black! Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head, with a few ringlets dancing against her temples and cheeks.
As they waited for the ceremony to begin, she tipped her head against his shoulder and whispered, “Are you checking me out?”
He bent to speak in her ear. “Yep.”
“You clean up pretty good yourself, deputy.”
It was all they got to say to each other before the minister began to speak. Shep didn’t require a bunch of conversation, though. It was enough to have her by his side.
He could practically feel the gazes of his deputy friends on their joined hands. And it wasn’t just them. By now, half of Heart Lake had probably noticed he and Prim were holding hands. In small towns like theirs, word about stuff like that tended to travel quickly.
He hoped she didn’t mind going public with their relationship today. It wasn’t something they’d had the opportunity to talk about in advance. He’d been too busy with funeral preparations.
He studied his boss beneath half-lowered lids, wishing there was more he could do for the man. Grief was etched across Gil Remington’s rugged cowboy features. Though his wife had been ill for a while, he was taking the loss pretty hard.
It was no surprise to see tears flowing freely across the gathering. Though a few folks took exception to Gil’s leadership — ones who’d had run-ins with the law — everyone had loved his social butterfly wife. She’d organized more church picnics, bake-offs, and holiday parties than any other woman in the history of Heart Lake. Her homemade fudge would be especially missed.
Shep’s gaze zoomed in on Bliss Hawling, and he spent the next few minutes trying to catch her eye. He hadn’t yet gotten to speak with her about the grave they’d uncovered by The Longhorn Grill.
