Chapter 4
Chapter Four
LINCOLN
The second I pushed through the heavy glass doors of the police station, the receptionist’s eyes hit me and went half-mast. It took everything in my power not to cringe as she purred, “Mornin’, Linc.”
“Sue Ellen,” I replied in a flat, emotionless voice, careful not to give her an inch.
One of the biggest mistakes I’d made since moving to Hope Valley was getting so goddamn drunk that I’d stupidly gone home with the woman one night a couple years back.
Worst sex of my life, hands down. But what I didn’t know then was that Sue Ellen couldn’t keep her trap shut to save her life, so word of our one and only encounter spread through town like wildfire and was built up to be something much more than it actually was: a poorly chosen one-night stand that I had no plans of repeating.
I’d made the mistake of thinking a woman who could strut as magnificently as Sue Ellen could in those sky-high heels knew what she was doing in bed.
After all, it took some serious fucking skill for a woman to sway her hips like that.
Turned out it was all an illusion. That sexy strut of hers was where Sue Ellen’s talents started and stopped.
I’d tried brushing her off as kindly as possible, hadn’t looked at her with the slightest hint of interest in years, barely spoke more than a word to her in months, but as luck would have it, the damn woman was about as easily deterred as a dog with a bone.
“Here to see Hayes,” I grunted, not bothering to slow as I made my way to the stairs that would lead up and into the bullpen.
“Oh, yeah, sure!” she chirped, and from the corner of my eye, I saw her craning over the long counter to keep me in her sights. “It was good seein’ you! Stop by when you have time to chat.”
I flicked two fingers out at her in reply as I hit the steps, taking them two at a time in an effort to escape as quickly as possible.
The room mainly consisted of a mass of desks cluttered around the center.
Along the left side were conference rooms, to the right was the call center where all emergency calls for Hope Valley were routed, and the captain’s office at the back of that.
Directly behind the bullpen was a hall that led to the three interrogation rooms and the holding cells, and that was basically the whole of the Hope Valley Police Department.
The instant I hit the bullpen, my gaze moved to Hayes Walker’s desk and I spotted my buddy, hunched over as he stared at something on the computer screen in front of him.
Hayes’s desk butted up to his partner’s, Patrick Wanderly, putting his back to the entrance of the bullpen, so it was Trick who spotted me first.
“Hey, man, what’s happenin’?”
I stopped at the edge of the desk clump and answered, “Not much. Heard you guys caught a nasty one a couple nights ago. How’s that goin’?”
Gossip about the string of robberies had made its way through the Hope Valley grapevine even faster than normal, mainly thanks to Sue Ellen and her big mouth.
I knew Hayes and Trick were lead on the case, and that it had turned up a whole lot of nothing since shit went down, so I wasn’t all that surprised when Hayes called earlier that morning and asked me to stop in.
I might have been born and raised in Virginia, but it wasn’t until I left the Marines ten years earlier that I discovered the little slice of heaven that was Hope Valley.
It was quiet, peaceful, and, for the most part, crime free.
That might have been a deterrent, seeing as my plan was to open a private investigations and security firm once I got myself settled, but the good thing about Hope Valley was that it was close enough to the bigger cities to allow business to thrive, while still being closed off enough that the nastiness of my job didn’t trickle into my everyday life.
It was a win-win. And the reason I’d discovered this town was all because of Hayes.
We’d been in the service together, Hayes having retired earlier than me in order to come back and join the force.
But when it was time for me to set down roots and start a life that didn’t involve war, my brother in arms had convinced me that Hope Valley was the place to do just that. And he’d been right.
“It’s goin’ absolutely fuckin’ nowhere,” Hayes replied, sitting tall in the old, beat up swivel chair and giving his back a stretch.
“We don’t have anything but a bunch of pissed-off citizens wantin’ their shit back, and one particularly trigger-happy old man who can’t see two feet in front of his face.”
Twisting the chair at the end of their desk clump so it was facing toward Hayes and Trick, I took a seat and made myself comfortable. “Pretty sure Wilson’s more of a danger to himself than anyone else.”
“Still gotta protect and serve,” Trick muttered, rubbing at his temples. “Even the old bastards with a death wish.”
Leaning back, I kicked my motorcycle boots up on the edge of the two desks and got right down to business. “So what can I do? I assume you called me in to help, not just ’cause you missed my pretty face.”
Hayes chuckled and gave his head a shake. “Still blows my mind that women gag after your ugly mug. Bet money Sue Ellen’s droolin’ all over the front desk right about now.”
At my noticeable cringe, Trick let out a hoot of laughter. They all knew what a disaster Sue Ellen was, and none of them would touch her with a ten-foot pole. But it would’ve been nice if my friends had given me a heads-up before I dipped my toe in that particular pond.
“Fuck off,” I grunted at both of them. “I still can’t believe you assholes hung me out to dry like that.”
“Brother, when it comes to Sue Ellen Mayfield, it’s every man for himself,” Hayes said.
“Woman’s made her play on practically every cop in this building.
As far as we were concerned, you were the perfect scapegoat to get her off our backs.
Not my fault you couldn’t see what was hiding behind those little dresses and fuck-me heels. ”
Shaking off the shiver the memory of that night with her sent down my spine, I turned the subject away from Sue Ellen and onto more important things. “If this is all you called me in for, I got shit to do.”
To their credit, their laughter dried up and both men leaned closer.
Hayes lowered his voice so only the three of them could hear as he spoke.
“Need your help, brother. Nothin’ big, just need you to do what you do best and keep your ear to the ground.
You spot anything or anyone who sets off alarm bells, you let us know.
We’re doin’ what we can on our end, but with no physical evidence, and our only witness bein’ blind as a bat, we’re in the dark. ”
Trick nodded and picked up where Hayes left off.
“Everyone in three counties knows Old Man Wilson sleeps with his gun propped up beside his bed. Tells us whoever broke in the other night is either new in town or just driftin’ through.
Could be the dude freaked and took off, but we still gotta cross all our T’s and dot all the I’s. ”
I dropped my feet and leaned in. “I’ll do what I can, but you give any thought to Malachi Black?”
Malachi Black was the kind of asshole that all other assholes were too scared to bump heads with.
He’d lived all his life in this town, and rumor was he had a pretty decent-sized operation cooking meth—but that was all it was for now, just rumor.
Hope Valley PD had sent as many men as they could spare up into those mountains in search of his cookhouse, but they always came back empty-handed.
If he was doing it, he’d been smart enough to set up in another county, and so far his product hadn’t hit our town.
But sadly, it was just a matter of time before that happened.
Grapevine and Hidalgo, the two towns closest, had reported an influx of drugs hitting their streets.
My gut told me Black was bad news. Unfortunately, the fucker used his brain, so no one had shit on him.
“Got nothin’ to warrant pullin’ him in for questioning,” Hayes answered, the tick in his jaw showing he was pissed as hell about that. “And Cap’d have our asses if we didn’t go by the book.”
“It’s election year,” Trick grumbled. “Asshole cares more about keepin’ his position than doing his job. He’s of the opinion that if it isn’t a problem now, it’s not worth the man power and tax dollars to investigate.”
Blowing out a breath, I shook my head in disapproval.
“And the robberies weren’t the usual smash-and-grab you’d see with a tweaker,” Hayes added.
“They were more organized. With the exception of Wilson, the son of a bitch took his time goin’ through the houses, leaving behind the shit not worth anything and keyin’ in on the expensive items. That doesn’t say stoner to me. That says pro.”
“Sounds like it,” I agreed. “I’ll keep an eye out, see if I notice anything, but truth is, other than the chick who just moved a couple houses down from me, I don’t recall anyone new comin’ to town. And you know word spreads whenever there’s new blood.”
Hayes arched an eyebrow. “Anything about the new girl strike you as off?”
I tried to recall Eden, but honestly, other than the fact that Rocky liked her, nothing stood out. I’d only had two conversations with her, but out of both of those, I couldn’t remember a single thing we’d talked about.
“Not really. Honestly the girl’s not all that memorable. Plain, quiet, kinda shy. That’s about it.”
“You catch her full name?” Trick asked.
I thought back to the introduction our neighbor Nona made days ago. “Eden Brenner.”
Trick scrawled the name on a legal pad before tossing the pen down. “Not much, if anything, but at least we can run it and see what we come up with.”
“Seriously doubt Eden’d be able to pull off one B&E, let alone three in a single night. Woman barely clears five feet, and she doesn’t look like she has much endurance.”
“You never know,” Hayes said with a shrug. “And it’s more than we’ve had to go on so far.”
I pushed to my feet. “All right. You find something when you run her name, you let me know. I’ll do what I can to help. And in the meantime, I’ll keep a lookout.”
Hayes stood as well, reaching out to shake my hand and clap me on the shoulder. “Will do, brother. See you at The Tap Room Friday?”
The Tap Room was one of three bars in Hope Valley, and the only one that wasn’t a shithole. In a town as small as ours, unless it was football season, there was little else to do on a Friday night other than hit up The Tap Room unless you wanted to drive to the next county.
“Yeah, I’ll be there.”
“All right. This turns out to be anything, first round’s on me.”
With a chuckle, I took a step back, looking Trick’s way and giving him a chin lift before answering Hayes, “You’re on.”
Then I turned on my boots and headed back down the steps, giving Sue Ellen another flick of my wrist without looking her direction as I cleared the doors and walked the five blocks down the street to my offices.
Time to get my own work done.