Fifteen
M onday morning, when I got home from dropping off Griff, Chief Higheagle was sitting on the front steps of my home.
“This is a surprise.” I took a seat beside her.
“Jared Colter is a terrifying man,” she said quickly.
I smiled at her. “Don’t I know it.”
“He knows I don’t need a lawman in this town, I need a fixer.”
“An arbitrator?”
She nodded. “Yes. For some people, the arbitration will be court-ordered, some will be suggestions from my officers, but Torus is covering your phone, your laptop, and you can work from home and go out and meet with people. The Newcastle Police Department will pay your salary and cover all your mileage on your car. Also, you can use our conference rooms to meet with people.”
“It sounds glamorous.”
“It won’t be, and you’ll have to keep all your licenses, like your conceal and carry, through Torus, but you’ll have a badge to get you in and out of the station and to any crime scenes.”
“Okay.”
“It’s not a job to make millions, but the work will be steady. Mr. Colter says all your health coverage, insurance, dental, etc., are all still on him.”
“I suspect my vision as well.”
Her chuckle was warm. “It’s like, yes, he wants you here, and is helping me with keeping you, but he also does not want to cut ties with you. It’s really very flattering.”
She was not a beautiful woman, but instead a handsome one with dark-tanned, flawless skin with bronze undertones, deep-set sepia eyes, great laugh lines, high cheekbones, and thick silver hair that fell rod straight to her shoulders.
When you thought about what someone with the name Higheagle would look like, she was exactly what I’d have pictured. Utterly unforgettable.
“That’s a yes, then?”
I smiled at her. “Of course it is.”
“You can start next Monday.”
“Thank you for the opportunity.”
“No, thank you . You’re the only one remotely qualified.”
We were quiet a moment.
“I thought the Eena police station was going to become an arbitration center.”
“That kind of space isn’t needed for a one-man operation.”
That was true. “So what’s going to happen to the building?”
“It’s being turned into a youth center.”
I couldn’t think of anything better.
At lunchtime, I stopped by the supermarket for a couple of things we’d forgotten to get the day before, and all the parents I knew and waved at seemed exhausted. We’d all come through the same wave of stomach flu over fall break. When Luke called, I was still chuckling.
“What’s funny?” he asked as I made the left onto our street.
“Everyone at the store looked like absolute hammered shit.”
“Well, half of Tatum’s class today was still out.”
“Easy to see how things like typhoid got around, isn’t it?”
“Yes, now, listen. I want us to go get you an SUV this weekend. The Jeep’s not big enough. It’s time for an upgrade.”
I told him about my new job, and he was thrilled. Anything that cemented me more firmly in his life, he was a fan of.
“There, see? New job, new life, new car. It’s a sign.”
I smiled into the phone.
“Oh, and guess what—apparently I’m oblivious.”
“In what way?”
“Really?”
“What? It was a question.”
“Yeah, but I like how you didn’t say, What? You? No. Not you. ”
I scoffed. “Just tell me.”
“Two of the guys on my crew, Matteo and Tim, they’ve been together for three years and are planning a wedding in the spring.”
“Huh,” I said, and muted him so he couldn’t hear me laughing.
“You muted me, didn’t you?”
It was crazy how well he knew me.
“How did I miss that, Nash?”
Waiting until I had all the laughing out of my system, I unmuted. “So it stands to reason that no one on your crew will care that their boss is bisexual.”
“Apparently not.” He sounded indignant.
“I might remind you that this is a good thing.”
“Nobody ever tells me anything.”
“I’m sorry, honey.”
He cleared his throat. “Where are you?”
“I’m on our street and will soon be pulling into our driveway. Then I’ll unload the small number of items that were forgotten yesterday at the store.”
“Like?”
“Cat litter, for one. Toothpaste, baking soda for some kind of science project, and Tatum needed blue hair dye because she and Anya want mermaid hair.”
It took a moment.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Just, her hair’s gonna be blue. Like, a bright neon blue.”
“And the school said that’s fine?”
“Yep, sure did.”
“Okay, whatever. What’re you gonna do after you put groceries and blue hair dye away?”
“Then I will finish the last of the notes on the job that brought me here so Owen can send a note to the accountant that the billing stopped the day you arrived home.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because Jared Colter always cuts the bill off from the day two people fall in love. As he says, that’s only good karma.”
“That’s very interesting.”
God. He was going to be insufferable.
“You realize the fact that the man has a stipulation like that in his contract speaks to how many fixers leave for love.”
“No.”
“Please. I was right. I was right the whole time, and you were giving me grief that day.”
“Fine. Maybe it happens every now and then,” I granted.
“Now and then my ass!” he crowed.
“Let it go.”
“You’re so full of crap,” he replied, laughing softly. “And you’ll be happy to know I invited Abel to come here whenever it’s convenient. He’s hoping to visit us right after New Year’s.”
“That’s amazing. I’m very proud of you.”
“Well, he sent you to me, so I have to thank him, and anyone who loves my kids and wants to protect them is someone they should know.”
Pulling into our driveway, waiting for the garage door to open, once I parked and got out, the second I turned toward the trunk, Wilson was there.
If I hadn’t been on the phone with Luke, paying more attention to him than my surroundings, I might have seen Wilson on the side of the house, because that was the only place he could have come from.
As it was, he was standing in front of me, leveling a Sig Sauer P229 Legion at the center of my chest. It must’ve been his duty weapon, which should’ve been removed during his issues with the law over the past month.
Strange the things that went through your head, logical things, when faced with possible death.
“Chief,” I said into the phone.
“Chief?” Luke repeated.
“Stop moving and put your phone and gun on the ground.”
Owen was going to be annoyed when he had to replace another phone for me.
“Nash?” Luke whispered.
“It’s gonna be okay,” I assured him, hung up, pulled my Glock and put it on the ground, then added my phone.
Wilson came around the front of the Jeep, gun never lowering, and I noticed the dead look in his eyes.
“You’re blaming me,” I offered, doing what I always did in these situations—keep them talking. The fact of the matter was, most people would not kill you if they were talking. When yelling or screaming, yes, but not when engaged in conversation.
“Of course I’m blaming you. If you hadn’t sprung that little bastard, I could have had time to regroup from Mullane.”
Exactly as I’d thought. “That happened fast…with Mullane.”
“So fast,” he agreed. “Once we were back at the station, Griff’s passed out in his cell, and one minute I’m telling Mullane I’m gonna take his product off his hands and he’s gonna drive right out of town, easy as can be, but before I could even get a response from the bastard, he’s got my fuckin’ deputy’s gun in his hand, Benning’s gun, because that idiot left his fuckin’ thumb break unsnapped. ”
Easy to grab a weapon that way. If your gun was in a holster, the muzzle angled toward the ground, the snap fastener wrapped around the end of the firearm secured it in the holster.
When I was a homicide detective, lots of guys left them open, which was dangerous.
The point was to keep you from simply being able to draw and shoot or someone else from pulling your weapon and using it against you.
“So you shot him.”
“The fuck was I supposed to do? Let him kill me, Daniels, and Benning?”
Mullane might have shot them all. It was possible. Or he would have made everyone give up their guns, locked them in a cell, and run for his life. There was no way of knowing. I had no idea what kind of man James Mullane was, other than smart enough to put the key to his Camaro in Griff’s pocket.
“No,” I agreed, trying to keep him calm as he picked up my gun, put it in the pocket of his parka, then stomped on my phone several times. It was so very dead.
“You’re going to walk out of the garage for me, go directly to the Chevy Tahoe parked out front, and get in behind the steering wheel.”
First rule was never, ever, get into a vehicle. Unless… “Why don’t you get into mine,” I offered, gesturing at the Jeep. “If I’m driving, it will be easier to?—”
“In the car!” he roared.
Walking out of the garage, I glanced up and down the street. But it was lunchtime on a weekday, and as we had only school-age kids on our street, there was no one around.
“So Mullane was dead and then what?”
He waited as I got into the driver’s seat, then got into the seat behind me. “We had to work fast to get rid of the body and that goddamn neon sign of a car on the side of the highway, that’s what.”
“But when you checked Mullane’s pockets, no key?”
“No nothing.”
“Why did you even pull him over in the first place?”
“Car like that? You know he’s carrying something worth money.”
“Why grab Griff, though?” I asked, despite knowing why. I slowly put my seat belt on, then placed my hands on the wheel, leaving the car idling. “Just because you were mad at the kids who trashed your place?”
“My whore of a daughter lied to me, pinned all that shit on him, plus I hate his fuckin’ father. Luke Duchesne is a first-class prick. Always the first one asking the mayor questions about me. I knew throwing his worthless-ass kid into lockup would serve him right.”
“Where am I going?” I asked, feeling the rage building over him putting his hands on Griff. “I need to know.”
“Toward the police station.”