Chapter 3 - Andi’s Storm
Chapter 3
Andi’s Storm
Monday
Andi Delane blew into the Honey Creek sheriff’s office like a Texas tornado in full fury. Papers, posters, and a week’s worth of mail flew around the bay of a room as if she planned to do spring cleaning. Everyone in the building turned to watch a woman obviously on a mission.
At five-feet-ten inches tall with brown eyes and sunshine hair tied in a bun, no one would miss her passing by. But at a second glance even the Hulk might take a step back. Andi Delane was a woman used to being in charge, and only a fool would get in her way.
A beefy deputy stood up from the information desk and bobbed his reddish-brown head in a greeting. “May I help you, ma’am?”
For a blink she wondered if they grew deputies oversized in this valley just to scare visitors. This guy looked just like the cop who gave her the ticket. He seemed to be playing with his computer.
Andi didn’t have time for conversation with the town pumpkin, but she had to educate him. “Don’t call me ma’am. Don’t open doors for me and don’t explain anything to me. Got it, Deputy?”
“Yes, ma’am.” His eyes widened as if he realized he’d said something wrong, again. He looked directly at her now, but his big hand hovered over the keyboard.
“Where is the sheriff in this county?” she demanded as she moved toward the glass door to the only office visible.
The only other deputy in the room backed up, leaving a trail of coffee dripping from his full cup. Finally, he froze and pointed to the one office in the room.
Andi didn’t bother to thank the mute deputy.
Without a sound, the sheriff stepped out of his office and straightened. He might be younger than she was, but he carried authority on his square shoulders and intelligence in his eyes. He gestured for her to follow him to his office.
In the room, she offered her hand. “Sheriff Pecos Smith, I assume. I’m Andi Delane, presently assigned to the Dallas Police Department as a detective. I was told to report to you and only you.”
“I’ve been expecting you for months, Miss Delane. I wasn’t sure of your last name. No one seemed to know where you were. I’m afraid I have some bad news to pass along.” He shook her hand with a firm grip.
Andi almost smiled. “Thanks to your dogged hunt, I’m here. A friend, a Texas Ranger, convinced me to talk to you and my kin before you guys start nailing up ‘missing person’ posters across the country.” She lowered her voice. “The ranger said you can be trusted. I often use other names when I’m on duty.”
Pecos Smith nodded once. “Understood.”
Andi felt like she knew this kid of a sheriff. As always, she’d done her research. Smith was a recent college grad. Father of two. Still in his twenties. Hero. A Texas Ranger she knew said Pecos Smith would be a legend before he was forty, if he lived. He was one of those rare people who ran toward danger when others needed help.
Lowering her voice she said, “Thanks for your time, Sheriff Smith.”
“Of course. And it’s Pecos to you. I’ve been hearing about you for so long, I feel like you’re one of my long-lost cousins. May I offer you a coffee?”
“No. I won’t take up much of your time.”
She kicked the door closed behind them and took a seat when he pointed toward the one chair across from his desk. Andi removed her jacket as he picked up a pen. He’d obviously sensed the importance of what she was about to tell him.
Andi was thankful he didn’t waste time with small talk as she slid both her driver’s license and her Dallas PD badge toward him. “I’m also a pilot and don’t wear a uniform.”
The sheriff took a quick look at her IDs and passed them back across the desk. “How can I be of help? Should I call you Detective, Andi, or Miss Delane? I guess you already know your father passed away.”
“The lawyer told my mother that he died. I never met him. And, as of now, you are my only friend in town.” She took note that Pecos presented himself as calm, inquisitive, but listening to every word.
Andi continued, “I’ll just tell folks I’m passing through. Taking time to see where I was born. I’ll answer to Andi Delane if anyone asks, but I’d rather no one know any of my background at all, including your deputies.”
The sheriff stared at her. “I’m aware there is another reason you’re here, Andi.” Pecos leaned closer. “Understand that this valley is not ‘on the way’ to anywhere, and the story that you are here to find long-lost relatives, though true, might raise some questions.”
“That’s valid, but I can handle it with no problem.” She noted never to lie to Pecos. He read people too easily. Even her. “I’m due to testify on a drug trafficking case. My captain suggested I lay low for a few weeks, so I decided to visit kin I didn’t even know I had until your town lawyer, Jackson Landry, informed me a man named me in his will.”
Andi would not show any emotion over a bum who never claimed her or even saw her. Jamie Morrell was nothing more than a sperm donor in her life. “Mom called him once to tell him he had another child. But Jamie hung up on her before she told him I was a girl.
“My mother moved us to DC before I had time to remember this place. My real father is the man who raised me. Stood by my mother and still does. I want nothing from a man who didn’t care if I was a girl or boy.”
Pecos nodded. “I’ve heard those words about not wanting inheritance before. I’ve met two of your brothers.” He hesitated then added, “Not many people know that Jamie Morrell’s mother was a Delane. If you hate him, why’d you use that name?”
“It was convenient. I’ve used many others. Since I joined the department, I’ve worked undercover mostly. I was taught to use disposable names when I was working and I consider Delane disposable.”
Pecos lifted a file. “I’m aware you served in the Army for six years as an MP before you signed on as an undercover cop with DPD. What I don’t understand is why you’ve avoided coming here for over a year. Why show up now?”
She stared at him.
Pecos didn’t blink.
Finally, she leaned close and said in a low voice, “Things got a little hot with my last undercover assignment. Until Dallas slows down, I thought I’d hang out here where no one will notice me. This place looks like the middle of nowhere. Good as anywhere. Even pretty in late fall, in fact, but I’ll be gone before the first hard freeze.”
Pecos leaned back. “No more questions, Andi. If I ask too many questions, I have a feeling that tall Texas Ranger will visit me again. Nice guy but he had a strange habit.”
“What’s that?”
“When the Ranger ordered me to stop looking for you if I wanted to stay walking, his left hand never left his Colt 1911.”
“He threatened you!”
“No. I took it as if he was just asking about my health.”
Andi couldn’t help but smile. Ranger Carlson Ramm had been her mentor in the Army. He always had her back. He claimed his family had been Rangers for almost two hundred years. She thought back about the time she and Ramm spent together as soldiers. Once they could have been more, but it wasn’t to be. It seemed she lived so much of her life in shadow, she wondered if there was an Andi to know in the real world at all anymore.
Straightening, her memories washed away and she focused on today.
Today was all that mattered. No past. No future. All she had was now. “While it’s true I have no affection or care for Jamie Morrell, I would, however, like to know the names of the three men who Morrell also fathered. Because of the assignment I’m involved with, my family, no matter how distant, needs to be informed that they might be in danger. A year ago, I saw a criminal’s face and he might try to get to me through them before he goes on trial—or even after.”
She met his eyes. “All I just told you is between me and you.”
Pecos nodded once. “You’re just here to see the will and find out if you have any kin left in town. Right?” The sheriff smiled. “I’ve only met two of your half-brothers. If you’ll tell me where you are staying in town, I’ll arrange a meeting if they agree.” He shook his head. “They’ll be surprised you’re a girl. Jamie wrote his will the day he died and didn’t know how to spell your name.”
Andi lowered her voice. “It’s critical that I locate my brothers now, Sheriff. I don’t have any time to waste. Because of me, these men may be in danger.”
Sheriff Smith studied her a moment and, without blinking, ordered, “Tell me all the facts you can about who might come after your brothers and I’ll help, but, Andi, one of your half-brothers is just a boy.”
“Find my brothers and I’ll tell you all you need to know later.”
The sheriff stood slowly as if trying to decide what to do. Finally, he answered, “I’ll contact the two. But it will be up to them if and when they want to meet you.”
Andi stood and stared at Pecos as if she planned to fight.
Smith didn’t move. “Jackson asked me to find you and inform you that your father was dead, that’s it. If you want my help, we do this my way or not at all. You may feel responsible for your brothers, but every man, woman, and child in this county is under my protection, and for all I know you’re the one hunting them.”
She didn’t move as she took in one long breath and nodded. “I would do the same thing in your shoes.” She offered her hand as a comrade this time, and they shook.
He opened his office door and she marched through. “It may take a while to round up your kin. You might want to walk around our town square while you wait. There’s a café, a bakery, or good coffee in Noah’s bookshop. A mile east of Main is a lodge circled with cabins. Good place to stay if you need a bed for the night with some privacy.”
“How are you going to find me, Sheriff, if you locate them today?”
“I’ll just look for a rental car. In a town this size it won’t be hard.”
“No car. Blue Jeep.” She managed a quick smile. “I might stay the night. I was born here, but once I’m finished I doubt I’ll ever come back.”
Andi walked out with only a nod. She didn’t want to make an enemy, but she wasn’t someone who made friends easily. Her logical mind said she might need the sheriff. All she’d been told was her father’s name. She didn’t even know her other siblings’ last or first names. If the other women who got pregnant by Morrell never married him either, Andi wouldn’t know where to start.
Her mother had married a soldier stationed in DC before Andi turned three. He was her father as far as Andi was concerned, but he never gave her his name, which bothered her some as she grew up. It was only when she went into the same branch of the Army that he had served in did Andi understand. He was protecting her by putting as much distance between his name and hers just in case someone tried to get to him through Andi or her mother. Leaving behind her MP badge for the Dallas Police Department turned out to be just as dangerous, as police departments were public entities with few secrets. It seemed danger had followed her all her life.
Now, three men she’d never met might be in trouble because of what she did for a living. Correction, two men and one child. And, thanks to the people in this little town, someone might figure out how she was connected to three half-brothers she’d never met.
When she walked by the beefy deputy at the front desk he stood. “Morning, again,” he said with a goofy grin. “You be sure and come back if we can help you.”
She decided she didn’t have enough will left to straighten him out, and blood would probably flow onto Main Street, spoiling it, if she murdered him.
As she walked through the door, she glanced back. The sheriff was leaning on the doorframe of his office and the deputy nodded once toward Pecos.
Andi guessed the sheriff’s silent command. She was about to have a tail.
The deputy stood and watched as she walked toward Main. The woman with eyes full of fire.
Now he could see all of her. Tall. Really tall. She wasn’t stout, but slender like a long-distance runner. Long legs. Danny loved to watch long-legged women move. Graceful like a dancer in slow motion.
He grabbed his cover and headed out. If the sheriff wanted him to follow her, the deputy had no problem with the assignment.
She didn’t look back. She was a woman on some kind of mission. He couldn’t remember a female who interested him so completely. She was strong, fast talking, bossy, but those eyes still drew him. After college, when his heart healed from his first love, he’d meant to start dating again. Someone local. Someone he’d known forever.
But the memory of Karly always seemed too raw. The first time he kissed Karly Ann Clark, he thought she was his forever love, but it just wasn’t meant to be. He figured at some point he’d start dating again, but as time passed, it was just easier to coast.
In the case of the woman he followed this afternoon, he didn’t feel that she was date material. In fact, if she turned back and saw him, the only feeling he’d have was dread.
He frowned as he realized that she didn’t even remember him. He was standing right by the driver’s window giving her a ticket, and thirty minutes later in the sheriff’s office she didn’t see him. She only saw the uniform.
Danny imagined that Andi Delane had been one of those Amazon warriors who fought a thousand years ago. That type of imagery seemed to suit her. The way she looked, talked, and carried herself was regal, yet dangerous. Like the fanciest king cobra he’d ever seen, with sparkling eyes and hypnotic moves.
She stepped into the bookshop on Main and he slowed. With this assignment Danny thought that maybe he should pay the sheriff to come to work. How many jobs would list “follow a beautiful woman around town” as one of the duties? He could certainly live with that today. Beat sitting behind the lilac bushes on Highway 20 just to write traffic tickets. He sat down on a bench and watched her through the window.
She was so out of his league he wasn’t sure he could carry on a conversation.
Maybe, if he followed her long enough, she’d ugly-up. Women tend to do that. Some have voices that irritate a man, or a habit that grates like fingernails on a chalkboard. Like putting a lock of hair in their mouth or always touching their jewelry as if he might grab it and run. And the worst, the girl who always adds and or like to the end of every sentence. That way she never has to pause when talking.
After a half hour, he saw no bad habit. In fact, she didn’t even notice him. All his life Danny had always been the tallest or biggest one in the room except on the football field. But to her he seemed to be invisible, and at this moment, invisible was a new experience.
He was a perfect tail, he thought, as the trees around the square dropped the first leaves of fall in the breeze.
About the time he relaxed he saw a man take a seat at her tiny table and Danny’s cop radar sprung to attention. It seemed a little too casual and almost innocent, but he could tell Andi was on high alert, and now so was he.