Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Cain walked into the police station and headed straight to the sheriff’s office, which for the time being had been transferred over to JB. Had it only been a week since JB had asked him to consult? He’d passed on the request, but lots had happened since that night. Too much for one small town.
“Glad you could get over here so fast.” JB braced his arm on the doorframe. “From the looks of you and Betsy, I figured you might be awhile.”
“Nope. She gave me my walking orders.”
“What do you mean?”
“I said I’d like to see her again. She said she was busy at Peyton’s.” Cain shook his head. He’d been turned down before, but this time it had felt like a gut punch that buckled your knees.
“Don’t give up yet. Betsy’s just a complex woman.”
“Complex or not, I don’t need to be told again.” Cain shook his head.
He grabbed a chair from the corner as Deputy Evans and Officer Kennett walked into the room.
“Okay, let’s get down to why we’re here.” JB turned to Cain. “From your experience, what do you think?”
“From the few answers I heard as your policemen questioned Earl’s friends back at Joanie’s, my gut tells me they’re as much in the dark as the rest of us.
They don’t know where Earl got the dope.
Par for that age. But I’d lay odds that way over half of the students in Crayton High School know who to contact for a hit. ”
A shadow seemed to cross the deputy’s face as his eyebrows pinched together. “My son’s a freshman in high school. One of my daughters will be there next year. If there’s a problem with drugs in our schools, I want it stopped now.”
Cain couldn’t blame Evans for putting everything in perspective from a personal level. Being a parent meant your first thought was to protect your children. Being a cop made the danger on the streets that much clearer.
JB tapped his fingers on his desk. “We all know that drugs aren’t just something that comes into play the first day a kid steps through the front door of high school.”
“That’s right,” Cain said. “Middle school and junior high are the breeding grounds for future business as far as dealers are concerned. If you dig deep enough, substance abuse falls all the way into grade school sometimes.”
“Yeah, I know. Still, I hate the idea that even as a policeman I can’t protect my kids from all the crap on the streets,” Deputy Evans mumbled.
He was a reliable, hardworking man, and when he clocked out, his family came first. So much so, he’d refused to even consider taking on the position of acting sheriff.
He’d more than endorsed JB for that position.
And, true to his word, he’d brought JB up to speed on Crayton.
“Kennett, check with the hospital and see when they think we’ll be able to talk to Earl,” JB said. “Our job right now is to get a handle on what happened tonight.”
“And don’t forget the incident last Saturday with Randy,” Cain voiced.
“Right. In fact, let’s pull all reports pertaining to drug involvement for the past six months. Break them down into two categories. Over and under eighteen.”
Kennett nodded and left the room.
JB turned back. “Maybe we should embed an undercover cop from St. Louis in the high school as a student. Maybe another one as a substitute teacher.”
“Might be worth talking to the school district. Get their opinion,” Evans said.
The idea of a couple undercover cops for the high school might help, but Cain doubted one teacher would get much. Besides, the kids were smart. Too many new people in the mix could send up red flags to lay low and keep their mouths shut.
Kennett stepped back into the room, closing the door behind him. “Earl’s been moved to ICU. From what the doctor said, he won’t be talking to anyone for a while.”
Cain didn’t like the sound of that prognosis for Earl. Or for the police. That meant all they had to go on would be the quick lab test the hospital was running. Maybe they’d find something in Earl’s car. Maybe in the bathroom at Joanie’s.
“Where should we go from here?” Evans asked.
JB glanced in Cain’s direction. “Any suggestions?”
“Think I’ll go back to the hospital. Talk to Steven if he’s still there with his dad.
” Cain figured the boy could use all the support he could get right now.
Seeing his dad like that would be bad enough, but if he had any inkling that this was not the first time, that might be a clue to what happened tonight.
“Hard to know.” Evans said. “Don’t get me wrong, they’re a good family. But Mr. Millerton’s kind of obsessive. A little uptight. And he’s a very private person. Very private.”
“You know, first Randy, the tow truck driver OD’ed. Now Earl. Both, within a week. I think there’s another question we should consider.” Cain got to his feet and stretched. He’d always been a man who thought better moving around. “Have we got some bad dope out on the street?”
A short rap on the door and a quick opening caused them all to turn as Officer Hastings entered. “Call just came in from a house party over on Willow Street.”
“Kids? Adults?” JB asked.
“Adults. Two throwing up on the kitchen floor. One in the bathroom passed out. Others at the party okay.”
“Drugs?”
“Yes, sir.” Hastings nodded. “The woman on the phone was crying. Trying to talk. Hard to understand. Someone in the background told her to shut up.”
Cain’s gut instinct kicked in. “That’s not weed. They got some hard-core stuff going on there.”
Kennett pushed past Hastings before she finished her report.
Deputy Evans followed close behind. And JB followed Hastings to the front office, motioning her to take the additional squad car and head out also.
Then he instructed the dispatcher to have a couple of off-duty cops meet him at Willow Street.
Plus, check to see if the EMTs would need additional alarms called out.
“Come on, Cain. We need you in on this, too.” JB ran out the front doors, headed to his police SUV.
“You do remember I’m just a sideline advisor, don’t you?” Cain jogged alongside.
He’d heard other agents talk about how hard getting out of the business could be.
How they’d been lured back in with the thrill of the chase.
The adrenaline rush of tracking the dealers all the way up the ladder.
Taking down a drug lieutenant or captain.
Not him. He would not let that happen. He’d been too close to the edge to risk going back in.
“I know. May need to make that more permanent.” JB opened the driver’s side door, motioning Cain to the passenger side. “But can you honestly say you’re not chomping at the bit to see where the hell this leads? Besides you owe me one.”
“Owe you one? Like hell.” Cain slid inside and buckled up. “More like you owe me big time, buddy.”
“Maybe one.”
“Two. Or have you forgot about the cabin.”
JB laughed. “What’s one little cabin among friends?”
“Friends like you can get a man killed.” Cain pulled back inside himself to think. The banter felt good, and he rolled his shoulders to release the tension even more. Nothing wrong with helping the police. He’d just stay to the side and observe.
After a quick drive over to Willow Street, Cain walked into the house already knowing what he’d find.
This might be an considered an upper-middle-class neighborhood, but drugs didn’t differentiate.
Money bought the same everywhere. The flashing lights of two EMT vans had only been a preamble to the stretchers waiting by the front and back doorways.
From the shocked expressions on the faces of the men and women gathered in the living room, it looked to have been a friendly get-together. Looked to be some mid-to-late thirty-somethings. Looked to be your everyday group of parents and coworkers just glad to have a night out.
This part of the group had evidently not been into the serious partying happening upstairs.
A few of them looked angry. A few were crying.
Some eyed the front door as if given half a chance they’d escape into the night.
One problem with that idea, the patrolman stationed on the front porch.
Plus, Officer Hastings didn’t look like she’d allow one person to slip out the back.
He leaned in her direction. “Do we know who brought the drugs?”
“The man we found passed out upstairs. This is his house.”
Paramedics were wheeling two people from the kitchen out the back door to the waiting ambulances.
“These two going to make it?” Cain asked.
The EMT nodded. “Due to some quick thinking on the part of the others, they will. But the man we found upstairs was in critical condition. We did a Level 1 triage on him first thing. Transported him straight to ER.”
Officer Hastings nodded in agreement then turned in Cain’s direction once again. “We allowed his wife to ride in the front of the ambulance. Paperwork has been initiated on the initial report. And, as far as we can tell, no one has moved anything upstairs.”
Cain felt the twitch at the corner of his eye, the hitch in the breath he’d just inhaled. He braced his hands against the counter and stared out the window over the sink.
JB walked up beside him and leaned back, surveying the room. “We could sure use your help on this problem.”
“Not my problem this time.” Cain had stayed with the DEA years longer than he should have for this very reason. He’d walked a thin line between right and wrong. He needed to pull himself out once and for all. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”
“I know you and I talked about why you want to get out of the DEA. Believe me, I do understand. Can you at least point me in the right direction?”
“Call the DEA Division Headquarters in St. Louis. Or even the Post of Duty in Jefferson City. They’ll get somebody down here fast.” Cain felt like a brick building was about to fall on him. He pulled out his phone. “I’ll even get you the numbers if you need them.”
“I’ve got the damn numbers.” The acting sheriff scanned the room, then focused back in Cain’s direction. “You know that’s not what I’m getting at. I don’t have time for any bullshit right now either. Bottom line. Yes or no. Can I count on you to help us out?”
Just like clockwork. There it was. The question that would follow Cain the rest of his life. “Man, I know you need help on this. But—”
Across the room a man and woman walked in the front door, disbelief written in their expression.
“What the hell’s going on here?” the man asked.
“I’m Officer Hastings. May I ask your name, sir?”
“No, you may not ask my name. This is my brother’s house. Where is he?” Fear and agitation worked his tone and volume and words. “Where is he?”
“Calm down, honey. Calm down.” The woman beside him pressed her palm against his shoulder as she turned to the policewoman. “My husband and the owner are brothers. Has there been an accident?”
Clearly, they had walked into this cold.
JB, Evans and an EMT gathered around them and started speaking in low tones. Cain saw the moment their worlds changed. The brother’s face blanked as JB reached out to support him.
The woman began to pace, fidget with her hands, gasp for a breath. “Hospital…we need to get to the hospital, honey. Your brother…and his family…will need our support. I’m sure the police can take care of what needs to be done here.”
“Yes, ma’am. We’ll lock everything up when we leave,” JB said.
Hastings stepped up to guide the couple out to a police cruiser. “Come with me. We’ll get you to the hospital right away.”
“Thank you,” the man said. “I’m…I’m sorry for being… I was out of line.”
“Don’t you worry about that one bit. Let’s get you two to your family now.”
Cain had hoped to never be in the middle of that type of scene again. But here he was. Here he was.
JB stepped up beside him as the couple left. “I know what I’m asking of you, but—”
“I’ll go back to the station. Make a few phone calls,” Cain said. “See if I can come up with a plan for you. See if my boss will give permission for me to consult with the Crayton Police while I’m here in town.”
“Thanks. I owe you one.”
“You got that right.” If things kept going the way they had since Cain got back to Crayton, he’d have a mile-high stack of IOUs from JB. Trouble was, he’d pay hell ever cashing them in. “How about you start with answering my questions from our Sunday morning conversation at the lake?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” JB replied.
“Give me the lowdown on Betsy? And don’t look through rose-colored glasses this time.”