Chapter Five #2
Two lousy deputies for a full-on shooting?
He got out of his car, slammed the door shut and marched over to the deputies.
Deputy Stanley was a bad cop with a bad attitude and Copeland couldn’t stand him, so it figured he’d be one of the responding officers.
But the other was Morris. She was a decent deputy, and she was the one who walked over to talk to him.
She clearly knew the players, because she blocked him from having a conversation with Stanley.
“Whoever the shooter was, they were gone before we got here. We’ve collected some evidence, but nothing that’s probably going to lead us to a perp.
Too many guns around this area. Victim has doorbell cam and a security system, so I imagine you’ll want to start there.
The shooter shot out the windows in the truck parked right there.
” She gestured to Audra’s truck. “And the two front windows on the lower floor.”
Copeland cursed. “You need to keep looking for the shooter. Plenty of places to hide. How can you be sure you looked through all of them?”
“Detective…” There was a heavy sigh. “Whoever it was is long gone. We searched the outbuildings, but Ms. Young said the last gunshot was a good ten minutes before we got here. We didn’t pass anyone on the highway, so they must have headed south, or out into the pastures or mountains. There’s no finding them now.”
“Some emergency services,” he muttered.
“We do the best we can.”
It was said flatly, but Copeland knew he’d ruffled feathers he’d have to unruffle tomorrow. But that was tomorrow’s problem.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll talk to her about getting the video from that doorbell camera.” But what would it have caught in the dark? It wasn’t like she had the kind of high-tech security that might help out. “You take her statement?”
“Yes. It’ll be on your desk in the morning, along with our report.”
“Alright. I can handle it from here.”
Deputy Morris looked back at the house. The lights were on inside, and he could see the cracked glass of all the front-facing windows. “She shouldn’t stay here. Going to get cold real quick in there.”
“I’ll handle it,” Copeland repeated, already striding for the front door.
His boot crunched on the first stair. Glass.
It littered the entire porch. If he had to guess, there’d been at least two bullets, if not three, shot into each front window on either side of the door.
There was almost no glass left in the panes.
He didn’t bother to knock. Just shoved the front door open. Audra was right there in the living room, broom and dustpan in hand. She was wearing flannel pajamas and heavy work boots.
She looked up, exhaustion written into every down-turned line on her face. “I suppose you didn’t have to come all this way.” She dumped a pile of glass in the dustpan into a paper bag.
“I’ll be investigating the case,” he replied. “I’ll need access to your doorbell cam.”
“I already looked. You can’t see anything.”
“I’ll still need it.”
She shrugged, then swept another pile of glass into the dustpan. She wasn’t crying or shaking or reacting in any of the ways he might have expected. She was just methodically cleaning up the mess.
It left him…unsettled. Unsure how to proceed. If he didn’t have to comfort or bully, what the hell was he supposed to do?
Your job. “I’m going to look into it, obviously, in connection with everything else that’s been going on.”
She nodded. Another dustpan full of glass going into the bag.
“I’ll read over the deputies’ report and the statement you gave to them, but if you think of anything else besides what you told them or me, you let me know.”
She nodded again. Swept methodically.
He didn’t know what to say. What to do. And that pissed him off. He jammed his hands in his pockets, trying not to let his irritation leak out.
“I’ll talk to neighbors tomorrow. Anyone who might have noticed something off. An out-of-state vehicle. Someone lurking around.”
“That’s a waste of your time.”
“Nothing is a waste of time in an investigation.”
She shrugged, as if she didn’t agree with him. When he was the expert. Temper licked against old, softer instincts he’d thought had long since withered away and died. Which didn’t help with his increasing frustration.
“You won’t want to stay here tonight.”
“I’m afraid I have to. By the time I get this mess cleaned up, the windows boarded, it’ll be time for me to get my morning chores done. Don’t worry, I’ll carry my gun and keep an eye out.”
“Audra, you can’t stay here.”
“I can’t not stay here,” she returned with a snap in her tone. “I don’t have that luxury.” She dumped another dustpan full of glass, and he realized just how slow going her cleaning process was going to be.
But she was being unreasonable. She couldn’t stay in a house that had just been shot up when they didn’t even have one lead on a suspect. Telling her what to do wasn’t going to get through to her. He should have known that even before he started.
Audra Young required a softer approach because she was a softer kind of woman. So Copeland tried to find that kind of approach inside him.
“You have every right to be scared,” he said, pleased with how calm and comforting he sounded. “Every right to be upset, but you have to think about this rationally.”
“Scared? Upset? I’m furious!” As if to prove it, she tossed the broom onto the floor with a loud clatter. “Do you know how much this is going to cost me? Do you know how much time and effort and money it’s going to take to replace these windows and—”
“Someone shot at you and you’re worried about the cost?” It was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.
“They shot my windows out, Copeland. If they wanted to shoot me, I’d be dead.”
He saw it then. The first flicker of it fully hitting her what had happened, what kind of danger she’d been in. She’d used anger to deflect it, but now her hand shook before she balled it into a fist.
And she looked so damn desolate again he just…couldn’t stand there. He crossed to her, took her by the elbow. The urge to soothe was painful, and reminded him of his much younger self, so he shoved it away and nudged her not exactly gently onto her couch.
“Do you know how much a new window costs?” she demanded, but her eyes were starting to get suspiciously shiny.
“Hell, the lumber to even nail it up against the cold. I might have enough in the barn, but that’s a might.
And my truck…” She shook her head, then dropped it to her hands. “What the hell is happening?”
He knew how to respond to this, even if knowing her meant he felt more sympathy than he should. “We’re going to figure it out. They were bound to have left some evidence behind.” He said it because he believed it. Had to. “We’ll find it. Tie it all together. We’ll figure it out.”
“How much more am I going to lose before you do?”
It scraped at him, the vulnerability and sheer unfairness in this question. “Isn’t your brother-in-law loaded?” he asked, not kindly. Because he didn’t want to be kind or worried about vulnerability.
She shook her head. “I’m not taking Duncan’s money.”
It was none of his business. None of this was any of his business, except getting to the bottom of whoever was doing this to her. “I’ll help you clean and board up.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Maybe your family loves the martyr bullshit, but I don’t.
I’m going to help. And then you’re going to have three choices until we find out who did this,” he said, holding a finger up for each of them.
“Go over to the Kirks and stay with them. Go into Bent and stay with Hart and Vi. Or I’m bunking here.
” He knew she wouldn’t take the last one, but hopefully it’d spur her in the right direction faster.
She laughed. “Copeland, I am not putting anyone I care about in danger. I’m not even going to worry them. I can’t leave. I have cattle and work to see to morning, noon and night. And you are most definitely not going to stay here. That’s absolutely ludicrous.”
He shrugged, not about to let her call his bluff. He’d call hers first. “Watch me.”
She stared at him, her mouth a pretty little O of shock.
Which quickly sharpened into anger. “Fine.” She hopped back into a standing position, anger overtaking the fear and the sadness.
“I’d love it if you stayed, because anything is better than putting everyone I care about in danger.
” She lifted up that surprisingly stubborn chin.
“I’ll make you up a room. We’ll have to pull out all the blankets.
It’s going to be a cold one even once we get that boarded up.
” She gestured at the broken windows where the frigid wind swept in.
But he wasn’t about to retreat now. She’d relent before he did. “Great.”
“Fantastic.” She whirled away from him and stormed upstairs.
And he took the broom and attacked sweeping up more glass.
She’d change her mind by the time it was cleaned up.
He was almost sure of it.