Chapter Eleven #3
“I can take you to the growers,” she finally said. “I’d planned to report them as soon as we found Miller.”
“I thought they ran you off before you found anything.”
“They did, but then we bought some drones and did some flyover recon. We saw this house but didn’t think anyone was here because the roof was falling in and two walls had fallen down.
We weren’t able to fly the drones for any length of time.
The growers shot them out of the sky. Or maybe Miller did. ”
“Okay. I can understand why you thought Miller wasn’t here.” And knowing they’d checked with drones made him less angry with Elle. Which might not be such a good thing.
He really liked her, and he shouldn’t. Especially now that the case was over. He was no longer bound by protocol.
He could…A shiver ran across his skin at the thought of all the things he could do.
She glanced from the house to him, then back again. “Before we got the drones, I told Sara that if we found something on this land, I’d tell you. That if we didn’t, then Miller probably was hiding out on the coast and we didn’t need to worry about it.”
“Did she agree?”
“Yeah. I think she was relieved that we didn’t find anything. That way my conscience was assuaged.”
“How many drones did you fly?”
“Three. Then bang, bang, bang, they all fell out of the sky.”
He had the feeling there were still things she wasn’t telling him, but he’d let her finish before pushing. “So what did you see that makes you think you can take me to the growers?”
“Lots of sheds.”
He sighed. “They’re growing indoors over the winter. That’s what they do. Anything else you’d care to share?”
She squared her shoulders and turned to look him in the eye. “We talked to Steve Garfield at his home.”
Ronan’s brows shot up. “Excuse me?”
“You know he was a drug dealer, right?”
Ronan nodded slowly. “Yes. But how do you know that?”
“Well…first thing, there was a BOLO. We pay attention to that kind of thing.”
That made sense, but he didn’t think he was going to like her second point. “What else?”
“Did you know he was advertising on the dark web? Selling opioids and other controlled substances in his backyard?”
“I did not know either of those things. The dark web ads or the backyard. How do you know that?”
“Sara’s wife does good research. We were hoping to have some leverage on Garfield so he’d tell us who used Miller’s credit card after the second time.”
“Did he tell you?”
“He did. We had…photographic proof that he was dealing. And that’s all I’m going to say, because I think you need to know in case it wasn’t Miller who killed him.”
Ronan prayed for patience. “What did he tell you exactly?”
“That it had been Wendy Miller who’d used the card both times.
That she’d gotten prescription medication for the baby.
Their child has PKU and has to take medicine.
That’s why we put so much time into watching the pharmacy.
We figured she’d have to come back. I told CPS to make sure they checked the diaper bag for medications.
The social worker did and found the bottle of pills for the PKU that I knew about, so the child will continue to receive care.
I figured Wendy would tell them herself since she seems to love her child, but I wasn’t taking any chances. ”
“Okay,” he said quietly. “Sounds like you tried to do the right thing. Is there anything else?”
“I have photos of the person Garfield sold drugs to while we were observing. If you want them.”
“Yes. I want them.”
“They’re on my cell phone and I don’t have a signal right now. I’ll send them to you when we get closer to town.”
“Okay. Did you see anything else with the drones?”
“No. We never saw any of this.” She gestured to the stroller and the camping equipment scattered about. “Like I said, as soon as we started to stream, the drones would be shot out of the sky.”
“Must have pissed your boss off.” He tried not to be happy about that, but it was a lost cause. He really didn’t like Sara Lambert.
One side of her mouth lifted. “Yeah. Especially since the first drone was a two-thousand-dollar model her wife had borrowed from a local search-and-rescue group.”
“Was that what her wife was mad at her about? The thing Sara broke?”
“It was. I think at the end of the day, we didn’t make any money on this retrieval.” She made a face. “I guess they didn’t make a lot of money. I don’t think I’m going to be part of the we too much longer.”
He was happy about that.
“You don’t have to look so happy about it,” she grumbled.
“I know there’s a need for bounty hunters.”
“Fugitive recovery agents,” she corrected archly.
“Excuse me. I know there’s a need for fugitive recovery agents. But I’m not okay with the skirting of the rules. Sounds like you aren’t, either.”
“It’s not who I am,” she said simply.
He believed her. “Where are these grow sheds?”
“Not far.” She started walking and he grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Whoa. We need backup for that. I don’t want to be staring down the barrel of a grower’s gun.”
“It wasn’t fun. How long will it take? I’m starting to get cold again, and I’m wearing two jackets.”
He chuckled as he sent the text for backup. “Are you wearing your leather jacket underneath your coat?”
“I am. I wear it whenever I’m on a job.” She looked embarrassed. “Kind of a superstitious thing. I was wearing it the day I pulled that kid out of the fire. I thought I was going to die in that building, but I got out.”
“So it’s your lucky jacket.”
“It is. It stank to high heaven after the fire, but I found a dry cleaner who made it good as new. Now it’s part of my gear. Or I guess it was. I’ll still wear it, though, because it’s pretty.”
“My daughter wants one just like it,” he confessed.
“Well, your daughter has amazing taste.”
“I’ll tell her you said so. She also likes your boots.”
Elle smiled. “They aren’t lucky. They’re just comfortable and I can run in them. Who are we waiting for?”
“SWAT.”
Her eyes widened. “You have a SWAT team out here? Really?”
He tried not to be offended. “Yes, we do. I’ve been on it a time or two. We are very well trained.”
“I apologize. That was my ignorance showing.”
“Apology accepted.”
“We should walk to the sheds. Based on the images we got from the drones, they aren’t too far from here and this dirt road ends up ahead.”
He considered telling her to go back to her inn. But he got the sense that this was a way to make amends for keeping secrets earlier.
So he nodded. “We’ll wait here for the SWAT team, then.”