The Bone Tree (Penn Cage #5) - Greg Iles Page 0,169

staircase. He was red-faced and out of breath by the time he reached the main floor.

“What do you want?” Penn asked him.

“Your father,” Sheriff Byrd said. “Go inside and tell him to come out.”

Penn looked at Byrd like he was crazy. “What are you talking about? Who told you he was here?”

“That makes no difference. Open the door.”

Penn considered the order for a few seconds, then said, “Go back to your office, Sheriff. You’ve got no business here.”

Byrd took a step closer to the big cypress door. “I said open that house.”

Penn moved between the sheriff and the door. “Do you have a search warrant?”

Something in Penn’s posture made Caitlin’s stomach flutter.

“I don’t need a warrant,” Sheriff Byrd said. “I’ve got probable cause.”

“Not from where I’m standing.”

Caitlin’s heart began to pound. If she hadn’t known Tom was hiding in the next county with Melba Price, she would have assumed, like the sheriff, that Penn’s behavior meant Tom was inside the chalet.

“I’m the sheriff of this county, Cage,” Byrd said, hitching up his gun belt. “Being mayor don’t mean shit compared to that. Open the door, or I’ll open it myself.”

Caitlin heard a door slam at street level. Looking down, she saw Lincoln Turner climbing out of his truck, his eyes on the gallery.

She whipped her head to the left. Penn had backed against the door as though he intended to die defending it. Why is he doing this? she thought frantically. But almost as quickly, she knew the answer. Penn had felt impotent for so long in this battle over his father that a corrupt sheriff had become the focus of his frustration. He would make a reckless stand over something meaningless in order to gain some control over the situation.

“I’m going around the back!” Lincoln called from the ground. “Dr. Cage might be trying to get out that way.”

“Who’s down there?” Penn asked Caitlin.

She dreaded answering, but she knew she had to. “Lincoln Turner.”

Penn shook his head and glared at Byrd. “Is that who’s calling the shots over at your office now?”

“Get out of my way,” the sheriff said, his right hand settling on his pistol. “I have reason to believe you’re aiding and abetting a fugitive wanted for killing a Louisiana State Police officer. I’m going to search these premises no matter what you say.”

“Let him search, Penn!” Caitlin cried. “Your dad’s not in there. What does it matter?”

Byrd looked back at Caitlin as though suspicious she was playing him. Then he turned to Penn again. “Listen to her, Mayor.”

“This is my property,” Penn said evenly. “I’m refusing you entry without a search warrant. Now, get off my porch.”

“Boy, you’ve lost your mind,” said Byrd, disbelief in his voice.

“I told you to get off my property, Sheriff.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Take it as you will.”

For a few seconds Sheriff Byrd seemed nonplussed by Penn’s defiance. Then he backed up two steps and lowered his gaze to Penn’s feet. “Are you armed, Mayor?”

“I’m licensed to carry a firearm.”

“Goddamn it!” Byrd cursed, jerking his pistol out of his belt. “Get on the floor! Get down, I said!”

Penn didn’t move. Caitlin had no idea what to do. Her own pistol was in her purse, back in the car. She was about to ask Penn to do as Byrd had ordered when tires screeched in front of the house. She looked down and saw Shad Johnson leap from his black BMW and run to the foot of the nearest staircase.

“Hurry!” Caitlin shouted, amazed to find herself relieved to see a man she despised.

The DA froze when he reached the top of the steps. “Why is your gun out, Billy?” he asked.

“Cage is packing!” Byrd snapped. “I told him to get on the floor.”

Shadrach Johnson held up his hands as though to calm both men, but it was Penn’s unnatural calmness that was actually driving the crisis.

“Put your gun away, Billy,” Shad said. “Right now. Put it away and go back down to your car.”

“The hell I will! You don’t give me orders.”

“I’m the district attorney of Adams County, Sheriff. And I’m telling you to go back to your car.”

“I take orders from the governor, not you.”

“Tonight you take them from me,” Shad said, with surprising steel in his voice. “Move your ass, goddamn it.”

Shaking his head as though the world had turned upside down, Billy Byrd stumped over to the stairs and, after one last look at Penn, marched back down to ground level.

Still keeping his hands up, Shad took two steps toward