Love to Hate You (Hope Valley #9) - Jessica Prince Page 0,75
out.
I circled a three block radius around Alpha Omega, keeping an eye out for any other cars driving through town at two in the morning. When I felt the coast was clear, I parked my truck in an alley a block away and stuck to the shadows as I jogged the rest of the way to Lincoln’s offices.
The back door was unlocked by the time I got there, so I pushed through and immediately started for the conference room. Linc was already there, along with Leo, Dalton, and the rest of the team assigned to this case. But the person I was most surprised to see was Charlie. She sat near the head of the table, her arms crossed defiantly over her chest as she scowled at the room at large. The ponytail on top of her head was askew, flopping off toward one side, and she had pillow creases on her right cheek. It was obvious from her rumpled appearance, she’d been sleeping before this meeting was called.
“What are you doin’ here?” I asked as I took a seat next to Leo.
She cut me a scathing glare. “Ask your guard dog. I was dead asleep—having the best dream in which I was smothering him to death with a pillow—when he dragged me out of bed, tossed me in his truck, and drove me here.”
I turned to Dalton and cocked a brow in question. He shrugged like it was nothing. “My job’s to stay on her and keep her safe. Can’t do either of those things if I’m here and she’s at home in bed.”
That sounded reasonable enough to me, so I shifted my attention to Linc. “Why’re we here?”
“I have some good news and some bad news. Got word less than an hour ago. You’ll be gettin’ a call later this mornin’ that the gun you’ve been lookin’ for in the Callo and Webb shootings has been recovered.”
That didn’t put me at ease in the slightest.
“And the bad news?” Leo pressed.
“The gun was found in the home of one Sergeant Wayne Gilmore of the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department.” The second name Charlie had given us weeks back. “His body was found hanging from a rafter in the garage, and there was a note on the kitchen table in which he confessed to the killings. They also uncovered close to a quarter million in cash, as well as enough meth and heroine to supply a third of the goddamn town.”
“Goddamn it,” I boomed, driving the side of my fist into the table top.
Charlie looked around the table, her eyes wide, the normal hardness replaced by panic. “So what does this mean?”
Leo answered, ranking his hands through his hair agitatedly. “It means, unless the medical examiner rules it otherwise, we’re gonna be expected to close the case.”
“But you can’t!” she cried. “It wasn’t him. Gilmore was an asshole and a dirty cop, but he was just a soldier. For this to end, you have to cut the head off the snake.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I grunted. “A case like this, everything bundled together with a tidy bow like that . . .” I shook my head in defeat. “Our captain’s gonna push for this to be the end of it.”
“But you can at least wait for the medical examiner’s report, right? I mean, you can’t close a case until the cause of death is listed,” she stated with no small amount of hope in her voice.
I focused my attention on her, gentling my tone and expression as I said, “That’s not gonna take long, sweetheart.”
“Well then make it take long!” she cried, slapping her hands down on the table and whipping her head around to Lincoln. “Put one of your guys on him,” she insisted frantically. “That scary-looking computer dude. Have him press the guy to drag his feet a little longer.”
Silence enveloped the room for several seconds before Lincoln’s guy Trent broke it. “Actually, that’s not the worst idea. If anyone can coerce that guy into waiting, it’s Xander. He’d scare the piss outta just about anybody.”
Lincoln spoke in response. “I’ll have a word with him.”
We called an end to the meeting shortly after, and I rose to my feet slower than the rest of the guys, my gaze pinned on Charlie. I caught her by the arm before she could clear the door, turning her around so I could see her face, most specifically, her worry-filled eyes. “You good?”
“No,” she croaked, giving her head a shake. “This has to end, Micah.