The Sheriff's Secret Read online

  “Hey.” West jogged to her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Why don’t you have a seat while we talk?” He led her to a bench beneath the awning and released her at once. The instinct to comfort her was unprofessional and wildly outdated. “Better?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Tina?” West knew firsthand that she wasn’t a sharer, but this time he needed her to open up. “I know this is tough,” he began.

  Tina rolled glossy blue eyes up at him. “Someone shot Steven from that rooftop. I don’t know who. I don’t know why.” She shook her head roughly. “It’s just nonsense.”

  “West?” His baby brother and current deputy, Cole Garrett, strode to his side. Cole was four years younger than West and twice as smart, but he’d been bitten by the law enforcement bug like the rest of the Garrett men and refused to go out and change the world like West and their older brothers had suggested. “I’m going to head out and see if I can get a bead on this guy.”

  “What do you have so far?” West asked.

  Cole gave Tina a wayward look. “Not much. Witnesses heard a car hightailing out of here. I’m going to head up the road and see if anyone saw a vehicle taking the state route in a hurry.”

  “It was a pickup truck,” Tina said.

  Cole’s sharp gaze locked on hers before drifting back to West. “Isn’t she—”

  “Don’t,” West warned.

  Cole whistled the sound of a falling missile and walked away.

  Tina rolled her head against the wall behind their bench. “I suppose I’m not exactly the Garrett family’s favorite local.”

  West grunted. That was a conversation he never wanted to have. The past was the past. He’d like to leave it there. “I need to know which member of your group could’ve made someone mad enough to do this?”

  Tina’s soft expression hardened. She glanced at the coroner’s van. “The only person to blame is the maniac who did it.”

  West raised an eyebrow. “I’m not blaming. I’m looking for bread crumbs. Which one’s the loose cannon?”

  “All my patients are serious about their recovery. They’re employed. Paying bills. Contributing to society. They wouldn’t be here every week, carving out time before work, if they weren’t dedicated to the process.”

  “Uh-huh.” West nodded. “I understand why you’d say they’re doing well, seeing as how you’re their therapist.” He gave a little smile, knowing he walked a fine line. “You look for the best in people, and that’s admirable, but can you tell me honestly that if one of your patients had gotten into trouble, you’d know? How can you be sure? Because I’m sitting outside an office where people suffering from emotional distress come for treatment, and one of them is dead. You want me to believe the location is a coincidence?”

  She scowled. “Of course it can’t be a coincidence because you don’t believe in those.”

  West regrouped and tried again before she shut him out completely. “You’re right. You know these guys. I don’t. I’ll admit that, but I’m thinking distraught individuals tend to make poor decisions, and maybe one of them got tangled up with someone capable of doing this.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  She shook her head. “You’re wrong about my group.”

  “How do you know?” West asked. “What do you talk about in your sessions? Has anyone shared anything out of the ordinary lately? Did they meet someone new? Make a friend? Take a trip?”

  Tina rubbed her forehead. “That’s all covered under counselor-patient confidentiality.”

  “Are you kidding me?” West bristled.

  “You know I can’t tell you any of those things.”

  West ground his teeth. “Even in the aftermath of all this, you still want to keep secrets?”

  Tina looked away. “You can ask them anything you want to know. I’m sure they’ll tell you. And I’ll tell you anything I can about my day. About the moments before and after the shooting. About the figure. Anything that won’t break my patients’ trust, but I owe them that. I took an oath.”

  West braced himself for a long day. Prying secrets from Tina was a task he’d never had any success with, and frankly she was right. What he wanted to know was covered under confidentiality laws, unless she’d suspected criminal activity. In that case, she had an obligation to report it, but she’d already declared the group’s united innocence and probably wouldn’t change her story. “Okay,” he conceded. “Fair enough. I’ll ask my men to question the group members. What do you say about coming with me to the station while they do that? It sounds like you spoke to the victim just before the incident, and it seems you were also the closest to him by proximity.” His gaze slid over the bloodstains on her rain-soaked blouse and pants. “I need to get an official report from you, and I’d like to continue the interview while the details are fresh. I imagine you’d like to get away from here for that.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, then, Miss Ellet, let me walk you to my car.”

  Chapter Two

  Tina climbed inside the sheriff’s cruiser, shaking off memories of similar rides as a girl. Every time her dad had caused a scene at a park or ball game and was hauled in for a night in the drunk tank, Tina was escorted home by a nice deputy, often by the former sheriff. West’s dad. Eventually, she’d smartened up and steered clear of her dad before he could insist they go anywhere together.

  She buckled in and winced as the condition of her hands and clothes registered. “Oh.” She rubbed her stained fingers against the ruined material of her pants, but it was no use. A tremor rocked through her as memories of the gunshot came rushing back. Tina shook her hands out hard at the wrists and released a shuddered breath. “Can...” She swallowed against the painful lump in her throat. “Can we make a pit stop at my house? I’d like to get a dry change of clothes before we go to the station. I don’t think I can concentrate like this.” She bent and stretched her fingers in the air above her lap. “Please.”

  West gave the gas pedal a break, seemingly torn between giving her what she wanted and following his protocols. West had always been a stickler for doing the right thing, and that probably didn’t allow for a trip to an old girlfriend’s home before taking her formal statement.

  “Which way to your place?” He dropped his sopping wet hat between them, then ran a hand through his hair.

  She raised her brows in surprise. Maybe she wasn’t the only one who’d been changed by time. “Left on Canyon Drive. We’re in the River Park neighborhood.” She balled her shaking hands into fists and set them on her lap.

  “Who’s we?” West asked, sweeping his gaze to her naked ring finger.

  “Just Lily and I,” she said. “My daughter.” A hot tear stung the corner of one eye. Lily had come too close to being an orphan today. She pushed her focus beyond the passenger window. “And Ducky.”

  “Ducky?”

  She sighed. “The dog.”

  “No Mr. Ellet?” he asked. “Or maybe you have a new last name?”

  Tina touched the bare skin where a wedding ring had briefly dared to dream. “We weren’t married long enough for me to get it changed. I hadn’t realized there was a hurry.” She turned her stricken face to his, chin up, jaw tight. “I met him about two years ago, right after I moved back to town. We were married after a few months, and he died four weeks later. I never got to tell him about Lily.” She silently cursed her chattering teeth for betraying her show of strength.

  West gave her a long, silent look. “How old is Lily?”

  “Four months.” Tina had seen the expression West was giving her before, though never from him. Pity. “It’s fine. We’re okay. He was here and gone like a dream. Sometimes, I think if it wasn’t for Lily, I’d wonder if he was real.” The pain was real. The loss. But it was true: her short time with Thomas had felt more like a movie she’d seen
long ago than an adventure she’d truly been part of.

  “I’m sorry about your loss. Lily’s, too. Is she home now?”

  “No.” She batted stinging eyes. “She’s at Mary’s. That’s the sitter.” Somehow West’s condolences to her daughter meant more to her than anything else he could have said.

  “What happened?” West asked. “I’m not trying to pry. I’m just getting caught up. It’s been a long time.”

  “I don’t mind.” It was strange being on the other side of a confessional for a change. Her spilling her troubles and someone else nodding patiently as the story unfolded. “Hunting accident.”

  “You didn’t know him long before you married.” A hint of agitation edged his voice. “Then he just died?”

  “Basically,” she answered. “He went up to the mountains for the weekend and never came home.” He’d asked her to go along on that trip, but she wasn’t feeling well enough to make the hike to the cabin. It wasn’t until after he’d left that a pregnancy test confirmed the reason for her fatigue and nausea. Lily was on her way. Tina had had big plans for springing the news when Thomas returned, but fate had other ones. “Two State Highway Patrol officers came to my door.”

  “I’m sorry,” West said again, before she went any further. “I wish you hadn’t had to go through that.”

  “Me, too.”

  When he glanced her way again there was curiosity on his brow. “How’d you meet him? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “He spoke to me at the garden center a few days after I moved back here. I was buying redbud trees.” A small smile touched her lips. “He helped me plant them in my backyard.”

  West grunted. His eyes narrowed, but he kept them focused on the road.

  “I asked him once if he knew you,” she said, feeling a little guilty for having asked one man in her life about another.

  “And?”

  “He laughed. He said he’d never had any reason to run into the sheriff.”

  “Lucky guy,” West muttered.

  Tina tried not to wonder if there was a dual meaning behind his words.

  The pair rode in silence for several long blocks. West turned sharp blue eyes her way from time to time, rubbing the dark shadow of stubble on his cheeks without speaking.

  “What?” she asked.

  He shot her a small smile. “I shouldn’t be surprised you’ve done so well despite it all. Remember that time you dared me to jump off that old rope into the swimming hole on New Year’s Eve?”

  “Like it was yesterday.” She’d goaded West endlessly, daring and challenging him to be reckless, testing his stock. But West wasn’t reckless, not even as a teen. He’d been the first man to show her they didn’t all become monsters when the mood struck. West was as sensible as the day was long and a Garrett through and through. Hell-bent on saving the world. Garretts were soldiers and law enforcement officers. If rumor served, one of West’s brothers was a federal agent and the other was a US marshal.

  The cruiser took a slow turn into her neighborhood and stopped at the first crossroads. The rain had stopped, and muted sunlight streamed from behind thick gray clouds. Emerald green lawns stretched before them, lined in newly blooming mums and anchored in elaborate pumpkin arrangements showing off for Halloween. Lily was too small to know, but she was going to be a princess this year. Every year, if Tina had any say in it.

  River Park had been an up-and-coming neighborhood when Tina was young. She’d stared through dirty school bus windows for years as classmates poured on and off with clean clothes and new shoes every fall, and she’d dreamed of living there. Now, the homes were older and in her price range as long as she budgeted. Lily would have safe streets to ride her bike on and neighbors who knew her name. Maybe even a few folks who cared where she went and who she was with.

  “Here?” West asked at the next intersection.

  “Two blocks up, on the left. The white farmhouse.”

  West accelerated to the posted speed limit. “I think you should see a doctor before we go to the station.”

  “No.” She watched her unsuspecting neighborhood crawl past. Did the neighbors have any idea what had happened today? Was it on the news? Steven was dead. Pointlessly murdered by a coward with a gun. How did a community move on from that?

  “I’ll swing by the hospital on our way to the station. Better to be safe.”

  “No,” she repeated, a little more forcefully this time. “I wasn’t hurt, just shaken, and every minute counts right now. I want to be helpful.”

  West huffed, but didn’t argue.

  “Here. This one,” Tina said as her little home came into view, all country with a wraparound porch and a tree in the front. “I won’t be more than five minutes.”

  Confusion pinched her brow as Ducky, her golden retriever pup, jogged toward the car, tail flopping.

  “You know that guy?” West asked, watching the happy dog outside his window.

  “He’s mine,” Tina whispered, “but I left him in his crate when I went to work this morning.” Her heart jammed into her throat, making it impossible to swallow. “Someone let him out.”

  * * *

  THE CRUISER JERKED to a rocking stop. West was on his feet and striding toward her home a moment later. He notified Dispatch of a possible break-in, then unholstered his sidearm. A break-in and a shooting involving the same woman on the same morning wasn’t a coincidence.

  Tina was on his heels, teeth chattering intensely behind him.

  He stopped her at the front door. “Wait in the car. Lock the doors.”

  “I can’t.”

  The terror in her voice tugged his heart, and West weighed his options. Taking her along could be dangerous. Leaving her alone could be deadly. He turned the knob, and her door opened. “Stay behind me.”

  Her small fingers slid against the material over his back, and he hated the pleasure it gave him to be near her again.

  Inside, the house was silent and spotless. “Cade County Sheriff,” West announced, edging past about a hundred pairs of shoes by the front door.

  “Woof!” Ducky called from Tina’s side.

  West reached around Tina and let the dog in.

  Ducky barreled through the house, barking and protesting. He slid around a corner and out of sight.

  West motioned for Tina to wait as he followed Ducky down a short hallway toward the back of the home. The dog stopped in the mudroom, pawing and barking at a narrow closet door.

  “Cade County Sheriff,” West announced again, stepping carefully into the small room. He moved into position, gun drawn and faced off with the door. “Come out with your hands up.”

  A blinding pain split the back of his head and loosened his grip on the weapon. Flashes of light splintered his vision. His knees buckled and he tumbled forward against his will. One palm landed against the floor in support.

  The back door swung wide and a figure dressed in black bolted into the yard.

  “Damn it.” West shoved onto his feet and forced himself through the door. He slid in the wet grass on uncooperative legs. “Freeze!” he hollered.

  A fresh blast of pain punched through his skull at the sound of his booming voice. He pressed one hand to the back of his head and groaned. The goose egg was already forming, and his palm slid against something warm and slick. A quick look confirmed the substance as his blood.

  West angled between the next set of homes, hoping to get a glimpse of the getaway car or a look at the man’s face. The figure had doubled the distance between them, clearing the next hill and vanishing before West could manage to gain any speed.

  West holstered his sidearm and radioed Dispatch. “Suspect is fleeing on foot, moving southwest toward Main from River Park Estates.” He’d be lucky if a deputy was anywhere near his location. The Cade County Sheriff’s Department was smal
l, just six including himself, and not everyone was on duty. Those who were had their hands full with the shooting.

  He paused to curse and allow his vision to clear. What the hell had he been hit with? And what was the dog barking at if not the intruder?

  West climbed the steps to Tina’s front porch slowly and with a little effort. “He got away,” he said, sliding inside and forcing his posture straighter. “Got any ice?” He scanned the empty living room. “Tina?”

  Ducky jumped at his feet, a leash in his mouth. “Now you want to go out?” He sidestepped Ducky and fought an irrational wave of fear. “Tina?”

  “West.” Her trembling voice sent him in the direction of her kitchen.

  He cut through the living room, taking in as many details as possible. Everything smelled like Tina. Vanilla and cinnamon, warm and inviting. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture, but the baby seemed to have more than any one child could ever need. Infant seats, swings and play sets dotted every inch of space he passed, accompanied by a barrel of stuffed animals in the living area.

  Tina stood alone in the kitchen’s center. The table had been set for two, complete with hot pads in the middle, as if standing in anticipation of a meal yet to come. She shook her head, clearly baffled. “I didn’t do this.”

  West’s muscles tightened. “Don’t touch anything.” He dialed Cole as an icy swell of fear rose through him. West knew exactly the kind of person who’d break into a woman’s home and stage a scene like this. A dangerous one. Maybe even someone capable of shooting a man right in front of her just to get her attention. He turned away from Tina as he relayed the situation to his brother. The pain in his head grew by the second. West checked again to see if the blood flow had slowed.

  Tina gathered ice into a dish towel and pushed it his way.

  He gave her a sour face, but accepted the offer. “This is the opposite of not touching anything.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re hurt,” she said. “Don’t bleed on my carpet.” The attempt at levity was lost with the crack in her voice.

  Tina was scared, and West needed to fix that.