So I took the call, only to be frozen out by the only other woman in Durango I can’t charm with my smile; Blue Navarro. She’s another enigma. The woman has never liked me, not since day one. It annoys me. I’m a likable guy. Most of the time anyway, unless you break the law, then I’m all business.
“Ramirez!”
Officer Conley is waving me over, just as the ambulance takes off, sirens and lights running. I jog over to where he’s leaning over the wreck.
“What’ve you got?”
“Looks like black or navy paint.”
I notice the smudges he’s pointing out on the fender. “Get car tarped before it gets hauled onto the flatbed. Get the crime techs on it. Any witnesses?”
“VanDyken’s on it.” He indicates the freakishly tall officer who was hired on last month.
We’ve worked with holes in our police force for the past five years, courtesy of department cuts. Since we got our new chief of police—my buddy, Joe Benedetti—two years ago, those holes are slowly getting plugged. Our workload is much more manageable now.
“Good. I’m heading over to the hospital to see what I can get from the victim. Call if you need me.”
With one last look at the wrecked Lincoln Town Car, I move toward my department-issue Explorer parked across the road.
_______________
I drive into the ambulance bay just in time to see Sumo and Blue rush their patient through the sliding doors. Pulling off to the side, I park the SUV in the parking spot for emergency vehicles and rush after them.
“Well what do you know? Tony Ramirez? What brings you in?”
“Hey Jen. I’ve gotta—”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you—”
“—run.”
“Oh.” Her face, two seconds ago still smiling brightly, drops and the hand she was holding onto my arm with falls away.
I feel bad. Jen is often at The Irish, a downtown pub where all first responders like to hang out. She’s also a nurse at Mercy, and I’ve tried to avoid her wherever I see her. She’s nice enough but seems a little too eager.
Jen used to have a thing for my partner, Keith Blackfoot. When he found his wife Autumn, she tried her luck on Joe Benedetti, but he just had eyes for Ollie. I have a suspicion she may have had her eye on Evan Biel as well, a firefighter on Blue’s crew who got married earlier this year. Lately I seem to have become a focus of her interest.
She’s not my type. Not that I actually have a clue what my type would be, but I do know she’s not it.
“Look. I just need to catch up with my victim.”
“Sure.”
I throw her an apologetic grin before taking off down the hallway, ignoring her eyes I can feel following me.
They must’ve wheeled him right into a treatment room because I can’t see them anywhere when I get to the ER. I snag the first nurse I see.
“Excuse me…” I check her name tag. “…Melanie.” I smile my best smile and pull out my badge. “DFPD just brought in the victim of a hit and run. Could you direct me to—”
“You know better than that, Detective Ramirez. They’re working on him. You’ll have to wait.”
Shit.
The waiting room is crowded and noisy, and I’m not about to sit and wait for a chance to talk to him.
“Could I leave you my card? Even just an update with the extent of his injuries would be helpful.” I dig in my pocket and encounter the victim’s phone Blue handed me. Right, call the son.
The nurse doesn’t look thrilled, but takes the card anyway. “We’re quite busy today,” she says primly.
“I can see that. I really appreciate this, Melanie.”
Unable to find a quiet place to give Mr. Brownslee’s son a call, I end up back outside in the ambulance bay and find what I think is the right number in the cell phone’s sparse contacts.
I’m still speaking with the son when I notice Blue and Sumo coming down the hall with the empty gurney so I quickly promise to wait here for him before ending the call.
“How is he?” I ask when they walk outside.
“I’ll get started on the rig,” Sumo says taking the gurney and leaving Blue to answer me.
Given the dirty look she throws her partner, she’s not thrilled. The woman seriously messes with my confidence. Yet when she turns those baby blues on me I’m sucked right in.
“Mr. Brownslee?” I prompt, mostly to remind myself to stay on task.
“They’re prepping him for surgery. His legs are in bad shape, but his vitals are strong.”
“That’s good. Did he mention anything about the accident?”
“Just in the ambulance: he thinks he remembers a dark four-door sedan hitting him. He wasn’t sure of the make, he just saw a flash of it in his peripheral vision.”
“Understandable.”
“By the time we got here he was unconscious.”
To be honest, I’m not sure what I’d hoped to gain by coming here. There were enough witnesses on the scene who’d be able to provide better information—more reliable—than the victim, and yet here I am.
“Right, well. I should get going.” Blue starts moving to the ambulance and before I can stop the impulse, I reach out and stop her by the arm.
“Have dinner with me?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning author Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Driven to make her books about ‘real’ people; she creates characters who are perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills in their lives.
Recipient of the ReadFREE.ly 2019 Best Book We’ve Read All Year Award for “Covering Ollie, the 2015 RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for Best First Book, “Slim To None”, and Finalist for the 2017 Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, Freya continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!
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ON CALL SERIES (Operation Alpha):
BURNING FOR AUTUMN
COVERING OLLIE
TRACKING TAHLULA
ROCK POINT SERIES:
KEEPING 6
CABIN 12
HWY 550
10-CODE
NORTHERN LIGHTS COLLECTION:
A CHANGE IN TIDE
A CHANGE OF VIEW
A CHANGE OF PACE
SNAPSHOT SERIES:
SHUTTER SPEED
FREEZE FRAME
IDEAL IMAGE
PORTLAND, ME, NOVELS:
FROM DUST
CRUEL WATER
THROUGH FIRE
STILL AIR
CEDAR TREE SERIES:
SLIM TO NONE
HUNDRED TO ONE
AGAINST ME
CLEAN LINES
UPPER HAND
LIKE ARROWS
HEAD START
EDGE OF REASON Page 26