Another Solution (Crowley County Series Book 4)

by T. E. Killian

  Jason couldn’t help it and knew it was a mistake immediately but he laughed and said, “She doesn’t think so therefore neither do I. According to her, you dumped her almost four years ago. You have no claim on her anymore.”

  Jason watched the guy as he turned red in the face and gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

  Before Palmer could say anything else, dispatch came on the radio and announced that an armed robbery was going down right then in the store they were parked behind.

  Jason looked at Palmer and said, “Forget all that for right now. We’ve got work to do. You go around the right side and I’ll take the left.”

  Jason jumped out of the vehicle, drew his weapon, and began making his way to the side of the building. He looked back in time to see Palmer finally get out and carrying his AR started for the other side.

  Just as Jason turned the corner, he spotted an older car sitting backed up to the wall with the motor running and a skinny guy in his early twenties sitting behind the wheel. The car was in a position to be able to pull out onto the side street quickly without being seen from the front of the store.

  Jason watched the man for a moment and could tell that he was nervous. He was smoking and he was taking a draw on the cigarette every few seconds and constantly flicking his ashes out his open window. His head was moving from side to side as if watching for something.

  Jason worked his way up to the driver’s side, which was on his side. He reached a point just behind the driver when several shots rang out. Jason knew from the popping sound that it was from an AR.

  The guy in the car shifted into gear and started to pull out but Jason tapped him on the shoulder with the muzzle of his handgun and said, “Don’t move and put it back in park.”

  When the guy did as Jason told him, then Jason said, “Now place both hands on the steering wheel.”

  He didn’t do it quick enough for Jason so he said, “Now!”

  Jason thought the guy was going to try to reach for a handgun that was clearly visible on the seat next to him but apparently thought better of it when Jason stuck the muzzle of his gun to the guy’s head.

  When the guy placed both hands on the wheel, Jason pulled his cuffs out and quickly snapped them to the guy’s wrists looping the chain through the steering wheel.

  Then he went around to the other side of the car and keeping an eye on the front of the store, reached in and grabbed the handgun off the seat.

  He stuck the gun in the back of his utility belt then flattened himself against the wall of the building. He crept forward until he could peer around the corner to the front of the store.

  What he saw made him shake his head. Palmer was standing over a guy who was sitting against the wall. Just as Jason stepped around the corner, the guy started squealing like a pig. That was when Jason noticed blood on both the guy’s thighs.

  He watched as Palmer slung his AR over his shoulder and pulled out his cuffs then hooked the guy’s wrists together in front of him.

  Jason called out to Palmer, “I got another one hooked up in the get-away car. Any more of them?”

  Palmer shook his head and pointed to a sawed off shotgun lying at his feet.

  Jason called in the all clear on his portable radio and requested an ambulance.

  Jason looked up at the sounds of several other patrol vehicles sliding to a stop all around them.

  Floyd was in one of them and while another deputy went around to get the driver to take him in to the jail for booking, he called Jason over to where he was standing by his own Tahoe.

  “You okay, Son?”

  Jason grinned up at the big redhead. “Sure. Why wouldn’t I be? Those guys were so amateur that any green rookie could have caught both of them single handed.”

  Floyd motioned with his head where Palmer was still standing over the one he shot while a couple of paramedics were working on the guy. “How’d he do?”

  Jason shook his head. “I don’t exactly know what all happened out front while I was grabbing the driver, but Palmer took the other guy down by himself.”

  Floyd just nodded and said, “Hop in and I’ll take you back to the station.” Then he walked over to where Palmer was standing.

  Jason had to admire Floyd’s patience. Palmer didn’t look at him right away even though everyone could see that he was aware of Floyd standing next to him.

  When he finally looked up at Floyd, the sheriff said, “Routine procedure Son. Which weapon did you use?

  When Palmer pointed with his thumb to indicate the AR slung on his shoulder, Floyd said, “I need to impound that then.”

  Palmer looked at Floyd for a long moment before he pulled the AR off his shoulder and handed it to him.

  “Follow me back to the station and wait for me in my outer office. The state boys will be doing the routine officer involved shooting investigation and you’ll be on admin leave until they finish.”

  Floyd turned back to Jason and said, “Let’s go.”

  Jason knew better than to talk at all on the way back to the station. He couldn’t talk any more about the shooting to anybody including Floyd until the state investigators were finished with him.

  * * *

  Karen was surprised when she was called to the front desk just before noon and told she had a phone call. The receptionist said she could take it in the interview room. Now she was concerned. They usually routed any phone calls to the desk out in the therapy room.

  This kind of call was always bad. Her first thought was that something had happened to Jason. She began to tremble as she reached for the phone and she almost fell into the chair next to the desk when she heard Floyd’s voice.

  “Karen, this is Sheriff Floyd McCracken and Jason is just fine.”

  She burst into tears and had to lay the phone down to reach the box of tissues on the desk. She picked the phone back up when she gained a bit of control.

  “What happened Sheriff?”

  She could hear him blow out a breath of air. “Well, like I said, Jason is just fine.”

  He let that settle again for a moment before continuing, “He and Palmer interrupted an armed robbery and got both of the suspects before they could get away.”

  “Are you sure Jason is okay Sheriff?”

  She could tell that he was grinning from the way his words came out. “Yes ma’am. Like I said before, he’s just fine.”

  “Can I talk to him?”

  “I’m sorry but he’s in with the state investigators and will be with them most of the day. That’s why I’m calling you. He asked me to let you know he’s okay.”

  Karen went back to her workstation in a daze. She didn’t know what to think. She had known all along that Jason was in a dangerous occupation. In fact, she’d gone through all that before when she was engaged to Larry. But somehow everything was different now, drastically different. In the back of her mind, she knew she would have to deal with that difference later, but not now.

  That was when it hit her hard that whatever she had felt for Larry was not even close to what she was feeling for Jason now. She truly did love Jason. But what was she going to do about it now that she had admitted it to herself?

  She tried again to shove all those thoughts aside until later. Right now, she had to get back to work. But she had a difficult time concentrating for the rest of the day.

  When Karen finally finished work that afternoon and was waiting out front for Jason to pick her up, she wasn’t too surprised that he was a little late. But she was surprised and somewhat disappointed when Floyd pulled up to the door in his police car.

  She rushed out the door just as Floyd stepped around his vehicle.

  He held out both hands palms toward her. “Hang on little girl, he’s still just fine. The state investigators still aren’t quite finished with him yet. He’ll probably be finished by the time I get you back there though.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief and climbed into the high vehicle when Floyd opened the
door for her.

  Jason was waiting for her in Floyd’s office when they walked in. He jumped to his feet and Karen just kept walking right into his arms. She didn’t care who saw it, especially not the grinning sheriff.

  She pulled back from their embrace enough to look into Jason’s eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  He grinned down at her. “Sure am. I wasn’t even near the shooting.”

  When he said shooting, she almost lost it again. She turned to Floyd but he just held up his hands again and said, “I couldn’t say anything about that part until the investigators said we could.”

  Jason squeezed her in his arms. When she looked back at him, he said, “Palmer shot one of the suspects out front while I was busy out back hooking up the driver.”

  When she still didn’t think about Larry, Jason chuckled loudly and said, “By the way, Palmer’s okay too.”

  She blushed deeply at that, wondering what Jason and Floyd must think about her for not even asking about Larry.

  Floyd laughed loudly and said, “That’s okay little girl, we know which one you’re worried about don’t we?”

  He walked away still laughing.

  Jason held her by both forearms and said, “I don’t know about you, Karen, but I’m hungry and I don’t want to have to answer Granny’s questions right now. Besides, Mike called a little while ago and invited us out to eat with just him and Daisy. That okay with you?”

  “Yes, I would love to be able to talk with Daisy right about now.”

  She followed Jason to his office and sat there with him while he finished writing his report of the robbery and shooting.

  After Jason finished, he looked up at her and said, “We’ve just got enough time to get to the pizza place to meet Mike and Daisy. You ready.”

  She smiled at that question. They both knew that she was only waiting on him so they could leave.

  They left the building laughing. Since Jason was still in uniform and driving his Tahoe, they went to his townhouse first.

  As they walked into his living room, Karen was surprised to see that it was not only a different layout than hers but almost twice as big too.

  “Is the rest of it as big as this room?”

  Jason laughed and said, “That’s right. You haven’t been in here yet. Yeah, all the rooms are bigger than yours are. This was the first section built and they decided to make the rest smaller so they could build more units faster.”

  “Do you mind if I look around a bit?”

  “No, why don’t you look at my bedroom first then you can look at the rest of the house while I change in there.”

  As soon as Karen and Jason sat down at the table at Thelma’s where Daisy and Mike were already sitting, Mike grabbed Jason.

  “I want to know everything about that robbery you broke up this morning.”

  Jason grinned and started telling Mike all about it.

  Daisy touched Karen’s arm and looked deep into her eyes before saying, “I want to know how you’re taking all this.”

  She motioned with her hand toward Jason.

  Karen had to stop to think how to put her thoughts into words.

  “You know Daisy, I was so frightened at first, but then when I began to think about it, I had a peace settle over me.”

  She shook her head. “It was like God was saying to me that He was in control and everything would be okay.”

  Daisy clapped her hands together softly. “That’s just great Karen.” She smiled as she looked over at the men then back at Karen. “It’s so good that both you and Jason are such strong Christians just like Mike and me.”

  They sat and listened to Jason talking for a minute then Daisy turned to Karen with shock clearly showing on her face. “I didn’t know it was your ex-fiancé who was with Jason today.”

  Karen nodded. “I’m afraid so.” She leaned close to Daisy and lowered her voice. “I’ve been so worried about the two of them maybe getting into a fight.”

  Jason still heard her for he turned to them and said, “You won’t have to worry about that for a while now. Palmer will be on admin leave for a week and when he comes back, he’ll have someone else riding with him for the rest of his probation.”

  That made Karen breathe a little easier.

  * * *

  Jason watched Karen as she told Daisy about her reactions to his incident earlier. She seemed to be fairly calm now. He was sorry that she had been so scared, but it also gave him a warm feeling knowing that she cared enough about him to be so concerned about him getting hurt.

  When Karen finished telling Daisy about how Larry had been bothering her, he had to smile to himself. Daisy looked mad enough to take Larry on all by herself right then.

  Mike slapped him on the arm, leaned toward him, and spoke softly. “Look at those two would you. I don’t think I’d want to be that Palmer guy if the two of them ever got ahold of him.”

  Jason laughed along with Mike. But his thoughts turned back to Karen. When he’d first met her a year ago, she hadn’t seemed to have any close friends but now she and Daisy were obviously very close. He was happy for her.

  Daisy turned toward Mike and said, “Don’t you think it’s about time we rescued your mom from Lucy?”

  Mike snickered and said, “You know as well as I do that we’ll probably have to pry those two apart.”

  They all stood and began leaving the restaurant.

  Once they were in his pickup heading out toward Granny’s, Jason said, “Karen.” She looked at him. “When we get out to the farm, do you think you and I could sit down and talk about things?”

  He was afraid she wasn’t going to answer at first, or pretend she didn’t know what things he was talking about but then she gave him a big smile and said, “Sure, Jason. I think I would like that very much.”

  Well, after that comment, he was certainly tempted to floor the accelerator to get there faster.

  When they entered the old farmhouse, they found Granny and Billy Joe sitting at the kitchen table playing some kind of card game. Jason didn’t look close enough to tell what kind it was. He was too eager to talk with Karen alone.

  Granny looked up from the cards in her hand, gave Jason a searching look then turned to Billy Joe, spread her cards on the table, and said, “Gin.”

  Jason grinned. Well, that answered the question about what game they were playing.

  Granny looked back up at him for a long moment. Then she gave Karen the same intense look before turning back to him and saying, “You two look like you need to talk. Go on into the living room and we’ll stay in here out of your way.”

  Jason led Karen back out to the living room and pulled her down beside him on the couch.

  Karen had a questioning look on her face and he knew why so he answered her question before she asked it. “Granny always knows what I want to do before I ever even tell her. She can read me like a book.” He snickered. “Sure made things difficult for me when I was growing up though.”

  They both laughed at that then they each grew thoughtful.

  Neither one said anything else for a few minutes. They just sat there holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes.

  Finally, Jason leaned back a little and said, “Karen, I’m sure you already know this but I just have to say it.”

  She leaned toward him in anticipation of what he was about to say next.

  He touched her cheek with his free hand. “I love you Karen and you may not be ready to hear the rest of this, but I’ve just got to say it now.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  He knew he’d probably gone too far with the second part of his declaration, and he hadn’t really meant to say it quite so soon, but it just came out. And as he thought about it, he knew he couldn’t have waited another minute to tell her either.

  He was watching Karen’s face and especially her eyes for any kind of reaction. At first, there was none, no reaction at all. He was getting worried
when her face slowly broke out into a smile.

  “Jason, I know it should be way too early for that kind of talk.” She blew out a sigh and continued. “You see, I went out with Larry for six months before I agreed to marry him. Then we were engaged for another six months.”

  She stopped and reached for a tissue from a box on an end table nearby. Now, he knew he was in trouble. She was starting to cry. That was bad, wasn’t it?

  He was so worried then that he almost missed it when she started talking again.

  “But, Jason, I’ve known you for a year now and I’ve watched you very closely during that time. Sure, we didn’t start going out until last week, but I feel that I know you better than I ever did Larry.”

  He was starting to get hope again.

  “Yes, Jason, I love you too and I would also like to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  Jason let out a whoop and jumped up. She stood with him and they hugged then kissed.

  “Looks like we got a wedding to plan.”

  They both jumped apart and stared at Granny who was standing in the kitchen doorway grinning.

  Jason was angry at first then he just thought how appropriate it was for Granny to be there at that point in his life. After all, she’d been there for all the rest of it.

  He turned to her though and said, “I thought you said you’d leave us alone?”

  She chuckled. “I did. But when the fireworks started, I just had to join in.”

  Karen pulled away from Jason, walked over to Granny, and looked her in the eye. That was when he realized that the two women were the same height.

  “Is this okay with you Miss Hattie?”

  Granny stopped smiling and placed her hands on her hips. Jason knew what was coming next.

  She glared at Karen and said, “I know I told you to call me Miss Hattie like all the rest of the folks around here do, but that was before. You’re not like all the rest of the folks anymore. You’re going to be family. And now that you’re going to be family, you will call me Granny same as Jason.”

  Jason could see the tears running down Karen’s face as she reached out and hugged Granny.