Stolen Redemption (Texas SWAT, #2)

by Bristol, Sidney

  “I’m surprised you don’t work here.” It was obvious to Dina that Elisabeth loved this place.

  “City budget only allows for one full time librarian. She is in her sixties with no plans to retire. The rest of the employee budget funds part-time staff.” She shrugged. “It’s just not enough of a salary to live off.”

  “What do you do then?” Dina took a few steps toward a sofa and set her bag down.

  “Wow, I don’t get that question a lot.” Elisabeth chuckled. “I’m a history and computer science teacher at the high school.”

  “Sorry?” Dina blinked at her.

  “It’s just...everyone here knows my life story. I’m not used to people not knowing.”

  “I get that.” Dina’s family heritage had branded her life for so long and dictated who she was that being free from that was sometimes still strange. “I think you have it harder coming from a small town like this. People don’t just know your history, they recognize you. They have personal experience with you. I at least, I mean, people knew about my family but not my face.”

  “What did your family do?”

  “They were into a few things. Yours?” Dina glanced from the rows of books to Elisabeth.

  The other woman stared at her, blinking rapidly.

  “My dad was—” she closed her eyes, “is—Mike Becker.”

  “I don’t know who that is.”

  “See what I mean? Everyone else knows.” Elisabeth glanced down. “My dad was part of this biker gang thing. He killed a bunch of people.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah. Elisabeth Becker. People don’t usually ask about that.”

  “I’m sorry. I really didn’t know.” Dina sank onto the sofa.

  “It’s okay.” Elisabeth leaned against the armrest.

  “My parents killed my best friend,” she said.

  It was Elisabeth’s turn to stare at her in wide eyed, slack jawed shock.

  “I’ve spent the last eight years not talking about it. Hiding from it. And this week I haven’t stopped talking about it.” The age old ache in her chest was there. She still missed Rosie and the life they wanted to lead, far away from the bullshit.

  “Wow, that’s...that’s serious.” Elisabeth slid from the armrest to the seat cushion. “My dad killed my friend’s parents. She’s never spoken to me since then. That was...a long time ago.”

  “It pisses me off that I have to live with what they did.”

  “Yeah. It feels like everyone I know is waiting to find out if me or my brother are going to turn out like him.” Elisabeth lifted a hand and swiped at her cheek.

  Dina swallowed down her pain. Dominick was exactly like Dad. She’d hoped he wouldn’t be, she’d done her best to protect him and give him a fresh start, but he was already on that path. She prayed Elisabeth’s brother wasn’t.

  DOMINICK STARED AT the two sleeping figures on the bed.

  He hadn’t anticipated this to be quite so easy. Rosetta Volta’s sisters looked almost exactly like their oldest, traitorous bitch of a sister.

  Did they know about Rosie’s past? What she’d done?

  In the grand scheme of things, Rosie’s part hadn’t been all that great. She’d stepped out of line, been a traitor to the family and easily taken care of. Dealing with her had been business as usual.

  He remembered arguing with Dad.

  Dad had insisted Dina was part of it that she’d known. But Dad had never really understood Dina. They’d all protected her, kept her insulated from the real world. There was no way Dina had been involved.

  When Mom and Dad burned Dina, he’d cried.

  Dominick would never admit that to anyone, but he knew. He’d watched them hold his twin sister down and burn her to get the truth out of her.

  Dina hadn’t been part of Rosie’s plot, but they’d created their own downfall that day. He could understand Dina’s anger. It had been justified. But going against family was a crime that would never be forgiven.

  Rosie’s sisters were going to help atone for that chapter of their family’s life. Rosie’s transgressions had consequences they were all dealing with in the form of Dina. After all, if Rosie hadn’t turned snitch and traitor she wouldn’t have been silenced. If she were still alive, Dina would have never gone to the feds. They’d be one, happy family.

  He crossed to the bed and checked each girl’s pulse. The Rohypnol had hit them harder than he expected. They couldn’t be expected to travel incapacitated. Until they woke up, he was stuck in this dive watching them sleep.

  If Phillip and Little Tony hadn’t taken care of Dina, Dominick would. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of this sooner.

  TREVOR SANK INTO HIS chair and pulled his keyboard toward him. His partner, Detective Parson, sat across from Trevor with a none too happy expression on his face. The old guy didn’t like being left on his own or Trevor’s mandatory off days following tactical operations. Parson was always extra grumpy on Trevor’s first day back.

  “Morning,” he said.

  “You missed quite an exciting day yesterday.”

  “Did I?” Trevor was apprehensive about what that might mean. With Parson, interesting could mean anything from a dead body, an illegally dumped livestock carcass or general tomfoolery.

  “Manager down at the market called last night. Two kids stole a case of that canned whipped cream off the delivery truck.”

  Trevor groaned.

  “This morning several businesses along Main Street reported white stuff smeared on their front windows.” Parson leaned back in his chair.

  Great.

  Just what Trevor wanted to do with his day, spend it tracking down a bunch of kids.

  “Do we have any idea what kids these are?” he asked.

  “Teenage ones.”

  “Anyone see them?”

  “Besides the manager, no, and he wasn’t wearing his glasses. Something about taping them together for shift.”

  “Great.” Trevor leaned back in his chair. “I’ll touch base with Casey, see if he’s got some ideas for where to start.”

  “You do that.” Parson pushed to his feet and strode across the room.

  Trevor figured he had a few minutes. His partner would hit the bathroom, then grab coffee and shoot the bull with whoever was around for a minute. Which left Trevor with a few moments to follow up on his own leads.

  After yesterday’s incident at the convenience store, he didn’t think taking Dina with him to check these people and locations out was a good idea. She was far too involved to let him take the lead.

  He pulled out his phone and the list Alex had given him.

  The next to the bottom name and number was for a privately owned waste management company that specialized in construction clean-up.

  Trevor hit dial and picked up a pen.

  He’d been hoping for an hour or two to check up on a few things on Dina’s behalf, but if he was going to spend his day running down the cream caper duo.

  “Trentino and Sons,” a man with a deep voice answered.

  “Hi, yeah, I was curious if you had office hours. I wanted to drop by and talk about a project I’m taking bids on.”

  “You’ll have to make an appointment.”

  “Okay, what do you have available?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Should I call back and speak to someone later?”

  “Yeah, do that.”

  Shit. It was a good thing Trevor wasn’t really looking to drum up business. That response wouldn’t garner any kind of interest.

  Before he could end the terse call with Trentino and Sons and incoming call overlay the current one.

  Mom.

  Damn. He’d been preoccupied and hadn’t called her for a day or two.

  Trevor ended one call and picked up another.

  “Hey, Mom. I was thinking about you.” He smiled and mentally kicked himself for not making time for even a short call.

  “It’s not your mother,” a cold, male voice s
ad.

  “Dad. Hey.” A chill swept through Trevor. What did Dad want if he was using Mom’s phone to call him?

  “Your mother has been, well, you know how she can get?”

  Trevor grunted. Far be it for Mom to have human emotions. Dad wouldn’t understand such a plebeian thing like that.

  “I thought it might be nice if you surprised her for dinner,” his father continued.

  “I see.” Trevor routinely met up with Mom when it was just them for meals, accompanying her on errands outside of Ransom. For the most part they kept their time apart from Dad. Maybe this was him making an effort? At his age? Not likely.

  “Well, that was all. I imagine they have you busy with that petty theft from last night.”

  Trevor didn’t answer. Both because he didn’t want to, and he wasn’t going to discuss even that silly case with his dad.

  “Okay, well, hope to see you tonight, son.”

  “Bye.”

  Trevor hung up and shuddered.

  Most people in town gushed about his father, what a great detective he’d been, how his loyalty to the town and law helped preserve their way of life. What people didn’t see was that Dad didn’t have an off switch. That same unyielding, follow the letter of the law methodology was what he applied to parenting.

  “You found out about those kids yet?” Person plopped back down in his chair.

  “No, sorry, old man called.”

  “He hasn’t died yet?” Person’s nose wrinkled.

  “No. No, he hasn’t.” Trevor stifled a laugh behind his hand as he fired off a text to Casey.

  Person might be a crotchety old guy who resented anything new or different, but he’d also seen Trevor’s father for what he was underneath the celebrated detective.

  “Looks like Casey’s at his desk.” Trevor wiggled his phone at Person. “I’m going to go see if he has a list for us.”

  “I’ll be here.” Person saluted Trevor with his coffee.

  Trevor picked up the incident report for the last few days and took it with him to skim on the short walk to where the patrol officers gathered to do their work. It wasn’t all that long ago that Trevor had called this room his office and these people his direct peers. Some days he missed the routine work, but not the crazy calls. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d been called out to count cows or calm neighbor disputes over lawn ornamentation.

  Casey sat at a desk that butted up to the wall. He was one of the few officers that maintained a dedicated space. Through a series of events that still mystified Trevor, Casey had wound up as the resource officer for all five of the Ransom schools, public and private.

  “Hey, man.” Trevor dragged a chair over to sit at the end of Casey’s desk. School would be back in session soon and his schedule crazy.

  “What happened to you last night?”

  “Have you heard about the whipped cream theft?” Sadly that was not the most ridiculous question Trevor had ever had to pose to someone before.

  “No.” Casey turned from his computer.

  “Yeah, I guess two kids stole a case of canned whipped cream last night then today there’s whipped cream all over windows up and down Main Street. Thought you might have a short list of suspects for us to look into.”

  “Oh boy.” Casey scrubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ve got a few in mind. Let’s check their social media first? That might help narrow down who you want to talk to.”

  “Thanks.”

  “So, last night?” Casey tapped on the keyboard, bringing up a bunch of web pages.

  “What about it?” Trevor squinted. “What’s all this?”

  “I have a quick list of accounts for my usual suspects.” He clicked into one of the pages. “You two left before the burgers came off the grill.”

  “Something came up.”

  “Something?” Casey pulled his hands away from the keyboard and stared at Trevor. “Did you actually look into her past? Or did you do one Google search, and that’s it?”

  “Hey.” Trevor snapped and pointed at the computer monitor playing a video of a teenage boy was spewing whipped cream on a park bench. “That’s our guy.”

  He wasn’t going to discuss Dina’s history with anyone.

  14.

  PHILLIP HADN’T YET been to sleep. He couldn’t close his eyes for more than a few moments without some sound luring him awake again. Little Tony’s sound snoring didn’t even give Phillip any comfort.

  Around sunrise Phillip had gotten up, resigned to doing something that wasn’t sleep. Lorenzo had put them up in a house with hardly any furniture and taken the car. Until someone brought them another ride, Phillip and Little Tony were stranded here, somewhere in the suburbs.

  Phillip’s mind kept going back to the conversation he’d had with Dominick, weighing what he’d said, what he hadn’t and trying to read between the lines. They both knew Little Tony was a loose cannon. He would do things they couldn’t anticipate and then dump the carnage in their laps. Phillip didn’t think LT was doing it on purpose. He just reacted and didn’t see anything wrong with it.

  This wasn’t going anywhere good.

  When a guy caused too many problems, they disappeared. It didn’t take much to figure out where they went. Phillip wished he could clue Little Tony in, get him to change his path, but Phillip worried he’d become the next target. He had a wolf by the ears as his grandfather used to say.

  The cell phone perched on his thigh vibrated.

  He picked it up and stared at the number.

  The area code was Fort Worth, but he didn’t know who was calling him.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey. I was told you’re in town, doing a job?” a guy with a deep voice said.

  “I do a lot of jobs. Who is this?”

  “Trentino. I heard from Joseph you’re trying to find a sister or something living out in Ransom?”

  “I don’t know no Joseph, but yeah. I’m looking for my sister.” Dina had felt like Phillip’s sister at least.

  “I got a call from some guy, number traces back to Ransom. To a cop. I don’t know anything else.”

  “That’s helpful. I appreciate it.”

  The exempt tags.

  A cop making calls.

  Dina was teaming up with the boys in blue.

  CASEY WASN’T LOOKING to get involved in Trevor’s whipped cream mystery, but Main Street was part of his beat. After a quick tour down the street to view what evidence hadn’t been washed away, Casey had parted ways with Trevor and his partner.

  Trevor still wasn’t answering any questions about where the hell he’d gone to last night.

  They’d all talked over beer and burgers. The most telling thing of all was Jenna and Scarlett’s absolute silence on the topic.

  Something was up, and Casey didn’t like it.

  The other guys were chalking it up to Trevor finding the most complicated woman in the surrounding counties to hook up with.

  He spied a familiar, old beaten up truck in the back lot behind The Watering Hole. It was far earlier than he’d have expected Jessica North to be at the bar, but he hadn’t exactly kept track of her comings and goings. Right now he was in need of some expert local advise.

  Trevor turned the cruiser into the lot and parked between the faded, almost nonexistent lines. Word was old man North was enjoying his retirement while his daughter manned the family bar that had been a staple of downtown Ransom since the very beginning. For as long as there’d been a town, there’d been a Watering Hole for people to come to, get a drink and shoot the bull.

  Trevor knocked on the back door of the bar before pulling on the handle.

  No give.

  It was still locked, which made sense. The bar didn’t open until after lunch.

  “Hello?” a familiar voice called out from inside.

  “Jess? It’s Casey.” He pitched his voice louder for her to hear.

  The door cracked open, and a woman peered out.

  “Oh, it’s
you.” She shoved it open the rest of the way and rolled her eyes. “You scared me half to death. What’s up, officer?”

  Casey swallowed and kept his gaze on her face. Jessica favored high neck T-shirts and the occasional tank top, but her shorts? They were tiny, leaving a lot of leg to the imagination. As they were strictly friends, it was his duty to not consider those legs or her high, tight ass.

  “I was hoping I might borrow you for a minute,” he said.

  “To do what?” A slow grin spread across her face.

  “I need to know what you remember about Trevor’s mystery woman.”

  “Oh.” She blinked at him and her grin faded. “Not much. Want to come inside?”

  “Sure. I won’t take up much of your time.”

  “Please, take up as much as you want.” She turned and led the way into the storage room off the back of the bar.

  “Inventory?” He nodded at the crates.

  “Yeah. It’s that time.” She picked up a pencil and glanced at her clipboard. “I don’t remember a lot about her, just that I didn’t recognize her, she drank sparingly, was pretty aware of herself and never looked at anyone except Trevor.”

  “Wow... That’s a lot.” Casey didn’t think he recalled that much.

  “What? I people watch. We don’t get a lot of new people, especially like that. She’s a real fish out of water, isn’t she?”

  “You could say that.”

  “Trevor found her, I take it? What’s her troubled story?” Jessica bent and grasped a particularly large box.

  “Let me get that.” He nudged her out of the way and hefted the box up to a sturdy table.

  “Her past?” Jessica prompted.

  “It’s a good one.” Casey shook his head.

  “You aren’t going to share?” Jessica planted her hands on her hips.

  “Sorry, I can’t.”

  “Are you even the least bit corruptible, Officer Smith?”

  Casey swallowed. His thoughts weren’t staying on the straight and narrow that was for sure. But everyone knew Jessica North was off limits.