“My superiors say that I’m supposed to work with you from now on. I know they told you but I have to remind you that my life depends on you not telling anyone even your chief deputy about me and especially Sue Ann. Got it?”
Floyd’s anger tried to surface again especially at the quip about Sue Ann but he managed to beat it down. “I understand. I know these guys play dirty. I’ve got one of them gunning for me right now.”
“Yeah, I heard about that. Hennesey’s one of the worst kind.”
Floyd looked over briefly and could barely make out the slumped figure in the passenger seat.
“You guys got anything new on Hennesey this time around?”
“No, not really. Other that what I’m sure you’re getting from other channels about his cancer and his breakout from the hospital in Springfield. We don’t think he’s been able to keep in touch with any of his workers from before while in Leavenworth, if that helps you any. And as far as I’ve heard, there’s been no contact made between him and those in charge now.”
He paused then said, “But I do expect that to happen. Hennesey has to hole up somewhere.”
Floyd decided he needed to clear the air just a little before they started. “I don’t know what kind of crap you were slinging back there in front of Sue Ann before but I what to make sure you realize that she’s now off limits to you or anybody else for that matter.”
Bates chuckled. “Calm down Sheriff. She’s all yours. I was only dating her because she owns a beauty shop. That’s always one of the places where most of the town gossip goes through. That’s why I’ve been spending time at all three bars too. At least until one of them burned down.”
Floyd let out his breath in a gush and said, “Just so we understand each other.”
“Message received Sheriff and I’m perfectly fine with it.”
Floyd could tell the guy was watching him closely as he drove down the state highway.
Finally, Bates cleared his throat and said. “Now let’s get down to business Sheriff. When Hennesey got sent up, the organization in this area took a major hit. It was in chaos for several years but it’s starting to make a comeback now that one individual has beat his way up to the top.”
Floyd racked his brain to try to think of who that might be but came up with a blank. There’d been no indication of anyone from the files that Rob had given him.
“Who?”
“I don’t think you’re going to be too surprised when I tell you who it is. Remember last fall when that deacon at the Baptist church was found to have been operating a still and keeping two of the bars supplied with his stuff?”
Floyd snorted. “I ought to. That pervert Jake Hollis raped my little cousin eight years ago and was trying to do it again when I blew him away.”
“Yeah, that operation is history for sure.”
“You bet it is. I purely enjoyed blowing that still to kingdom come.”
Bates didn’t laugh but continued, “Now, Hollis’ cousin Hershel Hollis is the one who we’re pretty sure is taking over leadership of the drug ring in this area. Do you know him?”
“Yeah, I know the snake. He’d just like his cousin only worse and he doesn’t even try to hide it like Jake did.”
When Bates didn’t say anything, Floyd said, “What can I do from my end right now?”
“Well, Sheriff, I don’t really know right now. I’m still trying to reformulate my plan now that you’re involved. I’ll let you know as soon as I figure something out. I have a feeling though that my superiors must already have something in mind but they haven’t told me what it is yet.”
“Okay, just let me know. Until then, I won’t do anything and I’ll put my detectives on hold for now.”
“No, don’t pull them back totally. That might make our bad boys get a little too suspicious. These guys expect a certain amount of police harassment. If it’s not there, they’ll know something’s up.”
Floyd felt foolish and he didn’t like feeling foolish. “Okay, I knew that much. I didn’t mean pull back all the way. I meant for them to just not do anything new or heavy.”
“That’ll work.”
Bates was silent for a moment then he said, “You have a secure cell phone?”
“Yeah, it’s a satellite phone and I only use it for official business. I have another one for personal use.”
“Good. Keep driving but give me the number.”
When Floyd did, Bates punched it into his phone. “Now give me your phone and I’ll put my number in it so you’ll be able to reach me too. I’m just going to give it the number ten in your directory, okay?”
When he finished, he handed Floyd’s phone back to him and said, “Good. That’s about all we can do for now. I sure hope I can trust you McCracken. As I said before you’ve got my life in your hands.”
“You won’t be sorry. During the day when I’m on duty, you might want to send me a text first if you need to talk to me. Then I can make sure I’m alone when you call.”
“Good idea. Same goes for me. My cover is still teaching at the high school. You’ll only be able to send me texts during class time, but I’ll call you back as soon as I can if I need to.”
Floyd headed the vehicle back toward the high school.
“Bates? I’ve got another question for you. I guess you could call this one personal.”
When Bates only grunted Floyd said, “Were you really still married when you went out with Sue Ann?”
Bates laughed and said, “No Sheriff, that is just part of my cover. When I thought that I needed to back away from her I told her knowing she’d get mad and stay away from me. Actually, I’ve never been married.”
Floyd blew out the breath he’d been holding. “Thanks, Mike.”
“You bet, Sheriff.”
They were back behind the bleachers again and Bates opened his door. “I’ll be in touch Sheriff.”
Floyd gritted his teeth then said, “Floyd.”
“Okay . . . Floyd”
With that, Bates was out the door and quickly disappeared into the woods.
Floyd drove home with many more things on his mind.
Chapter Eight
Sue Ann was still thinking about her date with Floyd the night before. It hadn’t been a total disaster, but it was mighty close. They had both been so preoccupied with the danger that Floyd was in that they couldn’t even keep a decent conversation going. She couldn’t remember even tasting the ribs she eaten. She usually loved eating there, especially the ribs.
She was just so worried about Floyd. What if that maniac did get to him? She stopped right then and prayed for his safety. Then she added Penny to her prayer too. There was no telling what someone like Hennesey might do. Floyd had tried to downplay that but Sue Ann knew that if Hennesey found out about Penny, he might go after her to get at Floyd.
Now, it was almost time to close for the day and she had already sent her new stylist, Bobbie, home. She was walking to the door to lock it when it opened just before she got there.
She was surprised to see a woman who had talked to her about the opening in her shop last week. She’d wanted to hire her but the woman had decided that she couldn’t make enough money here so she’d gone back to Springfield.
Well, if she wanted the job now, it wasn’t open anymore. After all the woman had given her no indication that she might change her mind. Besides, Sue Ann was sure that Bobbie was going to work out just fine.
Before Sue Ann could say anything, the woman said, “Did you fill your vacant position?”
“Yes I did. You didn’t say anything about coming back.”
The woman smiled at her and said, “That’s okay. That doesn’t matter now.”
She paused and looked around the shop. “I’ve been looking at several shops in the area for the last few weeks and I think your shop has the best opportunities for me. So I’ve come to make you an offer to buy the shop.”
While Sue Ann was still shocked, the woman handed her a paper that had a figure on it. She looked
down at it and knew immediately that it was more than enough to pay off what she owed on the shop with enough left over to get her started with Jo in the coffee shop too.
She tried to hide her excitement when she said, “I’ll have to see about getting the legal papers ready.”
“Not to worry. If that figure is agreeable, I have a contract right here.”
She handed it to Sue Ann who took it and glanced through it. “I’ll need to run this past my lawyer first. But it looks good. How will I be able to get in touch with you when I’m ready?”
The woman handed her a card and said, “I hope to hear from you tomorrow morning if you can arrange it that quickly. I need to move on this right away if possible.”
All Sue Ann could do was mumble, “Sure. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
With that, the woman left and Sue Ann was sure her mouth was still hanging open. Who was she kidding? She didn’t have a lawyer. She didn’t even know one except her divorce lawyer and he certainly wouldn’t be able to help her with this. She was going to have to find one quickly though. She had a feeling the woman wouldn’t wait very long.
She quickly closed the shop and almost ran out to her car. She had to get to Jo’s. She needed to talk to her right now.
She barely knocked on Jo’s kitchen door before flying in and was surprised to see Jo sitting at the table with her mother and aunt. Sue Ann had been so excited that she hadn’t even noticed their big Cadillac sitting in the drive.
She rushed up to Jo and wrapped her arms around her shoulders where she sat.
“Jo you’re not going to believe what just happened.” She waved the contract in the air between them. “I got a really good contract on my shop. Now we can buy the coffee shop.”
Jo jumped out of her chair and was immediately given a real hug this time. “Really?”
“Really!” They both began whooping and dancing around the room which caused Harry, their little dog to join in with his bouncing and yapping too.
They both sat at the table and Sue Ann noticed that both of the older women were sitting there with their mouths open.
“You remember that woman who applied for a job with me last week and said she’d just stay in Springfield?” When Jo simply nodded she said, “Well, she wasn’t really looking for a job. She was looking for a shop to buy and she wants to buy my shop! Can you believe it? God sure did answer our prayers didn’t He?”
Jo took the contract out of Sue Ann’s hand and looked it over. “Wow! That’s plenty enough for your share of the coffee house.”
Then she frowned. “You’re going to need to get a lawyer to look this over for you before you sign it.”
“Yeah, I guess I need to look one up.”
Jo was grinning. “No you don’t. Don’t you remember that Floyd’s brother Roger is a lawyer and if I remember right, he deals with just this sort of thing. Let me give him a call right now. He’s just like Floyd. He’ll do anything his ‘little cousin’ asks.”
When Jo hung up the phone, she was grinning. “He said he’d do it and he’s leaving his office right now so he’ll drop by here to take a look at the contract for you.”
Sue Ann jumped up, rushed over to where Jo was still standing by the wall phone, and hugged her again.
Jo pulled back and said, “Now I need to call Dick and Dianne and tell them we will be able to buy the coffee shop after all.”
Just as Jo hung up the phone a second time after receiving a promise to hold the coffee shop for them, her sixteen-year-old sister, Carla came into the kitchen.
“What’s all the shouting about down here? I couldn’t even concentrate to do my homework.”
They all started talking at once and soon Carla was as excited as the rest.
When it settled down a little, Gil’s mother, Florence looked at her twin sister then back at the others, and said, “Eunice and I would like to help you out at your new coffee shop.”
Jo looked at her in surprise. “Are you sure?”
Eunice piped in. “Oh, we’re sure all right. We’ve been talking about doing some volunteering at the hospital just to have something to do.”
Florence picked up then. “This would give us something to do and we’d be with family all the time instead of strangers.”
“It’s perfect,” Eunice said.
Florence giggled. “We’ll even be able to help when my little granddaughter comes.”
Gil came in just as they were all hugging each other around the table. He gave the five excited females one perplexed look and headed for his study.
Jo jumped up and pulled him back and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Oh, Gil, you’re not going to believe what happened.”
Before he could say anything, she said, “God answered our prayers. Someone is buying Sue Ann’s shop and Dick said we could buy the coffee shop. Isn’t that simply wonderful?”
* * *
Floyd’s day was just dragging by. Nothing much had happened, at least not much that required his immediate attention. That was good since he was starting to slow down himself. Getting home after one and then back up again at five was catching up with him. He hoped he wouldn’t be making a habit of late nights now that he was trying to work days to be with Penny more.
He never would have thought so but he was enjoying having Penny around the office. He didn’t even mind it when she’d just pop in every once in a while. In fact, if he were honest with himself, he was enjoying that part the most. He even found himself looking up at the doorway every few minutes to see if she might standing there.
He had also noticed that almost everyone else in the department seemed to find reasons to stop by Crystal’s office. And of course they would wind up talking to Penny. Quite naturally, Penny was eating it all up.
Floyd hadn’t been able to get Hal and Rob together until four o’clock and he was sitting in an armchair in his office waiting for them to come in.
As soon as they both arrived and Hal closed the door behind them, Floyd started. “I need to brief both of you on some changes that are going to be made on all drug investigations until further notice.”
He knew he had their attention with that so he paused before continuing. “As you might suppose DEA is involved up to their Federal eyeballs in our county.”
He could see that they both knew what was coming next. Rob said sarcastically, “So, as usual, we back off entirely and let the Feds do their job without us, right?”
“Yes, Rob, you’re right in part. Our involvement in things will definitely be changing. Last night I met with their undercover agent here and we setup some guidelines for all of us to go by, at least for now.”
Hal snorted. “Yeah, everything goes from us to them and nothing ever comes back.”
Floyd tried to laugh but the looks on both of the other men’s faces stopped him short. “In a way, that’s basically it Hal. You and I both know that will probably never change.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “But, I was able to talk them into cooperating a little more on this one since one of the ex-leaders of the drug ring is apparently gunning for me.”
He snorted this time. “You might say I put my foot down and told them that either they work with us or we work around them.”
Hal chuckled. “I’ll bet that got their attention.”
“It sure did so they decided to do it my way . . . this time.”
When they both just continued to stare at him he said, “Well here are the guidelines as they are right now. I’m sure they’re subject to change at any time. Rob, I want you and your detectives to continue doing everything you’ve been doing. The only difference is that I don’t want any major intervention. DEA is clear that they don’t want us to interfere with anything we may see unless it’s entirely impossible not to.”
He stared at both of them trying to judge their reaction before adding, “And frankly, I have to agree with them. We don’t need to get in each other’s way.”
Rob nodded and Hal said, “Did yo
u get anything from them that we don’t already know?”
Floyd frowned and looked at Rob, “Unless it was in a file you didn’t give me yesterday, I did. I now have the name of the new ringleader.”
Rob shook his head. “No, we’re not sure who that might be. We have a few possibilities but we haven’t been able to get close enough to know for sure.”
“Okay. DEA says that Hershel Hollis is taking over everything and running it the way Hennesey used to.”
He could tell that both men were surprised at that declaration.
“Now, this information is going to stay right here with the three of us. It can’t go any farther right now. They don’t want Hollis being alerted to the fact that they’re on to him.”
Hal looked Floyd in the eye. “Can you tell us who this agent is?”
He shook his head. “No. They were mighty strict about that. They wouldn’t even tell me until I pushed them so hard that they told me to shut me up. And then they made me promise not to tell anyone else even here. They don’t want anyone but me knowing about the guy or having any contact with him. Sorry.”
When they left, Floyd felt that things just might be beginning to look up for their investigation into the drug trafficking in the county. At least with DEA involved, something usually happened . . . eventually. He knew that their investigations often lasted months and even years sometimes.
Well, he’d just have to take that like everything else, just watch and wait.
His thoughts were interrupted by Crystal buzzing him on the intercom.
“Hey, Floyd, you want to talk to Jillian? She’s on line three.”
No, he didn’t want to talk to the nosey newspaper woman. But experience told him that if he didn’t give her something to print, she’d print something anyway and he definitely wouldn’t like what she did print.
When he picked up, Jillian started right in. “Well Sheriff, I’ll bet you didn’t expect to see Hennesey coming at you for another five years did you?”
He gritted his teeth and said, “No Jillian, I didn’t.”
“What can you tell me about what you’re doing to get him before he gets you?”
A Better Solution (Crowley County Series Book 2) Page 11