Blazing Summer (Darling Investigations Book 2)

by Denise Grover Swank

  “Just like it sounds. If there’s something to the rumors that Trent Dunbar’s selling drugs, she probably slept with him to get access. When she had a leaky kitchen sink, she slept with my friend Steve, who’s a plumber. She dumped him the day after he installed a brand-new faucet and pipes in her kitchen.”

  “So it’s possible that one of those guys could be pissed at being used by her.”

  “It’s a fair assumption.”

  “Maybe it’s also a possibility that one of those guys was pissed enough to burn her trailer down?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” He rubbed his chin. “We need to find out who responded to the call. It would be easy for you to find out if Luke handled it.”

  I shook my head. “The sheriff’s department responded.”

  “Then we need to find out which of the Sweet Briar police officers was on call and why he didn’t handle it,” Teddy said.

  “I doubt it was Luke,” I said. “He spent the evening with me.”

  “They don’t usually go on call until eleven, so that doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Teddy said as he rubbed his chin. “They don’t get many calls after midnight, so it’s not like they’re sitting around the station waiting for the phone to ring. The county 911 call center contacts the officer on call, and if they’re tied up with something else, the dispatcher hands it off to a sheriff’s deputy.”

  “So we need to find out why it got handed off.”

  Teddy nodded. “I’ll check in with my buddy in the sheriff’s department and see if I can get some info on their investigation . . . and why they got the case.”

  “Aren’t they going to think it’s weird that you’re asking? We don’t want to link this back to Dixie.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. But I’ll figure out a way to tie it in. I still work with them. Maybe I’ll bring up the drug angle.”

  My stomach clenched at the thought of Teddy working with the Bixley County Sheriff’s Department. He wasn’t an official deputy, and when he’d worked for them a few months ago, he hadn’t carried a gun. I was certain he’d pissed off more than a few people. It didn’t sit well to think of him putting himself in more danger.

  Another idea came to me. “What about your friend Garrett Newcomer? The volunteer firefighter. He might be able to tell us something useful, and then you won’t have to bring in the sheriff’s department.”

  His brow lifted. “Yeah. In fact, he might be able to provide a different angle than they would.”

  Garrett was cute, all the better for the camera, and he seemed like he might be open to discussing the cases. Plus, he’d worked Bruce Jepper’s fire, which meant he might have more information than the sheriff’s department. “Why don’t you let me interview him?”

  Teddy’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yeah?”

  I groaned. “Stop with the matchmaking. I’m with Luke.”

  He gave me his half shrug.

  I’d win him to Luke’s side. Eventually. “Garrett might also have some information about Trent. I remember him talking about a poker game they all played together.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll text you his info. I’ll bet he’s willing to talk to you.” He shifted his weight. “What else you got?”

  I pulled out my phone, happy to see that Dixie had texted her list. “Dixie sent a list of the people she remembers being at the party. They must have seen what happened to her during the time she doesn’t remember. We need to track them down and find out what they know.”

  “Who’s on the list? I can help.”

  I started to protest, especially since she didn’t want him to know, but he was right. He knew people. There were sixteen names altogether. When I took out Rick, Trent, and April Jean, that left thirteen people to interview. I read through the list, and he recognized most of the names.

  “Some of them I know better than others,” he said. “How about you start at the top of the list? I won’t be able to start on it until tonight, but I’ll work my way up from the bottom. If we get something useful, we’ll share it with the other. And we won’t stop until we save Dixie.”

  I had to believe that we would.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I left Teddy in the field and drove Tony and Chuck back to the farmhouse so we could move the gear into my car. They looked disappointed when they realized I didn’t have a luxury sedan.

  “I was forced into doing a reality show, and I just lost my house in foreclosure,” I said as I unlocked my older Kia. “What did you expect?”

  “Please tell me that the a/c works,” Chuck said.

  “It does.” Mostly.

  “So what do you want to do next?” Tony asked as he got into the passenger seat. Chuck climbed into the back seat.

  “I need to call Garrett, the volunteer firefighter, and see if he’ll tell me what he knows about the fires, particularly April Jean’s, but first I have to go to the police station and file a complaint against Elijah Sterling.”

  “Are you sure you want to do that?” Chuck asked. “If he doesn’t get fired, you could be creating a powerful enemy.”

  “It’s too late to worry about that,” I said. “He’s already pissed off at me. Besides, if we’re right about him wanting to plant evidence, he’s dangerous with a badge.”

  “And after you file the report and talk to the firefighter?”

  “I’m tryin’ to decide if I should reach out to April Jean. She’s open to being on the show, but she has to know I’m Dixie’s cousin. Maybe we should hold off on talkin’ to her and start goin’ through the list of people at the party. We might find out something we can use when we meet with her.”

  “Good idea,” Tony said.

  “When we talk to the people who were at the party, I don’t think we should mention that Dixie was likely drugged. I’m presuming Trent was the one who drugged her since he handed her the drink, but there’s a chance someone else did it. If they suspect we’re fishing for information, they’re more likely to get defensive and lie. We need to come up with something else to make us seem less suspicious. Maybe say she lost something and we’re trying to locate it.”

  “You really think that’ll work?” Tony asked skeptically. “What are you going to say? That she lost her consciousness and now you’re looking for it?”

  I shot him a glare. “Hey, I’m open to ideas.”

  We discussed several possibilities on the way back into town—everything from saying we wanted to attend the next party to saying we were investigating a noise complaint from the neighbors. We didn’t have a workable plan by the time I pulled into the Sweet Briar Municipal Complex, so we decided to table it until later.

  Complex was a generous term. It was a one-story building with a small police station taking up the east side and city offices taking up the west side.

  “Hey,” I said when I saw a white Ford Explorer in the parking lot, “we might get that interview with April Jean quicker than I thought. That’s her car.”

  Tony checked his camera. “I’m ready to get anything that comes our way.”

  Chuck leaned forward. “If the receptionist agrees to it, I can just use a boom mike, and that will capture any other people in the room.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Tony followed me to the entrance, his camera lowered, and Chuck trailed us with his boom mike and laptop. My strategy was to get Amber’s permission to film at the station and then catch April Jean off guard, hopefully enough that she’d answer questions. I was certain both women would agree to be filmed, but Tony and Chuck were ready to capture any action that might spontaneously happen.

  I opened the door and saw Amber sitting behind the receptionist desk. I knew bigger police departments had glass separating the waiting room from the reception clerks, but Sweet Briar was old-school, and Amber looked like she could be working for a dentist.

  “Summer!” she said as I walked in, perking up when she saw Tony. She brushed her heavy auburn bangs out of her eyes, and I noticed she’d cut her long hair into a shoulder-length bo
b. “Are you filmin’ in here?”

  “If that’s okay,” I said. “We’ll need you to sign a release to put you on TV, but I can have you fill it out later. I’m only here to fill out a form for Luke.”

  She waved her hand in excitement. “Sure, no problem.”

  “Great! Here’s how this will work: I’ll pretend like I just walked in, and you’ll pretend like you just saw me, and then I’ll tell you why I’m here.”

  She opened a drawer and pulled out her purse. “Can I touch up my makeup first?”

  I really didn’t want to wait, but I couldn’t say I blamed her. “Sure. Your haircut’s super cute, by the way.”

  She beamed.

  I realized I hadn’t checked my appearance since I’d gone to the bathroom after lunch, but I didn’t really care. A glamorous look didn’t really go with this job, despite Lauren’s intentions last season.

  A minute later, I walked through the front door. Tony followed me with the camera at first and then switched his position to capture a front view of my “entrance” from the lobby.

  A necessary evil to make the show look good after editing.

  Amber seemed fascinated by the process, and it took two takes before she realized when she was supposed to greet me, saying, “Hey, Summer. What can I do for you?”

  I walked up to her counter. “Luke told me to come by and fill out a formal complaint for the way Officer Sterling treated me this morning.”

  Nodding, she grabbed a paper off her desk and set it on the ledge. “Luke’s out on a call right now, but he left this for you to fill out. He said you could go into his office if you’d like.”

  I tried to hide my surprise. I suspected he hadn’t planned on me bringing my film crew. “Thanks, but maybe I should stick to a more public area.” Especially if I hoped to run into April Jean.

  “Oh, okay.” She pointed to several worn plastic waiting-room chairs. “You can sit over there.” She bent down, grabbed a clipboard, and handed it to me. “Here. This will make it easier.”

  As I took the board, I said, “Hey, I saw April Jean’s car in the parking lot. Is she here talking to somebody about the fire?”

  Amber shook her head. “She’s not here at the police station. She’s over in the city offices.”

  “Oh.” I hadn’t considered that.

  I sat down and started to fill out the dry-as-toast paperwork. The guys were still recording—which had to be like watching paint dry—so I was about to tell them they could take a break when Mayor Sterling walked into the station. Tall and good-looking for a man in his sixties, Mayor Garner Sterling was the epitome of a southern gentleman, from his combed and styled salt-and-pepper hair to his ever-present suit and tie. He’d given me a totally skeevy vibe the first time I’d met him in April, and this whole mess with his son had hardly endeared him to me.

  He did a double take when he saw my film crew, straightening his tie before he said in a cheerful voice that belied the tension around his eyes, “Well, what a wonderful surprise to see you, Summer.” He had a deep, genteel southern accent that didn’t sound like anyone else’s accent around here.

  Tony backed up, widening his shot to include the mayor, but I knew he was already thinking ahead, planning to ask the mayor to re-create his entrance to capture the full effect for the show.

  My lips formed a tight smile, the best I could manage, especially since the reason I was here was to file a report about the son he’d shoehorned into the police department. “Mayor Sterling, I didn’t think you showed up at the city offices during the day. I thought your accounting business kept you too busy.”

  Sweet Briar—population 2,731—wasn’t big enough to employ a full-time mayor, and I knew Mayor Sterling supplemented his income with his thriving accounting firm.

  His smile looked strained. “And normally you’d be right, but there’s a rash of fires I need to deal with. If you’ll excuse me . . .”

  He hurried toward the glass doors leading to the city offices, but they swung open before he could reach them. April Jean stood in the opening with her hand on her hip and her eyes full of anger. “What took you so long?” she demanded.

  He shot a nervous glance at the cameras, then grabbed her upper arm and tugged her into the city office reception room. “Not here.”

  The doors closed, and I stared up at Tony, who looked just as confused as I felt. I leaned to the side, glancing around Chuck. “Hey, Amber, did you see what just happened?”

  She chuckled. “Honey, there’s not much I don’t see.”

  This town was chock-full of busybodies and gossips. I was planning on using that to my advantage. “Do you have any idea what that was about?”

  She waved her hand in dismissal. “Oh, yeah. She’s probably thinkin’ the mayor can help get justice against your cousin.”

  I stood and dropped the clipboard onto my seat. “What?”

  Confusion wrinkled her eyes. “Surely you know that April Jean is blaming Dixie for the fire.”

  Suspecting it and seeing April Jean seek justice for it were two entirely different things. “Why’s she goin’ to the mayor? Why not Luke?”

  “He said he’s not working the case. Besides, Luke has a soft spot for Dixie, so I suspect April Jean wouldn’t have trusted him to do anything anyway.”

  “Why isn’t Willy workin’ it? Why’s the sheriff’s handlin’ it?”

  “Willy was workin’ an accident, so the dispatcher handed it off.”

  “What does she think the mayor can do?”

  Amber shrugged, but the truth hit me like a two-by-four: his son was on the police force and had the power to do something. Wasn’t I here to register a complaint because he’d been too free with his new authority?

  I picked up the clipboard from the seat and waved it at Tony. The expression on his face told me that he’d figured it out too.

  But what, if anything, should we do about it?

  Tony lowered his camera and took a step toward me, keeping his voice low. “It looks like we’re thinking the same thing.”

  “That April Jean wants the mayor to get his son to arrest Dixie. What if Mayor Sterling knew his son would plant the evidence in my truck?”

  He gave me a grim look. “You can’t turn in that paperwork. The mayor will know we’re onto his son.”

  “There’s no way Elijah Sterling doesn’t know I’m suspicious of him.”

  “True, but you can pretend it was one of those in-the-heat-of-the-moment situations. You could even apologize,” Tony said.

  “Are you insane?” I hissed in a whisper. “Apologize for what?”

  “For not cooperating.”

  There was no way that was going to happen. “I think I should call Luke . . . off camera.”

  Tony started to protest, then stopped. “Okay.”

  “I’m going to call him from his office. If April Jean comes out, try to keep her here so I can ask her some questions.”

  “Okay,” he said, but he didn’t sound very confident.

  “I’ve decided to fill this out in Luke’s office, after all,” I said to Amber as I walked past her.

  I suspected she knew I wasn’t being entirely honest, but she didn’t stop me.

  Luke’s office door was open, and my heart warmed when I saw his name painted on the frosted glass window. I was tempted to sit behind his big wooden desk to make the call, but it didn’t feel right, so I sat on the leather sofa instead.

  “Hey,” he said when he answered the phone, his voice low and sultry. “I was just thinkin’ about you.”

  I smiled to myself, parts of me heating up. “I’m sitting in your office right now.”

  “I really wish I were there,” he said.

  “I need some legal advice.”

  His tone instantly turned serious. “Are you in trouble?”

  “No, not how you’re thinkin’. I’m here at the station to fill out the complaint against Elijah Sterling, but his daddy just showed up, and he’s meeting with April Jean at the city off
ices.”

  “Why’s he meeting her there?”

  “I’m not sure, but Amber thinks April Jean is wanting the mayor to do something about Dixie.”

  “Like what?” he asked, his voice cold, but I knew it wasn’t directed at me. I also realized he and I had never discussed the possibility of a connection between Dixie and what happened to April Jean’s trailer, but it had been on the Sweet Happenings page, which meant it was common knowledge.

  “I don’t know.” I wasn’t about to bring up my suspicion that Elijah had been hoping to plant evidence for his father. Not yet anyway. “What if Mayor Sterling has multiple reasons for wanting his son on the police force?”

  Luke cursed under his breath. “You might be onto something, but you’re not plannin’ on confronting him, are you?”

  “Well . . .”

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “That wasn’t my question,” I said defensively.

  “Okay,” he said, but it sounded like he’d bit off the word to keep from saying something else. “Ask your question.”

  “I’m thinking that maybe I shouldn’t fill out this complaint against Elijah Sterling.”

  “Why?”

  “What if he thinks we’re onto him?”

  “Onto him doin’ what?”

  Dammit. Maybe I should tell him my suspicions, but then I told myself no. Luke was a bright man. He could put two and two together and get four. This was one of our don’t-ask-don’t-tell situations. If he thought I was going after his new officer to help Dixie, I suspected he’d put up a big fat stop sign. “Whatever it is that he’s doin’,” I finally said. “If he thinks he’s getting away with it, we can try to catch them in the act.”

  “You have no proof that he’s doin’ anything other than being overexuberant at his job. And how do you propose to catch him in the act of something illegal, something which, I might remind you, you don’t even know exists?”

  “I don’t know,” I grumbled. “Why do I have to come up with all the ideas?”

  “So you can say Gotcha! when you catch them in the act.” There was the hint of a grin in his voice, but with his next words, it turned husky. “I wish I were there to kiss that scowl off your face.”