The Silversmith (David Wolf Book 2)

by Jeff Carson

  Wolf flipped again through the pages while Margaret watched in silence.

  Was Gary so fraught with regret that he’d left Wolf the ranch in his will?

  Or did Gary leave Wolf the ranch as a ruse? An insurance policy, to make it seem like he cared about Wolf more than he did when Wolf was dead and gone?

  It didn’t matter.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Free and clear?”

  She nodded.

  “The whole property? All three hundred acres?”

  She raised her eyebrows and nodded again.

  He sucked in the crisp fall air and looked at the golden aspens, then the green field beyond the driveway that terminated in the dense pine forest, then up to the snow-dusted thirteen thousand foot peaks in the west, and finally at the charred remains of the ailing house his father had built twenty-five years ago.

  Then he nodded once. “Fuckin’-A.”

  She laughed. “That’s what I said.”

  THE END

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  David Wolf Series In Order

  Gut Decision (A David Wolf Short Story)–Sign up for the new release newsletter at http://www.jeffcarson.co/p/newsletter.html and receive a complimentary copy.

  Foreign Deceit (Wolf #1)

  The Silversmith (Wolf #2)

  Alive and Killing (Wolf #3)

  Deadly Conditions (Wolf #4)

  Cold Lake (Wolf #5)

  Smoked Out (Wolf #6)

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  Excerpt From Alive and Killing (David Wolf #3)…

  Chapter 1

  “My dad and I used to hike up there a lot. I love it up there …”

  And there was number four.

  Wolf went back to blocking out the drone of the greasy-headed underachiever in front of him and stared up at a spider web in the corner of the ceiling. It was high up, gently swaying on the breeze of the air conditioner vent. Too high to stretch up and swipe it away, even with Wolf’s six-foot-three reach.

  At least Wolf liked that about his new office. The politics? The fact that he had to be interviewing this candidate? That he didn’t like about his new office—his new position. But the ceilings? He loved the airy and light feel of the tall space.

  He could probably scoot a chair underneath it and get at it. Wolf blew a puff of air out his nose as he realized how much thought he was putting into the whole thing.

  “Sheriff Wolf?”

  Wolf snapped back to attention and looked at the interviewee.

  He was smiling at Wolf, like he wanted in on the joke. He looked to the corner of the ceiling. “Whoa, got a doozy of a web up there. Don’t they clean this place?” He laughed too loud and sat back with one arm hooked to the back of the chair. Then he wiped his nose with a sniff and crossed his leg, displaying a smudge of dirt on the knee of his jeans. The sudden movement pushed another wave of body-odor across Wolf’s desk.

  Nineteen-year-old Kevin Ash, son of the new Chairman of the Town Council of Rocky Points, Charlie Ash, was a shoo-out, and Wolf had just about heard and seen enough.

  The only points Wolf could give the kid on self-presentation were for the collared shirt. Unfortunately, it looked like he’d been storing the shirt in a tennis ball can for the last year, and demerits for ill-fitting jeans and beyond-broken-in muddy hiking boots negated said points.

  Kevin winked conspiratorially. “I’ll tell my dad they need to get someone on that.”

  Then there were the shameless mentions of his father in order to help his chances of getting hired. That was the fifth. And that was enough.

  Wolf stood up and held out his hand. “Thanks, Kevin. I’ve got your resume, and I’ll be in touch.”

  A confident smile stretched across Kevin’s face as he stood.

  Wolf shook his hand, walked around his desk, and pushed him gently toward the door. He opened it, and pushed him a little harder into the hall.

  “Uh, I guess I’ll check in with my father, or whatever, or I’ll just wait and see—“

  “Yeah, don’t worry. I’ll be telling your father what I think. I’ll definitely be in touch with him.”

  Relief replaced worry on Kevin’s face and he strutted his way through the squad room in front of Wolf. Kevin nodded and slapped his hand on the corner of Deputy Baine’s desk on the way by.

  Baine raised an eyebrow and looked up from his paperwork.

  Wolf walked Kevin Ash through the door into reception, through reception, and then propped open the outside door with one hand. He waved Kevin out, sending him into the cool early June morning, and out of his life.

  “Thank you so much Sheriff Wo—“

  The door clicked shut and Wolf walked to the glass enclosed reception desk where Tammy Granger sat glaring.

  “Tammy. If you let another—“

  Tammy coughed loud, pointing a discrete finger toward the seating area behind Wolf.

  Wolf glanced behind him and saw a woman in her early twenties sitting stiffly, gaze fixed straight ahead out the window. Wolf noticed her feet weren’t touching the ground, and estimated her at no more than five-foot two-inches tall. Unlike Kevin Ash, she wore business casual, dressed in dark slacks and jacket.

  She turned to him and smiled with a curt nod, a gesture that portrayed confidence and poise, and then went back to staring outside, looking like she was doing a particularly tough calculation in her head, and solving it.

  Wolf turned back to Tammy and gave another glance over his shoulder, intrigued by the interaction.

  He caught Tammy’s scowl and felt his face flush. He shouldn’t have kicked Kevin Ash out of the building like he did. But the process of hiring a new deputy was getting to him, and the presence of Ash’s son was a flick in the ear he hadn’t needed from the Council Chairman. It was one thing that they were pushing him with an unreasonable deadline to choose a new deputy to hire, and it was another to force him to look at candidates like Kevin Ash—complete wastes of his time.

  Wolf leaned a forearm on the reception counter and raised an eyebrow.

  Tammy kept a blank face and scooted a manila folder across.

  He didn’t grab it, and kept staring. She wasn’t giving any tells. Wolf shook his head. He liked Tammy. She was the forebrain of the department, manning the phones and any walk-ins, and she was also a motherly presence. She looked out for all the deputies, keeping abreast of their personal lives, as to make sure they were living right. If a deputy came in hung over, she’d know about it, and browbeat said deputy into promising better behavior in the future. If
a deputy had wronged a spouse, or a town member, they would have Tammy to answer to when she heard about it through the grapevine.

  At two hundred pounds, she was built like a mountain woman who’d spent as much time cooking as chopping wood to heat the fires she cooked with. She was imposing, but smart, and also compassionate. In Wolf’s estimation, it was a combination that made her one of the best employees in the entire department. He likened her to a worthy assistant football coach.

  And since Wolf was the head coach now, having been sheriff for a little over eight months, he valued his assistant coach’s opinion. Wolf knew she had an opinion of the candidate sitting behind him. Tammy had studied the applications harder than he had, and the all-important first impression rating was in the books, no doubt supporting what she had gleaned from the resume.

  True to form, she wasn’t letting on anything. Maybe Tammy was too disappointed in the entire process to play the game. They both knew the woman sitting in the lobby was Wolf’s final interview, and then time was up.

  He needed to choose a new deputy by Thursday, in two days, or the money would not be coming from the state of Colorado. The Sluice County Council had made it clear to Wolf—they needed that money. Either he made a choice, or they would make it for him.

  As the days of Gary Connell, the deceased former council chairman, and his bottomless pockets, receded in the rear-view mirror, the council’s money grabbing was beginning to take on the personality of a hungry bear. They were ripping through the county, and the town of Rocky Points, upturning every opportunity to get any sort of funding, every cent from every source.

  First they had concocted the idea of the Rocky Points Music Festival, which was going to be this weekend, kicking off Friday, and now there was the new hire.

  It was clear to everyone that Wolf and his deputies were being proactive, and were ready for the upcoming music festival. But as far as the new hire went, the council thought Wolf was dragging his feet. He wasn’t. He just wasn’t going to hire some lackey to fill a quota. And he wasn’t going to hire Kevin Ash, the new council chairman’s moronic son just to fill the position and to score some political points.

  Only, what Tammy knew just as well as Wolf, the seven candidates he’d seen so far had fallen woefully short. And now, here was the final candidate. She was also a “recommendation” by a council member, Margaret Hitchens.

  Chairman Ash’s nepotistic hopes were certainly going to be denied by Wolf. If he had to disappoint two council members — well, that was probably going to make things sticky for his future.

  Wolf took a breath and slapped the manila folder on his leg, and then turned with a smile. “Heather Patterson?”

  She scooted forward until her feet were flat on the ground, and then stood up and faced Wolf. “Yes, sir.”

  Wolf was startled by her short stature, and he knew he was showing it.

  Her glacial pool blue eyes were unwavering as she stepped forward with an outstretched hand. Her shoulder length dark brown hair had a tint of auburn in it, and it was pulled back on one side, fastened with a series of silver hair clips.

  Her handshake grip was small, firm, and confident, like the rest of her seemed to be.

  “Nice to meet you.” Wolf said.

  “Likewise.”

  Wolf waved a hand toward the door. “This way.”

  She stepped past Wolf, wafting a soft, flowery aroma into his nostrils. The smell of Kevin Ash was finally a memory.

  The door clicked and they entered into the squad room.

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