Guardian of Justice

by Carol Steward

  “And you, behave,” he said as he pulled his polo shirt over the vest. “I love you.”

  Chapter Twenty

  TWENTY

  Dallas hurried down the stairs to the front desk just as the Antelope Springs police car showed up. “What’s going on?” Sergeant Shaline asked.

  Dallas explained all that had happened. “I’m going to be on surveillance outside the Woodses’ place tonight. I’d like to check out a set of night-vision goggles.”

  “That’s out of our jurisdiction. Call the sheriff’s office and see if they have someone who can assist.”

  “How about an officer from the county drug task force? He’s on the Fossil Creek force. He knows more about the drug side of this, and already has contacts working on the Zelanski case.”

  Shaline laughed. “I see you’ve met Kira’s family, huh?”

  “Yeah. In fact…” Dallas paused, hesitant to spread the news too quickly. His doubts had vanished, but he didn’t know if hers would reappear after she came off her medication. “I’ve met them all, thanks to your advice to put out a BOLO on her.”

  “You did it?” he asked incredulously.

  “No. I didn’t, but someone had broken into her condo, and I called in the Fossil Creek department. The responding officer was a greenhorn who didn’t realize she had brothers on the force, either. Hedid it.”

  The two had a good laugh as they drove to the station. As Dallas was checking out a car and equipment, Shaline contacted the county sheriff to let him know what was going on.

  The sergeant returned with some paperwork. “It’s all set up. Your future brother-in-law says he’s bringing sandwiches.”

  Dallas froze. Shaline was testing him, that was clear. When Dallas remained speechless, his colleague laughed. “All I have to say is ‘You’re welcome!’ Kent and I have been working on this for months. But the incident with Mickey was not part of the plan. Just the matchmaking part.”

  Dallas laughed in turn. “You didn’t.”

  “Afraid so,” he said, dancing around his office with his arms in the air, as if signaling a touchdown.

  Dallas shook his head and turned to go.

  “Congratulations. And be careful out there tonight. You’ve got a great lady waiting for you.”

  “Yes, I do,” he said without glancing back. “You may have won a bet, Shaline, but I get the prize.” He let the door slam behind him.

  He called Kira on his way to the Woods house. They’d found her phone, but hadn’t heard anything from the family yet.

  Next he called Kent, to confirm their location to meet. “Kira hasn’t heard anything from the Woods family,” Dallas told him. “Any word from Nick on the driver of the pickup?”

  “Yeah, he’s out of the picture. I’ll fill you in on that later.” There was an odd tone to Kent’s voice.

  “What’s wrong?” Dallas asked. “We’re going out into the country, and pretty soon it’s going to be dark. I don’t want another replay of this morning. I’ve had enough thrown at me today.”

  “What else happened?” Kent asked.

  “I found out about you and Shaline setting me up. From the way Nick and Garrett reacted, I doubt they knew you were behind it all.”

  “Surely you’re not going to complain about that? I hear you popped the question today.”

  “And she accepted. So back to business. I’m about at the Woodses’ house. What’s up with the guy? I don’t want any more surprises.”

  Kent groaned. “What do you know about Kira’s brother Jimmie?”

  “Just that she has one, and she’s been trying to find him. Why?”

  “He’s a scumbag, and I’ve known where he was all along. He broke out of a California prison a couple of days ago, somehow got to Colorado. Probably been involved with Raul Sorento. I’m guessing he hooked up with one of Raul’s men in prison. When Nick heard who reported that maroon pickup stolen, he called, and found out Jimmie Driscoe had worked for this rancher a year or so ago.”

  Dallas pulled off the road to finish listening to the story.

  “The guy said he caught him hot-wiring it. Jimmie gave him some hard luck story about why he’d left. He said he was looking for his sister and needed to get to Fossil Creek. The rancher refused to hire him back on, and Jimmie coldcocked him and took off. Apparently there was a truck broken down on the interstate that was registered to one of Raul’s mules.

  “The rest is a little unclear. I think they got here, and Jimmie found out about the missing drugs, and the search for the kid with the phone. Either he was told to go get it from this farm, or he overheard someone and thought he could make some easy money.”

  “So who was chasing us?” Dallas asked. “Jimmie? Why would he shoot at Kira?”

  “He probably doesn’t know what his sister looks like now. You can ask him tomorrow. He’s in jail, sobering up. Nick and the sheriff caught him as he tried to climb out of the irrigation canal. As usual, he was drunker than a skunk. He claims Cody knows where the money and the dope are, and that someone is meeting the boy tonight.”

  Just then, Dallas saw Kent’s car pass by.

  “Follow me,” Kira’s brother said. “I’ll drive like a drunk, and you pull me over.”

  Dallas screeched ahead, turning on his lights right after Kent began swerving. He hoped he didn’t do too good of a job acting. It would be easy to lose control on the dirt road. “Stop, you idiot.”

  “I will. I’m waiting till we get to the Woodses’ farm. Then I’ll escape, and you can disappear, looking for me. Be sure to take your keys and lock up the car. Oh, and you might want to grab your ammo.”

  “What?”

  “If you’re after a felon, you have to make it look real, don’t you?”

  “You are crazy.”

  “I’m a narc. Of course I’m a bit crazy.”

  Dallas didn’t like this at all. Everything went as planned, and he caught up with his ‘felon’ in the Woodses’ barn. He’d managed to tuck his night-vision goggles into his shirt before he stopped Kent, then pulled his shotgun and ammo from the trunk before he took off chasing him.

  Dallas wondered if anyone watching would think a cop running off after a drunk driver was fishy, but he hoped they bought it. He climbed the ladder to the hayloft and threw his gear ahead of him, then collapsed next to Kent.

  “Are the Woodses at home?” he panted, out of breath.

  “Yes,” Kent said, “but it’s my team. After Kira called Nick from the farm, he called me. I followed the Woodses home from church and got it all set up. Congratulations, by the way. I knew you two would hit it off.”

  The guy was definitely crazy, being able to mix family life and the insane existence of an undercover narcotics officer.

  “So where’s Cody?” Dallas put on his goggles and looked around.

  “He’s downtown with the family. We’ll tail him.”

  “And if we already have Cody, don’t we have the phone?”

  “Cody claims he set up the exchange out here so no one would be around. He’s giving them the phone, but it has one of our tracker chips in it. We have the original chip, and have already found the money. The DEA is following the trail and is setting up the sting as we speak. Cody told Sorento that he’d meet them at the tractor in the field out there. I had Cody paint a peace sign on it so we can find it in the dark.”

  “Sorento, the kingpin? You really think he’s going to meet Cody?”

  “No, but I’m prepared, just in case,” Kent said.

  Four hours later, they were still sitting in the pitch-black barn, waiting. Cody hadn’t showed up, and the trail never saw him leave the hotel.

  “I’m heading over to the school,” Dallas said finally. It had been thirty minutes since the exchange was to have taken place. “Are you sure Cody hasn’t had any phone calls since you set this plan in motion? Maybe Sorento caught wind of the sting and changed the location.”

  “We’ve put money in a suitcase under the tractor. He’ll show.”


  “You wait here, then. I’m going to follow my hunch.”

  Kent protested as Dallas quietly went down the ladder, wearing his goggles and the helmet that Kent had waiting for a backup officer. “Tell your team that it’s me going around the house to my car.”

  “You get yourself killed, and my sister will never forgive me.”

  Dallas hunched over to stay behind the hedge of lilacs, and ran to the police cruiser. He hadn’t seen a sign of anyone yet. He looked into the back of the vehicle before unlocking the door, then underneath to make sure no one was waiting to ambush him. The coast was clear.

  He tore out, lights and siren blazing, headed for the high school. As Kent discussed Cody, Dallas had realized the one place he regularly saw the teen hang out was near the west side of the campus, where large pine trees and a statue of the school mascot stood. It had taken several days before Dallas had figured out there was one blind spot where he couldn’t see Cody. And the boy had used that to his benefit. It would make a perfect location to meet a drug dealer. Cody didn’t just want the kingpin caught, he wanted rid of him altogether, so no one would bother him or Betsy again.

  Dallas turned off his lights and siren a few blocks away and stopped before he reached the school parking lot. Dallas jogged toward the school, staying in the shadows. Where’s the spotlight that’s usually on the mascot?Dallas wondered. When he put on the goggles, he noticed someone standing near the statue. Was it Cody? Or Sorento?

  Dallas took a deep breath and let it out softly, in and out again, trying to slow his racing heart. God, guide me through the darkness and lead me to Sorento.

  Scanning the area through the goggles, he spotted someone walking down the block toward the statue. He sighted in his shotgun and found them, then removed the goggles.

  He was too far away. He looked around, wondering what else he could use as cover. He recalled the location of a tree and a trash can. Not quite a shield of armor, God, but you’ve had less to work with.He eased forward.

  Each step sounded louder than the previous one. He stopped, but the noise continued. It wasn’t him making it.

  He saw Cody running toward the statue. Shots fired and the youth fell. Dallas put the shotgun to his shoulder and trained it on a bulky figure. “So, kid, where’s the real phone? This isn’t Mickey’s.”

  “That’s the one I took from him.” Cody ducked behind the statue, between Dallas and Sorento. “Maybe his was with the money. I told you we had to meet at the tractor.”

  “You know as well as I do that we’d have had all sorts of company there. I wasn’t born yesterday.” The kingpin took a step around the statue and Dallas took aim.

  “Sorento,” Dallas yelled, “you’re surrounded. Drop your weapons!” Cody jumped up and ran, and Dallas fired. The man collapsed, crumpling to the ground.

  “Brooks?”

  “Cody, stay put! You’re in deep trouble.”

  “Better that than dead,” the kid said.

  Dallas eased closer to the body, tossing a rock next to his hand to make sure he wasn’t playing dead. Sorento didn’t move. It shouldn’t have been this easy. Surely the man had been wearing a vest. Dallas kicked Sorento’s foot, his Glock ready to fire if the man flinched. “Sorento, I’m not naive enough to believe that one shot killed you, but make me fire again, and I’m not going to settle for anything less.”

  Just then, Sorento rolled over and reached for the gun in his waistband.

  Dallas shot, and as promised, he didn’t waste anyone’s time.

  He called the station, but no sooner had he dialed than two cars arrived. “Cody? Did you call them?”

  “Sure as shooting I did. If he’d have shot you, Sorento would have killed me in an instant, and then who’d have taken care of Betsy?”

  “What you did was irresponsible, Cody. We were trying to help you.”

  “I was more afraid of Sorento than I was of you or even Social Services. You seen what they put my mom through?”

  As soon as his fellow officers were there to cover the body, Dallas stepped over the dead kingpin and gathered Cody in his arms.

  “What phone did you use? I thought you gave the one to Sorento.”

  “He just said it wasn’t the right one. I never said he had a working phone.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  TWENTY-ONE

  After they’d finished filling out paperwork, Dallas made a trip to visit Jimmie Driscoe to find out his involvement with Sorento. He found Garrett already there, waiting for them to bring Jimmie to the visitors’ area.

  “Hi, I just left Nick and Kent at the sheriff’s office,” Dallas said.

  Yeah, they told me you’d probably come over here.” Garrett smiled. “I hear congratulations are in order. I knew there was something going on that night at her condo.”

  “Thanks, but there wasn’t anything going on. At that point, we’d just met the one time when she rode along.”

  Her brother looked skeptical. “You’re serious? So have you gone out every night since, or what?”

  “Just a couple attempts, but even those were interrupted by the investigation.”

  “And you asked Kira to marry you? You hardly know her. She has a temper.”

  Dallas laughed. He didn’t even have to question himself again. “I know that. A temper isn’t such a bad thing if it’s used appropriately. It got her through a lot these last few weeks. She has a lot of other strengths, too, Garrett. It’s amazing what you learn about a person going through something like this. I’ve never been so sure of a decision in my life.”

  “I’ve never believed in that ‘love at first sight’ theory myself, but I could see she cared about you even that night as she chewed you out. Ooh-eee, she was mad.” He laughed, then the smile disappeared from his face as the interrogation-room door rattled. “It’s hard to believe she’s related to this guy.”

  “Yeah,” Dallas said as he watched the wiry, thin man stumble into the chair across from him and Garrett. “You Jimmie Driscoe?”

  The man looked like he’d been awakened from a deep sleep. He nodded. “Yeah, who’re you?”

  “Dallas Brooks. I was with your sister when you shot at us this afternoon.”

  The man backed away, fear in his eyes. “You’re the second person to tell me that woman out there was my sister. I can’t believe it. I wasn’t shooting at ya, for the record.”

  “I’m Garrett Matthews, Kira’s brother. My family adopted Kira Driscoe as a little girl, and she had a brother James, whose uncle took him, but wouldn’t take Kira. That sound familiar?”

  “You ain’t her brother,” the man argued. “He’s a cop.”

  Garrett pulled out his badge. “I’m another brother. I’m a cop, too. You must have met Nick. He’s a detective.”

  “Nah, this guy wasn’t Nick. He was older, kinda scruffy. Kelly, or Kirk?”

  Dallas wanted to laugh. Wait till the poor guy found out all of them were cops.

  Garrett did laugh. “Yeah, you’re close. That was Kent. He’s a cop, too. So is Kira’s dad, and now, Kira’s fiancé here, Dallas.”

  Jimmie shook his head and mumbled a swear word. “Ain’t that just my lousy luck!”

  “So, why were you shooting at us?” Dallas asked.

  “I wasn’t shooting at neither of ya. I was told to kill anyone going after some phone that was supposed to be hidden out there. Even though I didn’t know who ya was, I wasn’t about to kill anyone and get life in the pen, so I shot out the tires, tried to scare you a bit.” He hid his face in his hands. “Probably why Chains McClennahan offered to bust me outta the pen in the first place. I’m sorry, man. I wasn’t going to kill anyone, just scare them away so I could go find that BlackBerry gizmo, and pay off my debt to Sorento so his thugs will leave me alone.”

  Dallas filled him in on Sorento’s fate, finding the stash of money, and asked whether any of Sorento’s thugs would now take his place.

  “No way,” he insisted. “The only other person with his clout i
s already in the supermax for knocking off most of his mules and dealers when they turned on him. Is Kira okay?”

  “She’ll recover. You know she’s been looking for you?” Dallas asked.

  He shook his head. “You mean no one ever told her where I was?”

  Garrett let out a huff. “We’ve spent our whole lives trying to protect her from the kind of life you led. She already feels guilty enough for not being able to keep you with her. Even if we’d have known, I doubt we’d have made her feel any worse by telling her.”

  Jimmie rubbed his wrists where the handcuffs were pinching his skin. “I probably blew my chance to see her after today.”

  Garrett looked up at the guard. “The cuffs are too tight. I think we can loosen them a bit.” The guard didn’t move until Garrett and Dallas both showed their badges.

  “She may chew you out, because she’s your sister, but she’ll probably come see you as soon as they let her out of the hospital.”

  He looked skeptical. “It’s been more than twenty years.”

  “She’s your sister, Jimmie, first and foremost. That shaped her entire life,” Dallas said.

  Garrett looked at him with surprise in his eyes. “Yeah, it did, didn’t it?”

  “Huh,” Jimmie said, a puzzled look on his face. “I blamed her for a long time for leaving me with my uncle. Every time I said I missed her, I got a whoopin’. He told me she didn’t want me, neither, nobody did, but I was his blood and burden.”

  Dallas glanced at Garrett. There was anger in both of their expressions. Garrett finally spoke up. “She cried for you, Jimmie. I heard her many nights. It wasn’t her choice.”

  “She still misses you,” Dallas added.

  Garrett silently nodded.

  “So she had a good life?” Jimmie asked.

  “Yeah, pretty much.” A smile twitched the corner of Garrett’s mouth. “About as good as it gets for a girl with three older brothers. But she wasn’t too spoiled. She works for social services now, trying to help kids like you and herself, kids who are going through the foster-care system. If we can arrange to keep you in Colorado long enough, she wants to see you.”