Her Colton Lawman

by Carla Cassidy

  “But when you think of gourmet kisses, whose name comes to mind?” he asked with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

  She couldn’t help but laugh. “I never knew you could be so silly. I always thought of you as a serious, somber kind of guy who didn’t have much of a sense of humor.”

  “Maybe it just took a special woman to tap into that hidden part of me,” he replied.

  “And maybe we should get out of here so you can get to work, and I can meet Charley on time.” She refused to acknowledge how his words or the soft gaze of his eyes quickened her heart.

  “You’re right, we should probably head out.” He downed his coffee in one gulp. “Charley doesn’t strike me as a man who likes to be kept waiting.”

  “You’ve got that right,” she agreed. She finished her toast, took a last swig of coffee and then they were on their way.

  The closer they got to the diner, the more Nina’s stomach twisted with dread. The vision she had of the place from the night before was nightmarish. It was as if all the fates from her past had conspired to destroy not only the holiday, but the diner, as well.

  “Are you sure you’re ready to face this today?” Flint asked, as if reading her thoughts. “You could always do this tomorrow or the next day and give yourself a little break away.”

  “It has to be faced sooner or later, and it might as well be today. Hopefully, we can get it all cleaned up and ready to reopen in the next couple of days. I don’t just have myself to think about. I have staff who depend on this job to pay their bills.”

  “I wish I could be in there helping you,” he said.

  “You have your own job to do. Keep peace on the streets, catch the bad guys and take care of police business. That’s way more important than cleaning up a diner,” she replied.

  He pulled up in front of the diner and as usual she waited for him to come around to the passenger door to escort her inside. In spite of any other dramas going on, she knew that Flint had not forgotten his first order of business, to keep her safe and sound from a killer who could be anywhere, a killer who wanted her dead.

  She unlocked the door, and they stepped inside. Standing before them, dressed in uniforms and obviously ready to work were Molly, Grace and Wilma. Charley and Abe stood just behind them.

  The diner smelled of cleanser and polish. The tables and booths were clean and set and it was obvious they had worked for hours the night before to make sure the diner was ready to open for business this morning.

  Nina looked around in disbelief, and her eyes filled with tears as she gazed at the people who had cared enough about their jobs, about this place and about her to go to so much trouble.

  “Well, you look like you’re in good hands,” Flint said and looked at the others with obvious gratitude. “I’ll see you later.” He gave her shoulder a tight squeeze.

  He left and Nina’s tears became more profuse. Molly and Grace rushed to either side of her. “Don’t cry,” Grace said. “For goodness’ sake, the last thing we wanted to do was make you cry.”

  Nina gasped out a laugh. “These are happy, grateful, loving tears,” she exclaimed as she swiped at her cheeks.

  “We didn’t want you to have to come in here this morning and face the mess,” Charley said, his voice gruffer than usual.

  “But you all must have been here all night,” Nina said, moving away from Molly and Grace to sit at one of the stools at the pristinely clean counter.

  “With all of us working together, it didn’t take that long,” Wilma said. “You do so much for us, Nina. We wanted to do this for you.”

  “We’re family here,” Grace said. “And family helps family.”

  Grace’s words expanded Nina’s heart. Yes, the people who worked for her here, this core part of her staff, were her family.

  And she told herself that it was all the family she would ever need.

  Chapter 12

  While Flint was happy for Nina, and the fact that her staff had really stepped up for her, by the time he reached the station he fought off a healthy dose of frustration.

  It had been almost a month since Nina had witnessed the murder of Jolene Tate at Hank Bittard’s hands, and yet in a quarantined town, there had been no sightings of the fugitive other than the near encounters in the woods.

  Hank certainly remained his priority, but he’d also like to get some cuffs around Jimmy Johnson’s wrists and get back the family ring to give Molly some closure. He also remained upset about the attack on Gemma and would like to get some definitive answers about who had been behind it.

  He walked into the station and was greeted by Patrick, who sported a faint shiner on his left eye. “Heck of a row yesterday,” he said cheerfully.

  “Looks like you got the worst of it,” Flint replied.

  Patrick grinned. “I think I see a bit of a bruise on your lower jaw.”

  Flint reached up and touched the slightly tender area where he just remembered he’d taken a fairly powerful punch. “Bruised but not beaten, right?”

  “We should have arrested somebody,” Patrick said.

  “Where would we have begun? It was like a flash mob of scared, overstressed people all striking out at each other. I was just glad to get them out the door and see them all go home.”

  “Nina must be completely devastated.”

  “She was last night, but she got a nice surprise when she walked into the diner this morning. The staff stayed last night and got the whole place cleaned up. You’d never know anything crazy happened by seeing the place this morning.”

  “That’s nice. That’s the real Dead River spirit at work, or at least it was before the virus and everything else that’s gone wrong.”

  “Are you trying to cheer me up?” Flint asked drily.

  “Ha, I can’t even think of something to cheer myself up,” Patrick replied.

  “I don’t know, you looked pretty cheerful flirting with Grace yesterday.”

  Patrick’s cheeks colored slightly. “I wasn’t flirting, we were just getting to know each other a little better.”

  “It’s okay if you were flirting, Patrick.”

  He grinned. “Okay, maybe I was just a little bit. I think she’s attractive, and from talking to her, I like her.”

  “She’s a good woman,” Flint replied. “Now, let’s get everyone into the conference room and compare notes, see where we are with everything,” he said.

  “I’ll gather everyone up,” Patrick replied.

  Flint stopped by the coffee machine, poured himself a cup and then headed to the conference room where unfortunately, he didn’t expect any exciting breaking news from any of his men.

  It took only minutes for those who were in the station to join him in the conference room. Most of the officers had already hit the streets to do their daily patrols, but there were a few of Flint’s most trusted men in the room.

  “Mike, how’s the head?” Flint asked.

  “Apparently hard since I didn’t even have a mild concussion,” Mike replied with a grin.

  “So, what have we got?” Flint asked.

  “No recent reports of robberies in or around the area,” Officer Sam Blair said. “No sightings of either man anywhere. It’s like they’ve both vanished into thin air.”

  “Are we sure they didn’t somehow slip out of the woods and through the quarantine?” Patrick asked.

  “No way,” Flint said. “The guards around the town are deadly serious about nobody getting out or in. I heard one of them shot a deer the other day because he thought it was a person trying to escape. The CDC is determined to keep this virus and all of us contained.”

  “So, our fugitives still have to be in town somewhere,” Mike said.

  “I still believe Hank is in the woods. He strikes me as the kind of man who could survi
ve on very little. Jimmy, I’m not so sure about. Once we took his things from the lean-to shed, I think he possibly moved into town and is holed up with some friend we don’t know about,” Flint said.

  “But the last time we checked those woods, it was Jimmy’s hidey-hole that we found,” Patrick reminded them. “It’s possible he just found another hidey-hole that we don’t know about.”

  “True, but it’s getting downright cold out, and Jimmy doesn’t strike me as a kid who likes roughing it for too long,” Flint replied.

  “Yeah, I can’t imagine how he’s surviving without his video games and electronic devices,” Patrick said, disgust dripping from his voice.

  “Maybe we need to do a house-by-house search for both of them,” Mike suggested. “With people staying in their houses because they’re afraid they’ll get sick, maybe Hank is holding somebody hostage in their home.”

  Flint winced at the very idea. “We just don’t have the manpower for that kind of search. We’re having a hard enough time just checking out sheds and abandoned buildings and keeping people from fighting on the streets.”

  “We all know he’s just waiting for a chance to get to Nina. Maybe we could somehow use her as bait,” Mike said.

  “No way,” Flint growled out. “No way, no how. You can’t come up with a plan good enough for me to agree to it. Not on my watch.” There was no way he wanted any hint of a failed operation where Nina’s safety was concerned.

  “I keep thinking that one of them is going to surface where somebody will see them,” Patrick said. “Everyone in town knows we’re looking for them. They’d got to be cold and hungry. Eventually they’re going to have to break in someplace again or get closer to town. All it would take is one person to see one of them and call us.”

  “I just can’t figure out why that hasn’t happened yet,” Mike added.

  Flint frowned. “The whole town is paranoid. I think we got a good look at that yesterday at the diner. I’m not sure that even if somebody saw one of them they’d call us. The tenure of the town right now is one of isolation. I don’t think anyone wants to get involved in anything with anyone else.”

  “So, what’s our next move?” Patrick asked, his voice filled with the frustration that burned in Flint’s very soul.

  “I don’t know.” It was a painful admission for Flint to make. “I guess we just keep on doing what we’re doing...beating feet, keeping our ears to the ground and hoping we catch a break.”

  Flint paused as his cell phone rang. He listened, trying to tamp down his excitement and then gave instructions and hung up. “This might just be our break. That was Dana. She’s been sitting on Ralph Dane. He just left his parents’ house, dressed in winter clothes and carrying a couple of grocery bags and what looked like several blankets. He was just getting into his car when she called. I told her to tail him, and we’d catch up to her.”

  All four men were out of their chairs. “I drove my wife’s car today. Maybe we should take it because Dane won’t recognize it,” Mike said.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Flint said as they grabbed their coats and then headed for the door.

  His phone rang again. It was Dana giving them the direction Ralph was heading. “It sounds like he’s headed to the woods,” Flint said as he took shotgun position and Mike slid behind the wheel. Sam and Patrick took the backseat.

  Flint tried to tamp down his excitement. They had been here several times before and had only hit dead ends. But the fact that Dane had personal ties to Hank and appeared to be headed to the woods with groceries and blankets was definitely promising.

  It didn’t take them long to catch up with Dana, who was driving an old Chevy, and about a mile down the road in front of her was Ralph Dane’s red Jeep.

  Flint called Dana. “Back off and let us pass you. We don’t want him to get suspicious since you’ve been following him since he left his house.”

  She slowed down and Mike passed her, still keeping Ralph in view but not following so close as to be obvious. “Let’s hope this kid is leading us directly to Hank,” Patrick muttered from the backseat.

  “I definitely got the feeling when we spoke to Ted Garrett that Ralph was Hank’s little punk, and he’s probably the only person in town Hank might trust,” Flint said. His finger itched to be on the trigger of his gun, and his handcuffs begged to be wrapped around thick wrists.

  Nobody spoke for several minutes as they continued to hang back just far enough to keep Dane’s vehicle in sight. It was impossible not to entertain a bit of anxious anticipation, but it was definitely tempered by too many disappointments in the past.

  “He’s definitely headed toward the woods,” Mike said, his fingers flexing around the steering wheel. “We’re out far enough now that there’s no other place for him to go.”

  Maybe this was finally the big break they’d all been waiting for, Flint thought as a new burst of adrenaline filled him. Nina’s staff had given her back her diner this morning. Wouldn’t it be great if he could finally give her back her sense of safety, if he could finally give her back her life?

  And he’d hope and pray that her life without fear, without danger, would somehow include him.

  But he couldn’t think about that now. His only goal was to get Bittard behind bars so that a killer would have no more opportunity to act again.

  Ralph pulled into the small cutout in the road where Flint and his men had parked the last time they’d been here on a chase.

  “Drive on by,” he instructed Mike. “We’ll park up ahead and double back.” Flint’s adrenaline spiked higher. This had to be it. They’d worked so hard and had come so close, this finally had to be the time to put Hank back in jail where he belonged.

  They found a place to park up the road and they all got out of the car. “I imagine Ralph is meeting somebody fairly close to where he parked. Dana said he’s carrying blankets and grocery bags. He won’t want to walk too far with that load,” Flint said. “We’ll head back to where he parked and start from there.”

  He didn’t have to tell his men to go in quietly or to be prepared for anything. Before they left the car he called Dana and had her park her vehicle so that Ralph’s Jeep was blocked in by hers.

  “We go in as two teams of two,” Flint said. “Keep your eye out for our suspects, but make sure you have an eye on each other’s backs.” He glanced at Mike. “We don’t need any officers down. Mike and I will go back to Ralph’s car and start the search from there, and you two start from here and work in the general directions of Ralph’s car.”

  The four parted ways and as Sam and Patrick disappeared into the brush, Mike and Flint headed back to where Ralph had parked his car.

  They moved quietly, hugging the edge of the woods until they were close to Ralph’s Jeep, then they entered the woods.

  As usual, they went in quietly, heading forward with only about eight feet between them. Flint kept his gaze divided between his surroundings and Mike. The last thing he wanted was another situation where one of his officers was injured or ambushed.

  A month ago the woods had provided better cover with the last of the autumn leaves still clinging to the branches. Now those leaves were gone, forming piles in some places too high to walk through, but also giving the men better visibility as they continued onward.

  Flint pulled the collar of his coat up closer around his neck as a cold wind blew through the trees. How could anyone possibly survive a harsh Wyoming winter out here?

  They reached the old shed where Jimmy had been holed up, but it was now empty, as was the Miller house. Flint still didn’t believe that Ralph would have ventured too far away with the load he’d been carrying. He had to be someplace nearby, and hopefully Hank was with him.

  Despite the cold breeze, Flint’s hand was sweaty on his gun as tension began to build with each footstep he took. Why else would Ra
lph be out here with blankets and food if not to meet his old buddy?

  This had to be it, Flint’s moment of success. Certainly talking to Nina about the trauma in Cheyenne had helped him absolve himself of some of his guilt, but not all of it. He needed this to be his moment of final redemption. He needed to make sure Nina would be safe. He needed Bittard behind bars.

  There was a rise just ahead of them, and Flint knew on the other side was a fairly deep ravine. He held up a hand to stop Mike as he thought he heard the faint sound of a male voice coming from over the ridge.

  Every muscle in Flint’s body tensed as he imagined Ralph and Hank hunkered down in the ravine wrapped in blankets and sharing food. He took several steps closer and now distinctively heard Ralph’s voice.

  “I made the sandwiches special from the turkey my mom cooked yesterday,” Ralph said. “I thought you’d like a little mustard and some lettuce. Are you warm enough? I brought two blankets in case you needed them.”

  Flint motioned Mike closer to the edge of the ridge. Mike nodded, letting Flint know he heard the voice and was ready for action. Taking a deep breath, gun at the ready, Flint jumped over the ridge.

  He landed on his feet in the ravine about three feet from where Ralph sat next to a young, mousey-haired girl who instantly screamed.

  Ralph jumped up to his feet, his eyes wide in alarm, but quickly sank back down to the ground as he saw Sam and Patrick coming down the ravine from the opposite side.

  Mousy-haired girl hadn’t stopped screaming since the moment Flint had hit the bottom of the ravine.

  “Would you please shut up,” Mike said to the girl, obviously as frustrated as Flint that it wasn’t Bittard sitting next to Ralph. She snapped her mouth closed as tears began to form in her pale blue eyes.

  “What in the hell are you two doing out here?” Flint asked. “You both almost got yourselves shot.”

  Ralph put an arm around the girl, who was shivering as tears continued to fall down her cheeks. “Jeez, this is my girlfriend, Melody. I didn’t know it was a crime to plan a little picnic with her.”