In Safe Hands (Search and Rescue Book 4)

by Katie Ruggle

“Yes. That is the correct protocol,” he said, holding out his arms.

  Blushing, Rory shook her head at him. He walked over to rejoin her, sliding an arm around her waist and saying something in her ear that made her blush even harder. That same wistful feeling she’d had earlier slid through Daisy, and she looked away from the pair. Climbing back onto the treadmill, her feet straddling the belt, she picked up her run again.

  “Unless you’ve wrecked yourself trying to show off,” Chris said to Ian, “get over here and let’s see if you can throw a punch. You too, Rory.”

  “I was the one trying to show off?” Ian smirked at Chris, throwing a glance toward Daisy that she couldn’t interpret. Despite his words, he followed Rory to the heavy bag.

  Daisy increased her speed, hoping that would take her mind off the too-tempting display of masculine power still running on a loop in her mind. It was so unfair for Chris to look as good as he did and act as sweet as he could. Sadly, she knew that, no matter how fast she ran, she couldn’t escape her unrequited feelings for Chris.

  Chapter 7

  Daisy glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and was shocked that almost two hours had passed. It was amazing how fast the time went when there were people training with her. The others had also taken Chris’s focus off Daisy, so she could grab quick breaks when he wasn’t looking, something that was impossible when it was just the two of them. She looked around the room, which had started to resemble a battlefield, thanks to the slumped and limp bodies scattered around.

  “Are you guys ready to quit?”

  Ellie, lying flat on her back on the sparring mats, groaned. Daisy took that as a yes. The rest of them chorused their agreement.

  From her position sitting next to Max’s feet, one arm wrapped around his knees, Lou extended her other hand for her water bottle. It was six inches past her reach.

  “My most wonderful and loving Callum, could you kick my water bottle a little closer?”

  He looked up from where he leaned heavily against the wall. “You’ve almost got it. Just put a little effort into it.”

  “I’m out of effort,” she whined. “There’s no effort left in me. If I lean over to get it, I’ll have to let go of darling Max, and then I’ll fall over and look like Ellie.”

  Ellie groaned.

  Realizing that it might be hours if she waited for the others to regain their feet, Daisy said, “I’ll just go put the sausage biscuits in the oven.”

  As she headed toward the door, Lou grumbled, “How are you still walking?”

  Daisy laughed. “Chris’s been torturing me a lot longer than you. I’m used to it.”

  “Hey!” Chris didn’t sound too offended, though. He moved from where he was talking to Ian, who was either being held up by or holding up Rory—probably both. “I’ll go with you.”

  When they got to the kitchen, Daisy turned on the oven and then looked up to see Chris opening the interior door. Her first thought was that he was going to leave her with six almost-strangers to entertain, and panic made her eyes go wide.

  “I just need to grab something from my truck,” he said. Her worry must have been obvious, since he made soothing motions with his hands. “Can you get the door behind me?”

  “Sure.” Before the door shut all the way behind him, she grabbed it. “Swear you’re coming back?”

  There was laughter in his voice when he promised, “Thirty seconds.”

  He was as good as his word. Daisy pretended like she hadn’t been leaning against the door, counting, when he returned at the twenty-three second mark. After the outside door locked behind him, she opened the interior door to see that he had a case of sports drinks and several grocery bags of snacks piled in his arms.

  “I was kidding about the BYOSD part.” She tried to take some of his load, but he twisted away from her.

  “I’ve got this. Just get the door.”

  She hurried to relock it, returning to the kitchen to find him unpacking the bags. “Thanks, Chris. You didn’t have to do this, especially after being everyone’s personal trainer.”

  He shrugged. “Figured more food is always a good thing. And”—he shook a package of cookies at her and grinned—“while everyone else is distracted by this stuff, I’ll grab all the sausage-and-cheese biscuits.”

  With a laugh, she tore open the case of sports drinks and started pulling out bottles. “Ah, I see. It’s all an evil plot.”

  He gave his best villain laugh, which sounded more like an asthmatic donkey, and she cringed.

  “No, Chris. Just…no.” She paused, a bottle in each hand, as she remembered something. Lowering her voice, she asked, “What’s the tension between you and George and Ellie all about?”

  His happy expression faded, making her regret asking. “They’re pissed at me—as they should be. I was supposed to be watching Ellie the night she got shot.”

  Daisy sucked in a breath. There had to be more to the story, she knew. Chris was the most conscientious person she’d ever met—not that she’d met a huge number of people, but still. Chris wouldn’t have neglected his duties without a good reason. “What happened?”

  Grimacing, he glanced toward the doorway, as if hoping the others would come traipsing in and save him from explaining. “There isn’t a landline or cell coverage at George’s house. My radio battery was dying, so I ran out to the squad to switch it out for a spare. The reception out there is crap, but I thought I heard Rob asking for my status. I had to drive all the way to the county road before I could talk to Dispatch. On the way, I passed Joseph Acconcio’s car.” He gave a humorless laugh. “I was stupidly grateful he was there, that he’d watch her while I was gone. I didn’t know what he…”

  He broke off with a single shake of his head. “Never mind. There’s no excuse for having left Ellie alone. So that’s why George wants to throw me through a wall, and Ellie doesn’t trust me. I’m actually surprised they came.”

  “Oh.” Daisy blinked. “Wow.” Even as isolated as she was, she’d heard of the search and rescue leader who’d been killed by a drug dealer. She just hadn’t realized it had happened at George and Ellie’s house, or that Ellie had been Anderson King’s other victim that night. Daisy tried to process that information while thinking of something she could tell him that would erase Chris’s grim, guilty look. Before she could say anything else, though, she heard the rest of the group approaching. With a final, worried glance at Chris’s averted face, she turned toward Rory and Lou, sports drinks extended. Later, once she thought of the right words, she’d reassure him that Ellie’s injury wasn’t his fault. In the meantime, she offered him a sports drink, which he accepted with a small but genuine smile.

  * * *

  Sitting back with a sigh, Ellie patted her stomach. “There’s nothing like pigging out after working out. All the pleasure with none of that nasty guilt.”

  “I hear you,” Lou agreed, grabbing another cookie. “Daisy, those biscuit things were awesome.”

  “Thanks.” Daisy heard Chris grumble under his breath, and she held back a smile. Rather than the entire batch, Chris had managed to grab only two of the biscuits before the ravening horde had made them disappear.

  “Now that our mouths aren’t full…” Lou regarded her half-eaten cookie and shrugged. “Well, now that most of us are done eating, can we talk about dead people?”

  “I won’t be able to contribute,” Chris warned. “I’ll listen, but I can’t give out information about an active case.”

  “Understood.” Callum gave him a brisk nod.

  “Do you mind starting from the beginning?” Daisy asked, playing with the cap on her sports-drink bottle. “Lou gave me the basics the other day, but mostly we talked about my”—she made a face—“dead body.”

  “What?” asked a chorus of voices, as almost everyone sitting around the dining room table stared at her.

  D
aisy flushed. “I saw someone putting…something into the back of a sheriff’s department SUV really early one morning. It ended up being a deputy who was hired to clear junk out of the empty house. His car was too small, so he used a sheriff’s department vehicle.” She turned to Chris. “Will you have any trouble with the deputy for getting him in trouble with the sheriff?”

  “No.” Chris shook his head. “Rob said he didn’t tell Macavoy who’d reported seeing him.”

  “Good.” She’d worried about it causing an issue, especially since Chris’s job could be a lot more dangerous if his backup was holding a grudge.

  “Why was he moving junk at—what was it, Daisy? Three in the morning?” Lou asked.

  “He’d just gotten off a swing shift.”

  Callum’s grunt was skeptical as he looked at Chris. “How well do you know this guy?”

  “Not that well,” Chris said, frowning thoughtfully. “He started last fall, so he’s still the new guy. He’s pretty quiet, keeps his head down. A lot of deputies don’t last a year out here, so it takes a while for them to…integrate, I guess. Why do you ask?”

  “When you’re moving a bunch of junk, how do you carry it?” Callum asked instead of answering.

  Lou made an amused sound. “Here we go with the Socratic method again.”

  Ignoring her, he just waited for Chris to answer.

  “Depends on what I’m moving. I’d try to make as few trips as possible. Big, heavy pieces, though, I’m going to have to move one at a time.”

  “Small stuff, I’ll throw in a box or wheelbarrow.” George’s contribution made everyone jump. Daisy was pretty sure that was the first time she’d heard the man speak.

  Callum nodded. “This guy was carrying something wrapped in a tarp, right, Daisy?”

  She sat up straight in her chair. Callum’s stern tone made her feel like she was back in school being called on by the teacher. “Yes.”

  “If you’re using a tarp, let’s say in place of Holloway’s box, how do you load up the junk?”

  It was Ian’s turn to contribute. “I’d stretch the tarp out flat, pile everything in the middle, and wrap it up like Santa’s bag of toys.”

  Turning to Daisy again, Callum asked, “Is that how he was carrying it?”

  “No.” The image was still clear in her mind. “It was rolled, like a rug or a burrito. The ends were open, since the boot fell out of the bottom.”

  “A boot?” Ian frowned. “Is that why you thought it was a body?”

  “Yes. It came out when he was putting the tarp in the back of the squad SUV.” Now that they were talking about it, she couldn’t see how the bundle Macavoy had been carrying could have been a pile of junk. “Plus, it just acted like a dead body. That sounds crazy, I know, especially since I’m not an expert in any way, but he had it over his shoulder, and it hung. Lumber or metal or whatever would’ve stuck out straight. When he dumped it in the back of the SUV, he kind of bent over and dropped it, like it was really heavy.” She made a frustrated sound. “I’m not explaining this right.”

  “You’re doing fine, Daisy.” Callum’s voice was gentle. “We’re thinking along the same lines. What kind of junk can you roll up in a tarp, hinges at the waist, is heavy, and sheds a boot?”

  “Holy monkeys, it was a body!” Lou started to bounce in her chair, but then winced and sat still.

  “That is why I asked if you know this deputy well,” Callum said to Chris, leaning back in his chair.

  Chris didn’t look convinced. “If Macavoy was moving a corpse, why admit to Rob that he was at the house at all?”

  “If he thought he’d been spotted and identified, he probably didn’t think he could deny it,” Lou offered.

  “I’m confused.” Ellie frowned, absently picking at her cuticles. When George put a hand over hers, stilling her fingers, she gave him a grateful smile and then turned back to the group. “If it is a body, it’s a new one, right? So who is it?”

  There were a few moments of silence before Lou broke it. “Argh! Nothing fits together. We keep getting new information, but it just leads to more questions.”

  “Has anyone been reported missing?” Rory asked Chris, who shook his head.

  Ellie made a pained sound. “Just my dad.”

  Daisy stared at her. “Your dad’s missing?”

  As Ellie nodded, close to tears, George released her hands so he could rub her back. “Anderson King was hunting him—hunting both of us—and I don’t know where either my dad or Anderson is.”

  Although she leaned into George’s touch, Ellie still looked miserable. Daisy had to glance away. It had been one thing to speculate on whether she’d seen an actual body or not, but thinking that there was even a possibility it could be sweet Ellie’s father made her stomach curdle. She was glad she’d been too nervous to eat much. Otherwise, she’d have been sprinting for the bathroom.

  “El.” George’s voice was low. “Remember.”

  She sighed, the exhale shivering with imminent tears. “I know. Dad can take care of himself. It’s just hard not to imagine the worst.”

  “It probably wasn’t even a body,” Daisy blurted, needing to say something to make Ellie’s lost look go away. “Even if it was, there’d be no way Anderson King would be driving around in a sheriff’s squad. I’m sure it wasn’t your dad—if it was someone, I mean, and not a tarp full of scraps.” She stopped talking abruptly, aware that her words were just getting more and more muddled.

  Ellie didn’t seem to mind the convoluted logic, though. She gave Daisy a shaky smile. “Thank you.”

  “Your dad will be calling soon,” Lou assured her. “He’s safe in Mexico or Canada or Cleveland or somewhere.” The rest of the group added their reassurances, until Ellie looked, if not completely convinced, at least a little farther from tears than she had a few minutes earlier.

  Ian glanced at his watch and stood. “Shift tonight. I’d better get home and shower first, or no one’s going to want to ride in the truck with me.”

  As if that was a signal, everyone else started to rise, gathering the remains of the improvised feast and bringing it to the kitchen.

  “You can just leave it,” Daisy protested. “I’ll clean it up later.”

  Everyone just ignored her, though, and the kitchen and dining room were spotless less than ten minutes later.

  “What are you doing Monday morning?” Lou asked Daisy.

  “Nothing special. Why?”

  “I still want to talk to you about the Gray case. Are you up for it?”

  “Sure.”

  “Wait.” Rory frowned at them. “I want to be in on that, but the shop’s open until six. Can we meet here Monday evening, instead?”

  “At eight?” Lou suggested, looking at Daisy for confirmation.

  “Can I come, too?” Ellie asked, then laughed. “That made me sound like a preschooler, but I really would like to join you guys, if that’s okay?”

  “Of course,” Daisy said, answering all their questions at once.

  “Sure?” Lou asked. “That won’t be too late?”

  Daisy gave the other woman a look. “I thought we’d decided that I wasn’t an Amish grandmother. Besides, I don’t really sleep much. We could meet at midnight, for all I care.” An unhappy sound to her left made her turn her head and catch Chris’s frown. After giving him a reassuring smile, she turned back to the women. “Eight is fine.”

  With that settled, everyone except Daisy and Chris said their good-byes and clustered into the small space between the interior and outer doors. Six people made it a fairly tight fit, but Daisy could hear them chatting and jostling each other good-naturedly, so no one seemed to mind waiting to exit until she’d secured the inner door.

  When the locks were refastened, Chris reached over her shoulder and slapped the door with his open palm a couple of times. The voices faded
as the group left, and the outside door cut them off completely when it closed behind them. Daisy looked over her shoulder at Chris.

  “That went well, don’t you think?” Without giving him a chance to answer, she added, “It felt like it went well. At least, I’m pretty sure it did. Right?”

  He waited until she fell silent. “You done?” She glared at him, but he just looked amused. “It went very well.”

  Slumping back against the wall, Daisy felt suddenly exhausted—happy, but exhausted. “It was nice of you to lead the training.”

  He shrugged off her thanks. “I enjoyed it. If I ever get sick of being a cop, I might become a personal trainer.”

  “You can practice on us, then.” She smiled at him. “We’ll give you good references when you start training the rich snow bunnies who want to improve their skiing.”

  Making a face, he admitted, “That doesn’t sound appealing. Maybe I’ll stick with training cops instead.”

  “And me,” Daisy said on a yawn.

  “And you, snoozy. Go take a nap.”

  Surprisingly, she felt like she could sleep for a week. “Are you taking off, then?”

  “Yes, if you can pry yourself off the door.” His smile was teasing.

  “I suppose.” With put-on reluctance, she straightened and stepped to the side. “Thanks again, Chris.”

  He was watching her in an odd way, but he just said, “You’re welcome, Dais. Sleep well.”

  * * *

  She couldn’t take her eyes off the gun. Even when she heard the sheriff’s deputy yelling at him to drop his weapon, and she knew that help had arrived, her gaze remained fixed on the matte black surface of the pistol. She saw his finger, curled around the trigger, pull tighter and tighter until—

  Something woke her abruptly. Sitting up quickly before she was fully awake, she swayed a little as she listened for whatever noise had disturbed her sleep. All was quiet, though, and she eventually relaxed.

  The clock on her nightstand glowed, showing that it was close to ten p.m. With a yawn, she relaxed back against the pillows, but the spurt of adrenaline that had shot through her veins when she startled awake kept her heart beating quickly and her eyelids open. With a sigh, she resigned herself to being awake for at least a few hours.