by Katie Ruggle
Her apprehension from driving around the bombed-out town had faded when she’d entered the VFW, but now it returned in a rush. These were her fellow officers, the people who were going to have her back when she was in a life-threatening situation—or they were supposed to be, at least. By the way they were staring at her, they’d just as soon toss her off the nearest cliff than work with her. She’d expected it to take a while before she integrated into the department, but she hadn’t thought there’d be such instant resistance.
“Yeah, peaceful.” Hugh huffed a laugh as he shifted in his chair and winced again. This time, Kit knew she hadn’t imagined it.
“Are you okay?” she asked, and all humor immediately disappeared from his face. “Are you in pain?”
“I’m fine.” The words came out with a sharp snap.
Otto turned his head toward Hugh. “What’s wrong? Is it your arm?”
“No. My arm’s fine.”
“The cast just came off two days ago.” By his concerned frown, it didn’t look like Otto believed his partner’s denial. “Shouldn’t you have it in a sling?”
Hugh let his head fall back in an exaggerated motion. “It’s fine. Want me to prove it?” He smirked at Otto. “I could punch you in the nuts, and then you could tell me if you think it’s healed enough.”
Although Otto didn’t look too concerned about the threat, he stopped grousing and turned to Kit. She braced herself for more questions. Of the three, this one made Kit the wariest, maybe because he’d been so quiet this far. “You’re K9?”
“Yes.” She was much happier to be talking about dogs than what had happened at her old department. “For the past six years. After working with a K9 partner, I could never go back.”
Otto didn’t smile, but he looked slightly less serious, so Kit decided it was close enough. “Bet it was hard to leave your dog.”
“I didn’t.” She grinned, still thrilled that everything had worked out as it had—even despite the apocalyptic state of her new town. She’d found Justice at a rescue a year ago, and she’d done all of his training, so she would’ve been heartbroken to leave him behind. “My bloodhound came with me. Chief Bayard agreed he’d be an asset, so I bought him from my old department.” They’d given her a really good deal, which hadn’t surprised her. No one she’d worked with had been too impressed with Justice. Training him had been a long, slow slog, but it had been worth it.
All three cops eyed her with renewed interest. “Patrol?” Theo asked.
“No.” The memory of that complete fail made her grimace. “He doesn’t have the drive. He’s an amazing tracker, though.”
“We don’t have any trackers,” Hugh said, rubbing his arm. Kit was pretty sure that he wasn’t aware he was doing it. He seemed to be a show-no-weakness kind of guy.
“We do now,” she said, trying to keep her voice light. It’d take time before they accepted her, she knew that, but sitting through this tense mini-interview with her new partners made her realize just how much it was going to suck until they did. Quickly shoving away the thought, she reminded herself that it couldn’t be any worse than the past six months at her old department.
Hugh made a noncommittal sound just as Theo glanced at the entrance. “Incoming.”
Resisting the urge to duck at his warning—which she felt she couldn’t be blamed for, considering the current state of the town—Kit followed his gaze to the door. A tall, beautiful woman in a down coat, skinny jeans, and amazing boots that Kit instantly coveted walked in. After giving their table a quick, guilty glance, she made a beeline for the kitchen, tipping her head forward so that her hair—glossy and ink-black—fell forward to hide her face.
“Gra-cie,” Hugh called out in a singsong, but she didn’t turn or even look at him.
Theo snorted. “What’d you do to piss off Grace?”
“Nothing.” Hugh stood up, his lips tightening slightly as he got to his feet. Although Kit recognized the pain that flashed across his face for a microsecond, she didn’t mention it this time. He hadn’t seemed to appreciate it when she asked about his arm earlier, and she didn’t want to compound her mistake. “Everything was bubbles and puppies when I saw her last night. Something’s up.”
As Hugh started to weave his way through the tables toward Grace, Jules came out of the kitchen, and Grace nearly ran toward her.
Theo gave a long, drawn-out groan. “Jules is involved?” He got up and followed Hugh.
Glancing toward Otto, Kit saw he was tapping at his phone, frowning.
“What’s going on?” she asked, feeling lost. It hit her how much she’d have to figure out—a new job, a new town, all these new people—and she was suddenly overwhelmed. In Gold Mill, even though it was a much bigger community than Monroe, she knew people, knew the players on both the shady and the bright sides, knew who to go to for information, knew where to find the suspects when they bolted, knew which people to check on to make sure they had food and heat, knew who to trust and who to listen to with a high degree of skepticism. The amount that she’d need to learn about Monroe and its citizens seemed momentous.
“Guess we’ll see.” Despite Otto’s calm, even tone, the line between his eyebrows deepened as he glanced at his phone again.
Figuring she wasn’t going to get any information out of him, she turned her attention to the other four. After a short, intense conversation with Grace, Jules peeled away and delivered the food she was carrying to a family sitting at a table in the corner. Although Theo stopped several feet away, he still seemed to be looming over her. As she passed him on her way back to the kitchen, she smiled, standing up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, not seeming at all intimidated by the looming. They exchanged a few quick words that Kit couldn’t make out before Jules patted his arm and hurried away. After watching her for a few broody seconds, Theo started back toward their table.
Hugh, it appeared, was having a much more exciting time of it. He and the very stylish-looking woman—Grace, he’d called her—were having a low-voiced argument that involved a lot of dramatic gestures and facial expressions. Watching them, Kit was positive that they were together—or had been very recently. No one argued that passionately unless there was some chemistry involved.
Kit turned her attention back to their table as Theo sat in his recently vacated seat. He looked even crankier than he had before the mini-drama. When Otto raised his eyebrows in question, Theo gave an irritated shrug.
“She’s going to fill me in later.”
“About what?” Otto asked.
“News.”
“What kind of news?”
Theo’s frown deepened as he took a drink of coffee. He even drank angrily, Kit noticed, trying not to smile. “She didn’t say.” Glancing at Hugh and Grace, Theo scowled. “Doesn’t look like Hugh knows, either.”
“Sarah knows.” Otto held up his cell phone for a moment, face-out, and Kit saw a screen full of texts. “Says she’ll tell me about it when she gets home from work this afternoon.” He dropped the phone back into his pocket.
“Work?” Theo asked Otto, although his gaze found Jules and followed her around the dining area. “The general store is gone. Where’s she working?”
“Grady’s house. She’s helping him with his insurance paperwork,” Otto said absently as Hugh returned, dropping into his chair with an exaggerated scowl that Kit suspected hid a wince of pain. She glanced over to the door to see Grace leaving the dining area.
“That woman is incredibly stubborn.”
Theo gave Hugh an incredulous look. “You’re just learning this now?”
“She needs to be,” Otto said mildly. “You’d steamroll anyone who wasn’t.”
With a gasp, Hugh clutched his chest as if mortally wounded by Otto’s words. When no one else reacted, Hugh dropped his hand and shrugged affirmatively. “That’s probably true. Did either of you get any information
?”
“No.” Theo had mellowed slightly, but the reminder made him scowl again. “She said later.”
Hugh grunted. “I didn’t even get that promise. All I got was a ‘mind your business.’ Obviously, she’s forgotten that everything is my business—everything interesting, at least. My curiosity is hungry and must be fed. Otto? Anything from the lovely Sarah?”
Otto shook his head silently.
“It has to be a new arri—” Hugh cut off so quickly that Kit was pretty sure someone had kicked him under the table. He turned to eye Kit with a thoughtful gleam in his gaze, one that made her want to scoot back a little, to keep from being sucked into his shenanigans. Her younger sister, Casey, had a look very similar to that, and it had gotten Kit into a lot of trouble when she was little—a lot of fun, maybe, but mostly a lot of trouble. From Hugh’s expression, Kit guessed he was even more of an imp than Casey had been.
He smiled, and her suspicions quadrupled. “Let’s go, greenie.”
Although she had to press her tongue against the back of her teeth to keep from telling him that she was not green, that she’d had eight years of experience in a much bigger and busier town than this bombed-out little hamlet, Kit managed to stay silent as she stood.
“Where are we going?” The suspicion in Theo’s voice confirmed it. Hugh was planning something that would get them into trouble. So much for having a quiet first day consisting of filling out forms and getting measured for her uniform.
The way Hugh widened his eyes in a look of innocence made Kit brace herself and Theo groan. “We’re giving our newest officer a tour of the town, of course. We could start at Jules’s place. See if any…old friends happened to stop by for a visit.”
“If you wait until this afternoon, Sarah will tell me what’s going on,” Otto said.
“I’ve always been bad at waiting.” Hugh headed for the door, and Kit followed, a sinking feeling in her stomach. Bending the rules was sometimes necessary when it was the right thing to do, but she had planned to stay out of trouble at her new job—at least on her first day. The problem was that she didn’t know enough about the situation or Hugh to make a judgment. She glanced over her shoulder at Theo, hoping he’d be the voice of reason.
Instead of trying to rein in his partner, though, Theo was wearing a look of grim determination. With a silent sigh, Kit ignored her instincts and followed Hugh out of the diner. It looked like she needed to start trusting her new partners. Hopefully, they wouldn’t get her killed…at least not on her first day.
Chapter 3
The red-tailed hawk was back, and Wes was pretty sure she was laughing at him.
She landed on the railing of the fire tower’s observation deck, turning her head sideways and fixing one eye on Wes through the wall of glass that made up the south side of the tower room. He took a slow sideways step, his arm lifting ever so slowly as he reached for the camera sitting on the rolling workstation. If he hadn’t been worried that the sound of his voice would startle the hawk, he would’ve used the voice command to move the wheeled table—and the camera—closer to him.
The red-tailed hawk was pathologically camera shy, but Wes was determined. The bird had been basically taunting him all summer and fall, posing like a Vogue model until Wes lifted his Canon. As soon as the perfect shot was a second away, the hawk took off—every single time.
Today looked like it was the day. He even had the right lens on. His fingers closed around the camera, and the hawk didn’t startle or fly away. Instead, she stayed stock-still, watching him. Forcing himself to keep his movements slow and smooth, he raised the camera and peered at the blurry shape through the viewfinder. Far behind it, the town of Monroe, with its blackened buildings covered in a fresh layer of white snow, nestled in the valley. It would’ve looked like a Christmas card if it hadn’t been for the plume of smoke rising from the southwest side of town.
The camera’s auto-focus kicked in, but it was too late. Shot forgotten, Wes returned the camera to the table and grabbed his binoculars, barely noticing as the startled hawk flew away. Scanning the area, he searched for the smoke he’d spotted through his camera lens. Although Colorado’s traditional wildland fire season was technically over, he still kept watch over Monroe and the forested acres that surrounded the tiny town.
Peering through the binoculars, he found the grayish-white plume again. Without looking away, he reached out again—for his radio, this time. The town had already had a rough few weeks. The last thing it needed was another disaster.
Too bad that’s exactly what it had.
* * *
“You can ride with me, greenie,” Hugh said, heading for one of the squad cars.
“I’ll follow. I have my dog with me.” As if to prove her statement true, Justice popped up and stuck his jowly muzzle out of the partially opened window. All three of the other cops made beelines for her SUV, and she grinned, her spirits lightening for the first time since she’d met her new unit. Unlocking her car, she used her body to block Justice from leaping out until she could hook his leash to his harness. He was trained to wait for her command before exiting the car, but he was wiggling with excitement, and Kit knew he had a tendency to forget his manners when new people and places and animals and smells caught his attention.
The leash snap clicked into place. “Okay.” As soon as she moved aside, he launched himself at the closest of the cops. His front paws hit Otto right in the belly as the dog tried to climb up the big man to lick his face.
“Justice, off.” Kit was relieved when the dog listened, dropping to his haunches with his skinny tail whipping back and forth, making a one-winged snow angel. Otto didn’t seem bothered by the enthusiastic greeting. Crouching down in front of Justice, he ran his hands over the dog’s long, floppy ears, and his tail-wagging accelerated into turbo-mode.
“He listens well for a hound,” Otto said approvingly, and Kit beamed. Training Justice had been a long, frustrating slog, with almost as many backward steps as advances, so it was wonderful to have someone understand and acknowledge her success.
“Thank you,” she said as Hugh elbowed Otto aside to get to the dog. Theo shoved his way in as well. Justice gave a low, blissful groan, in heaven from all the attention. “It took a lot of time and effort, but he does really well now. We’re going to start working off-lead once we settle in.”
Hugh ran his hand over one of Justice’s long ears and held it out to the side. “I can’t get over these ears. They’re so floppy.”
Glancing at the sharply pricked ears of the Belgian Malinois in the back of the squad car next to them, Kit smiled. “Not quite what you’re used to.”
Three portable radios beeped in unison, and the men straightened, wincing at the crackle of feedback until Otto and Hugh turned their radios off, leaving only Theo’s on.
“Fire Rescue One, there’s been a report of a possible structure fire in the area of Hibberd Street and Canyon Road.”
After a short pause, a male voice responded. “Fire One copies. What’s the address?”
“Unknown at this time. The complainant is the forest service lookout at Sayer Tower.”
“Copy. En route to the general area of Hibberd and Canyon Road.” The firefighter didn’t sound happy, and Kit couldn’t blame him. Searching for the fire would take precious time.
“We respond to fire calls, so I guess you’re getting a trial by literal fire,” Hugh said as he headed for the driver’s door of his squad car. Justice, not wanting to lose his new friend and personal masseuse so soon, tried to follow, but Kit’s grip on his leash kept him close to her. “Follow me.”
So much for getting a day to fill out paperwork, she thought, loading Justice into the back seat before climbing behind the wheel. As she cranked the engine, she smiled. If she was honest, taking a call was much more interesting than reading the SOP manual and completing a W-2. It wasn’t what she expected fro
m this sleepy-looking town, but nothing—from the time she’d arrived in Colorado until now—had gone how she’d thought it would. She just needed to roll with the changes and try to learn as she went.
As she followed Hugh out of the lot, Kit noted that his car and Theo’s right behind them were marked with “Bedrock County Sheriff’s Department.” Only Otto’s SUV, which turned in the other direction as he presumably headed home after his night shift, had “Monroe Police Department” painted on the sides. Kit wondered if they’d lost their vehicles when the station was bombed.
Lights and sirens activated, Hugh weaved his way through the residential streets, and Kit followed, marveling again at the quiet emptiness of the town. “Why do I feel like we’re going to be fighting off zombies when we get to the fire?” she asked Justice, who made a quiet huff of what Kit took as agreement.
Despite the wail of the two squad car sirens, it felt too quiet in her car. Ever since she’d left her old police department, the lack of a radio left an aching hole inside her, as if it were a missing limb. She felt cut off and unhappily oblivious without that link, and she reached down to touch her cell phone where it sat in her pocket. Despite the layer of fabric separating her from it, the hard shape reassured her. She wasn’t completely cut off from everything and everyone at least.
Theo slowed, and Kit assumed they were getting close. The air was getting hazier, and she could smell smoke—and the acrid burn told her that it wasn’t a cozy little campfire. Something was burning that wasn’t supposed to be burning.
Kit turned, staying close to the squad car in front of her. It was a real-life version of Hot and Cold—with the potential for real-life property damage or even death. She scanned the area, looking for the source of the smoke. Their small convoy turned left and the haze thickened, irritating Kit’s throat. She knew it would be hard to stop coughing once she started, so she fought the urge as they rounded a curve in the road. The houses thinned even more, making her suspect that they were getting close to the edge of town.