“Jeff got out of his car and identified himself but received no answer. He radioed his deputy and said he was going to the tent. Jeff slowly made his way toward it and probably could hear the siren from the other squad coming up the highway. We surmise he returned to his car without going all the way to the tent. Someone was waiting in the brush, and shot him. When the first deputy arrived, Jeff was slumped partway into his car and partially lying across the driver’s-side seat. He was shot in the back, and the sniper had vanished into the woods. He must have planned an escape route and evidently knew the terrain well, because the other deputies who arrived could find no trace of him. He just vanished. The deputy called for an ambulance and began to administer first aid. Otherwise, Jeff would be dead.” Deidre sat, too stunned to respond. Jeff was one of her oldest friends and a man she deeply respected. For an instant, the image of his wife, Danielle, flashed through her mind, and she remembered back when her John had been slain in a drive-by shooting. She hung her head, not wanting to face the reality of the day.
“Deidre,” the councilwoman began as she fidgeted with a pen she was holding. “We were having a discussion before you arrived. I am aware of your history in this town, but I’m also aware of your reputation with most of the town folk. People look up to you, and if Jeff weren’t doing such a great job, I think you would have felt some pressure to run for sheriff again. That said, and I know this is terribly presumptuous on our part, we were contemplating asking you if you would allow us to appoint you sheriff during Jeff’s absence.”
The councilwoman hurriedly added, before Deidre could respond, “Please hear us out before you answer. Something dangerous is happening around the county. First it was the murder of Justin Peters, then vandalism to several churches, not to mention the note you brought in from the girl at The Sanctuary. We’ve had a train derailment, and now Jeff. All of these incidents have happened within the last four months. It’s as though war has been declared on our community. We need a strong leader right now, and we think that leader is you. Please, we ask of you, forget the way you were slighted a few years ago and consider our offer, if for no other reason than that the community needs your services.” The woman looked Deidre square in her eyes, silently pleading.
Deidre squirmed uneasily in her chair. She knew she should call Ben and discuss the council’s proposal, but she remembered their conversation when she had decided to work for T.J. Compton. He told her she should make her own decision, and he would support her. Yet, she knew she had her family to consider. Then she remembered the look on Danielle’s face the night before, the anguish she had displayed. “I’ll do it,” she heard herself saying, almost as if her voice were that of another person. There, she thought, I did it, and I can’t renege on my word now.
The group exhaled in unison, one of their biggest fears having been set aside. They had lost an excellent leader but had gained another in the same twenty-four hour period. Something had to break their way soon.
Chapter Twenty
The entire county board would have to vote on Deidre’s appointment. It was a formality, but one that had to be on the record. They were meeting that afternoon, so Deidre wouldn’t be able to begin her investigation until the next day. She intended to waste no time once the board acted. In the meantime, she was exhausted and headed home, where she found a note from her step-daughters saying they were at the neighbors, hanging out with friends from school. Deidre crashed on the couch but did take the precaution of setting the alarm on her cell phone before allowing herself to close her eyes. Within seconds she was asleep.
Three hours later her phone began to play a nerve-wracking tone meant to be so irritating that no one could sleep through it. Groggily, she reached for the silence button and focused her eyes with difficulty. She didn’t fully wake until she heard footsteps pounding down the stairs. Megan and Maren leaped from the third step up, hitting the floor with a resounding thud.
“Mom, you’re awake. When we came home, you were so sound asleep you didn’t hear us. We let you sleep,” Megan said. They plunked down on the couch beside her. “How’s Jeff doing?”
Maren added, “I’ll bet Danielle is really having a hard time.”
Deidre put an arm around each girl’s shoulder and drew them close to her. “Sometimes I forget how precious you girls are to me. It takes moments like this to remind me.” She hugged them tightly. “Jeff won’t be able to work for a long time, if ever, and in the meantime, the county is without a sheriff.”
Before she could finish what she was going to say, Maren blurted out, “Are you going back to work?” She pulled away from Deidre, just a bit.
“This morning, the county board asked to appoint me to serve as interim sheriff. I didn’t have time to talk to you and your father, because they needed a decision as soon as possible. That’s what I want to talk about right now.” She paused and neither daughter said anything, but Deidre could sense a reluctance on their part. “I know it will put a strain on the family, but there are three reasons I said yes, and I’d like you to know what they are. If, after we talk, you still want me to turn it down, I’ll call the chairman of the board and decline their appointment.” She looked at the girls and took a deep breath.
“First, I’m good at what I do. The faster I can get on the case of who shot Jeff, the easier it will be to catch the bad guy. I think my primary reason for wanting to catch the culprit is to stand up for my friend. Second, I feel a duty to serve my community again. What drove me out of the sheriff’s office happened many years ago, and those who pushed the issue are themselves in jail and will be for a long time. It’s rather humbling when people come to you and say they need you. The last reason for my saying yes is that I miss working as an officer. That’s what I’m trained to do, and like I said, I’m confident that I’m good at it.” The girls still sat silently, thinking.
“Mom, it’s dangerous. Jeff proved that,” Megan spoke up. “He’s good at what he does, too, and he got himself into serious trouble. What if that had been you? We don’t want to lose you.” There were several seconds of more silence. It was Maren’s turn to speak.
“Mom, I’ll go along with your wishes. It wouldn’t be fair for you to not be able to do what you want because of us. But I’ll be afraid for you every day you go to work. Please promise us you’ll be careful and not take any chances. We love you so much.” She wrapped her arms tighter around her stepmother.
Megan began to pucker up, hardly able to speak. “That goes for me, too, you know. Go for it if you have to, but always come back to us. Promise?” She laid her head on Deidre’s shoulder.
Deidre forced the words to come out. “Oh, girls, there are no promises in life, and I can’t make promises I might not be able to keep, but you have my word that I’ll do everything in my power to come home every day in one piece. I have too much to live for not to be careful.” They sat like that for several minutes. Finally, Deidre said she was going to Duluth to see Jeff and Danielle and that she’d like the girls to come with her. “Their kids are going to be there, and I think it will be good for them to talk with you. Maybe you can say things I’d never think to say, seeing as how you’re about their ages.”
By two o’clock they were on the road, and they arrived at the ICU waiting room forty minutes later. Danielle was there as were her three kids, Angie, Michael, and Trudie. There was a moment of awkward silence when the five kids met. At their age, they wondered if there were special words to be said. Megan broke the ice. “We’re sorry this happened to your dad.”
Before she could continue, Jeff’s children said almost in unison. “Thanks for coming.”
Mike said, “We’re going nuts sitting around this room all the time.” He turned to Danielle. “Mom, could you give us a little money so we can go down to the cafeteria?” Mike asked Megan and Maren, “Want to go down and get a Coke or something? We can see the lake from there, and we can pla
y video games or something.”
After the kids left, Danielle shared more openly about Jeff’s condition. “Things are so much better today than they were last night.” Deidre looked at her friend and thought she hadn’t slept a wink. Her hair was disheveled and black bags hung under her eyes. She wore no lipstick, and her clothes were wrinkled. She didn’t look like Danielle much at all. “The doctor stopped by a few minutes before you got here and said they’d be moving Jeff to a regular surgical unit tomorrow morning. After two or three days there, he’ll be moved up to the fifth floor, rehab. Those were good words to hear.” But then she sobbed, momentarily overwhelmed. “Jeff still has no feeling in his legs. The doctor said there is a lot of swelling around his spine and that probably is the cause. We should know within a week if the paralysis is permanent.”
Deidre stepped closer to her friend and hugged her. “Jeff’s one tough guy, and you know he’s going to do everything he can to get back on his feet, literally. I have faith that he’ll be back to work as soon as he can.” There was a pause.
“That’s what worries me,” Danielle said so softly Deidre could hardly hear. “That’s what worries me.”
Deidre led her friend to a lounger chair in a secluded corner of the room and more or less pushed her into it. “I’m getting a blanket for you, and I want you to close your eyes for a few minutes. You might not sleep, but you need to rest.” She found a blanket in a nearby cupboard, which she spread over Danielle. Deidre had just sat down by her side with a magazine when she noticed a change in the exhausted woman’s breathing. Danielle was sound asleep.
Twenty minutes later she heard the laughter of preteens as a troop of them came gamboling down the hall. Evidently, Megan and Maren had relieved some of the tension, and Deidre could hear them joking and verbally jabbing at each other. They sounded happy. As quietly as she could, she left Danielle’s side to intercept the crew before they could wake her. She put her finger to her lips and the chattering stopped. “Your mother is sleeping, and she needs all the rest she can get,” she whispered. “Let’s go into the other waiting room, where we can talk.”
Deidre poured herself a cup of coffee, and the kids sat down in a group. Suddenly, they had become solemn. “I think you know your dad will be moved out of ICU tomorrow, which is really good news. It means he’s getting better. And now your mom is sleeping and that’s good news, too. She needs her rest so she can be here for your dad. What about you kids? I don’t think you want to stay at the hospital the whole time. Do you need a place to spend the night?” She saw her daughters brighten up, because they thought they knew what was coming next. Angie deflated their expected plans.
“Grandma and Grandpa are coming to get us at five o’clock. They’re taking us out for supper, and we’re staying at their house tonight. They don’t live far from here.” Deidre thought Jeff’s kids looked as if they would rather have spent the time with her daughters, but she wasn’t about to get in the way of family plans at such a dreadful time. She thought Jeff’s mother and father needed their grandkids more than ever. They sensed someone entering the room and looked back to see Danielle standing. She still looked as if she had been dragged through the proverbial knothole, but she was smiling.
“Thanks,” she said as she walked over to Michael and gave him a hug. “Grandma and Grandpa should be here soon to pick you up. Deidre, Jeff gets to have a visitor for ten minutes out of every hour. Do you want to see him?”
Deidre declined the offer, telling Danielle that those precious ten minutes should be hers. Minutes later she excused herself and her daughters. On the way home Megan announced. “That was good. Not fun, but good. We talked a lot about how dangerous police work is, and we told them that you were going to take Jeff’s job until he comes back. They thought that was a good idea. We’re okay with it.” Nothing more was said of Deidre’s decision for the remainder of the ride. When they got home, the girls spilled out of the car and rushed to play with their dog. Deidre went in to prepare a quick supper before Ben got home. She hoped he would be as understanding as the girls had been.
Chapter Twenty-One
On the drive to the Law Enforcement Center the next morning, Deidre had time to reflect on Ben’s reaction to her news. As she laid out her plans to take over for Jeff, he momentarily went catatonic, she thought, but he quickly recovered his usual composure and tried to smile. Finally, after several seconds he gave her his blessing, but not without a lecture about being careful and not taking any stupid chances. Then he enveloped her in his arms and told her how much she meant to him. She vowed she would be as cautious as the job permitted, a caveat they both knew was reality. A short time later the phone rang. It was the chairman of the Lake County Board, calling to tell her the appointment had been unanimously approved, and she should begin work in the morning.
She slowly climbed the stairs to her old office, wondering what she had taken on, hoping she wasn’t making a mistake. The dispatcher, a new hire, buzzed her in without comment, and she was warmly greeted by Shirley, the sheriff’s assistant. Deidre was reminded that time had passed since this had been her office, and nothing felt quite familiar. She entered Jeff’s office, picked up the badge and identification pin that were lying on the desk, and wondered where she should begin. She buzzed her assistant.
“Shirley, will you run off a copy of the next two weeks’ duty roster, please? Before doing that, though, locate whichever deputy on patrol is nearest the location of Jeff’s ambush. Tell him to meet me there in twenty minutes.” Shirley responded in a business-like way. Deidre had wished for a little more familiarity on her return to duty, but too much water had gone under the bridge since she had been sheriff. But now she was back at her old desk.
The site of the false hostage incident was ten miles out of town, on the entrance road to an abandoned gravel pit. When Deidre arrived, a deputy was waiting for her. She had vowed to herself—and her family—that she would never go to out-of-the-way places alone.
Deidre parked on the side of the road and walked in to the site. “Hey, Jake. Good to see you,” she hollered to the deputy. He was one of the old guard who worked with her when she was sheriff the first time. “How’s it going?”
Jake was nearing retirement, and nothing caused him much excitement. “I’m good. A little slow on the draw these days, but good.” By this time Deidre was nearly to him. He took a few steps to meet her and grabbed her hand. “Damn good to have you back. Never thought it would happen, but great to have you back. We need someone like you to tackle this mess. I’ve got a feeling this isn’t the last bad thing that’s going to happen around this county.” Deidre slapped him on the back and offered her thanks.
“Well, Jake, glad to be working with you again. What do we have here?”
Jake led her to where the tent used in the scam was still pitched. It sagged a little, evidently from having been put up in a hurry. The wind had loosened a stake or two, and unless it was taken down soon, it would blow down. Loose fabric flapped in the breeze.
“Fill me in on what’s been done at the site so far.” Deidre looked at Jake as he removed a notepad from his breast pocket and thumbed through a few pages.
“The interior has been checked for fingerprints, but as you know, lifting them from fabric is almost impossible. The tent floor is made of a synthetic material but had no prints. The exterior frame was dusted, but whoever set it up must have worn gloves. Again, no prints. The tent is a cheapy, the kind you can buy at any discount store, and will be hard to trace. It’s new, no stains or any other identifying marks. We think it was bought for this one purpose. No vehicle tracks were found. Seems the shooter, or shooters, must have hiked in through the woods. They knew the area or were good at reading a topo map, because the nearest road, other than the one we came in on, is five miles to the east. North and south the same distance. That’s a lot of woods. Somebody went through a whole lot of trouble to plan
this. They were out to get Jeff, no doubt about it. Other than that, the first sweep of the area didn’t turn up one clue. Whoever did this knew what they were doing. Reminds me of a special forces operation in the military.”
Deidre’s head jerked around when he said that. “Jake, I’ve got to make a call from my car. Wait here, I’ll be right back.” She jogged across the opening to where her vehicle was parked and called in to the office.
“Shirley, I need you to drop everything and get on this right away. Call Johnny Bolene and ask him if it would be okay for a team to come out and take a look at his pickup. Be sure to tell him that he’s in no trouble whatsoever, but that his truck might hold an important clue to an assault case. Ask him not to touch anything inside his truck, especially on the passenger side, until the team gets there. Get someone out to his place immediately, and have them dust the inside of the passenger compartment for prints, especially the door handle, the armrest, dash, any of the common places a passenger would place his hands.” She listened to Shirley’s response. “No, that’s okay. They don’t have to impound the vehicle, just lift the prints and document from where they came. Thanks, Shirl.” She hung up before she realized she had used a nickname for a person she hardly knew. She shrugged, hoping there had been no offense taken. Jake watched her jog back toward him, wondering from where her energy came.
“You gave me a great idea, Jake. If this turns up anything, we might have our first big break. Does anyone have an idea where the shot came from that hit Jeff?”
“We’re pretty sure it came from up there.” Jake pointed to a spot in the woods some one hundred-fifty yards away. A clump of birch grew in front of a densely branched balsam fir. “As close as we could tell, it came from near that tree. A gunman could sit under those branches, and with the birches breaking up his silhouette, he’d be about invisible. He’d have to be a good shot, though. Probably used a night scope with a laser sight in the dark, although the moon was full.”
Preying in Two Harbors Page 11