The Sheriff's Secret

by Julie Anne Lindsey

  TINA WAS OFFICIALLY sick of this hospital and a growing number of other things. Like people who kept big secrets, for example, herself included. Keeping secrets was a terrible decision, destined to end in tragedy. No one ever kept happy things to themselves. They only swallowed the dark, damaging things, and those bitter truths had a way of coming back up eventually. From now on, she was only interested in the immediate truth.

  Blake was easy to spot in the long white hallway, a tall, dark presence in an otherwise blinding wing. He spoke softly with an old woman in teddy bear scrubs who didn’t appear to be taking any of his orders. The hospital was her turf. Just like West had told her before they visited Mary. Blake’s badge would only do so much good here. The low tenor of his voice ricocheted off the bare walls in waves of murmured agitation. Tina couldn’t make out the words, but his brow was pinched. His posture was stiff, and his hands moved fast enough between them to set him into flight.

  “She won’t let him back in the room,” West interpreted, keeping pace at her side. “Tucker says Blake’s upsetting him.”

  Blake took notice of their approach and turned to face them.

  The nurse blocked the threshold to room three fifteen. “Evening, Sheriff.” She nodded at West before turning to Tina. “Miss.”

  “This is Tina Ellet,” West explained. “She’s your patient’s therapist. She insisted on seeing him when she heard the news.”

  The woman gave Tina a hard look. “What sort of therapist?”

  Tina pulled a business card from the pocket of her coat and handed it to the woman. “I’m a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in trauma recovery.”

  The nurse pocketed Tina’s card. “He’s had a trauma, but that’s new. How can he already be your patient?”

  Tina’s client list was confidential, but she still needed to see Tucker. “I’m also a concerned friend,” she said, trying to sound cordial instead of angry. “I came as soon as I heard he was here.” None of the things happening to her were the nurse’s fault. It wasn’t fair to take them out on her.

  The nurse didn’t look convinced.

  “You can come inside with me,” Tina suggested. “See for yourself if he wants me to leave.” She crossed her fingers that Tucker wouldn’t be too much of a coward to face her after his involvement in her hellish nightmare. She was certain his gentle nature would make him bubble over with guilt and shame at the sight of her. If he didn’t send her away, he’d talk, but there was a good chance those same characteristics would make him want to hide. In which case, she’d be booted back into the hall with the Garretts. Not a place she wanted to be at the moment.

  Her heart was still stewing from West’s confession. He’d known about her childhood traumas for more than a year. Residual humiliation burned her cheeks. It had nearly killed her to finally voice those very painful, private memories, and he’d sat there, letting her ramble on like an idiot, confessing things he’d already known. It was an unexpected blow to her pride after what had happened between them physically. Though, in his defense, he had come to tell her they needed to talk before she begged him to take her. Her head fell slightly forward, and she pressed hot fingertips to her forehead.

  The nurse huffed. “I can see you’re truly troubled. Not like the agent over there.” She pushed the door open and gave it a gentle knock. “Tucker? There’s a friend here to see you.”

  “Who?” Tucker’s voice was surprisingly sharp.

  Tina pushed her way into the room. “Me.”

  Tucker’s eyes went wide. “Ms. Ellet. What are you doing here?” His reddish hair was mussed and tucked behind both ears. His beard was ragged and unkempt. He sounded well, but he looked every bit the part of a man who’d recently been near death.

  She tried not to bite her tongue completely off. “I came to check on you. I heard what happened, and I was really worried.” The sugary sweetness of her voice rang false and fairly malicious in her ears.

  “You were?” He flicked his gaze from Tina to the nurse and back. “I didn’t do that heroin,” he said. “I took some pills and blacked out, but I shouldn’t have done that.”

  Tina took a tentative stop forward. “I’m just glad you’re okay now.”

  “You are?” Disbelief colored his tone.

  “Yes.” She was also glad to see he was clear of thought. That would help her tremendously as soon as she ditched the nurse. “You look really good, too. I expected you to be asleep after everything you’ve been through.”

  The nurse took a step toward the hallway, letting the door swing with her. “If everything’s okay, I guess I’ll let you two visit.”

  “Yeah. Thank you.” Tucker nodded. He straightened in the bed, adjusting his pillows and arranging the puddled blankets more smoothly over his legs. “Come on in. There’s a chair. Do you want water?”

  “No.” Tina lowered herself into the bedside armchair, concentrating on her breathing and composure. A piece of her worried about Tucker. She’d guided and counseled him for nearly a year. How long had he been using drugs? How much of that time had he spent with Carl? How long had he known about Carl’s plans?

  “Are you okay?” Tucker asked.

  She raised her eyes to him. “No. I’m not. Someone took my baby.”

  His mouth opened. He shut it without a sound.

  “You missed our last session. Did you know that Steven is dead now? That someone shot him in the parking lot? He was right beside me. It was terrifying.”

  Tucker’s cheeks darkened, and he looked away. “I heard about that. I’m sorry.”

  “Thank you. I’d thought it was the worst thing I would ever experience, but then I learned someone has been stalking me, breaking into my home, watching my baby and me.” Images of her late husband’s face washed into mind beside fresh memories of West being shot. Had Carl done the same thing to Thomas? Hidden in the woods to end his life with the curl of one finger?

  “I didn’t know that he’d—” Tucker clamped his lips tight. “I’m sorry.”

  “Didn’t know what?” she asked, training her gaze on his. Tina tried to make herself seem smaller and less threatening. The guise should’ve been easy given her circumstances, but at the moment she struggled not to tell him exactly what she thought of a grown man playing the “innocent” card. He might not want to admit it, but he’d known something was monstrously wrong, and he’d done nothing to stop it. At the very least, Tucker was complacent, but he was not innocent. “What didn’t you know?” she pressed. “Is it something about my daughter? If it is, then you have to tell me.” She leaned toward him and gripped the safety railing along his bed. Traitorous tears blurred her vision. “I don’t care about anything else. I just need to get my baby back.”

  Tucker looked at the door behind her. “I don’t want to go to jail.”

  Tina nearly choked on her disgust. “Would you really let an infant die because you want to protect yourself? Is that who you are? Who you want to be?” She shoved off her chair hard enough to send it scraping loudly across the floor.

  The door swung open and West barged inside. He moved between Tina and Tucker, evaluating the situation before turning to her with an expectant look.

  She reached for him, and he locked his protective arms around her.

  “My baby is out there somewhere,” she told Tucker. “She’s scared. She could be hurt. Maybe worse. And you’re in here, all tucked into your little hospital bed, being guarded by a nurse from the big bad lawmen.” Her voice climbed in decibels with every new word. “What is wrong with you?” She pushed away from West and fell back onto her chair, wiping frantically at the falling tears. “I’m so sorry.” She batted blurred eyes at Tucker. “I didn’t mean to yell.”

  Tucker leaned away as if she’d slapped him.

  She’d probably ruined everything by screaming at him. Wasn’t that exactly the kind of behavior she and Tucker ha
d both grown up fearing?

  The door opened once more, and the nurse arrived with a scowl. “Out.”

  “Wait,” Tucker said.

  Tina held her breath. She said a prayer.

  “It’s okay. I want to talk to these two.”

  Air whooshed from her burning lungs when the nurse retreated, closing the door behind her.

  Tucker tugged his ratty beard and fixed his gaze on Tina. “Carl talked about a lot of crazy stuff, but he never did any of it. I told myself he was just nuts.”

  “What?” West stormed Tucker’s bedside. “You didn’t think to report it? Not even to Tina, if not to the sheriff’s department?”

  “No.”

  West gripped the back of his neck and took a lap around the room, presumably to keep himself from giving Tucker another reason to be in the hospital.

  Tina shook her head in disbelief. “He talked with you about murder and kidnapping. You should have told someone. Told me. I could’ve stopped him. None of this had to happen.”

  “What else does he have planned?” West asked, stopping at Tina’s side. “And where did he take the baby?”

  “I don’t know.” Tucker released his beard. A look of resolution narrowed his eyes. “I was with Carl last year when your husband died.”

  Tina gasped. “What?” She forced herself to breathe. To make sense of the admission. “What do you mean?” she asked. Her stomach lurching at the implication.

  “Off the record?” he asked West.

  “Hell no.” West’s hand found Tina’s, and he squeezed.

  Tucker dipped his chin in a stiff acceptance. “Carl showed up at my place that night with a case of beer, wanting to go camping. He didn’t have any gear, and he knew from group that I’m an outdoorsman. At first I said no, but after a few drinks, I agreed to go. He drove my truck so I wouldn’t get pulled over. I set up the tent where he wanted, built the fire. Had a few more beers, then I passed out. Carl woke me the next day. He’d packed up the truck, and he was in a big hurry to go home. He said his mom’s living facility called. She’d fallen, and we needed to go. I slept on the ride home. I didn’t think anything of it until word got around about your husband. I remembered all the things Carl had said about him, and when I asked where we went camping, he got angry. He said we could never tell anyone we were camping that night or they’d link us to you and accuse us of murder. He said the sheriff wouldn’t care if it was true—he’d just want to close the case and punish someone for a man’s death. Our histories of instability, and my problems with substance abuse, made us the perfect scapegoats.”

  “You bought that?” West snapped.

  “Yeah. I mean, you hear that stuff all the time on the news.”

  West’s body went rigid. “You had to know it was Carl who shot him.”

  “I didn’t. I was out cold until he woke me to go home. I still can’t remember exactly where we camped, and he never told me. It wasn’t as if we were at an official campground. We just pulled off somewhere, walked a bit and set up for the night. He seemed to know where we were going, so I went with it. All I knew was that his sudden desire to camp on the night of your husband’s death was a heavy coincidence.”

  Tina was officially numb.

  West released her hand to cradle his injured arm against his chest a moment before crossing the free arm over it. “We’ve got ballistics out on that case now. If it was the same gun, we’ll know. For the record, Carl was wrong about me arresting anyone just to close the case, but I’ll damn sure charge him with murder if those results come back as a match, and you’re going down as an accessory.”

  Tucker frowned. “When do I get my lawyer?”

  “Public defender will be here in the morning. You can wait for representation, or you can start putting someone else first for once and help me save this baby’s life. You have to know something we can use to find her.”

  Tucker seemed to weigh West’s words. “I don’t know where they are. Carl and I aren’t friends like that. We drink together sometimes. Usually when he arranges it. He’s obsessed with Tina. Has been since I met him in group, but he was following her before that. She bought him a coffee, or something, and he couldn’t get over it. He said he asked about her at the drive-through window when the cashier told him his order was paid for. He was so happy, he followed her home that day. He’s never stopped. After her husband died, I tried to put some distance between us, but he was insistent. He kept me close. I could tell he was watching me in case I decided to talk. Then, one night we went to play pool. He drove. When we left, he couldn’t find his keys, so we walked to his house, but without his keys we couldn’t get in. I picked the lock on the back door for him.” Tucker’s face turned red. “We’d talked about that a few days before. I learned it growing up. My dad would lock me in the basement.” He shook his head hard, as if he could somehow erase the memory. “The door opened, but he didn’t invite me inside. I had to walk home alone from there. I woke up on my lawn. A few weeks later, I picked him up to go fishing, but the address he gave me was a trailer.”

  “Not the house you broke into,” West finished.

  “No,” Tucker said. “The farmhouse wasn’t his. He’d tricked me into breaking into it.”

  Tina forced another round of vomit back down her throat. Was she sleeping while two drunks had broken in? What had Carl done while he was inside?

  Tucker turned tired eyes on her. “That was your house, wasn’t it?”

  She nodded. “What about my dog? Did he bark or growl?”

  “No dog.”

  Tina’s mind scrambled back, thankful that Ducky wasn’t there. That meant that Lily wasn’t born yet, either. “I lost my keys last spring,” she said. “I was struggling with Thomas’s death and the pregnancy. I forgot things. Slept all the time. I bet Carl took them when he came in.” Then he could let himself in anytime he wanted, as if her home was his home, too.

  “Why didn’t you report the break-in when you realized it was Tina’s house?” West asked.

  Tucker made an ugly noise. “He had me, man. On both counts. I was drunk and doing stuff I wasn’t supposed to. I’d have wound up in jail right beside him.”

  Tina smacked her palms against the arms of the uncomfortable chair. “What do you think is going to happen now? All you’ve done is put off the inevitable. You could’ve at least saved Steven’s life and spared my baby by doing the right thing a long time ago.”

  Tucker flopped against his pillow. “I wish I could help you find your baby. I’ve tried to think of where he might be, but Carl never gives all the facts. He talks in circles. Never completes a story. He just gives enough detail to drag you in and shove you under.”

  “Think,” West growled. “Give it your best try. We’re running blind out there.”

  “All I know is that he’s obsessed with Tina. Her home, baby, dog, everything. He thinks she’s the perfect mother, and he really hates his.”

  Tucker’s deflated expression broke Tina’s heart. He’d trusted the wrong person. Let substance abuse cloud his judgment. “You told Agent Garrett that Carl tried to kill you. Is that true?”

  “Yeah. I don’t do heroin.”

  West scoffed. “Are you saying Carl forcefully injected you with the drug? And you couldn’t stop him?”

  “I’m saying I was stoned. Out cold on oxy and I woke up in here. They pumped my stomach, dosed me up with Narcan and told me I tried to kill myself. I don’t do needles.” A shiver wiggled down his frame.

  The door swung open and Cole blew inside. “West.” The look of excitement on his face snapped Tina back to life.

  “What’d you get?” West asked.

  “I just spoke with the man who owns the property where Carl’s trailer sits.” A wide smile pulled over his lips. “He said Carl called him yesterday and asked to use his cabin near the lake for a few nights. The man agreed.”
/>
  Tina popped onto her feet. “You know where they are?”

  Cole nodded. “I think we do.”

  West wrapped a strong hand around her wrist and led her toward the door. “Hang tight, Tucker. There’ll be a deputy outside your door standing guard with the nurse. Don’t get any ideas about leaving early.”

  “Good luck,” Tucker said. “I really do hope you find him.”

  Cole followed West and Tina into the hallway, where Blake joined their ranks.

  They filled Blake in as they hurried to the waiting elevator. The exact words were lost to Tina, whose ears were ringing loudly with hope.

  They finally knew where her baby was.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The sheriff’s department buzzed with activity. Men and women in various uniforms poured in and out of the door like bees to a hive. They spoke hurriedly into walkie-talkies and cell phones, ramping up Tina’s already sprinting pulse.

  This could really be it. The moment she got her hands on Lily again. This time she might never let her go.

  West caught the door and held it as the next group of officials spilled into the night. “Ladies first.”

  Tina passed into the busy department, squinting against the harsh glow of fluorescent lights. Her heart thundered against her ribs, aching to burst from exertion or just break free.

  “Look who beat us here,” West said. “Mom, you remember Tina.”

  A familiar face broke free from the crowd. “Of course.” Her sweet voice tugged at Tina’s heartstrings. She pulled Tina against her chest with strong, motherly arms and gently stroked her hair. “Oh, how I’ve missed you.”

  Tina held her tight. She smelled exactly the same. A perfect blend of cookies and mountain air.

  His mother pulled back for a thorough look at Tina. A bright smile graced her face. She’d gone gray since they’d last met, but that was no wonder surrounded by Garrett men and their thirst for danger.

  Tina fought a wave of tears and nostalgia. Even after the way she’d left West, his mother looked as happy to see her as if she was a long-lost daughter of her own. She wasn’t sure she’d be as understanding if someone hurt Lily.