Cahill

I could hear the din from the bar as I exited my SUV and I was still almost a block away. What a shame! I knew from long experience that would change as soon as my foot crossed the threshold. I tend to have that effect on people. I’m six feet six inches tall and I weigh an even 250 pounds—all of it broad shouldered muscle. My Body Mass Index at my last physical was less than four percent. My light brown hair is styled exactly the way it’s been for the past fifteen years—ever since I first joined the Navy. Sure enough, no sooner had I taken my first step into the bar than the noise died. When I turned left and stepped up to the bar the people there couldn’t back away fast enough. I took a stool in the middle of the empty space and sat down, waiting for the bartender to approach. “I’m not looking for any trouble.” “Good…neither am I. Give me a ginger ale.” He reached under the bar for a glass and some ice. Twenty seconds later he slid the glass in my direction. I pulled a fiver from my pocket and dropped it on the bar. He ignored it and walked away to draw a few beers and pour some wine. It looked to me like this was a pretty cheap crowd. Checking up and down the bar all I could see were longnecks and drafts. I reached into the lower left pocket of my cargo pants. Like almost everything else I was wearing they were a true deep navy blue. My heavy shoes were black as was my wide belt. My belt said as much about me as the bold white lettering across my chest. Just below the American flag over my heart were the letters that were my life—U. S. MARSHAL. On my right hip was my nickel plated .44 Magnum Colt Python, just behind two speed loaders in addition to the twenty-four rounds on the belt. On my left hip was my ASP Talon baton—every bit as deadly a weapon in my hands as the revolver. A pouch at the back of my right hip held my stainless steel handcuffs and its partner on the opposite side held my radio—my link to my backup team. I placed the photo flat on the bar as the bartender returned to me. “I’ll have another,” I said in a loud voice, continuing so I wouldn’t be overheard. “Don’t pick it up and don’t make a production of looking at it. I’ve been told that he comes here a lot. Is he here tonight? If he is and he escapes because you’ve given me away I’ll see to it that you’re arrested for obstruction of justice.” He gulped a few times but did as he was told, nodding slightly in response. I continued almost at a whisper. “If my nose is pointing to twelve o’clock, my right ear to three, the back of my head to six, and my left ear to nine, tell me where he is. Again, don’t point or do anything obvious and we’ll be fine.” He pretended to wipe the bar as he whispered, “About 4:30 with his back to you.” I picked up the reflection in the mirror then asked, “Red shirt with black and white stripes, looking away from me?” He nodded again. Now, in my normal tone of voice I asked, “Where’s the men’s room?”

Fredrick_Udele · แฟนตาซี

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69 Chs

CHAPTER 61

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Six months later I didn't think life could possibly be better. Lucy was pregnant again and Melody was crawling. She went to Max about ninety percent of the time. She loved climbing onto his soft furry body for a nap or just to run her hands through his fur while she giggled madly. If I picked her up and carried her to the other side of the room she'd crawl right back to Max as soon as she was able. Yes, life was great—never better.

I was in the office finishing a grant application when Sandra walked in to ask if I could spare a few minutes to speak with two deputy sheriffs. Truthfully, I was ready for a break so I stood and stretched before welcoming the deputies. They turned down my offer of coffee, but did ask me to close the office door. I thought that was a bit odd, but a few seconds later we were seated at my table. "How can I help you, deputies?"

"Um…Chief, we have a problem that we need to talk about."

"Is this some kind of legal problem," I asked, continuing once they had nodded. "Are you guys in trouble?"

"No, sir; it's not that kind of problem."

I could easily see their reluctance to speak, yet they had come to me with what had to be a major concern. I can add two plus two as well as anyone, so…. "You have a legal problem, but instead of taking it to the Sheriff you came here. Know what that tells me? The Sheriff is the problem and you need someone you can trust to help you with it. Let's hear it. Nothing will go out of this room without your permission."

Oh, boy—did they have a problem! I phoned Julia Adams while they waited and I put her on speaker. "Julia, I have another big one for you. I have two Bascomb County deputy sheriffs here in the office with me and they've told me some really interesting things about the sheriff." I waited for a few seconds while she spoke in reply. "There are two big issues that they tell me have the deputies and the clerical employees up in arms.

"First, he has on-duty deputies working on his election campaign—stuffing envelopes and attaching address labels, making phone calls to constituents and transporting election materials from his office at the jail to his campaign headquarters. It gets better. He is forcing every deputy to contribute $300 to his campaign. That one has them furious. He's told them at daily inspection that he'll fire any deputy who refuses."

I waited a few minutes until she set up a meeting with a group of deputies. I told her I had the perfect place—one where we could have total privacy. I made arrangements to meet at the old quarry, the one where we apprehended Haynes and company almost a year ago.

I put a trusted team of officers at the gate to screen everyone for the meeting which I held in the warehouse where Jeremy Haynes had hidden until Daryl had baited him into coming out. I had Dan Powell with me to keep track of any equipment or manpower we might need as Julia opened the meeting. There were thirty-four off-duty deputies present and all agreed to cooperate fully. Each was scheduled to give a deposition—we used a room at City Hall for that—and to wear a wire although modern technology had made the wire part obsolete. Each was given a wafer thin transmitter that would record any demands from the Sheriff, sending the conversation to a relay that was hidden in one of the deputy's personal cars.

Two weeks later Julia had a mountain of evidence and, to my surprise there had been no leaks even though almost half of the deputies and many of the clerical staff were involved. Julia phoned me less than two months after our initial meeting to tell me that a warrant had been issued for the Sheriff to be served by State Police tomorrow morning at 09:00. I congratulated her on another coup, laughed with her for a few minutes and returned to my work.

I hadn't said anything to Lucy out of the same concerns I'd had about the Haynes matter, but that night I told her all about it, knowing that the state police would act before I went to work the following morning. Lucy and I had an OB/GYN appointment at 8:45 for a sonogram that would tell our baby's sex. We were both excited, so much so that we celebrated for hours that night after dinner. Melody was on solid food and she slept through the night with Max as her guardian. We could leave the doors open, knowing that Max would ignore us and that Melody would sleep through a thunderstorm.

Lucy came into my arms as soon as we walked up the stairs. Her head was buried into my shoulder as we entered our room where she began to strip every piece of clothing from my body. I would have gladly reciprocated if she would have allowed me. Instead, she did a slow sensuous striptease and it would have been funny if I wasn't totally in love with her. Instead, I picked her up and carried her to the shower. I held her tightly in my arms until the water had warmed.

We had decided no sex in the shower as soon as we knew she was pregnant. We took no chances with Lucy's or Melody's health. We found out that Melody could climb out of her crib when the side was down and crawl one day when Max brought her to us in bed by carrying her, his teeth securely holding her sleeper while Melody laughed like crazy. I went out that very morning to buy a safety barricade that I put at the top of the stairs. That and Max should keep her safe. Mostly, we were counting on Max.

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