Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Wade liked the beat, the streets, the cruiser and working one on one with people. There were cops who preferred to make a difference that way, and Wade was one of them.
He’d already been promoted to sergeant.
It was time to think about lieutenant.
“Seems I got until February to find some money for you and Karen,” Harry said. And for a promotion for Wade, he thought.
Oral boards happened in the first six weeks of the new year.
“My woman is thrilled,” Sean said. “She says we’ll save enough from not having to dry clean my uniforms, we can take a cruise.”
Harry wore a uniform and required his deputies to do so. He also required them to be cleaned and carefully pressed.
Rus wore army green or khaki cargo pants and a long-sleeved polo or fleece with a Fret County Sheriff badge stitched on the chest.
Harry considered a more official version of that for the entire team, because it was more comfortable, easier to move in, friendlier to look at for the average citizen and a lot easier to maintain. But he didn’t want to make that decision so soon after Dern was ousted. He needed the authoritative visual. He needed to make a statement he and his crew took their jobs seriously.
Which meant now, it was still not the time to make the change, with the cases they were investigating reminding people of Dern’s tenure.
But he took the note from Sean.
Expenses like that on a cop’s pay could dig deep.
He and Sean finished their meeting, Sean took off, and Harry opened the folder that had Abernathy’s and Farrell’s bank records in it. Rus had gone over them, and there were some anomalies he wanted Harry to look at.
He saw Rus had highlighted some line items, but he didn’t get that far because his phone screen lit up with a call from Lillian.
She didn’t often call, she texted, so his brows drew together as he took it.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
“Okay,” she whispered, and his back went straight at the pitch of her voice. “A nugget to file away. Apparently, Kimmy keeps track of when the citizens of Misted Pines decorate their houses for the holidays.”
He relaxed.
“How do you know that?” he asked.
“She knows my schedule is this weekend, so she came over and told me my bats were lame, then she dragged me to her shop, and she wants me to buy these things that look like black net Jawas, but their eyes are lit all over their bodies, and they have a witch’s hat.”
“Jawas?”
“From Star Wars. Hang on, I’ll send you a photo.”
He knew he lost her and his phone vibed with a text.
He got the image, and she was correct. They looked like black net Jawas with witches’ hats.
When he heard her talking again, he put the phone back to his ear.
“…less than twenty dollars each. She says I need five.”
“Get three.”
“You think?”
“Are the bats black?”
“Yes.”
“So get three and some orange lights.” The lights in the Jawa witches were orange. “I’ll string them around the porch.”
“Oh my God, I see your vision,” she breathed with excitement.
Fuck, he loved hearing that.
“Harry says we need orange lights,” he heard her say in a normal voice, and he knew she was no longer talking to him. “And three Jawas.”
“They aren’t Jawas!” he heard Kimmy shout. “And you need five.”
“Harry says three.”
A jostling on the phone and then he had Kimmy. “Three isn’t enough. They’re witches, not wise men.”
“Lillian’s front yard isn’t that big.”
“It’s big enough for five. You aren’t forming a coven, or you’d need thirteen.”
“Three, Kimmy.”
“Four,” she haggled.
But his attention was taken by Polly standing at the door.
And yet again, another member of his team was wearing an expression he didn’t like.
Though this one was more about him not getting it.
“I have to go, Kimmy,” he said.
“Gotcha,” she stated quickly. “I’ll tell Lillian.”
Then she disconnected.
Polly walked in.
“What’s going on?” Harry asked.
“That lady who came in the other day?” she asked as answer.
“What lady?”
“The one who came to share that Leland harassed her.”
Harry felt a mild spike in adrenaline, pleased she was back, hopefully to lodge a complaint.
“She’s back?”
“Her and nine other women.”
Harry didn’t move.
Polly came closer. “They’re filing complaints against Leland, for harassment, and Karl Abernathy, for coercion-based sexual assault.”
Harry stood immediately from his chair.
He stalked out of his office with Polly at his back, down the hall, and only stopped when he saw the entirety of his bullpen taken up with deputies talking to women.
Rus wasn’t there, likely because he’d taken someone to the interview room for privacy.
The woman who’d come previously glanced up at him.
There was determination in her eyes and softness in her features.
“This is about Avery,” Polly whispered.
Yes.
Word had gotten around about what had happened to the Rainiers.
“This is about Avery,” Harry said.
The woman released his gaze as she answered a question Raul posed to her.