Guardian of Justice (16 page)

Their conversation was interrupted by a sharp knock, followed by Nick clearing his throat as he walked through the door. “The deputy sheriff found the pickup a few miles away from the Woods house. From the skid marks, looks like he was going too fast when he hit the gravel road. There’s some blood, but no sign of the driver yet.”

NINETEEN

“Why don’t you go ahead and take a look, Nick. I’m not leaving until someone else arrives to stay with Kira. We’re not that far from the Woodses’ farm. If the guy is on foot, he may come to the hospital for treatment. I’ll send a warning to the E.R. nurses about him, and to keep quiet about Kira’s presence here.” Dallas held her hand as the IV machine buzzed, dispensing Kira’s next dose of pain medication.

“I’ve called to ask for police protection here.”

“Nick…” Kira started to argue, then shook her head instead. “Never mind. It’s two against one.”

Dallas squeezed her hand gently and turned back to her brother. “I can call you before I make arrangements to talk to Cody, if you’d like to go with me. Besides, I think it’s time I talk to your dad.”

“Good luck with that, and by the way, both of you, congratulations. I’m really happy for you two.” Nick shook Dallas’s hand. “I’d say don’t rush into anything, but then again, you could end up like me, a chronic bachelor. When you find the right one, you can’t take love for granted.” He bent down and gave Kira a kiss. “You better behave in here, sis, or you’re not going to have any energy to plan a wedding.”

Kira reached out and took Dallas’s hand. “I don’t ever plan to take this man for granted. Thanks, Nick. I told Dallas you’re all just trying to scare away the wrong guy. I think he passed your test with flying colors.”

“And here we thought we were so sly.”

After her brother left, Kira dozed off, leaving Dallas waiting for her mom and dad to arrive. When they did, he realized this was his last chance to back out. “Afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.”

“Hello, Officer Brooks,” Ted said gruffly as he shook Dallas’s clammy hand. “Care to explain what happened to my little girl?”

Dallas understood now why Nick had been all too happy to leave him here with Kira. “Sure, but first, please call me Dallas. Did Nick explain what the doctor said?”

“Nah, he was off after someone fleeing the scene. I’m a little confused why you’re here with Kira, and not out looking for this yahoo who shot at you.”

Dallas wondered if Nick had told them about the engagement. “I’ll explain that, too. Mainly…” The words wouldn’t come.

“She’s a mess! What happened?” Grace asked as she tucked unruly curls away from her daughter’s face.

Dallas offered Kira’s mother the chair, but she refused. “I want to be right here when she wakes up. You go ahead and tell us what happened, Dallas.” She stood next to the hospital bed, where Dallas had spent the last two hours.

“Well,” he said, taking a deep breath, “Kira’s doctor thinks she cracked her scapula. She has a deep bruise from a fall, and they’re hoping the break will heal without having to brace it. As you can see, they’ve immobilized her arm to keep her from moving it. They have ice packs under the wrap to help the swelling go down. She’s in quite a bit of pain, so they are giving her regularly timed doses of medicine so she can rest and stay still.”

“Good, she never would stay still when she was sick. They figured her out quickly, didn’t they?” her mother said.

“I suppose she was after that kid again, wasn’t she?” her father admonished. “I knew this case was going to hit home for her. She has such a stubborn streak.”

Dallas nodded. “She got a call from the foster mother, so we went out to look for Cody.” He finished the story about the chase and how she’d fallen onto the broken concrete.

“I hope you had the sense to wear your vest out here,” her father commented.

“Much to Kira’s displeasure, yes, I did.” After she’d yelled at him, he’d taken it off, and it now rested on the floor, behind the recliner.

Her dad glanced at it, then back at Dallas. “So she’s going to have to stay here a few days?”

Dallas nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“You going to be here with her the whole time?” Her dad must have been a great cop, too.

“I plan on being here as much as possible, sir. I couldn’t live with myself if something else happened to her. Which brings me to why I’m here instead of Nick.” He took a deep breath. “Kira is a very special woman.”

As if she heard them talking, Kira moaned.

They all turned toward the bed, waiting. But she didn’t wake up. “Falling in love was about the last thing I intended, especially in the middle of a case we’re both tied up in,” Dallas said, staring at Kira. “While we’ve been working the case, we’ve discovered we have a lot in common. But today, as we were trying to keep each other safe, I realized I want to spend every day with Kira.” He turned his attention to Grace, then Ted. “I’d like to ask your permission to court your daughter, with the full intention of marrying her.”

They were both silent.

“Does she know about this?” her father asked bluntly.

Dallas laughed. “Yes, she does. I probably should have chosen a better time to tell her how I feel, because she started yelling at me.”

Her parents laughed, too. Grace had tears streaming down her face. “That’s my daughter,” she said.

“The hospital wasn’t going to let me in to see her. She told them we’re engaged, so they’d let me be here.”

Ted shook his hand. “I’m guessing that’s why the vest is now sitting on the floor?”

“Yes, sir. I’m learning the rules,” he said with a smile. “I expect when she’s off these medications, she may come up with a few more. That’s okay, I’m a quick study.”

“As long as you’re learning the rules, I think you’d better drop the ‘sir’ and learn to call me Dad.”

“I’ll work on that…Dad.” It felt odd, saying it. His own father had died right before Dallas went into the academy, shot in the line of duty.

Grace ran around the bed and threw her arms around Dallas. “I knew she had her heart twisted into a knot over someone. Welcome to the family, Dallas.”

Kira woke, the pain in her right shoulder intense. “Hi,” she said to Dallas, who was beaming down at her. “What are you still doing here? I thought you’d be out catching the bad guys.”

“I wanted one kiss before I left.” He leaned over the rail of her bed, and she put her hand up to stop him. As if he read her mind, he said, “No vest guarding my heart—so can I kiss my fiancée?”

She smiled. “You’re learning how to woo me.” Kira’s one good arm circled around him and pulled him closer.

Dallas’s kiss was the best pain reliever she could have asked for, and she didn’t want it to end. “That was definitely worth the wait. I can’t wait for more,” she whispered.

He trailed little kisses along her jaw, to her ear. “You’ll have to. Your parents are here to stay with you while I’m gone.”

Kira let go of his shirt, but he pressed her against the bed.

“Don’t move so quickly,” he said softly. “Remember your shoulder blade is broken.” Then he backed away and put his hand on the button to raise the head of the bed. “Why don’t you call the nurse, see if the doctor is here to explain things to you and your parents?”

“Uh…” she said to her folks, remembering the night she and Kent had made the joke about a shotgun wedding. “Sorry about that, I didn’t know you were here.”

Her mother smiled. “We figured that out. But I guess it’s to be expected for an engaged woman to feel that way about her fiancé, isn’t it?”

Kira beamed, feeling the blush deepen. “Yeah, but I really don’t want to discuss it with you and Dad here….”

“Thank you,” Ted said with a smile.

Dallas walked over to pick up his vest. “And I’d better get hold of the Woodses to talk to Cody. Where’d they put your cell phone when they checked you in?”

“They put everything in a bag. Is it in the closet?”

Her mother opened the door and looked. “It’s not here. Maybe Nick took it.”

A quick call to Nick settled that. He hadn’t taken anything; the nurses had moved her upstairs.

“I just called the Woodses’ house and left a message for them there,” she added. “I don’t have a cell phone number for them.”

“How were you going to reach them?” he asked.

“They were going to call my cell phone when they decided where to go.”

Dallas let out a deep breath. “Let’s hope we can hear your phone ringing. If nothing else, maybe one of the nurses will answer.” He waited a few minutes, then shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Dad, would you mind checking with the desk, see if they can track down my belongings?” Kira asked.

Dallas dialed another number. “Hi, this is Dallas Brooks. Would you send a car to the main entrance of the new hospital?” He turned to Kira. “I’m going to go out to the Woodses’ place and make sure things are okay there. Call if you hear from them. Otherwise, I’ll assume they’re in hiding, and I’ll talk to Cody in the morning at school.” He pulled his polo shirt off, and Kira was surprised to find he had a dark T-shirt underneath.

“What are you doing?”

“Putting my vest back on. It’s bad enough to wear it around off duty, but nothing sends panic through a hospital emergency room like a man carrying a Kevlar vest.”

“Oh,” she said. “Well then, give me one more kiss before you put it back on.”

Dallas moved across the floor quickly. Was he as eager as she to finally share their feelings openly? He kissed her warmly.

He jotted his cell number on her tissue box, next to the phone. “Call anytime,” he said with a smile. He deftly put his vest on and fastened it over the T-shirt.

“Huh,” she said, watching with amazement. “I never realized cops wear two shirts. Did you know that, Mom?”

“Judging by the laundry your dad came home with, yes, I figured it out. Most men change at the station, so I never actually saw your father put his vest on. Interesting little details I never knew I was missing, even with four police officers in the family. Oops—make that five.”

Dallas smiled. “I feel like I’m disclosing top secret information or something.”

“Now you know why I want open access.” Kira grinned mischievously. “Be careful, Dallas.”

“And you, behave,” he said as he pulled his polo shirt over the vest. “I love you.”

TWENTY

Dallas hurried down the stairs to the front desk just as the Antelope Springs police car showed up. “What’s going on?” Sergeant Shaline asked.

Dallas explained all that had happened. “I’m going to be on surveillance outside the Woodses’ place tonight. I’d like to check out a set of night-vision goggles.”

“That’s out of our jurisdiction. Call the sheriff’s office and see if they have someone who can assist.”

“How about an officer from the county drug task force? He’s on the Fossil Creek force. He knows more about the drug side of this, and already has contacts working on the Zelanski case.”

Shaline laughed. “I see you’ve met Kira’s family, huh?”

“Yeah. In fact…” Dallas paused, hesitant to spread the news too quickly. His doubts had vanished, but he didn’t know if hers would reappear after she came off her medication. “I’ve met them all, thanks to your advice to put out a BOLO on her.”

“You did it?” he asked incredulously.

“No. I didn’t, but someone had broken into her condo, and I called in the Fossil Creek department. The responding officer was a greenhorn who didn’t realize she had brothers on the force, either. Hedid it.”

The two had a good laugh as they drove to the station. As Dallas was checking out a car and equipment, Shaline contacted the county sheriff to let him know what was going on.

The sergeant returned with some paperwork. “It’s all set up. Your future brother-in-law says he’s bringing sandwiches.”

Dallas froze. Shaline was testing him, that was clear. When Dallas remained speechless, his colleague laughed. “All I have to say is ‘You’re welcome!’ Kent and I have been working on this for months. But the incident with Mickey was not part of the plan. Just the matchmaking part.”

Dallas laughed in turn. “You didn’t.”

“Afraid so,” he said, dancing around his office with his arms in the air, as if signaling a touchdown.

Dallas shook his head and turned to go.

“Congratulations. And be careful out there tonight. You’ve got a great lady waiting for you.”

“Yes, I do,” he said without glancing back. “You may have won a bet, Shaline, but I get the prize.” He let the door slam behind him.

He called Kira on his way to the Woods house. They’d found her phone, but hadn’t heard anything from the family yet.

Next he called Kent, to confirm their location to meet. “Kira hasn’t heard anything from the Woods family,” Dallas told him. “Any word from Nick on the driver of the pickup?”

“Yeah, he’s out of the picture. I’ll fill you in on that later.” There was an odd tone to Kent’s voice.

“What’s wrong?” Dallas asked. “We’re going out into the country, and pretty soon it’s going to be dark. I don’t want another replay of this morning. I’ve had enough thrown at me today.”

“What else happened?” Kent asked.

“I found out about you and Shaline setting me up. From the way Nick and Garrett reacted, I doubt they knew you were behind it all.”

“Surely you’re not going to complain about that? I hear you popped the question today.”

“And she accepted. So back to business. I’m about at the Woodses’ house. What’s up with the guy? I don’t want any more surprises.”

Kent groaned. “What do you know about Kira’s brother Jimmie?”

“Just that she has one, and she’s been trying to find him. Why?”

“He’s a scumbag, and I’ve known where he was all along. He broke out of a California prison a couple of days ago, somehow got to Colorado. Probably been involved with Raul Sorento. I’m guessing he hooked up with one of Raul’s men in prison. When Nick heard who reported that maroon pickup stolen, he called, and found out Jimmie Driscoe had worked for this rancher a year or so ago.”

Dallas pulled off the road to finish listening to the story.

“The guy said he caught him hot-wiring it. Jimmie gave him some hard luck story about why he’d left. He said he was looking for his sister and needed to get to Fossil Creek. The rancher refused to hire him back on, and Jimmie coldcocked him and took off. Apparently there was a truck broken down on the interstate that was registered to one of Raul’s mules.

“The rest is a little unclear. I think they got here, and Jimmie found out about the missing drugs, and the search for the kid with the phone. Either he was told to go get it from this farm, or he overheard someone and thought he could make some easy money.”

“So who was chasing us?” Dallas asked. “Jimmie? Why would he shoot at Kira?”

“He probably doesn’t know what his sister looks like now. You can ask him tomorrow. He’s in jail, sobering up. Nick and the sheriff caught him as he tried to climb out of the irrigation canal. As usual, he was drunker than a skunk. He claims Cody knows where the money and the dope are, and that someone is meeting the boy tonight.”

Just then, Dallas saw Kent’s car pass by.

“Follow me,” Kira’s brother said. “I’ll drive like a drunk, and you pull me over.”

Dallas screeched ahead, turning on his lights right after Kent began swerving. He hoped he didn’t do too good of a job acting. It would be easy to lose control on the dirt road. “Stop, you idiot.”

“I will. I’m waiting till we get to the Woodses’ farm. Then I’ll escape, and you can disappear, looking for me. Be sure to take your keys and lock up the car. Oh, and you might want to grab your ammo.”

“What?”

“If you’re after a felon, you have to make it look real, don’t you?”

“You are crazy.”

“I’m a narc. Of course I’m a bit crazy.”

Dallas didn’t like this at all. Everything went as planned, and he caught up with his ‘felon’ in the Woodses’ barn. He’d managed to tuck his night-vision goggles into his shirt before he stopped Kent, then pulled his shotgun and ammo from the trunk before he took off chasing him.

Dallas wondered if anyone watching would think a cop running off after a drunk driver was fishy, but he hoped they bought it. He climbed the ladder to the hayloft and threw his gear ahead of him, then collapsed next to Kent.

“Are the Woodses at home?” he panted, out of breath.

“Yes,” Kent said, “but it’s my team. After Kira called Nick from the farm, he called me. I followed the Woodses home from church and got it all set up. Congratulations, by the way. I knew you two would hit it off.”

The guy was definitely crazy, being able to mix family life and the insane existence of an undercover narcotics officer.

“So where’s Cody?” Dallas put on his goggles and looked around.

“He’s downtown with the family. We’ll tail him.”

“And if we already have Cody, don’t we have the phone?”

“Cody claims he set up the exchange out here so no one would be around. He’s giving them the phone, but it has one of our tracker chips in it. We have the original chip, and have already found the money. The DEA is following the trail and is setting up the sting as we speak. Cody told Sorento that he’d meet them at the tractor in the field out there. I had Cody paint a peace sign on it so we can find it in the dark.”

“Sorento, the kingpin? You really think he’s going to meet Cody?”

“No, but I’m prepared, just in case,” Kent said.

Four hours later, they were still sitting in the pitch-black barn, waiting. Cody hadn’t showed up, and the trail never saw him leave the hotel.

“I’m heading over to the school,” Dallas said finally. It had been thirty minutes since the exchange was to have taken place. “Are you sure Cody hasn’t had any phone calls since you set this plan in motion? Maybe Sorento caught wind of the sting and changed the location.”

“We’ve put money in a suitcase under the tractor. He’ll show.”

“You wait here, then. I’m going to follow my hunch.”

Kent protested as Dallas quietly went down the ladder, wearing his goggles and the helmet that Kent had waiting for a backup officer. “Tell your team that it’s me going around the house to my car.”

“You get yourself killed, and my sister will never forgive me.”

Dallas hunched over to stay behind the hedge of lilacs, and ran to the police cruiser. He hadn’t seen a sign of anyone yet. He looked into the back of the vehicle before unlocking the door, then underneath to make sure no one was waiting to ambush him. The coast was clear.

He tore out, lights and siren blazing, headed for the high school. As Kent discussed Cody, Dallas had realized the one place he regularly saw the teen hang out was near the west side of the campus, where large pine trees and a statue of the school mascot stood. It had taken several days before Dallas had figured out there was one blind spot where he couldn’t see Cody. And the boy had used that to his benefit. It would make a perfect location to meet a drug dealer. Cody didn’t just want the kingpin caught, he wanted rid of him altogether, so no one would bother him or Betsy again.

Dallas turned off his lights and siren a few blocks away and stopped before he reached the school parking lot. Dallas jogged toward the school, staying in the shadows. Where’s the spotlight that’s usually on the mascot?Dallas wondered. When he put on the goggles, he noticed someone standing near the statue. Was it Cody? Or Sorento?

Dallas took a deep breath and let it out softly, in and out again, trying to slow his racing heart. God, guide me through the darkness and lead me to Sorento.

Scanning the area through the goggles, he spotted someone walking down the block toward the statue. He sighted in his shotgun and found them, then removed the goggles.

He was too far away. He looked around, wondering what else he could use as cover. He recalled the location of a tree and a trash can. Not quite a shield of armor, God, but you’ve had less to work with.He eased forward.

Each step sounded louder than the previous one. He stopped, but the noise continued. It wasn’t him making it.

He saw Cody running toward the statue. Shots fired and the youth fell. Dallas put the shotgun to his shoulder and trained it on a bulky figure. “So, kid, where’s the real phone? This isn’t Mickey’s.”

“That’s the one I took from him.” Cody ducked behind the statue, between Dallas and Sorento. “Maybe his was with the money. I told you we had to meet at the tractor.”

“You know as well as I do that we’d have had all sorts of company there. I wasn’t born yesterday.” The kingpin took a step around the statue and Dallas took aim.

“Sorento,” Dallas yelled, “you’re surrounded. Drop your weapons!” Cody jumped up and ran, and Dallas fired. The man collapsed, crumpling to the ground.

“Brooks?”

“Cody, stay put! You’re in deep trouble.”

“Better that than dead,” the kid said.

Dallas eased closer to the body, tossing a rock next to his hand to make sure he wasn’t playing dead. Sorento didn’t move. It shouldn’t have been this easy. Surely the man had been wearing a vest. Dallas kicked Sorento’s foot, his Glock ready to fire if the man flinched. “Sorento, I’m not naive enough to believe that one shot killed you, but make me fire again, and I’m not going to settle for anything less.”

Just then, Sorento rolled over and reached for the gun in his waistband.

Dallas shot, and as promised, he didn’t waste anyone’s time.

He called the station, but no sooner had he dialed than two cars arrived. “Cody? Did you call them?”

“Sure as shooting I did. If he’d have shot you, Sorento would have killed me in an instant, and then who’d have taken care of Betsy?”

“What you did was irresponsible, Cody. We were trying to help you.”

“I was more afraid of Sorento than I was of you or even Social Services. You seen what they put my mom through?”

As soon as his fellow officers were there to cover the body, Dallas stepped over the dead kingpin and gathered Cody in his arms.

“What phone did you use? I thought you gave the one to Sorento.”

“He just said it wasn’t the right one. I never said he had a working phone.”