Truth and Consequences (2 page)

That brought her attention back to him. Her expression tightened—mouth pulling into a thin line, neat brows angled into a slight frown. Obviously, she wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of a questioning. “Long enough. Are you from around here?”

The double-edged question hung between them. She was interested in more than his address. She wanted to know if he was as corrupt as the men he worked with. “I grew up here. Graduated from Haynes-Chandler High School.”

Squinting, she studied his face. “So did I. I don’t remember you.”

Why would she? He’d been invisible back then. Still was, in too many ways to count. Invisibility was his strong suit. Jason forced his body to relax.

Hooking his thumbs in his gun belt, he stared down at her. “I doubt we moved in the same social circle, Agent Palmer.”

“Or maybe I was just classes ahead of you.” She broke eye contact first, glancing toward Jim Ed and Price again. Price had motioned Calvert over, and Jim Ed was talking, waving his hands in the air. “How did you come to work for the sheriff’s office?”

“Jim Ed’s my cousin.” With that statement, he had her immediate attention. She pursed her lips, sizing him up, Jason knew, tarring him with the same brush. The thought made him ill, his gut clenching. “He helped me get on the department.”

Jim Ed’s voice, suffused with anger, carried to them, the words indistinguishable with the commotion.

Palmer slipped her pen inside the leather notebook. Her teeth worried her lower lip for a second before the tip of her tongue soothed the spot. Heat flashed through Jason’s belly and he hoped it didn’t show on his face when she looked at him again.

She lifted an eyebrow. “Were you in law enforcement somewhere else?”

“No.” Lord, he wished this interest was in him as a man, not as a potential witness to a possible murder. Or a suspect. “Army.”

“You need to shut your damn mouth, Reese!” Calvert’s deep voice carried over the din of squawking police radios and male conversations.

Palmer spun and took a step toward the others. Calvert turned away, heading for his car, and the tight line of Palmer’s shoulders relaxed. Watching the smug smirk creep across Jim Ed’s face, Jason tensed. He knew that smile. It was the same one he’d seen Jim Ed wear as a kid, when he was hatching some minor act of cruelty, like stuffing kittens into Pringles cans to roll them down a hill or flicking firecrackers at the neighbor’s chained-up dog.

Jim Ed hooked his thumbs in his pockets and spat into the weeds at the side of the road. “Hey, Calvert. Forgot to ask. How’s your sister? I should pay her a little visit one of these days.”

Calvert stiffened and stalked back to Jim Ed, talking so quietly that his words didn’t carry this time. Price placed an arm between them. “All right, boys, that’s enough.”

An ugly laugh rent the air and Jim Ed shoved Price’s arm away. “Boy? How big do they grow the men where you come from, Price? Calvert might be a boy, but I’m all man, baby.”

“Yeah,” Calvert drawled. “It takes a big man to shoot a couple of kids.”

Jim Ed’s face darkened, and he stepped forward, hands clenching, unclenching, clenching again at his sides. “Shut up.”

“Oh, hell.” Palmer strode toward the two men and Jason started after her. Although he had no doubt the agent could hold her own, he knew Jim Ed, and he didn’t want Palmer caught in this. Two distinct groups of deputies gathered to watch the confrontation.

“Tick, back off.” Palmer’s voice indicated she didn’t intend to be disobeyed. “Get in your car.”

Calvert took a step back, his gaze locked on Jim Ed. “You’re a disgrace to your badge, Reese.”

Jim Ed laughed. “I’m not the one taking orders from a woman. Still a mama’s boy at heart, aren’t you?”

Her face stiff with anger, Palmer wrapped a hand around Calvert’s upper arm. “Move, Tick. In the car. Now.”

Calvert didn’t budge. “Speaking of mama’s boys, Jim Ed, the next time you visit Billy up at the state prison, tell him I said hey.”

With a snarled curse, Jim Ed slammed a punch into Calvert’s jaw, missing Palmer by inches. A startled expression on her face, she stepped back. Calvert staggered, but didn’t fall. Jim Ed got one more punch in and the hard right caught Calvert in the face. Jason winced at the sound of bone against bone. With an inarticulate growl, Calvert lunged and both men hit the ground with a thud, rolling in the dusty gravel.

Disgust twisting her face, Palmer strode toward the two, and Jason didn’t miss the incredulous glance Price shot her way. “I know you’re not going to try to break that up.”

Palmer threw her hands up. “I suppose we should just let them kill each other?”

Sighing, Jason signaled for a couple of deputies to help him. He’d pulled Jim Ed out of fights before. What was one more?

His movement collided with Palmer’s step back. Her feet tangled with his and she pitched forward. Jason reached out, snagged an arm around Palmer’s waist and pulled her upright. She was lighter than he expected, and the force of his tug brought the line of her back into direct contact with his chest. Her clean scent filled his nostrils and warmth flashed along his nerves.

Deputies moved in to separate the two men. Palmer attempted to wriggle free of his hold, her hip brushing his groin. Jason swallowed a groan and tightened his arm around her waist. “Stop. You almost—”

“Let go of me.” The words emerged on an enraged growl and she shoved his arm, stepping away from his body. She glared, disdain curling her mouth. “I don’t need to be protected, Harding.”

Jason stepped back, hands aloft. “Sorry I tried, Palmer. Next time I’ll let you fall on your ass.”

She turned her icy stare on Jim Ed and Calvert. Two Haynes County deputies held Jim Ed, blood, sweat and dust covering his face. Sporting what would be one killer black eye, Calvert stood on his own, the young officer from Chandler County keeping a restraining hand on his arm.

“Real professional behavior, gentlemen. I expected better from you, Tick.” Palmer cast one last disgusted look at them. “Get off this scene before I arrest both of you.”

Spinning, she walked toward the crime scene technicians, who stared, open-mouthed. Jason watched her go, still tingling from the brief feel of her body against his.

Jason set a can of soda in front of Jim Ed before popping the tab on his own can. A small icy spray hit his fingers and he took a long sip. Jim Ed rolled his can across his swollen lip. “Son of a bitch has one coming for this.”

Deciding not to comment on Jim Ed’s starting the fight, Jason settled into a battered vinyl chair. They were alone in the squad room. Behind them, the television played the twenty-four-hour news channel, providing a kind of white noise.

He lifted an eyebrow at his cousin. “You still hold a grudge against him?”

Jim Ed’s face darkened in a vicious scowl. “Billy’s sitting in prison, doing a life sentence, for charges that son of a bitch trumped up.”

Forget the DNA evidence that had everything to do with the four rape convictions. Forget that Calvert’s sister had been only nineteen when Billy attacked her. Jason sipped his soda again and tried to look sympathetic. “Do you think—”

“I hope the other boy looks worse than you, Jim Ed.” Sheriff Bill Thatcher’s booming words obliterated the background noise from the television.

His voice thick, Jim Ed muttered something else about that “son of a bitch Calvert”. Jason dropped his head back, wishing his cousin had a broader vocabulary.

Thatcher’s heavy hand slapped Jason on the shoulder. “Guess you just missed all the excitement of that chase, didn’t you, boy?”

Opening his eyes, Jason sat up. “Yes, sir.”

Thatcher leaned on the scarred table and studied his clean, blunt nails. “Jim Ed says that Palmer girl had a lot of questions for you.”

Jason blew out a disgusted sigh. “It was bull.”

“She can be awful persistent. Gets it from her daddy.” Thatcher lifted his gaze, pinning Jason with a sharp look. “So how much of that chase did you see?”

Jason shrugged. “I didn’t see nothing. When I got there, it was all over.”

“Is that what you told Palmer?”

“Yes, sir.”

Thatcher grinned, his rugged face younger than his sixty-odd years. “Good boy. With that attitude, you should go far around here.”

“Thank you, sir.” Feeling like a dog patted on the head by an indulgent master, Jason waited until Thatcher retreated to his office. “Who is Palmer’s daddy?”

Jim Ed made a disparaging sound in his throat. “She’s Talley Palmer’s daughter. Playing at law enforcement.”

“Talley Palmer, the state representative?”

Jim Ed nodded. “Yeah.”

Jason stared at him. “That was Kathleen Palmer?”

“Yeah.” Jim Ed shot him a sly look. “Why? She get you hard the way she did back in high school, prancing around in that little cheerleader outfit?”

He ignored the gibe. “I thought she married some law student from Mercer.”

That had been his sophomore year of high school, the year after Kathleen graduated. He was still trying to reconcile the cold agent with the bubbly, popular girl from high school. Man, had he been wrong when he’d said they moved in different social circles back then. More like different universes.

“It didn’t last.” Jim Ed drained his soda, grimacing. “Wish it had. Then she wouldn’t be here, being a pain in the ass. She’s not gonna let this mess with these boys lie, either. Mark my words, she’ll try to stir something up.”

A shiver traveled over Jason’s skin at Jim Ed’s dark look. Jason remembered the sun shining on Kathleen’s hair. For her sake, he hoped she left well enough alone this time.

“Altee? You want beer or soda?”

“Soda.” Altee’s contented voice drifted through the open patio doors. Kathleen grinned. Her partner lived just across the lake, but swore the view was better on Kathleen’s deck. Probably because the view included the two muscular college kids who lived next door.

Grabbing two diet sodas, Kathleen padded barefoot onto the deck. She set the cans on the table and took the plate Altee proffered. The spicy aroma of onions and peppers rose from the open pizza box on the table. Her stomach growled and she took one more piece than usual.

Settled into her chair, she rested her feet on the deck railing and watched several ducks weave between the cypress trees on the lake below. A breeze wafted in, cooling the evening air and tickling her toes. She tried to let the normalcy soothe her—the lake, her home, Altee’s presence—but calm didn’t come. Nerves continued to jump in her stomach; images continued to replay in her mind. “Was that a mess today or what?”

“Which part? The dead bodies or Reese and Calvert acting like middle school boys?”

“Both.” Irritation curled through her again. Let her show the least amount of bitchiness and accusations of PMS rained down. But male officers could act like Neanderthals and no one said a thing. The contrast would be funny if it weren’t so pitiful. “You know that wasn’t a suicide.”

Altee snorted. “Gee, what gave it away? The fact the gun in the floorboard was a throwaway with no prints? You know, the gun they shot themselves with. Or the mere fact that Jim Ed Reese is involved?”

After a sip of soda, Kathleen settled deeper into the chair and leaned her head back. “This is going to be the case from hell. No witnesses, so everything hinges on the forensics. That’ll be fun to explain to a Haynes County jury. We’ll be lucky if Tom even agrees to take it to trial.”

“He’s a DA. If the evidence is there, it’s his duty to take it to trial.” Altee’s husky voice held equal amounts of idealism and frustration.

Kathleen shot her a wry look. “He’s a politician and it’s an election year. Haynes County makes up at least a third of his district. Sure, he’s going to take an iffy case against their chief deputy to trial.”

Grinning, Altee waved a slice of pizza at her. “Careful. You’re starting to sound like a bitter ex-wife.”

“It’s been over too long for me to be bitter.” Kathleen savored a bite of pizza. The girl who’d married Tom McMillian had been another person, had lived another life. She didn’t remember that girl any longer.

That same girl had gone to high school with Jason Harding. The recollection of his face came too easily, and she tried to place his sun-streaked hair and light green eyes on a younger face. The effort failed, because in her mind she saw his stubborn jaw and the fine lines fanned out from his eyes, remembered the way his mouth moved when he talked, revealing white teeth. She rubbed a finger down the side of her soda can, droplets of condensation scattering in her wake. He’d claimed they’d moved in different social circles; maybe that was why she couldn’t remember him. The next time she was at Mama’s, she’d have to look for him in one of her old yearbooks…

Hold up there, Kathleen. What the hell are you thinking? You’re not looking for anything where this guy is concerned, except maybe the truth.

And she wouldn’t find that in any old yearbook.

“We’re not sure there weren’t any witnesses.” Altee’s matter-of-fact voice dragged Kathleen from her reverie.

“What do you mean?”

“Harding said he arrived basically the same time as Calvert.”

“Right.”

“Haynes and honesty don’t exactly go together, remember? What if he got there a few minutes or even seconds earlier? What if he saw something and just doesn’t want to rat out good ol’ Jim Ed?”

A faint unease stirred in Kathleen and she frowned. “Did we ask Calvert about Harding’s statement?”

Altee’s playful grin did little to settle Kathleen’s anxiety. “No. He was too busy leaving to escape your wrath.”

Kathleen snorted and dropped her feet to the deck. “Right. What do you say we go ask him?”