Page 88 of The Woman Left Behind

“Yeah, Harry?”

“Also put a BOLO out on that asshole.”

“You got that too.”

“And while we’re ratcheting shit up, I want regular drive-bys, day and night, at the Dietrichs’ home and office.”

“Got that as well.”

She hesitated, and when Harry said no more, she hung up.

Harry shoved his phone back in his pocket and returned to Theresa.

“Can we have a copy of the actual report?” he gritted.

“My freaking pleasure,” she stated, rising from her chair.

He handed it to her, and she stormed out.

Harry turned to Rus. “I don’t think Dern knew about this. This was Roy.”

“This was Roy,” Rus agreed. “Roy taking advantage of a chief officer who didn’t pay dick attention.”

“At the same time punting it to him so if anyone asked questions, Dern was the investigator on record.”

“Threw his buddy right under the bus.”

Harry wanted to find some pleasure in the fact that one of Dern’s loyal soldiers set him up like that, but he couldn’t.

Because now he also had a seven-year-old murder on his hands, and he had to find some way to break it to Muggsy Ballard’s mother that his department had wholly failed her and her son in the sense that there was an active cover-up of his murder which no one had noticed until now.

“Shit,” Harry muttered.

“Yeah,” Rus sighed. “Fuckin’ shit.”

TWENTY-TWO

Time Portal

Harry

Rus dropped him at home so Harry could leave his cruiser at the station and drive his truck to Lillian’s.

Rus was then going to his place to get the dogs and bring them back into town.

Harry had told him he didn’t have to drive all the way out to Bonner Mountain and back in when Harry could fetch his pups, but Rus insisted.

“With all this shit swirling, your time is gonna be limited, and whatever free time you got, you need for Lillian. I can bring the dogs in, and then Maddie and I can have dinner at the Double D.”

He and Lillian were both getting an education on the loyalty they’d earned, and Harry was grateful for it.

Now, he’d packed heavy, had enough dog food in his truck to last weeks, the dogs had their own go bag of rawhides and toys, but before he took off for Lillian’s, he hit go on a number he hadn’t touched in years.

Dern didn’t answer, it went to voicemail.

Not a surprise when he would’ve seen Harry’s name come up on his screen.

But Harry didn’t hesitate to leave a message.

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