Page 60 of Claimed By the Deputies

“I’m okay, I promise,” I say, hoping he believes me.

“You know you can tell me if something is on your mind, if something’s bothering you, right?”

“I know. And thank you.”

“Okay.”

I can tell he doesn’t believe me, but he’s not pushing me, either. I appreciate that and give him a soft smile. “What do you think about that whole exchange in there?” I ask, eager to change the subject.

“I think you hit all the right buttons with Dexter. The drug code, the threat on Jade’s killer. That right there was smooth.”

“Hopefully it works. What’s your opinion of their reactions?”

“Guilty as hell and unsure what to do next. They’re frozen,” Lucas says. “I don’t think killing Billy Jade was their idea. It might’ve been an order from someone higher up.”

“From whoever is really running the operation.”

“Precisely. They drink more than they ride. They’re not smart enough to run a successful operation for years on end.”

I nod in agreement. “So you’re thinking the mayor?”

“Or someone close to him. I can’t tell for sure. We just have to keep an eye on every person of interest we have until hopefully someone slips up.”

That’s the ugly part of any investigation. The waiting. The watching. The swelling and then dwindling hope that something might yield a way forward, something will pop up and crack the whole thing wide open.

Or the bad guys might just get away with it all.

14

TYLER

Three weeks go by in unsettling silence, at least as far as our investigation goes. We keep hitting dead ends where Billy Jade’s murder is concerned. The entire department is on high alert, but we still don’t seem to be getting anywhere.

All we can do is keep following key people, such as the mayor’s aide, Jerry Spring. Mitch and I have been consistently tailing him over the past couple of weeks in an unmarked car.

Sitting behind the wheel, across the street from a popular French bistro in town, I watch Jerry enjoy lunch with Dominique, the mayor’s assistant.

“They look cozy,” Mitch grumbles, nursing his fourth coffee of the day.

“He doesn’t usually take her out for lunch, though,” I say. “This is new.”

“Jotting it down in our notes anyway.”

I think of Tassia and how much deeper we’ve gotten with her. The closer we get, the more concerned I become that she’shiding something, possibly something important. Maybe it’s the limbo of this investigation that’s getting to her. Or maybe it’s something else. Lucas doesn’t know what it is either but insists we let Tassia come to us when she’s ready to talk about it.

“Any word from the tech guys?” I ask Mitch, trying to get my mind off her.

“About the footage from the holding cells? No, nothing. The whole system was compromised. Whether it was done remotely or from within the station, we’ll never know. What we do know is that whoever killed Billy Jade had inside help.”

“One of ours,” I mutter.

“Yes.”

The thought that it could have been one of our brothers in blue or someone on the auxiliary staff turns my stomach. Tassia is out of the question, obviously. She’s been by our side the whole time. Internal Affairs tried to grill her, but we were with her every step of the way and they had no choice but to clear her.

“What about the MC?” I ask.

“Lucas and Tassia are still tailing them. Nothing so far.”

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