Page 63 of Claimed By the Deputies

“We’ve got someone coming in from the DEA. I didn’t care for her tone over the phone, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Lucas replies. “I’ll see you guys soon.”

He hangs up, leaving us with a hell of a lot more questions than answers.

15

TASSIA

After three long weeks of poring over images and evidence boxes with no new patterns emerging, we now have to deal with the DA hanging out with the very man we’re investigating.

On top of that, the Drug Enforcement Agency has waltzed into Frost Valley like they own the town. I slide into Lucas’s shadow as we walk into the bullpen, flooded with DEA windbreakers.

A woman with platinum blonde hair and cold blue eyes looks especially agitated. “Agent Susan Patterson,” she says to Lucas as she steps out of his office and holds up her badge. “Fancy running into you here, Mrs. Callaghan.”

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” I mumble, suddenly feeling like an ant under a microscope.

“Oh, I knowyou.”

“What is this about, Agent? It sounded urgent,” Lucas cuts in, his brow furrowed and his jaw clenched—the first signs he’s about to lose his cool.

My instincts are flaring as Mitch and Tyler rush into the bullpen, looking just as concerned and confused. I catch a glimpse of Sherry smirking from behind her desk. The other deputies are out in the field and all eyes seem to be on me.

Why?

“We’re here on official business,” Patterson declares. “We followed Trevor Callaghan into town.”

“Callaghan?” Lucas repeats the last name.

My stomach drops. “He’s here?”

“Who’s here?” Mitch asks.

“Tassia’s husband,” Patterson replies, giving me a once-over.

“Ex-husband,” I manage, raising my hands in meek defense. “You don’t think?—”

“I don’t think what? That Trevor has dirty business going down in Frost Valley and he had you infiltrating the sheriff’s department to get a leg up?”

“What?”

This can’t be happening. I don’t see the sense in it, and I can’t identify the pattern. I certainly did not see any of it coming.

As if he can feel my anxiety swelling, Lucas inches closer. He does it in a subtle manner, enough to make me understand I’m safe but not to stir Laura Patterson’s ire straight away.

“Agent Patterson, I need you to explain this in layman’s terms,” he says. “Catch us up before you start pointing fingers in the wrong direction.”

Patterson smirks before slapping a printed photograph of Trevor onto our murder board. It’s a mugshot. Not his finest moment, but I would recognize his red hair and cold blue eyes from a mile away.

“Are any of you familiar with Trevor Callaghan?” she asks.

“Faintly,” Tyler replies.

“He was supposed to serve six years in Sing Sing for a slew of drug trafficking charges, but for some reason, he got early release,” she says, then looks at me. “Seeing as you’re getting cozy with the local law enforcement, I’m inclined to suspect you had something to do with it.”

“Ma’am, I assure you, I am just as baffled that he’s out early,” I rush to reply, shaking my head. “I have nothing to do with the man, nor do I wish to ever cross paths with him again.”

“Right,” she scoffs. “So, Callaghan coming to Frost Valley while you’re hanging out with the sheriff and have unfettered access to the department’s evidence room is just… what, coincidence?”

Lucas clears his throat. “Agent Patterson, we’re well aware of Tassia’s criminal history, but we fully vetted her through the New Beginnings program for this position. I resent your accusations. If she says she has nothing to do with the guy anymore?—”

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