Page 62 of Bait and Switch
“Casey, don’t do anything stupid. Let me be in charge of that.”
Casey turned on him, his expression something close to devastated. “How can you crack jokes right now?”
Gabe stared back at him, trying his best to telegraph that all would be okay. At least Eagan was there, right? Suddenly, he wondered if this was how Mickie Lundin had been arrested, ripped from his home in front of Casey and his family.
“I got you and Elton in my corner, right, Ranger Man?”
Casey nodded.
“Then everything will be fine,” Gabe said with a great deal more confidence than he felt.
Rizzi, apparently satisfied that Gabe was coming without a struggle, moved down the cement steps to wait next to Deputy Eagan.
“Let’s get this over with.” Gabe slipped his feet into his work boots, grabbed the jacket Casey had lent him, and stepped outside to place himself in the custody of the one person on Heartstone Island he trusted the least. He didn’t trust Spurring either but there was no sign of the chief deputy. At least Deputy Eagan was present; Gabe sensed the younger deputy was a good person. He turned back to the door. “We’ll get this sorted out. You two got this. I’ll be back by lunchtime, and you’ll regret it. Maybe make that call to a lawyer friend.”
He tried to figure out a way to insert the word backpack but failed. But he knew Elton and Casey would keep it safe, for now anyway.
With that, Gabe stepped out into the rain and held his hands out in front of him.
Until recently, Gabe had never deeply considered the phraseall hell breaking loose. It had just been one of those sayings that was tossed around. And now he’d thought it twice in less than thirty minutes.
“Sorry about this, sir,” Deputy Eagan whispered as she snapped the handcuffs around Gabe’s wrists. “It’s protocol.”
“Ah yes, protocol. One of my favorite words.”
The back door of the cruiser was open already, and he could see the security screen that protected cops from bad guys. Eagan led him toward the car, placing her hand on the top of his head when he bent to slide inside.
“You know, I’ve never actually ridden in the back of one of these before,” he said cheerfully, looking up at the young deputy. “First time for everything.”
“You’d be shocked to learn how many people tell me that.”
The cruiser had been parked at an angle, effectively blocking in Elton and Casey. As if they would try and stage some kind of getaway. Gabe briefly amused himself by imagining a car chase that circumnavigated Heartstone with Elton taking the lead in his twenty-five-year-old, six-ton beast while Casey, hunched over the Wagoneer’s steering wheel, took the back.
Without further conversation, Deputy Eagan walked around the back of the vehicle and slid into the driver’s seat. Gabe kept his attention on Rizzi. Something was off, something Gabe couldn’t put his finger on. The sheriff shot a scowl toward Elton’s house, shook his head, and started toward the cruiser. Was he limping? Gabe wasn’t sure if he’d had a limp a few days ago. Assuming not, how had he acquired it? Maybe by attacking Ranger Man in the dark? Gabe wouldn’t be shocked to learn Rizzi had been behind the assault. Did he know about the backpack, that it had been found? Was he or one of his “friends” responsible for putting it there?
Casey and Elton remained in the doorway. Gabe was disappointed he couldn’t give them a little finger wave, but the handcuffs made it impossible. Instead, he blinked his eyes several times and pretended to blow kisses. Elton squinted athim. Ranger Man’s reaction, a mix of horror and disgust, was exactly what Gabe had been aiming for.
Lemons and lemonade, right?
The cruiser’s engine rumbled to life and Deputy Eagan began to steer them off Elton’s property and onto the main road. Gabe thought about trying to make small talk but decided Rizzi didn’t deserve it and what he had to say might just piss him off anyway.
Instead, Gabe sat back, albeit uncomfortably, and watched the island’s scenery pass by.
A mere fifteen minutes later,they were turning into the TCSO parking lot. The pit in Gabe’s stomach that he had been trying to ignore the entire ride was morphing into a pothole.
How had Rizzi gotten the arrest warrant signed so quickly? Again, the thought that those papers hadn’t really been a warrant crossed his mind. Gabe knewhehadn’t murdered Peter, so maybe Rizzi had a judge in his pocket too? He would not be surprised. However, he hoped Elton and Casey were on the phone to a lawyer they trusted because he wasn’t opening his mouth again until he had legal counsel.
Rizzi took the lead, while Deputy Eagan escorted Gabe into the foyer. Elton’s crush was sitting behind the desk, her bespectacled eyes widening comically when she saw Gabriel come through the door. The arrest warrant much have arrived before she had. Which seemed—odd.
She gaped at them for a second and shook her head as if trying to make sense of it all.
Join the club.
Her gaze flicked to the left and down the hall that led to the various offices and the interview room Gabe had had the pleasure of visiting twice already that week. Gabe absently wondered if they’d aired it out yet.
“Um,” she said, half rising from her chair. “Sir?”
“I don’t have time for anything right now,” Rizzi said dismissively, moving—still with a slight limp—in the direction of Althea’s gaze.
