Page 8 of Kent's Watch
The next morning,Rita arrived early and frowned when a police cruiser pulled in after her. After letting Zeke out of the vehicle, they both stood there and waited for the sheriff to exit his vehicle.
“Sheriff, what brings you here?” Rita asked as she slowly started toward the door. It was too early to deal with whatever he was here for without any coffee. She had forgotten to purchase some the night before and didn’t have any at home. After holding the door open for him, she immediately went to the small kitchenette in the breakroom and started a pot. Thank goodness Julie or Scott had prepared it the night before, so she only had to turn it on. Neither of them spoke until it finished brewing. Rita had worked with Jim Faulkner several times in the past when she and her crew had been called in on a search and rescue mission.
Once the coffee was done, she poured them both a cup. After the first sip, she looked at him with a small smile. “What brings you here? Do you need me or my team?”
“No,” Jim said as he sipped his coffee, then rubbed the back of his neck. “Late last night, a complaint came in about you.”
“Oh?” Rita thought she knew where it came from, but she wanted Jim to tell her.
“The complainant was drunk and slurred his words. I told the office that I would look into it this morning.”
“And?” Rita prompted when he remained silent for several moments.
“And, you are being accused of assault. Along with another person.”
“Am I allowed to ask who filed the complaint?”
“Timothy Vickers.”
“Okay,” Rita said as she turned on her heel and walked away. At the door to the breakroom she looked back and saw his shocked expression. “Follow me, and I’ll show you exactly what happened.”
“How can you do that?”
“Video.” Rita didn’t say any more as she went to her office. The first thing she did was see if there were any papers on her fax machine, there were. She skimmed over what was there, and made a copy of three pages. Once she had her copies, she handed them over to the sheriff.
“Those came in overnight from Stone over at BHP. I’m assuming you know him?”
“Yes, he’s married to Sparrow, one of my deputies. What are these?” he asked before he looked at them.
“After what happened yesterday, I called Jake, but got a message. Stone called me back. Anyway, I wanted a deep background check done on all my applicants. After you see this, you’ll understand why.” She cued up her computer and it took a good five minutes to find what she was looking for. Instead of making one copy of it, she made two, one for the sheriff, and one to keep in her safe for herself. She had forgotten to make a copy the night before.
Rita sat back when Jim leaned in and watched what took place and shook his head at her. “Are you freaking kidding me? He actually kicked a puppy?”
“Yes.”
“I recognize Scott and Julie, but who’s the other guy? The one with his hand on Vickers’s shoulder?”
“That’s Kent Palmer.” Rita rifled through the applications on her desk and pulled it so the sheriff could read it.
“Says here that Cogburn is his reference, along with one of the guys out at The Centre.”
“Yeah, his application came in after the cut-off date. I wasn’t going to accept it, but it turns out he just moved to town. Is he the other person Vickers complained about?”
“Yeah, what can you tell me about him?”
“Nothing. I mean I met him for the first time yesterday. You’ll get more information off that application than you’ll get from me. I do know that he knows what he’s doing when it comes to training dogs. It doesn’t say on his application, but the way he worked with his pup told me he’d done it before.”
“Can I have a copy of this?”
“Sure.” Rita took it back, and quickly made a copy of Kent’s and Tim’s applications. She handed them back and said that the others should be here around nine.
“How long do you train today?”
“Nine to three. I can hold Kent back if you want to wait until after class.”
“Why don’t I stop in about a half hour before you’re done so I can observe him. I have to say, I’ve never heard of him before. This will give me time to do a little of my own investigation check on him.”
“I know you won’t take my word for it, but he’s great with the dog he picked out.”
