Page 21 of Eye on the Ball
“Hold on. Forever, unless—and this is a big unless—you ever pull anything like this again. If you do, I’ll give the paper to the sheriff, and you’ll be in big trouble.”
“Like double jeopardy,” he said in an awed tone.
“Yes, exactly like double jeopardy.”
It was nothing like double jeopardy, but whatever scared him straight, so to speak.
“Do you agree?”
He did.
We put the plan in place. Luckily, it was slow for a Saturday, so we weren’t interrupted. After I put the signed statement in my cash register drawer, Joe Bob shoved his hands in his pockets.
“I guess I should go now?”
I argued with myself for a good minute before sighing and shaking my head. “How about we look at engagement rings, instead? I can set you up with a payment plan.”
The pure joy on his face made up for everything else. He even rushed at me with his arms out, like he wanted to hug me, before he skidded to a stop.
“Sorry, Tess! Sorry. I won’t touch you. I know better.”
“No worries. Now, does Donna prefer silver or gold?”
We spent an enjoyable quarter of an hour picking out Donna’s engagement ring, and I even threw in a magically enhanced toy truck that drove itself around the room for an hour every morning for her little boy. He signed all the paperwork, gave me a down payment, and gleefully headed off to his job at the Dead End Feed Store, saved from his future as a terrible criminal and potential jailbird.
On balance, I felt pretty good about it. Even smug.
Until Jack called and said he was at the Riverton sheriff’s office, where they’d just arrested Brenda for suspected murder.
9
Jack
After less than fifteen minutes in his presence, I was convinced that Sheriff Bernard Lawless of Riverton was as much of a dirtbag as his cousin Bertram Lawless, the former Dead End sheriff.
Even more fun? Both of them hated my guts.
I stood outside the law enforcement building that housed the Riverton jail and sheriff’s office. It was a squat, ugly building made of concrete blocks that looked like it had been designed by a drunken bureaucrat who’d hated his job.
After I’d called Dead End deputy Andy Kelly for input on what to do, Brenda and I had taken his advice and contacted the Riverton sheriff’s department. If I’d known the sheriff was another Lawless, I probably would have advised Brenda to take someone—anyone—else. The situation was enough of a mess without the sheriff’s grudge against me for my part in getting his cousin sent to prison further messing things up.
But I hadn’t known, so here we were. Well, hereshewas, in danger of being tossed in jail, and hereIwas, kicked out of the building entirely.
A big guy roughly the size of a Sasquatch and almost as hairy walked out of the building. He wore a deputy’s uniform, so I didn’t know if he was looking for me to kick my butt for the sheriff. When he saw I was watching him, though, he nodded at me and jerked his head to the right toward a diner next door. I waited for a beat and then followed him in. He took a seat at a booth in the back and waved me over.
A plump, pretty server bustled over and ruffled his hair. “Hey, gorgeous. Come here often?”
He caught her hand and kissed it, and I noticed their matching wedding rings. “Just coffee, honey. Shepherd, you want coffee? I’m Reynolds. This is my wife, Vicki.”
“Vicki Reynolds. Nice to meet you, Shepherd.”
“It’s Jack. Nice to meet you too. Yes, to coffee, please.”
When she went to get our coffee, Reynolds sized me up. “All right. First, don’t judge all of us by that jerk wearing the sheriff’s badge. We can’t wait to get him out of office, and preferably in whatever dark hole of a jail y’all got his cousin dumped in.”
“Noted. Is Brenda okay? Did he arrest her?”
He held up a hand, and his wife came over and poured us coffee.