Page 45 of Eye on the Ball
I remembered the hats. Maybeexcitingwasn’t exactly what I wanted, after all.
22
Jack
When we walked into the sheriff’s offices, we could still hear Riverton’s jerk of a sheriff yelling at Susan. The sound made me so angry I wanted to shift into tiger shape and swat him across the room and out the door.
Alejandro let loose with a string of melodic words that I was sure would have turned the air around us blue if I’d understood them.
“This sheriff is a fool,” he said tightly. “I’m going to play the fed card and pull rank over him, but I don’t want to step on Susan’s toes.”
“She called us in,” I reminded him. “She probably wants a more diplomatic solution to this than pulling out her gun and throwing his butt in jail.”
“I’m not ruling that out.”
We waved at Dead End’s newest deputy, Lizzie Underhill, who was sitting at a desk and clearly worried. The deputy was tall and lean in her neatly pressed uniform. She had dark brown eyes, short brown hair, warm brown skin, and a serious demeanor. She also had a lovely, shy smile when she wasn’t caught in the middle of a situation like this one.
Lizzie was going to be a great law enforcement officer, but she was still pretty new. She was also already partially a werewolf, and it occurred to me that Riverton’s Deputy Reynolds might be an excellent resource for her, if she’d agree to talk to him.
But that was for another day.
Right now, we needed to make a show of force for Susan.
Alejandro, as the one with a badge, led the way, and I followed right behind him.
Sheriff Lawless was in Susan’s office, bellowing. “And if you think?—”
Susan cut him off. “Here is what I think,Bernard.First, you will leave my office before I arrest you for disturbing the peace, which, trust me, I really,reallywant to do. Second, you will cease and desist trying to arrest Brenda, a resident of Dead End, for an alleged crime that took place in Dead End, which even you will have to admit ismyjurisdiction. Third, if you leave right this minute, I might even agree to keep you informed on what I discover.”
His face turned so red I wondered if he’d spontaneously combust.
One could hope.
“Hello, sheriff. You called for the FBI?”
Lawless whipped around to stare at us. He’d been yelling so loudly he hadn’t heard us arrive. “You,” he growled, pointing at me. “You—you?—”
“Yes, it’s me,” I said in my most bored voice.
“I am thesheriffof Riverton,” Lawless shouted at us. He pointed to the silver star pinned to his shirt.
His face reddened even more until it was almost purple, but then Alejandro pulled out his federal agent badge and held it up. “Mine is bigger.”
Lawless sputtered something almost unintelligible, and then he shoved past us, being sure to hit me in the side with his elbow as he passed me. When he reached the front door, he turned back and shook his fist at us. “You’d better call me when you hear anything, little girl!”
Then he slammed his way out.
“Did he actually shake his fist, like a cartoon character?” I started laughing.
“At least he didn’t call you a little girl,” Susan said tiredly.
“I think he meant me,” Alejandro said, grinning at her.
“How did lowlifes like those Lawless buffoons ever get elected to sheriff?” I didn’t understand that one at all.
Susan sighed. “Their grandfather was actually a great guy, according to my granny. A war hero, a community leader, and a very honorable man. The name Lawless, ironically enough, came to mean law enforcement around here. His son and daughter and their sons, the Lawless men you’ve met, followed him into law enforcement. But the grandfather’s stellar character sure didn’t carry down to the grandsons. I think they got elected by the name alone. Nobody in either town will ever make that mistake again.”
Alejandro and Susan started talking jurisdictional issues, and I wandered back out into the central office space to say hi to Lizzie. When she saw me, she stood and waved me over.