Delores Fossen - Always A Lawman

“Where’s your gun?” Gabriel snapped.

“On the ground near my feet.”

Gabriel didn’t want it anywhere near this fool. “Walk toward us. Slowly. Don’t make any sudden moves, and remember that part about keeping your hands in the air.”

The guy gave a shaky nod, and he started toward them. Jameson came out from cover, his gun trained on the guy. Gabriel and Jodi did the same, and the moment he was close enough to Jameson, his brother hurried to the man, put him facedown on the ground and frisked him.

“Keep watch around us,” Gabriel told Jodi.

Her eyes widened a moment, and she must have realized that this man might have brought a friend or two with him.

Gabriel went closer to the guy, too, and handed Jameson a pair of plastic cuffs that he took from his pocket. Jameson immediately put them on him.

“Who the hell are you?” Gabriel asked the man.

Gabriel stooped down and yanked off the ski mask. His head was shaved, and there were several homemade tattoos on his forehead and neck. Definitely not someone Gabriel recognized, and judging from the way Jameson shook his head, neither did his brother.

“I’m not saying nothing until I talk to my lawyer,” the guy answered. He sounded pretty defiant for someone who’d just surrendered.

But Jodi had some defiance of her own. She got right in the guy’s face. “Where did you get that knife?”

He smiled. A sick kind of smile that had Gabriel’s insides twisting. He wasn’t sure what the heck this was all about, but he intended to find out.

“I’ll take him to the sheriff’s office,” Gabriel said. “He can call his lawyer, and I’ll question him.” Then, he turned to the guy and hoped he could change his mind about clamming up. “Just so you know, you’re looking at three counts of attempted murder.”

The guy smiled again. Gabriel sure didn’t. He silently cursed. Because they could be dealing with someone who was mentally unstable. If so, they might never get answers. But Jodi clearly wasn’t giving up on that just yet.

She was right at the goon’s side as Jameson started leading him back to the house. “Tell me where you got the knife.”

Gabriel doubted the guy was about to blurt out anything, but just in case, he went ahead and read him his rights. Jodi waited, the impatience all over her face, and the moment Gabriel finished, she repeated her demand.

Nothing. Well, she got nothing other than the smile that Gabriel wished he could knock off the idiot’s face.

“He’s too young to have been part of your attack,” Gabriel reminded Jodi. This guy was barely twenty, maybe still in his teens. He would have been just a kid a decade ago.

“He could still know something about it,” she pointed out just as quickly.

“Yeah,” Gabriel admitted. “That’s why I’ll handle this. You should go home, and I’ll let you know if he says anything.”

That earned him a glare. He’d expected it. She wasn’t about to back away from this, but Gabriel had to keep her at bay because he didn’t want her compromising his investigation.

“Need some help?” someone called out.

Cameron. The deputy was hurrying around the side of the house toward them. He, too, had his weapon drawn.

“Did you come here in your cruiser?” Gabriel asked him.

Cameron nodded. “Who is this guy? And why is the knife on the porch?”

Good questions. “I’m hoping he’ll tell me once we’ve booked him.” Gabriel tipped his head to the woods. “This clown left a gun out there. Keep an eye on it until the CSIs get here to collect it, and then I’ll need Jameson and you to drive him to the sheriff’s office. I’ll be right behind you as soon as I’ve talked to the CSIs.”

And after he’d had a look around.

Something more than the obvious wasn’t right.

Jameson headed to the cruiser with the prisoner, and Cameron started for the woods. Jodi didn’t budge.

“I want to be there when you question him,” she insisted.

“No.” And he wasn’t going to compromise on that. At best he would allow her to watch from the observation room, but Gabriel was sure even that wasn’t a good idea.

Gabriel looked at her, and that’s when he saw that she was trembling. Jodi realized he’d noticed, too, and she cursed under her breath.

“I’m fine,” she snapped. Her blond hair was damp with sweat, and she pushed it from her face. Her face was beaded with sweat, as well.

They stared at each other, until Jodi glanced away. “Sometimes, I have panic attacks,” she said.

He figured she had to be close to one now to admit something like that. It didn’t go well with her tough Sentry employee image.

“The water is still on in the house since it comes from a well. I wouldn’t drink it because there might be rust in the pipes, but it might help if you splash some on your face.”

But the moment he made the offer, it occurred to him why he still had that niggling feeling in his gut. Gabriel’s attention zoomed to the back door.

“What?” Jodi asked when she followed his gaze.

“The ladder’s there, but the back door was open when I went into the house.”

She made a sound to indicate she was giving that some thought. “Well, the guy used the ladder to escape. Jameson and I saw him running from it when we got to the backyard.”

Yeah. So, maybe the open back door had nothing to do with their perp. Still, Gabriel intended to check it out. When he’d run through the house to go in pursuit, he hadn’t looked around to see if anything else had been...disturbed.

Gabriel started toward the porch with Jodi following along behind him. Part of him wanted to tell her to stay put while he checked it out, but it might not be safe for her to be out here alone. Of course, she would believe she could take care of herself, but if that idiot had indeed brought help, there could be more gunfire.

He didn’t slow down until he reached the back door, and then Gabriel paused just to take in the room. The gray tile didn’t show the dust, which meant it didn’t show any footprints, either. That didn’t mean some weren’t there, though, so he used his elbow to open the door as wide as it would go, and he stepped to the side.

Jodi stayed in the doorway, but they seemed to spot something at the same time. She made a slight gasping sound.

Because the thing they spotted appeared to be drops of blood.

Gabriel reminded himself that it could be fake. Just like the blood on the knife. But that didn’t stop the tightness in his chest.

“Come inside but stay back,” he told her. He definitely didn’t want her following what appeared to be a trail of blood drops. Drops that led right to the pantry.

The door to the pantry was ajar but not open enough for Gabriel to see if there was anyone or anything inside. With his gun ready, he went closer, and behind him he could hear Jodi shifting her position, as well. No doubt getting ready in case they were about to be attacked again.

As soon as he was close enough, Gabriel gave the door a kick with the toe of his boot. He took aim.

Then he cursed.

Hell.

There was more blood here, pooled on the floor amid the toppled cans. And in the middle of all that blood was what appeared to be a dead body.

Chapter Three

Breathe.

Jodi kept repeating that reminder to herself.

She couldn’t keep taking in those short bursts of air that could cause her to hyperventilate. She needed normal breaths because that was her best bet right now at staving off a panic attack.

Gabriel certainly wasn’t doing anything to put her at ease. He was seated at his desk at the sheriff’s office building on Main Street in Blue River, and he was on his umpteenth phone call since they’d arrived two hours earlier. Jameson and Cameron were in the squad room, and they were doing the same thing.