Page 88 of Night Hawk
Sierra’s mouth dropped open. “You’re in love with her.”
“Am I?” he asked, but he knew the answer.
“Sure seems like it.” Sierra sounded a little bit too eager. “She’s a wonderful person, and I’d love to have her in the family.”
“You’re getting a little ahead of yourself there.”
“You know me.”
“Yeah, mini-Mom.” He laughed and it felt good to let a bit of his frustration and angst go. And good to have a talk with Sierra. Since she got married they didn’t get together as often as they used to, and he missed her. Not that he would admit that to her.
Footsteps pounded down the hallway. Blake, dressed in his usual work attire of black tactical pants and coach’s shirt embroidered with the Veritas Center’s logo, stepped into the room. He bid Clay’s parents a good morning on the way past.
“Mom made coffee,” Clay said. “Mugs are above the pot, but I gotta warn you. It’ll be strong.”
“The stronger the better. Amelia might not be here, but I still woke up like it was her middle of the night feeding.” He shook his head and made his way to the counter.
Sierra poured more hot water into her mug. “So that’s what I have to look forward to.”
“For a while anyway.” Blake turned with a stoneware mug, steam rising from it.
Clay told him about the twine. “Means we’ve tied Rader and possibly Sharkey together in another way.”
“Tied?” He groaned. “Pretty bad pun for this time of the morning.”
“His puns are usually bad, no matter the time of day.” Sierra laughed.
“Guilty, but in this case I’m so tired, I didn’t even know I said it.”
Blake took a sip of his coffee. “You still want me to talk to Trent this morning.”
“Actually, I’d like to meet with him again. Compare some notes. Maybe he’ll reciprocate if we share more of what we know.”
Blake’s eyebrow went up. “If I were still sheriff, I wouldn’t, but then he’s not me.”
“Why wouldn’t you?” Clay challenged.
“Fear of details getting out to the public and compromising the investigation.”
“Here’s the thing, though.” Clay leaned forward. “He’s got to be dealing with far more than he can handle. He either takes our help or he’ll have to call in the state police or FBI.”
Blake leaned back against the counter. “He doesn’t have to do either of those things.”
“But he has so much on his plate. The body at the high school. Rader’s murder. Likely six or more bodies found on Rader’s property. And now, he has Sharkey in custody and pictures of murdered individuals and videos of Hibbard with underage girls. Tons of them. How does Trent handle all that himself with limited resources?”
“I agree he needs help.” Blake crossed his feet at the ankles. “Just pointing out he doesn’t have to call in help. It’s up to him.”
Clay was starting to get frustrated with Blake. “And what would you do if you were in this situation?”
Blake tapped his finger on his mug and stared at it for a few seconds before looking up. “You know me. I’m a control freak and would like to keep things in house if I knew we could do the job well. So maybe I’d look for people I could trust to deputize and bring onto my force.”
“You wouldn’t call in another agency?” Clay clarified.
“Not if I had qualified people I could tap. Too much red tape and jockeying for control. Wastes time. But if I had someone I could trust to run point on each of these areas, that’s what I’d do.”
“Like who?”
“Me for one. Trent could use me.” Blake’s eyes brightened. “In fact, I might go ahead and suggest it. Even go so far as to volunteer.”
