Devils Among Us (Devin Dushane Series Book 1)

by Chastity Harris

  Once she got home Devin decided to water the hot pink and white wave petunias she had chosen for the planter boxes before the heat of the day set in. The elderly couple that ran the greenhouse assured her that with daily watering they would be exploding with blooms in a few short weeks, and would “bring her porch to life”. Time would tell; she’d never even owned a cactus. After that she put a load of laundry in the washer, called to check on Marcy, and then sat down to write out her notes from talking with Dean this morning. By the time she actually changed into jeans and a fitted cap-sleeved brown t-shirt and got back downtown, it was lunch time. Devin parked by the Sheriff’s office but strolled over to Maggie’s Diner across the square. Sure enough Adam was in the last booth in the back corner, eating by himself. She slid in across from him.

  “Buy a girl a milkshake?”

  He lit up like the sun had just risen for the first time during the rainy season. “Devin! What a nice surprise. I’ll buy you anything you like for some decent lunch company for once.” His boyish grin was charming and it was so nice to have someone happy to see her.

  “How did you manage to escape Shane for an entire lunch hour? Did you insult his delicate sensibilities?” She reached over and stole one of his fries.

  “He had errands to run, but he’s gonna be sick to know I had you all to myself for an hour.” He slid his plate across the table to offer her another French fry.

  Their favorite waitress approached the table for Devin’s order with her blonde ponytail bouncing enthusiastically behind her.

  “Afternoon Detec…” Devin cocked an eyebrow at her and she changed up midsentence “...um Devin. What can I get you today?” Her pen was already poised over her pad.

  “Casey, I’d like to know what your best milkshake flavor is.” She swiped another fry off of Adam’s plate. Casey and Adam answered at the same time.

  “Chocolate peanut butter.”

  “Peach peppermint.”

  Casey and Devin turned to stare at Adam in horror. “Peach peppermint? That’s disgusting. That may be even more disgusting than iced tea. Casey, I’m going with you on this, I’ll have the chocolate peanut butter.” Casey nodded her head in agreement, not bothering to write down the order. She was still staring at Adam as if he had some grave disease as she backed away from the table.

  “You were just trying to freak her out, right? I would peg you as a straight vanilla shake guy, maybe strawberry if you’re feeling feisty.” She leaned back against the vinyl of the booth and propped an elbow on the back of the seat to rest her head on her hand, but she kept her gaze steady. His gaze was steady as well, tracing the shape of her full lips until she smirked and jerked her chin up slightly to get his attention. He laughed easily at being caught so blatantly staring.

  “Hey, who are you to judge me? From what I hear, you eat tree bark.” His eyes were still twinkling with mischief.

  “Oh, really? Gee, I wonder where you would have heard that?”

  He leaned across the table and motioned her to lean in. She folded her arms on the Formica table top and brought her face a few inches from his.

  He whispered conspiringly, “As a well-connected detective, I can’t reveal my sources. Just know I’m plugged in to the pulse of this community.” He nodded sagely with narrowed eyes as he leaned back in his seat. Devin nodded along with him as her milkshake appeared.

  “Ahh. I see.” She plucked out the miniature peanut butter cup nestled in whipped cream and popped the whole thing into her mouth, closing her eyes in a moment of bliss. After she had finished chewing and licked the leftover cream off of her lips, Devin flicked her eyes back to Adam.

  “So when did you talk to Henry?” She had to work hard on the thick milkshake to get a sip, but it was worth it. She turned and gave Casey two thumbs up.

  Adam was diving in to the second half of his Reuben sandwich with a wide smile. “I saw him at the grocery store last night. He was very proud of the fact that he was shopping for his dinner with you tonight.” He took a huge bite of his sandwich and wiggled his eyebrows at her. It took all her willpower to keep milkshake from shooting out of her nose.

  “You know, my friend Marcy works in the cardiac unit at St. Mary’s Hospital, and she said last week they had a pharmaceutical rep bring them lunch and do a presentation about a drug that removes fat from your arteries. I think I’m going to need about a half a dozen of those for my after dinner mints tonight.”

  “What time are you going over? I’ll start saying a prayer for your cardiac health.”

  “Five-thirty, so my heart would appreciate some divine intervention around seven o’clock.”

  He chuckled as he sucked some thousand island dressing off his thumb. “Speaking of interventions, we didn’t get any calls of an assault in progress this morning, so I take it you left Delluca in one piece?”

  She scoffed at him. “Please! He was a teddy bear. Some hardened criminal he turned out to be.”

  He had been in the process of flagging the check down, but he paused to cast a wary eye at her. “Devin, seriously. That guy is trouble…”

  She held up a hand to stop him. “Save it, I’ve been a cop for a long time. I can call a spade a spade. He was nothing but helpful, and I think he actually liked me.”

  Casey brought their check and a to-go cup for the rest of Devin’s shake.

  “Of course he liked you. There’s a line around the block of men in this town that like you.” He looked a little sour as he grabbed the check.

  “Hmm, jealous much?” She cocked her head and an eyebrow at him.

  He blushed ever so slightly as he grinned at her, and pulled his wallet out to dig for a tip. “Did Delluca give you anything you could use?”

  She transferred what was left of her shake into the Styrofoam cup. What was left would constitute a large in most restaurants. “I’m not sure, I want to take a look at a few things in the files this afternoon, but it sounds like his alibi was sound. He pointed me back to some holes that just keep resurfacing. Someone is definitely holding something back, and that may be the key. We’ll see.”

  He held the door for her as they strolled into the oppressive heat of the summer afternoon. The timing could not have been any better. They were halfway across the square when Shane’s F-250 pick-up pulled off Main Street into the space behind Devin’s Mustang. She couldn’t be sure from that distance, but Devin would swear that Shane was scowling at the two of them walking together. He stepped out of the truck with a grocery bag in one hand and a case of diet soda under his arm.

  Adam mumbled under his breath, “Speaking of helpful guys lining up around the block…” He wasn’t fast enough to dodge the elbow Devin threw into his ribs. She still couldn’t tell if Shane was scowling behind his sunglasses, but she saw his jaw tighten as he watched the exchange.

  She leaned against the door of his truck in the shade of the oak tree he was parked under and continued to sip on her shake. “You know I didn’t really have you pegged for a diet soda kind of guy.” She looked down into his bag. “And what a coincidence! Almond granola bars and black licorice are two of my favorite snacks. I mean really, what are the chances that of all the snack foods in the world, you would pick those two today. Hmm?” She took a long sip of her shake and pinned him with big, questioning eyes until he began to fidget. Adam was grinning from ear to ear enjoying the show.

  “Wow, your favorites? That is something.” He had the grace to look uncomfortable. “I do aim to please.” He rocked back on his heals and waved a hand towards the sheriff’s office. “You know, trying to keep our guests comfortable…” He had begun to gain momentum with this story, so Devin had hardened her gaze into a stony glare and he stuttered into a confession.

  “At least, that’s what I told the cashier at the grocery store, and she told me what you had bought the most of this week.” He finished with a boyish grin designed to get him out of trouble. It didn’t work.

  Devin simultaneously shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Stal
ker.” With that she spun on her heal and took the steps to the sheriff’s office two at a time as Adam roared with laughter. As she flung the door open she called over her shoulder “Fight amongst yourselves, children, I’m not interested!”

  Shane and Adam were left standing soberly on the sidewalk. Adam shook his head. “Nice, moron.”

  Shane sighed and looked at him out of the corner of his eye. “Jealous you didn’t think of it?”

  “Very.” They both grinned, and Shane threw the bag of groceries at Adam as they raced each other up the steps.

  Shane and Adam suffered under Devin’s bad temper for most of the afternoon. They were trying to get back into her good graces by helping sift through the jumbled case files, but the disjointed notes and lack of information was wearing everyone’s nerves thin.

  “For the love of Pete!” Shane slammed the folder shut that he had been reading and tossed it across the table. “Couldn’t they have used a standard form for interrogations? I can’t tell if this is the first interview or the follow-up or if they were talking to the father or the son.” He leaned his elbows on the table and rubbed his hands up over his face. “I’d like to go back in time and teach those guys a thing or two about how to conduct police work.”

  Adam snickered. “Oh yeah, cause you’re such a shining example of administrative excellence.”

  Devin’s irritated voice cut them both off. “How about if you’re going back in time you just hang out in the woods and prevent the murder so this would all be a moot point?”

  Her cell phone began to ring, and she snatched it off the table and flipped it open impatiently without even looking. “Dushane.”

  “Don’t use that tone with me young lady! Not with everything you’ve been putting me through!”

  Adam and Shane watched in curiosity as Devin squeezed her eyes shut and hunched over like a child caught sneaking out the back door of the kitchen with fresh cookies.

  “Mama! How’ve you been?” She was too stressed to see the quizzical look that passed between Adam and Shane.

  Or to hear Shane whisper, “I thought her mom died when she was a kid.”

  Adam shrugged in response, and they both leaned back in their chairs, Shane chewing on his pen cap, listening to the side of the call they could hear. Apparently, it never occurred to them to step out and give her some privacy. Anything that made the unshakeable Devin Dushane this uncomfortable had to be juicy.

  “Now, Mama, I didn’t go off without a word to anybody, Carter knew where I was going. Hell, uhm… heck, he was the one that came up with the idea! And I just talked to him the day before yesterday, so he’s just as much at fault here for not keeping you in the loop.” Devin grinned to herself. She’d always been an expert at getting Carter in trouble with his Mom.

  “Oh, don’t you worry, little girl, he’s already had his earful, and now it’s your turn.”

  Drat! So much for putting this all on Carter. “The least you could have done was come let me take care of you for a while.”

  Here we go, she’s gonna get on a roll with this one. Devin sighed as she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger.

  “I heard that! Don’t you sass me, girl!”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “You show proper respect to your elders, I don’t care if you are a fancy pants police detective.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Here you were injured and grieving and you run off to the boondocks chasing ghosts. You never take proper care of yourself anyway, probably haven’t had a decent meal in weeks. I bet you’re living off of diet soda and cigarettes.” Devin’s eyes snapped open and she stared at the soda can in front of her. It was her fourth one of the day.

  “Now, Mama, that’s not true, you know I gave up smoking years ago.”

  “Girl, don’t you even try to lie to me! I raised six kids including you. I can spot a lie before it can get from your brain to your lips!” How does she do that? In truth Devin had had a cigarette late last night in the dark of the front porch glider.

  “Well, Mama, rest assured that I am having a southern-fried home cooked meal tonight, complete with greens…of some sort.”

  “Hmmm, well I’d feel better if you were eating my cooking, but I guess it will have to do.” She paused for a moment and her brassy exterior lowered ever so slightly. “Baby girl, I just worry about you being out there all alone. It’s practically the wilderness.”

  Mama Dushane didn’t approve of Devin’s less-than-ladylike behavior, so luckily Devin was able to turn a snort of laughter into a coughing chuckle. “Mama, you make it sound like I’m camping in the Alaskan wilderness. If I can survive inner-city Richmond, I think I’ll be okay in small-town USA. Besides, I’m not alone. I’ve made a few…friends.” For the briefest instance her eyes flicked across the table.

  “Devin, I’m serious. Some of those places out in the country still have active chapters of the Klan, and those good old boys don’t have an opportunity to act up very often. I’d feel a lot better if you got out of there before you’re somebody’s initiation gone wrong and a headline on the evening news.”

  By this time Devin was chewing on her lip and tears of laughter were burning her eyes. She had to take a deep breath before she could answer. “Well, Mama—” another deep breath “—it’s true that in the Deep South there are still active chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.” Both Adam and Shane froze, their eyes going wide. Shane’s pen cap fell out of his mouth and rolled across the floor. This was obviously not where they thought this conversation was headed. “However, I haven’t seen any evidence of a chapter around Fenton.” She paused and looked to Shane and Adam for confirmation. They were still staring wide eyed but did manage to move their heads slowly back and forth in the negative.

  “Really, I’d say the city is far more dangerous.” She leaned back in her chair and began counting off malices on her fingers “I mean, since I’ve lived in Richmond I’ve been beaten, stabbed, shot, burned, nearly drowned and run over by a car. I really don’t see what the Klan has left to offer. Besides, Mama I know this may come as a shock to you . . .” She paused and lowered her voice to a dramatic whisper, “but I’m white.” At that point Devin could no longer hold her composure and with a snort broke into gales of laughter that had her shaking in her seat.

  “Oh, Devin, you…I…fine! But you were married to a black man, and to some people, it’s the same thing!”

  Devin now had tears streaming down her face. “I promise not to wear my ‘I was married to a black man t-shirt’ while I’m here. How’s that?” She was in real danger of falling out of her chair now. If Shane’s pen cap had still been in his mouth, he probably would have choked on it. As it was, he was practically lying down he was leaning so far back in the conference-room chair with one arm thrown across his face. His whole body was silently shaking. Adam was leaning on the table with one hand clamped tightly across his mouth to keep any sound from escaping. From the collar of his shirt to the roots of his hair, he had gone so red he was almost purple.

  “All right, you little pain in the neck,” Mama said. “Just take care of yourself and call an old lady once in awhile.”

  Devin was still wiping tears away. “I don’t know any old ladies…but I’ll call you now and then.” She reached up to weave her fingers around the medallion of her choker. “Give my love to Little Man and the girls.”

  “I will, but you know you could call your sisters and your godson and do it yourself.”

  “Yes ma’am, I will.”

  “Liar.”

  “I love you, too, Mama Dushane.”

  “Be a good girl Devin, I love you.”

  As soon as Devin snapped her phone shut, the walls of the conference room shook with howls of laughter. None of the three could get out a coherent sentence just tidbits of …the Klan…and …I’m white…which would just start them all snickering that much harder. Finally Sheriff Bittner came in to see what the disturbance in his peaceful li
ttle office was all about. He found the three of them face down on the conference table, red faced and giddy.

  “Are y’all on drugs?” the Sherriff’s tone sounded like he thought it more likely that they were mentally unstable. With their boss in the room Adam and Shane made valiant efforts to pull themselves together, but Devin was enjoying herself way too much. “With all this energy, y’all shouldn’t have any problem finishing up the details for the class tomorrow.”

  He might as well have tossed cold water on Devin—the effect of his words was just as sobering. She leaned back in her chair and smirked as she tapped her pen against the edge of the laminated fake wooden table top.

  “Exactly how much preparation do we need to teach a dozen teenage girls and housewives basic defense skills?” She was bluffing, of course. Devin never brushed off anything especially something that could keep girls safe on the streets. She had written out six weeks of detailed lesson plans for her class.

  The sheriff rocked back on his heels. “A dozen? Try a few more than that. As of nine o’clock this morning, we had forty-seven signed up, and I haven’t checked in with Marlene this afternoon to get the latest count.”

  Devin bolted upright in her chair. “Forty-seven! How many women are there in Fenton?”

  “Forty-six, but Mr. Whitacre that owns the upholstery shop on Eagle Street is very excited about attending.” Shane bent his wrist over and batted his eyes until Adam nearly knocked him off his chair.

  Devin groaned. “You might have mentioned this sooner, teaching to a group that size will have to be done in a completely different way, just in logistics alone.” Her mind was already whirling as she was working out a new plan.

  “Now Miss Devin doesn’t get in a tizzy, you’ll have these two jokers to do your bidding and I asked Deputy Lambert to pitch in as well.”

  With a sigh she started stacking up the case files in front of her.

  “Well, can you send this deputy in and we’ll make a plan for tomorrow?”

  Grahm Bittner was so pleased he looked like he might burst a button-off the shirt that was already so tightly stretched across his wide belly. “He’s out on patrol, but I’ll radio him in right this minute ma’am.” With that he turned and dashed out of the room with speed belied by his size.