Another Solution (Crowley County Series Book 4)

by T. E. Killian

  “I do not want to hear another word about Larry Palmer. Do you understand, Bonnie? Like I told Mom, I am over him and I never want to see him again. Do you understand?”

  Just as Karen knew she would, Bonnie got defensive and started attacking her. Well, Karen had put up with this type of verbal abuse from her mother and her sister all her life. But all of a sudden, she wasn’t going to put up with it any longer.

  “Bonnie stop!” She interrupted Bonnie midsentence. “I am not having this conversation. If you want to talk to me about anything else, please call me but this conversation is over. Goodbye Bonnie!”

  She sat there shaking for a few minutes after hanging up. She was finally able to pull herself together enough to go into the kitchen and finish putting her groceries away.

  Chapter Three

  Monday morning, Karen was still upset over her mother and sister both calling and grilling her yesterday. It really infuriated her when she thought about the fact that it sounded as if both of them not only wanted her to take Larry back but were even going to help him. It hadn’t seemed to matter what she’d said to them about not wanting to see Larry anymore, or the fact that she was now seeing someone else. As usual, neither one of them had listened to very much of what she’d said. She might as well have not said a word to either one of them.

  Now, she was stewing because Bonnie had said that she was going to travel to Springfield this coming weekend to see their mother. But Karen was afraid that once the two of them put their heads together, they might drive over to see her too.

  She did not need that right now!

  She was quite early getting to work that morning. She’d awakened early and was ready so she just couldn’t sit around her house any longer. She needed to get her day started to keep her mind occupied. She was tired of thinking about last night.

  She was extremely relieved as she entered the clinic to be able to turn off her cell phone. No more calls, at least not until after work. And she decided right then that she might just screen her calls even then. She wasn’t ready to talk to either one of them again anytime soon.

  When she went back to the supply room to get what she needed for her morning appointments, she noticed that she could see daylight where the back door closed. That wasn’t right.

  She went over to investigate and saw that the door had been pried open with something metal. She quickly picked up the phone on the checkout desk and dialed the front.

  Twenty minutes later, Karen was already working with her first patient and was leaning over him when she heard a man clear his throat behind her. She turned around and was pleasantly surprised to see Jason standing there in his uniform smiling at her.

  She didn’t have time just then to analyze the sudden surge of emotion that went through her just at the sight of Jason standing there smiling at her. Later. She’d have to think about that later. Right now, he was talking to her.

  “Hi Karen. They said you were the one who noticed that the back door had been pried open.”

  She just looked up at him for a moment thinking about how she’d put this man off for a year. Why? How could she have? Well, it wasn’t going to happen any longer. Especially after yesterday, she was sure of that now.

  Finally, she became aware of the fact that she hadn’t even greeted him yet. “Oh hi Jason.”

  Well that sounded smooth. She was trying to think of something better, something more to say when he spoke again.

  “Can you take me back there and show me, please?”

  She looked down at her patient and knew that he would be fine for a little while on his own so she smiled at Jason again and said, “Sure, let’s go.”

  She showed him the door and watched as he examined it then walked around the room looking at the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and even the shelves of supplies.

  When he turned back to her, he caught her staring at him. He grinned at her and said, “You won’t ever hear me telling you not to stare at me Karen. I love it.”

  She knew she was blushing again. It seemed that she’d been doing a lot of that lately and for some strange reason it didn’t really bother her as much as she would have thought it would.

  When they went back into the therapy room, Karen stopped to give her patient a few words of instruction then turned back to Jason.

  His smile was still in place and she realized so was hers. They’d better stop this and soon. She could get into trouble and he probably could too.

  He leaned over her and whispered in her ear. “I’m really looking forward to Saturday. But do we have to wait until then?”

  Before she could respond, he said, “You still have to eat every evening don’t you?” He rushed on again without giving her an opportunity to reply. “How about I pick you up after work so we can go get some pizza? We can make it an early evening.”

  With Jason smiling at her so hopefully, she couldn’t think of any reason why she had wanted to wait until Saturday to see him again. Before she realized it, she said, “I’d love that, but since we live so close, why don’t you just pick me up there at five. That way I’ll have time to change?”

  “Sure thing.”

  She heard a sound and looked up to see that Floyd McCracken, the sheriff, was standing next to them with a big grin on his face.

  In a soft voice, which was unusual for the big man, he said, “Well, it seems that I just found out which way the wind’s blowing around here.”

  With that, he walked off still chuckling to himself.

  Jason grinned at her and said, “Don’t worry about Floyd Karen. We’ve been good friends for years.”

  He touched her cheek and said, “I’ll see you at five.”

  With that, he was gone through the swinging door to the front waiting room where Floyd was already waiting for him.

  Karen had no time to compose herself after all that when Ben’s voice came to her from her other side. “Is that my competition?”

  She didn’t even turn toward him when she said, “Jason and I are seeing other, yes.” She walked back to her station.

  But as she was walking away, she heard Ben say, “I’m sure my good friend, Larry Palmer, will want to know all about this.”

  She felt like someone had just slapped her. She turned back around to give him a piece of her mind but he was already at his workstation on the other side of the large room. Just as well. It probably would have only made matters worse if she’d said anything back at him.

  It seemed as if all of a sudden everyone wanted her to go back to Larry. She clenched her jaw. That just was not going to happen, ever.

  * * *

  Jason walked away from Karen feeling great. He’d been having a difficult time all morning thinking that he might not get to see her again before Saturday. And Saturday had seemed like such a long time to wait.

  Then the call came in to come here for a burglary. Now he’d not only been able to talk with her for a few minutes but would be having supper with her this evening. He felt like shouting.

  When he caught up with Floyd in the waiting room, his old friend and boss turned to him with a grin and said, “You’ve got good taste boy.”

  Jason tried to keep a straight face when he said, “That better be all you say about her, Floyd. I’d hate to have to deck my boss right here in front of all these people.”

  Floyd threw his head back and laughed so loudly that everyone in the room turned to stare at him. But little things like that never bothered the big redhead.

  Jason followed Floyd outside to the parking lot and up to the sheriff’s Tahoe. Floyd was on his cell phone to dispatch and disconnected when they reached the vehicle.

  “Why don’t we go out back and look around?”

  Jason walked along side Floyd around to the back of the building. PT was in a wing of the hospital that stuck out to one side with its own receiving door in the rear.

  After spending fifteen minutes searching the area, they headed back out front to their vehicles. Floyd turned to Jason and sa
id, “Let’s go back to the office and put together the report on this burglary.”

  With that, they both jumped into their vehicles and drove back to the office.

  Once there, Jason stopped at his office door to pick up his mail and the reports his squad members had left for him to review. In the inter-office mail was a memo from Floyd telling him he’d have a new deputy on his squad starting next Monday.

  That was great. He’d been understaffed for some time. Now, he would finally be up to the full fifteen deputies. It was even better that the guy was a lateral from another agency. They could usually hit the ground running with a minimal amount of training on how things were done in this department.

  He dropped everything on his desk and headed for Floyd’s office. He smiled and waved at Crystal as he passed through her office. He liked the serious hard-working secretary who just happened to be Bert’s older sister.

  Floyd was on the phone when Jason entered and he pointed toward the circle of armchairs on the other side of the room. No surprise there. That was one of the many reasons Jason didn’t think he’d ever want to be sheriff. Floyd spent too much time at a desk and usually with a phone to his ear.

  “Politicians!” Floyd muttered after he hung up the phone and made his way over to Jason. “The county supervisors are on my case about not having enough visibility out on the highways. And that was the mayor and he’s on my case about all the burglaries we’ve had in town lately and wants more patrols here. You just can’t please them all.”

  He blew out his breath nosily and said, “How’d that man find out about this one so quick?”

  Jason had to laugh. “Floyd aren’t you forgetting something?” When Floyd gave him a look he said, “Since you have to get reelected every four years doesn’t that basically make you a politician too?”

  Floyd growled at Jason, pointed his finger at him and said, “Don’t start that stuff with me Walker. I’m not in the mood for it today.”

  Jason was still able to pick up the slight gleam in Floyd’s eye when he said that.

  “Okay now.” Floyd had a stack of folders in his lap. “Let’s get started on this one. Rob’s going to be joining us in a few minutes and I want to have this one laid out for him by the time he gets here.”

  Rob Salter was the lieutenant over the detectives. The three of them had been detectives together for several years before Floyd became sheriff and Jason went back to patrol.

  They’d just finished tying everything together on the break-in at the PT clinic when Rob came in.

  Rob was a couple of inches taller than Jason with a runner’s build. He had the whitest blond hair Jason had ever seen and the blue eyes to go with it.

  They spent the next hour going over the details of seven different burglaries and comparing them with this latest one.

  When they finished, Rob looked at Jason then Floyd. “I’d say that it’s a pretty safe bet that we still have only one burglar or one team of burglars.”

  Floyd looked at Jason who nodded then he said, “Okay then, let’s get as many detectives on this as you can. See if you can maybe find a pattern and then be there when they strike the next time.”

  Rob left then and Jason rose to leave too but Floyd held out a hand and said, “Could you stay for another minute Jason?”

  “Sure.”

  He sank back into his chair and watched Rob leave. As soon as he had, Floyd turned to Jason and with a grin said, “This is Floyd talking now, not the sheriff, okay?”

  When Jason nodded, Floyd said, “I couldn’t help but notice that you and that little therapist seemed to be mighty friendly.”

  Jason fought off his sudden anger then calmly said, “Yes, and if I have my way, we’ll be a lot more than that soon.”

  “Her name wouldn’t happen to be Karen Bierstadt would it?”

  Now Jason was getting the feeling that this discussion had just turned official. “Yeah. Why?”

  Floyd leaned back and seemed to be thinking through what he was about to say. “Jason, there’s only one way to say this so here goes. We’ve had a complaint about her.”

  Before Floyd could finish, Jason was on his feet shouting, “That’s a lie.”

  Floyd held up both hands and lowered them. “Calm down Jason and sit back down. I didn’t say I believed it but you know as well as I do that we have to check it out.”

  Jason just sat there glaring at Floyd until he said, “The complaint is that she inappropriately touched one of her male patients.”

  “Floyd, you know that’s just not true. She’s the best therapist there and you know as well as I do that she’s a strong Christian too.”

  “Yes Jason, I do. But since you and her are getting so close, I can’t have you involved in any way with the investigation we’re going to have to run. Understood?”

  Jason nodded his head with his teeth gritted. “I’m not going to stay away from her Floyd no matter what you or anybody else says. I’ve waited a year to be able to go out with her and I’m not going to back off now.”

  Floyd snorted. “You’re one stubborn man Jason. But no, I don’t think it’s going to get to that point.”

  Jason stood to leave and this time Floyd didn’t try to stop him. “It won’t get to that point, Floyd. You’ll see.”

  “I hope you’re right Son. Oh by the way, don’t mention this to Karen. I’ve decided to conduct this investigation by myself just to make things less questionable. And I’ll be talking to her right away this afternoon.”

  “Okay.”

  With that, Jason left Floyd’s office feeling like a cloud of doom was hanging over his head.

  * * *

  Karen had a difficult time concentrating after Jason left. It wasn’t entirely his fault or even due to the break-in. Probably the most unsettling thing of all was Ben’s comment as she walked away from him. Did that mean that Larry had Ben spying on her now? It was bad enough that he seemed to have enlisted her mother and sister against her, but did she now have a co-worker watching her every move and reporting everything back to Larry as well?

  She’d just finished her lunch in the break room when Joyce, the receptionist stuck her head into the room and said, “Karen, there’s someone here to see you and he’s in the interview room up front. Okay?”

  “Sure, Joyce, I’ll be right up there.”

  Now, who could that be? It couldn’t be Jason. He was just here a few hours ago. And she didn’t think it could be a new patient or Joyce would have said so.

  When she entered the interview room and closed the door behind her, she was surprised to see Floyd standing there with a sheepish look on his face.

  “Hello again Floyd, is there something else about the burglary?”

  He shook his head. “No. This isn’t about the burglary.” He pointed at the table with four chairs around it. “Why don’t we have a seat so we can talk better?”

  Once they were seated, Floyd looked straight at her and said, “Karen, there’s only one way to do this so here goes. We’ve had a complaint about you touching a male patient inappropriately.”

  She knew her face must have lost all of its color and she felt as if she might pass out. Thankfully, she had enough presence of mind to slide her chair back from the table and place her head between her knees and the world stopped spinning after a short time.

  When she was able to straighten back up and look at Floyd, he was smiling at her. “That’s exactly what I thought.”

  She was puzzled and her face must have shown it for he said, “I’ve spent a lot of years talking to people accused of everything from bad checks to murder and I can usually tell almost immediately if they’re guilty or not.”

  He let that settle for a moment. “And I would stake my job on your innocence.” He smiled. “Now, when you think you can collect yourself enough, we need to talk about these allegations against you.”

  They spent the next fifteen minutes talking about a male patient of hers who had tried to get her to go out with him and been reb
uffed gently but firmly.

  Finally, Floyd stood and said, “Well, this whole thing is shaping up almost exactly the way I figured it would before I even talked to you.”

  She stood and he smiled down at her. “Now, I’m going to go talk to this yahoo and see if I can persuade him to drop the charges. And I don’t think it’ll take much persuasion either. So relax. You’re going to be just fine.”

  When she gave him a disbelieving look, he added, “I promise, okay.”

  She nodded and watched him leave the room.

  How could her whole world turn upside down like this so quickly? It couldn’t get any worse now, could it? What could possibly happen next?

  As soon as she made her way back to the therapy room, she called Daisy and arranged to meet her during their afternoon break in less than an hour.

  When they were both seated on a park type bench in the common area between the two buildings, Daisy took one look at Karen and said, “If Jason did something stupid he’s going to hear it from me.”

  She shook her head and closed her eyes tightly but the tears started anyway. Daisy scooted over and put her arm around Karen’s shoulders.

  “It’s okay Karen. As soon as you feel like it, you can tell me all about it okay?”

  It took Karen a few minutes to compose herself with the help of several tissues Daisy gave her. Then she looked over at Daisy and told her all about her meeting with Floyd.

  Daisy blew out a deep sigh and said, “Okay, for starters, you know you’re innocent and Floyd believes you. That will get you through this just fine. When I was working in the ER up in St. Louis, a female patient accused one of our male doctors of touching her inappropriately but what she didn’t know was that I was standing in the doorway the whole time he examined her.”

  “But no one else was anywhere around during my session with that man.”

  “That’s okay though. I know the truth will come out and it sounds like Floyd will get at it pretty quick too.”

  She laughed but Karen just couldn’t seem to be able to join her. Then she told Daisy about her phone calls last night and even the comment that Ben had made that morning.