The Deputy's Baby

by Tyler Anne Snell

  Cassie didn’t seem to be offended by the direction. She pulled out her phone. “Tell them to come prepared. The man who could still be in here with us is smart, fast and extremely dangerous. His name is Calvin Fitzgerald.”

  Cassie’s eyes widened.

  “And be sure to let them know that instead of being dead like we all thought, he is very much alive.”

  * * *

  RAIN STARTED TO pelt against the old house’s roof. It was like nails on a chalkboard as far as Cassie was concerned. Grating against her nerves that were already starting to fray.

  What she had told Henry was the truth. She’d seen Michael leave and couldn’t get hold of anyone to alert them to what was going on. When Henry hadn’t showed up after that, staying in the car or leaving hadn’t been options for Cassie. So she had left her car and snuck around the street and its houses until she’d found the new deputy.

  What Cassie hadn’t told him was that her heart had been in her throat the entire time. That every time she’d turned a corner or rounded a fence, she’d imagined the worst. And that, even when she had finally found him, tears had sprung to her eyes as she’d seen him lying on his back, unmoving, in the grass. That, while she’d hoisted him up and struggled to move him to what she’d thought would be a safe place for both of them, she’d done so with a worry and fear in her heart unlike she’d ever felt before.

  The entire world had fallen away in that time, leaving only three people who mattered. Her unborn son, her body that cradled him and Henry.

  Now, after another one of her friends’ phones went to voice mail and the rain continued to beat down overhead, the rest of the world was starting to filter back in.

  And with it an uncertainty that made her want to cling to her belly and the man who had given her the very son she wanted to keep safe inside it.

  “There’s no movement from the houses on either side of us or across the street. If Calvin is around here, he’s keeping low.”

  Cassie turned, startled, as the man from her thoughts walked back into what had once been a living room. His face was pinched. His brow lined with worry.

  She wasn’t about to help those lines, either.

  “Unless everyone decided to turn off their phones or make lengthy calls, I think something is wrong with Carpenter’s service,” she said. “Or at least the department’s. I can’t even get the local PD to pick up. Which makes no sense.”

  The lines of worry deepened.

  “Has anything like this happened before?”

  Cassie shrugged. “Yes and no. While I was a trainee, we got a rough batch of tornadoes that caused an almost county-wide blackout. Landlines went down and a lot of people lost cell service.” She motioned to the window and outside. “But this storm just came up on us. It couldn’t have already done that kind of damage. Heck, I doubt even now it could.” She let out a frustrated sigh. “So what is going on out there?”

  Henry’s expression went blank. His body subtly shifted to more alert. “I don’t know, but staying here isn’t helping us. I’m going to go get the car.” He raised his hand to silence her before Cassie could open her mouth. “And this time you are staying put.”

  “You do remember how that turned out last time, right? You said it yourself that we don’t know where Calvin is. He could be simply waiting for you to show up again.”

  Henry kept his hand up, unperturbed. “Last time was different.” His voice took on a hard edge. Angry. But she couldn’t tell at who or what. “Now I know who we’re playing with. I won’t let Calvin get the better of me. Not again.”

  He dropped his hand and knelt to the bottom of his pant leg. He pulled it up, showing off a knife holstered to his ankle.

  “Calvin hates knives,” he explained, unfastening it. “He was jumped by a perp with one when we were beat cops. Got messed up pretty badly. Ever since then he won’t touch them. Won’t hold them.”

  “So he didn’t take it off you,” she finished.

  “A lot apparently has happened in the last year to him, but that fear seems to have held true.”

  He stood and handed her the knife. Cassie didn’t like them, either, but she disliked being defenseless more. She took it, but before she could pull away, he held on to her hand, his fingers against her skin. Their warmth spread from his touch across her body like a wildfire.

  Cassie suddenly remembered what it was like to have those same fingers move across her body.

  Nimble.

  Strong.

  Intoxicating.

  “Don’t come after me this time.” Henry’s voice thrummed, a soothing baritone. If he was struggling with memories, it didn’t show. His expression stayed blank. “I mean it, Cassie.”

  She didn’t want to agree, but then his eyes turned down to her stomach for the briefest of moments.

  This time Cassie knew she would listen.

  Henry must have seen the decision in her face. He let his hand drop.

  “I’ll come inside and get you,” he said, already moving away.

  Cassie wanted to stop him. Wanted to talk. To tell him how hurt she’d been when he’d never called or tried to contact her. To tell him that, even though he obviously hadn’t wanted to be with her, now they would always be connected by their son.

  But it wasn’t the right time.

  Would it ever be?

  Did she ever want it to be?

  She watched as the father of her child ran out the back door and disappeared into the rain. Now was the time to focus on danger, not feelings.

  So Cassie gripped the handle of the knife and waited.

  Chapter Eight

  The rain washed the lasagna off most of Henry’s pants. It was the only silver lining he could come up with as he drove into Westbridge and into the driveway of the house Cassie was in. If Calvin was around, he’d decided not to make his presence known. Or maybe he’d realized the rain, growing heavier by the minute, could just as easily be an advantage or a disadvantage.

  One night, as partners, Henry and Calvin had discussed using weather as a cover for a raid. Calvin was for it, yet Henry hadn’t liked the idea. Sure, rain caused low visibility, which meant the target couldn’t be 100 percent alert. But, by the same token, that meant the one executing the plan couldn’t be, either. Same with trying to get the drop on someone at night.

  It was hard to keep your bearings if you never had them all the way down in the first place.

  When you were dealing with armed, well-trained people, it was best to have as much control over the situation as you could. A stance that Henry and Calvin had disagreed on right up until the day that changed everything.

  Henry’s grip tightened around the steering wheel.

  He didn’t like the rain now.

  Just as he didn’t like the idea that Calvin could be lurking within it.

  Cassie had the front door open before Henry was done jogging up. He was glad to see the knife in her hand still, but that she was also calm.

  “No one made a peep,” she confirmed, voice rising above the rain as they ran to the car together.

  She went straight to the back seat on the driver’s side. Henry took lead and slid behind the wheel.

  “I don’t like this,” she added after he hit Reverse and then straightened on the street. “Did they say anything to you before Calvin attacked you?” Her voice softened. Honey. “And didn’t you say that Calvin was your partner? What’s he doing here? And alive?”

  “I can only answer about half of that,” Henry hated to admit.

  “Then I’ll take those answers.”

  Henry turned out of the neighborhood and directed them back toward the department. The sky behind them was almost black, but in the distance it looked like the clouds were wanting to part. Leave it to the temperamental Southern weather to keep everyone on their toes.

  “The m
an named Michael said he was a broker, one who made connections,” he started, keeping his eyes on the street ahead. The last thing they needed was to get into an accident while out of communications and drenched. “That’s when Calvin showed up. Yes, we used to be partners, but then he was killed in the line of duty. Or so I thought. His body was never recovered, but—” Henry stopped and tried to find the right words to explain what had happened next. It was a hard task. “But with everything going on, there was a good chance the fire took care of it.”

  “The fire,” Cassie repeated, hesitation in her tone. Still, she didn’t form it into a question.

  “He’d been shot in the chest three times and wasn’t wearing a vest,” he continued. “So when we couldn’t find his body and he didn’t show up...” Henry slammed his hand against the wheel. “I stopped looking for his body one measly month after everything happened. I should have kept on. If I had known there was a chance he was still out there...”

  “It sounds like you had very valid reasons for assuming he wasn’t. Anyone in your shoes probably would have done the same. Beating yourself up about it won’t help us figure out what’s going on now.” Again her voice went to honey. Soothing and sweet. “Did he talk to you before you lost consciousness?”

  Henry ignored the shame from the question but nodded. His jaw set. “He doesn’t want them, whoever they are, to kill me—” he pushed the words through his clenched teeth “—because he wants to be the one who kills me.”

  Silence filled the small car. Henry kept his eyes forward, navigating back into traffic. The rain lessened. Sunlight could be seen breaking through the clouds in the distance.

  It wasn’t until they were going down the street in front of the sheriff’s department that Cassie spoke again. There was no hint of honey in her words.

  “I’m worried about my friends and the department right now and why neither seems to be picking up their phones,” she said. “So we’re going to make sure everything is okay. But, Henry? After that we’re going to have a talk.”

  There was no room to interpret it as a request.

  So he didn’t. “Yes, ma’am.”

  * * *

  EVERYTHING WASN’T ALL RIGHT.

  There was a group of deputies standing at the back of the parking lot. Through the rain and distance Cassie could tell some were angry by the sets of their stances or the scowls on their faces. But that didn’t mean she was about to go over to see what for. Cassie didn’t want to stay in the rain to find out when she was on her own timeline, being possibly one of the only two people who knew there was a not-deceased Calvin and mystery man Michael in Riker County. With bad intentions to boot.

  Henry seemed to be on the same wavelength as far as getting inside was concerned. After parking in the first open spot in the guest lot, he kept so close to Cassie that she ran into him twice on her way to the front door. His closeness would normally set off memories of their shared night together, if the last day was any indication, but Cassie found comfort in it now.

  The lobby wasn’t lacking in activity, either. Henry took lead and guided Cassie past deputies, civilians and a man she recognized as a reporter from the TV station next door. He didn’t stop until they were in the hallway that ran past the main offices. Frustration could be heard clear as a bell through Suzy’s open door. Cassie went straight for it.

  “—can tell Dean Carver that if he wants to let everyone know it was intentional and start a panic, then by all means go ahead and make our jobs harder!”

  Suzy slammed her open hand across the desktop while Captain Dane Jones nodded to the sentiment. They both looked like they had aged years since Cassie and Henry had left that morning.

  Henry cleared his throat.

  Suzy’s demeanor changed so swiftly that the man hesitated in his opening.

  “Where have you two been?” Suzy asked, eyes scanning them with open concern. It probably didn’t help matters that both were soaked to the bone. “Mills said he saw you peel off in your car.”

  Cassie hoped she hid her embarrassment at what, in hindsight, hadn’t been the smartest idea. Still, she wasn’t going to lie. “The man that gave me the ring—Michael—was in the parking lot. Deputy Ward tried to talk to him, but he ran off.” She tried an indifferent shrug. “So I pursued them both.”

  Suzy opened her mouth but Henry butted in before she could get a word out.

  “He had a driver and we followed them back to the neighborhood of Westbridge,” he hurriedly related. “I went in after them and was knocked out.”

  “But not before he identified the second man as Calvin Fitzgerald,” Cassie added.

  Dane raised his eyebrow.

  “Calvin as in—” he started.

  “That Calvin,” Henry finished.

  Cassie didn’t feel like recapping this same conversation, so she moved to the part she didn’t understand.

  “We tried to call it in, but the phones aren’t working here?” she asked. “And everyone else’s were off or busy.”

  Suzy flipped back to angry.

  “The fiber optic cables that run to the building were severed,” Dane said with a good dose of the same anger. “It took out our internet and phones.”

  “Since then our personal phones have been tied up by each other and the public,” Suzy added. “It took me twenty minutes just to get a call out to James and the kids.”

  “Wait, fiber optic cables are buried in the ground,” Henry pointed out. “They just don’t get severed on accident.”

  Suzy and Dane both tensed, the latter’s hand fisted.

  “Unless someone accidentally brought in an excavator to the back of the building and cut them, I’d say it was intentional,” Dane said.

  A moment of thought stretched between all of them.

  First Billy, then Calvin and Michael, and now this?

  What was going on in Riker County?

  * * *

  THE RAIN MIGHT have pelted the houses in Westbridge, and even fallen at a good enough clip to hide the ruckus and the sight of an excavator digging at the department, but not even one drop had fallen at Cassie’s house. Her hanging plants, on either side of the front door, were drooping something awful.

  “One thing you can count on about the weather in Alabama during July is that you can’t count on the weather in Alabama during July,” Cassie told herself as she parked her car in the driveway and sighed.

  The day had not gone the way it should have, not at all. Instead of her bringing some much-needed cheer to her colleagues and friends that morning, the department was now trying to keep its head above water without communications, ghosts apparently were walking free through the town with evil intent and her front seat was covered in lasagna.

  She rubbed her belly.

  And she was still hungry.

  Movement outside the car finally coaxed Cassie to get out. Another item to add to the list of things that had taken an unexpected turn was the continued appearance of Deputy Henry Ward. She watched as he looked at her house. One-story, boxy and painted a calming light blue, it was small but had gotten the job done for the last five years. Then again, she’d lived alone during those years. Add in a baby and the home she loved dearly might become the home she wished had another bedroom.

  “This is one of the newer neighborhoods in Carpenter,” she found herself explaining, sidling up to the man. Their clothes had had enough time to dry to the point they weren’t dripping everywhere like faucets. Still, Cassie would bet his personal car parked at the curb was just as wet as hers. “It was built to be its own miniature community with a fancy pool and clubhouse in the middle, kind of like what Florida does with theirs, but the developer’s funding still hasn’t gone all the way through yet.” She motioned down the street. Her house was one of six in the area, beyond which were empty lots with For Sale signs staking out each plot. “You’re looking at the
crazy few who took a chance. Though I think maybe we just all really wanted a pool.”

  Henry smiled but didn’t laugh. His thoughts weren’t hanging around the small, undeveloped neighborhood, she knew. Still, it bothered her.

  “Do you live in Carpenter?” she ventured. “Or do you commute from one of the other towns?”

  “I’m staying in a hotel until I can find something,” he answered.

  It sounded rehearsed. She guessed he’d been asked several times already.

  “Can’t beat the location and it’s way better than what I was used to back in Tennessee. That’s one good thing about undercover, it makes you appreciate the simple joys of a somewhat normal life.” Henry’s demeanor changed in tandem with Cassie’s eyebrows rising clear to her hairline.

  Did he just say he’d been undercover?

  “But you know, again the hotel is only temporary,” he hurried to tack on. “It even has some good food, so I can’t complain. So, does your sister live here with you? Didn’t you say she lived in Carpenter?”

  It was an attempted switch of topics. One Cassie wouldn’t have stood for normally. However, being reminded of Kristen was enough to get her on board with the change.

  “She doesn’t live with me, but she does live close.” Cassie pointed to the house across the street. “And she works from home mostly, so I suggest we hurry inside before she walks past her windows and sees us. Plus, I’d be lying if I didn’t say if I don’t eat something soon, things are going to turn dangerous for you and anyone else around me.”

  Cassie thought her bit of humor would do the trick, lightening the deputy’s mood enough that whatever walls he had up around him would drop. Or, at least, create a doorway for her to go through. But no sooner had they gotten inside her front door than it was like someone had set his feet in concrete.

  His jaw was set. Hard.

  Like he’d just realized he’d made a mistake.

  Cassie couldn’t deny it stung.

  “I can’t stay,” he said, resolute. “I need to help with the department, but I just wanted to make sure you got here okay... And I promised you we’d talk. I’d like to keep that promise.”