In the Line of Duty

by Carolyn Arnold

  Madison turned to her partner. “We need to confirm who was the driver—the uncle or nephew,” Madison said. “We also need to find out what Brown’s motive was. We’ll need to talk to him again.”

  “Brown?” Terry asked.

  Madison shook her head. “No, the weaker of the two—Cousins.”

  -

  Chapter 52

  TROY STOOD AT MELODY FORD’S FRONT DOOR, his heartbeat calm, his stomach clenched. Inside this house was the woman responsible for pulling the trigger that killed his friend, his brother. He knew that her prints would be a match to those found on the murder weapon, and the hunger for retribution washed over him in repetitive waves.

  Three of his men were in position beside him, and he’d sent a secondary team to the back door just in case she decided to make a run for it. Melody’s husband had already been picked up from where he worked and was being held by a patrol officer in front of the home should they need any incentive for Ford to surrender.

  He glanced over at the three men next to him and missed the fact that Nick couldn’t be here for this. “Ready?”

  They all nodded.

  Troy banged on the door. “Stiles PD! Open up!”

  There was movement inside, but it wasn’t coming toward them.

  He banged again and shouted once more.

  Everything inside fell silent. That was never good.

  “Go in now,” Troy commanded the secondary team over the comms.

  The back door was rammed through and screams came from inside.

  Troy breached the home with the rest of the primary entry team and came face-to-face with Melody, who was standing between them and their secondary.

  She was gripping a butcher knife tightly in her hand and swinging it erratically through the air. Her dark hair was tangled and greasy. “Get back or I’ll—” She held the knife toward her own throat.

  Troy lowered his rifle and held up his free hand to her. “Melody, I’m Troy Matthews.”

  “I don’t care who you are!” Her eyes were wide and wild, but he didn’t think she was high or drunk. “You’re killers!”

  “We’re here to help you.” The words came out smooth and calm, like a pro, but inside he was quivering with rage.

  “You take away everyone we love,” she cried out, the blade closer to her skin now.

  Troy assessed the situation. She was within ten feet of his men, the distance easy enough to close, to lunge toward them and make a swipe with her blade. Using a Taser could cause an uncontrolled reaction, though, and she could end up killing any of them or herself. And shooting her would leave them with more questions and another life on his conscience. Neither scenario was one Troy was willing to accept. He wanted her to be punished for what she had done, for what she had taken from the world.

  “We want to help,” Troy repeated, his tone as convincing as he could make it.

  “You took her. You took him. Why should I live?”

  He assumed her was her mother and him was Coleman.

  The intensity in her eyes had calmed, but there was an eerie serenity to her, and Troy wondered if the threat she’d made to kill herself was more a promise. His mind went to his backup plan. “Your husband. He’s why you should live.”

  She lowered the knife and swiped a hand under her nose. “Donnie? Did you—”

  “He’s here for you.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  Troy spoke through the comms to the officer outside. “Have him come in the front door.”

  Donnie entered, his gaze going over the room but settling on his wife. “Mel? What’s going on?”

  “Donnie, leave. I don’t want you to see this.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” The man remained collected considering his wife was holding a knife on herself and standing off against SWAT officers.

  “Please.” Melody sobbed, cupping her face with her free hand.

  “It’s not worth it, honey. It’s over.”

  Troy and his team stood back, letting Donnie take over for a while. He knew what his wife was suspected of doing, and they’d prepped him on what they might walk in on—not that they’d known about the knife in advance—but it was unlikely she’d being going down without a fight.

  “Please, baby, put down the knife.” Donnie glanced at Troy, then back at Melody.

  “I hurt.” Melody’s voice had softened, and she looked at her husband.

  “I know, but we’ll work through this together.” Donnie went to take a step forward, but Troy held up an arm to stop him from getting any closer to her. “You have to put the knife down.”

  Melody’s gaze went to Troy, but he didn’t say anything.

  “Fine.” She lowered to place the knife on the floor, and the second it was free of her hands, Jay retrieved it and Marc was hauling her up and snapping on cuffs.

  As Marc led her through the house and out the front door to the waiting cruiser and officer, Troy took his first deep breath in days, but it was hampered under the deadening gaze of Donnie Ford. The man didn’t say anything with words, but Troy swore he picked up on communication nonetheless: It’s not worth it, honey. It’s over.

  Was it just reassurance for his wife, or had he known what she’d done before they had come for him? Donnie was maybe six foot and probably about 160 pounds—the same height as the shooter. Had he actually been the one to pull the trigger? But then, what would have been his motivation? His wife was cheating on him, and forensics had confirmed her lover, Brown, as the driver. Why would he be in cahoots with his wife’s lover? And why was Melody acting guilty?

  “We’d like you to come down to the station as we get everything sorted out with your wife.” Troy was careful to keep any threat out of his tone, keeping it rather casual.

  “Of course.” Donnie held eye contact a little longer before leading the way out of the house.

  Troy looked at his men, trying to gauge their reactions. Clayton, Derek, and Charlie nodded as if they were picking up Troy’s suspicions. No matter how ungrounded they may have seemed…

  -

  Chapter 53

  MADISON ENTERED THE INTERROGATION ROOM armed with a bottle of water and a plastic cup in her hands and a granola bar in her back pants pocket. She’d confirmed with the officers in Cells that Cousins hadn’t had food or water for hours, and she was going to work that to her advantage. Going with her gut, she was pretty sure that Cousins was used to being taken care of, pampered. She’d fill that role, attempt to become an ally.

  Cousins was already seated at the table and Terry went past him to the back wall when she arrived. Madison didn’t miss the way Cousins’s eyes went to the water.

  “Are you thirsty?” she asked.

  “Is my lawyer here?” He spoke with his gaze still on the bottle.

  She lowered herself and looked him in the eye. “You sure you don’t want anything to drink?”

  Cousins crossed his arms.

  “Well, I’m thirsty. How about I just pour some for you?” Madison hitched a shoulder. “If you don’t drink it, fine, but I’ll have some from the bottle.”

  “Whatever.”

  Madison made a show of slowly pouring the water into the cup. Then she went at the water in the bottle as though she was parched and let out a satisfying ahhh afterward before swiping a hand across her mouth. “Nothing like water. Oh!” She acted as if she’d forgotten temporarily about his cup and put it across the table in front of him.

  Cousins looked down at it, then at her, and went for the cup. He gulped it down and set the empty cup on the table.

  “We’re here as a courtesy.” Madison nodded her head toward Terry. “Your uncle is more than just an uncle. He’s a good friend to you, isn’t he?” She made her voice empathic, as if something tragic had happened to him.

  Cousins was peering into her eyes, try
ing to read them. “Yeah.”

  “Unfortunately, we’ve found out something and he’s in big trouble.”

  The kid glared at her. “Oh, don’t pretend you care about him.”

  He’d seen through her act, but Madison also picked up on the fact that his uncle being in big trouble didn’t seem to faze him.

  “Did you want more water?” she asked.

  “No,” he snapped. “What do you want from me?”

  “We need to know your side of things. See, evidence is pointing toward your uncle being a cop killer. You do remember our conversation about what happens to cop killers in prison, right?” Madison remained calm but poignant.

  Cousins angled his head. “What do you think you have on him?”

  “We have proof that your uncle took out five thousand dollars cash from his personal bank account… The same amount given you for the car, gun, and bullets.”

  “You think he bought his own stuff? That’s crazy. And why would he want to kill a cop?”

  Did he not know, or was he pretending not to know? Either way, the thought sank in her gut.

  “The DA’s looking at it as him paying for a hit on the cop. It’s not looking good.” Madison was doing her best to remain detached and not give the impression that his last statement had thrown her off. “You admitted to picking up the money, to buying things like video games and a television with it. You made that money disappear.”

  “That doesn’t look good for you, either,” Terry added.

  Cousins looked back at him.

  “I’m thinking your uncle told you to spend it up,” Madison said. “Am I right? He didn’t want you holding on to it. He’s taken care of you for a long time.” She was rolling with it, following her intuition. The relationship between this uncle and nephew seemed closer than blood. They were bonded for some other reason. Then it hit her. The decal on the BMW… They thought the driver or shooter had placed it there, but what if—

  Madison looked at Terry. “Detective, will you join me in the hall?”

  He looked at her quizzically and then followed her into the hall.

  “We’ve been blind,” Madison said. “We were so fixed on the decal being placed on the BMW by the perpetrators after they picked up the vehicle, but what if it’s not that at all? What if Brown is actually the leader of the Devil’s Rebels? His car, his decal. It was already all there.”

  They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds.

  “He could be,” Terry consented. “Travis Sommer could be Brown’s second-in-command. But why would he have Snyder send the text message to Cousins?”

  “Cousins would have found it odd if Sommer got the message.”

  Terry shook his head. “Not following.”

  “Well, obviously Cousins was the one with access to the car, et cetera.”

  “Okayyyyy.” Terry dragged out the word. “We know Cousins is hardly an innocent in all this. His fingerprints are on the gun.”

  “It could have simply been from handing it over.”

  Terry angled his head to the left. “Really?”

  “Trust me, I’m not trying to give him an out by any means.”

  “All right. So what are you thinking?”

  She thought back to the interrogation room, how it seemed that Cousins was likely used to being taken care of, how even Pope told them she’d get in fights with Brown over Cousins’s innocence, how Brown had said his nephew was as innocent as he was, how he hated Russell Coleman. They couldn’t tie Coleman to the BMW at all, though, so what made Coleman boast about driving the car?

  “Coleman just took it upon himself,” she said aloud as if Terry could hear her thoughts. “I was just wondering what made Coleman boast about driving the car.”

  “You think he lied?”

  She nodded. “I believe so. It was to build up his own reputation with the Hellions. Cousins probably figured out that his uncle’s car, gun, and ammo were used in the shooting and talked to his friend Coleman.”

  “Well, Cousins was picked up in the Hellions’ hideout, so we know the two were in communication. He could have just been visiting.”

  “Or maybe he was getting in with them?” She wasn’t even sure whether it mattered.

  “Going back to Brown, we need to figure out his motive.”

  “And you heard Cousins? ‘Why would he want to kill a cop?’ I honestly don’t think Cousins was in on this from the start.” She walked a few steps, hoping something would shake loose.

  Terry paced next to her. “He could be lying.”

  She shook her head. “I believe him.”

  He stopped moving and stared at her blankly. “Then how do you expect to find out Brown’s motivation?”

  She came to a standstill. “I have no doubt that the more recent situation with Ford and Snyder triggered something in Phil Brown, but I don’t think it was just a matter of him setting things up for a girlfriend. I think it involved losing someone he loved. ‘Why do you have to take away everyone we love?’ She said We, Terry. This was larger than Ford and Snyder’s mother. Brown might not have had a history with Barry, but he’s the one who paid for it. Ford and Snyder’s loss and hatred toward Barry could have reopened a buried hurt for Brown.”

  “All right, so he set everything up, to…we’ll say, get even…for Grace and for whoever he lost? He lost his parents. Could that be it?”

  “They died in a car accident. I think there’s another loss we’re not yet aware of.” Her mind was whirling, but the thoughts were hard to hold on to.

  “And how do you intend to find out? I really don’t think he’s going to tell you.”

  “Melody Ford.”

  -

  Chapter 54

  MELODY FORD COULDN’T HAVE BEEN sitting in the interrogation room for even ten minutes before Madison stormed in with Terry. The woman who had seemed so genuinely concerned when they’d first met her glared at them as they took their positions. But there was something different in her eyes. She appeared broken now. No longer was there the posture of a confident woman, but rather the shell of one.

  Troy had told them she’d threatened to commit suicide and that he’d believed her. But that’s what guilt could do—snake through your system and devour you from the inside. Madison found it hard to empathize as she sat across from Ford.

  Madison opened the folder on the table in front of her. “You know why you’re here.”

  “I do.”

  “Did you kill this officer?” Madison pushed photographs of Barry in uniform across the table.

  Ford didn’t even look at them but kept her focus on Madison. “You take away everyone we love.”

  And there was that statement again. Troy had mentioned Ford saying it at the house, as well.

  “Who is everyone?” Madison asked, choosing to delicately dance around this interview.

  Ford blinked slowly. “My mother.”

  “Your mother wasn’t well.”

  “You lie,” Ford spat.

  “She had a hard life and—”

  “And it ended because of you! Because of cops who locked her up. She wasn’t strong enough for jail!” Tears fell down Ford’s cheeks.

  Madison let her cry and, in that time, reflected on the woman across from her, how she’d been the one to take Barry down, how she’d wielded the power of God, and how she was going to pay severely for doing so. It would take all Madison’s strength to demonstrate caring at all about Ford’s loss, but that’s what it would likely take to keep Ford talking.

  “I can only imagine that it must have hurt…losing her,” Madison said. She’d demonstrate empathy, but there was no way she’d offer an apology, even an insincere one.

  Ford swiped away her tears. “I was robbed of my mother.” Her voice had softened, seeming to become reflective. “I didn’t even know that I had a sister
until…”

  Madison straightened up, realizing their reunion was one thing they had yet to figure out. “Until when?” she prompted, her interest genuine.

  “I was going through our mother’s things when she first went to jail, and I found a photograph of a baby.” Ford paused, tracing a fingertip over her lips. She dropped her hand. “I knew it wasn’t me so I asked her who it was.”

  “That’s how you found out about Erica.”

  Ford nodded. “I was so excited to have a sister after being the only child for most of my life. Mom wasn’t happy, though. She didn’t like having that part of her life brought up again. She’d given up Erica because she couldn’t handle a baby back then.” Ford’s mouth curved in a subtle smile. “But Mom came around to the idea of meeting her grown daughter. And they hit it off.” Ford’s eyes turned dark now. “But when she broke parole and was carted back to jail, she couldn’t take it. She’d only been reunited with her long-lost daughter for less than two years. It broke her heart. No one cared about Mom excerpt for me and Erica, and I say that she died of a broken heart in prison. All because some zealous cop put her back behind bars.” Ford hissed the last statement.

  Madison tamped down her anger. None of this was Barry’s fault. He was doing his job. The only one to blame for the mother’s death was the mother herself. She took a few deep breaths. “You mentioned cops take away everyone we love. Who is everyone and who is we?” Madison asked, hoping to move things forward and maybe even uncover Brown’s motivation for setting up the hit.

  “My sister, for one. She lost her mother, and now her boyfriend.”

  “Who else?” Madison pressed.

  “Phil. I’m sure you know that he and I were having an affair,” she stated unapologetically.

  “Who did Phil lose?”

  “He lost his parents to a car accident… But it’s your fault he didn’t know his sister.”

  His sister… Terry had mentioned Phil had one. What was her name again? Ah. “Kara Brown?”

  “No.” Ford curled her lips. “His other sister. It turns out his mom had a past life that she had withheld from her family. It wasn’t until she died and included the sister in the will that he found out about her.”