Biloxi Sunrise (The Biloxi Series Book 1)

by Jerri Ledford

  By the time he reached the glass panel door that led into the chief’s office, the wiry man had already folded himself neatly into the leather chair that was meant for a bulkier man. He looked at the papers on his desk. The chair in front of his desk. The floor in front of Jack. Everywhere but at Jack.

  “Sit down.” It was a command, not an order. His voice held something more. Something Jack couldn’t put his finger on.

  Jack settled into the smaller chair. “What’s up, Chief?”

  The chief cleared his throat. Squared his shoulders. And looked straight into Jack’s eyes.

  “We have a problem. Well, you have a problem. I should have told you about it earlier. And honestly, I’m not sure how you haven’t heard about it by now.”

  Jack’s eyebrows rose. Was something happening on the case? Or maybe something had come up about Tim. If that weasel was pressing charges…Curiosity pulled him forward until he was nearly leaning on the chief’s desk.

  “It’s Kate.” Odd that the chief didn’t refer to her as Giveans. Jack wasn’t sure he’d ever heard him refer to her by her first name. But now he understood what he’d heard in the chief’s voice. He was concerned about one of his officers.

  “She’s fine, sir. I saw her last night. Talked to her this morning. She’s beaten and banged, but she could have been a lot worse off. Thank God she’s got some decent driving skills.” Jack felt lighter. So, the chief wasn’t as completely indifferent to her as he’d seemed. Maybe he was making an effort to treat her just like everyone else in the department.

  “I’m glad she’s going to be okay, but that’s not the problem.” Chief’s gaze dropped back down to his desk. “It’s about her last partner.”

  She had a previous partner? He’d always assumed that she had worked alone on her last post. She’d never mentioned a partner. Neither had anyone else.

  The chief ran his hands through his hair then leaned his elbows on the desk, almost as if he was having trouble supporting himself without something to lean against.

  “Jack, her last partner got killed during a confrontation with a group of drug smugglers.”

  Oh. Jack wiped a palm across his face as he tried to process what the chief was saying.

  No wonder she hadn’t mentioned her past. She was probably just getting over the grieving process. Why hadn’t she talked about her previous partner? He and Kate had been working together for six months, you would think she might have found a way to work it into conversation. And from the look on the chief’s face, Jack could tell there was something more he hadn’t shared yet. What?

  “What does that have to do with me, Chief? What aren’t you saying?”

  The chief drew in a long breath. The normal sounds of morning in the pit clamored on the other side of the glass door. People just getting to their desks. Gathering their bravado for the day by sharing jokes, poking fun, and brewing coffee that ordinary people wouldn’t drink.

  Deep laughter rang over the buzzing of phones and the general noise of an open office space grew louder as a new day ground forward, gathering speed. Jack waited, scrambling to piece together what Chief was trying to say, but sure he didn’t have all of the information yet.

  “She got her partner killed, Jack. It was her fault. She froze during the confrontation. She could have taken a shot and she didn’t. And the guy she didn’t shoot did. Her partner took six shots in the chest because she wouldn’t pull the trigger.” The chief stood, unfolding his height and walked around the room with long strides. Jack would have to take two steps to keep up with each one of the chief’s.

  “I thought she could handle it. I chalked it up to her inexperience as a young cop. And I thought she deserved another chance. But she damn near got you killed this morning.”

  “What?” Jack still couldn’t make everything the chief said fit together. Kate had nothing to do with the wild man’s rampage this morning. She’d been with him when it started.

  “She had a shot, Jack. She could have taken the guy down, but she didn’t. And you almost got shot!”

  Jack sat back in the chair so fast it looked as if he’d been snapped back by a rubber band. “That’s not possible.”

  “McKenzie saw it. He said she raised her gun to shoot and then just froze. She stayed frozen like that until that crazy idiot fired at you. Only then did she seem to come around and take cover, he said. But she never fired, and she had the shot.” The chief’s chest heaved. His face had turned a bright red that was deepening to crimson.

  Jack didn’t know what to say. The shot that struck the corner of the desk replayed in his mind. It would stay with him for a while. He knew he’d barely missed being killed.

  He could have died. And Kate could have stopped it.

  “I trusted her with my life.”

  “I wanted you to, Jack. I thought she was okay. I didn’t believe that she would ever freeze up again. Her psych evaluations came back clean. She scores perfect marks on firearms recertification every time she’s tested. I never thought it would happen again.”

  Jack couldn’t decide which emotion ruled the chief’s speech, his anger or his guilt. The man had reason to feel guilty.

  “I should have been told.” Anger burned a hot path to Jack’s face, making sweat bead on his lip.

  “You would never have accepted her as a partner, Jack. And I wanted her with the best.”

  Jack shook his head. Really?

  There was nothing more to say. Jack pushed out of the chair and headed for the door without a word.

  “One more thing.” The chief’s words stopped him.

  What more could there be? Jack waited, his back to the door, hands balled into tight fists at his side.

  “They let Burris go this morning on the condition that he stays away from your sister and niece, and that he gets counseling. He’ll still face arraignment, but if he sees the court-appointed counselor, he’ll probably get out of this with nothing more than a stern look from the judge.”

  Stellar.

  Jack was in the parking lot before he even realized he’d moved. He had no recollection of walking out of the precinct. All he could think about was Kate, lying in that hospital bed.

  She had almost died. And she had almost gotten him killed.

  EIGHTEEN

  Jack pulled into Kate's driveway and waited as she stepped gingerly down the walkway to meet him. She still walked as if she was sure that she might fall over at any given time. I should go help her.

  He reached for the door handle but his anger took control. She almost got him killed! But that wasn't what bugged him the most. She had lied to him. That, in his eyes, was an unpardonable offense between partners. So, unpardonable that he'd asked the chief to give him a new partner.

  Or better yet, allow him to just be alone. He didn't need a partner. He didn't need anyone else to have to worry about, and he certainly didn't want anyone else putting his life on the line. People these days were just too unreliable.

  The chief refused.

  Kate reached the car and pulled the door open. Jack stared straight ahead. He had no desire to even acknowledge her right now, and the only reason he was even here was because the identity of the second victim had come back along with confirmation that this victim was likely killed by the same person who had killed Patricia Simms.

  The second victim was Karen Whiteside, and Jack needed to go to her house and see what they could learn about the woman. He'd tried to go without Kate. The chief wouldn't let him.

  The chief leaned forward in his chair and pinned Jack with another one of those looks. “You're not getting a new partner, Roe. And you're not going this alone. Kate will be back tomorrow. You can follow up on Whiteside then.” He had made it very clear that the whole topic wasn't up for discussion.

  Kate had been cleared to come back to work, but not to drive yet. Just great. That meant he had to go pick her up. Worse, he had to spend time alone in the car with her. He would have been a whole lot happier if they could have just g
one in separate cars.

  She settled into the seat and Jack dared a quick glance in her direction. She hadn't made a sound, but he could tell by the set of her jaw and the dullness of her eyes she was uncomfortable, maybe even in pain. His heart twisted. A betrayal to the anger he felt towards Kate at the moment.

  As soon as she snapped the seatbelt in place, he dropped the gear shift into reverse and pulled onto the main road. Karen Whiteside's house was at least a twenty-minute drive from where Kate lived. Jack hoped they could just make the drive in silence.

  “Look Jack.” Short-lived idea. “I know you're mad, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but honestly, how would you have reacted?”

  “I don't want to talk about this Kate. Let's just do what has to be done.” And hope we don't end up in a situation where I need to trust you with my life, because I'm not ready to die.

  “Jack, we have to talk about this.” Kate twisted in her seat to face him.

  “Let. It. Go.” He punctuated the words with hard taps on the steering wheel.

  “Not until I say what I have to say. After that, you can do whatever you want to do. I'll transfer if that's what you want. But hear me out.”

  Jack gripped the steering wheel tight and refused to even nod. She was going to continue talking, no matter what he wanted, so why even bother responding.

  “I should have told you about Ryan, I know that. I tried to a couple of times, but it seemed like every time I worked up the nerve to tell you, we got interrupted and I just never did.”

  “Don't make excuses, Kate.”

  “I'm not making excuses. I just want you to understand that I didn't hold this from you on purpose. I just never could figure out how to tell you.”

  “Kate you can feed yourself that line if you want, but you could have told me. It's not like you haven't been able to get a word in edgewise over the last six months. You could have told me. And you don't have any excuse good enough to convince me otherwise.” Jack smacked the left turn signal.

  “You're right. I could have told you. But in the beginning I thought the chief would have told you. Then, when I figured out that you didn't know, it just never seemed like the right time to tell you. I planned to...” In his peripheral vision he saw Kate stick a finger in her mouth and chew at the cuticle. “I just...I just didn't want to lose you as a partner.”

  “Here's the ironic thing, Kate. If you had just told me to start with, I would have dealt with it. We could have gotten past it, because I'm all about second chances. But you didn't tell me. In effect, you lied to me. And how am I'm supposed to trust you now, Kate? Because not only did you lie to me, but you almost got me killed.” Jack rapped the steering wheel with his knuckles.

  *~*~*

  Kate sat in silence. Jack was right, of course. She could have told him at any time during the last six months about what had happened to Ryan. She should have told him. And she had almost gotten him killed.

  She flashed to the scene at the precinct earlier in the week and felt something physically shift in her chest. It was as if her heart decided that it no longer wanted to reside in its usual place. Instead, it lurched to one side so suddenly she thought it might be trying to re-landscape her anatomy completely.

  If she lost Jack, too…

  She refused to finish that thought. Resolve, mortared by determination, built a wall around her heart in its new location. She would not fail Jack.

  He would never believe her if she told him that, but she intended to prove it to him. He could trust her. And as they pulled up to the curb outside a worn down house with a yard full of discarded junk, Kate silently promised herself, and Jack, that she would prove to him just how trustworthy she could be.

  NINETEEN

  “Lisa, I know you don’t want to be here.” Dana sat straight in a chair watching the top of Lisa’s head. The teen sat in a chair directly across from Dana, staring at her knees and refusing to look up. “But you don’t have a choice. So we might as well make the most of it.”

  Dana tried to keep her voice casual but it was difficult. Why couldn’t Lisa see that she was only trying to help?

  “They can force me to be here.” Defiance laced Lisa’s words. “But they can’t force me to talk to you.”

  “You’re right, Lisa. But you need to remember that I answer to ‘them.’” Dana made air quotes. “The longer it takes you to talk to me, the longer you’ll be forced to come see me. I know that you’re going to be eighteen in a few months, but until then your choices are pretty limited.”

  Silence hung like thick drapes, separating the women, blocking out any connection. Dana remained still and relaxed. Lisa was at a crossroad and Dana watched passively as a war of emotion played across the young woman’s face. Dana knew a decision had been made when Lisa’s shoulders drooped and her head dipped forward.

  “Fine.” The word was so faint that had there been any noise in the office, Dana would not have heard it.

  “Good. Let’s start with your Uncle Jack. How’s your relationship with him?”

  “What does Uncle Jack have to do with anything?” Lisa finally raised her head and looked directly at Dana. “I thought I was here to talk about my relationship?”

  Interesting description. Dana supposed that a seventeen-year-old might consider what was happening between her and Tim a relationship. She was damaged. But Dana would fix her.

  “We’ll get to Tim. But it will help me to understand you if I know about the people in your life.” And it will help me to understand him if you give me some insight into his personality. Dana didn’t say that aloud. Lisa didn’t need to know about her interest in Jack.

  Lisa shrugged. “Uncle Jack is only sorta in my life. He hasn’t really been present since he came back…since his wife and daughter died.” Her shoulders drooped a little further.

  “You don’t have a relationship with him?” Dana wanted to know more about this situation. What weighed so heavily on Lisa? And what did Jack have to do with it? Was he abusing her, too?

  “Kinda. He’s always trying to be helpful, and I tried to talk to him a couple of times. He just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get anything anymore.”

  “Did he use to?”

  “Before the pa…” Lisa stopped.

  Dana watched Lisa’s eyes shift and the muscles in her jaw tighten. What had she started to say?

  “Before the accident, when he was home, he would hang out with me sometimes. I stayed with him and Aunt Susan and Lilly a lot, because Mom was always busy with her friends. When I talked to Uncle Jack then, he would listen to me. Now, it’s like he doesn’t hear anything I say.”

  “How did you feel when your Aunt Susan died?” Dana watched for physical reactions in addition to the verbal ones. Lisa’s voice said she was bored with the conversation, but the tension in her shoulders hitched them toward her ears when Dana asked the question.

  “She was cool. Well, she used to be cool. Then Uncle Jack had to go to Afghanistan and she changed. She wasn’t as cool when he wasn’t around.”

  Dana didn’t ask the next question. Lisa would answer without it ever being asked if she left the silence to hang in the air long enough.

  “Before Uncle Jack left, she was sweet. But the longer Uncle Jack was gone, the less patient she got. With me. With Lilly. She started going out with Mom and hanging out with her friends. She started acting like Mom. I was with Lilly all the time. Aunt Susan wasn’t around. And when she was, she wasn’t really there.”

  “What did her and your Mom do together?” Dana already knew most of this information, but she wanted Lisa to say it aloud, to bring life to the thoughts that had been swirling in the poor girl’s head for so long.

  Lisa stilled. Stared at the floor. Not even the sound of her breathing broke the silence in the room.

  Dana watched, waiting. She could be patient. For as long as she needed to be.

  A single tear dropped from beneath Lisa’s hair and landed on the jean fabric that covered her thighs like tights. T
he spot where the tear landed darkened, giving away her emotions.

  “They partied. A lot. Even after Aunt Susan had the car wreck and Lilly was killed. She’d come over and her and Mom would get drunk or get high. Even after Uncle Jack told Susan to stop. Mom would call her up and convince her to come back. Until she died. It’s Mom’s fault she died. She was the reason that Aunt Susan started doing all of the crap anyway.”

  Tears flowed constantly now. The moisture on Lisa’s jeans grew. Her shoulders shook. But Dana waited, letting her cry out the anger that never should have been there in the first place. She wouldn’t hear anything until that anger was drained from her, allowing room for new thoughts and emotions.

  When Lisa quieted, Dana spoke to her softly. “Lisa, your Mom was wrong. Is wrong, because I know she’s still involved in all of that. And you have a right to be angry with her. She let you down. She took your childhood away from you. But striking back at her by sleeping with Tim isn’t the right answer.”

  Lisa’s shoulders rose as she inhaled sharply and opened her mouth to protest. She looked squarely at Dana. Conviction mingled with anger in her eyes.

  Dana lifted a finger. “Please let me finish.” She waited to make sure Lisa would remain quiet. She did, but she looked as if she might blow at any time.

  Dana continued softly. “Tim was using you. He’s a pervert. He likes having sex with younger girls. He’s probably got other young girlfriends, too, and your Mom is either too stupid to know it, or she chooses not to acknowledge what she knows. You can’t change that. But she’ll learn her own lessons soon enough.”

  “If Tim does come back and he wants to continue where you left off, you have to deny him and take back the power that he’s stripped from you. You can’t let him or your family control you any more, Lisa.”

  Lisa’s face scrunched up like she was about to cry again, then as Dana watched, her features settled into a stone mask. “You’re right. They don’t control me. I control me.”