To Love and Protect

by Muriel Jensen

  He reached for the folder with her name on it. “What are we searching for?” When Corie didn’t answer, he looked up to see her pale and fear-filled face staring into his. That scared him. Usually, if she felt fear, she didn’t betray it. So this time it must be a bigger fear than she could control. “What?” he asked.

  She swallowed and it was clear she’d rather do anything than answer him. But she angled her chin and said, “We’re looking for a photo of Jack taken the night you guys followed me to Tyree’s. It looks like he’s disabling the security system, but actually I had done that. He probably just touched the dangling wires when he followed me into the house.”

  Ben told himself he was too young and too fit to have a heart attack. But his chest constricted as though he was about to. He sorted through anger, trepidation, confusion and looked for calm. “Who took the photo?”

  She flipped through papers in the file without looking up at him. “Pimental,” she replied.

  “And how do you know that?”

  “He told me.”

  Things were starting to come together. “When?”

  She put the papers down and met his eyes with mild impatience. “The night of the town’s Christmas party.”

  Remarkably he kept his cool. “He’s the one who scared you.”

  “Yes.”

  “What did he say?”

  “That if I didn’t convince Teresa to move, he’d show the Corpus Christi police Jack’s photo.”

  That made him want to hurt Pimental, but it was always good to know the truth.

  “Why was he at Tyree’s the night you broke in?”

  “He didn’t say, but I suspect he and Tyree’s wife see each other on the side.”

  That was interesting information and possibly useful. “But Tyree was home. Why would he risk...?”

  “Maybe he was just dropping her off behind the house so he wouldn’t be spotted. I don’t know. I just want to see if he really does have a picture of Jack. At first I thought he might be trying to frighten me, but when I thought about it, how would he know Jack had been toying with the alarm system if he hadn’t been there to see it?”

  All right. It was time to get serious about this. Ben pulled the tablet toward him. “Did you try Sukie’s name for a password?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do we know his birth date?”

  “No. But...try ‘Delia,’” Corie suggested.

  He did. “Ah!” he said as he gained access. He accessed the pictures library and began opening photos. The third one was of someone working on some kind of wiring. It might or might not be a security alarm. The photo was dark, bushes and shadows impairing the view, and the subject was in profile.

  Corie, who’d come to stand behind him, whispered, “Oh, no!”

  Ben held the tablet up for a closer look. “But, if you didn’t know it was Jack, could you tell?”

  “Who cares, Ben? Just delete it.”

  He reached across the table and pulled her chair over. “Sit down.”

  “Ben...”

  He caught her wrist and tugged her into the chair. She huffed at him.

  “Think about it,” he said reasonably. “If we’re not absolutely certain this could identify Jack, it’d be better to leave it alone.”

  She looked at him as though he was causing her to lose her mind. “What? No! If there’s any chance...”

  “Corie. I’m guessing Pimental took this photo on his phone and sent it to his tablet. We could delete this, but it would still be on his phone. And if, God forbid, anything ever came to trial, the fact that we deleted this picture confirms that someone broke into Pimental’s office and stole his files. Who do you think he’ll suspect?”

  “But he’s a criminal.”

  “True. And, technically, after tonight, so are we.”

  She looked him in the eye. “I don’t care. If Jack is hurt by this, you won’t have to get revenge against me because I’ll never forgive myself.”

  His promise of payback if Jack was ever incriminated because of her actions seemed as if it had happened a lifetime ago in some parallel universe. Now, as he looked into her eyes, he realized how much he loved her—and that was despite how insane she made him.

  “If we’re smart,” he said, sweeping a hand over the files on the table, “there’s something here we can use against him for leverage. We just have to find it.”

  “Okay.” She pulled the files closer and made a roughly equal distribution of the work. She heaved a sigh and sat back in her chair. “I’m sorry, Ben. I wanted to delete Jack’s photo so he’d be uninvolved, but now I’ve just made it worse for both of you.”

  He hated that she looked so worried, but he couldn’t let her off the hook. He was still too angry. “Do you think either of us would ever sit back and let you go to jail?” He pointed to the files. “Start searching. Make a note of whatever looks like it incriminates Pimental or Tyree. But make sure everything remains as you found it, so we can put it back and Pimental will never know you took it.”

  She returned to work without comment.

  When they compared notes an hour later, it was clear that Pimental maintained control with blackmail. Bigelow had gone to jail for assault in a small town in Florida ten years previously. Ben guessed that must have been hidden from whatever review board had approved him for his current job. Pimental’s work, probably.

  Sukie seemed to have a gambling problem. Pimental was lending her money but keeping track of every dime.

  Corie pushed an open file in front of Ben. “Look at this. I don’t know what it means. I just know it isn’t right. These equipment purchases seem excessive for our small city hall.”

  Ben looked over the receipts. Dozens of PCs and printers, a dozen laptops, two dozen office chairs and a lot of artwork.

  Corie said, “I’ve never seen artwork in city hall, except for a landscape print in Sukie’s office. And there are maybe six offices total in the building, most of them doing double duty for more than one department. Why all this equipment?”

  As Ben frowned over the numbers, a possible connection came to him. He pulled the Craigslist file closer and studied its contents. There were several pages of items listed for sale on the website. Many of them coincided with the town’s invoices, purportedly for office furniture.

  “He’s been buying like he’s at Costco,” Ben said, looking up at her, “and reselling most of it on Craigslist. The town pays for the purchases without checking numbers of items. He could have furnished a building twice this size with what he purchased. And he pockets the money from the online sales of all the extras. He and whoever else is helping him. Bigelow, maybe.” He pushed a file toward her. “And I know why Tyree is so anxious to get Teresa out of that house.”

  “Why?” She sifted through the paperwork.

  “There’s correspondence from a developer in Dallas who wants property outside of town to put up a resort exclusively for team building. There are emails between Pimental and Tyree agreeing to an equitable split of the bribe from Pennington to make it happen.”

  She frowned. “In Querida?”

  “Sure. All they need is a lot of space. It’s all about employee interaction.”

  She continued to frown. “But...why wouldn’t he just tell Teresa that? I mean, he does own the property. Why all this harassment when he could just give her legal notice to get out? His scare tactics with her have been going on for over a year.”

  He nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “That part doesn’t make sense. But, for right now, we can get him on this theft of town funds with all these outrageous purchases.”

  He pulled out his phone.

  “Who are you calling at this hour?” Corie glanced at the kitchen clock. “It isn’t even 3:00 a.m.”

  “Grady,” Ben replied, hitting spe
ed dial. “He brought his computer and he keeps a portable scanner in his carry case. I— Hey, Grady...Yeah, I know. I suck...Yeah, that, too. Listen...”

  Corie went to get more coffee while Ben explained to Grady what had happened that night and why he needed his computer and scanner.

  “Right. Very illegal...No. I think I have it figured out. I’ll take you to breakfast after. The works...Yes, I know my family’s coming in today. Don’t worry. I have everything under control.”

  Grady arrived a few minutes later, his eyes still foggy with sleep, and Corie led him to the kitchen.

  “You owe me so big,” he said.

  “I do.” Ben pushed an empty chair away from the table for Grady. “Sit,” he said. Corie had already placed a cup of coffee there, along with a reindeer cookie. “Thanks for coming. We’ve got some good stuff here that I’d like to scan into your computer and then you can email it to me. Okay?”

  “Sure.” Before he sat, Ben plugged in his electronics at the counter. He opened his account and gave Ben access. “There you go. Have at it.”

  While Ben worked, Corie explained what they’d found—the photo of Jack and the incriminating files—and told him they intended to put everything back before city hall opened for business.

  Grady nodded. “You do remember,” he said to Ben, “that we work for a police department?”

  “I do,” Ben replied. “In another state. But our job is to protect and to serve. And my personal job is to protect my brother from being arrested when he was only trying to help his sister.”

  “I get that. So, we’re going to take this guy down before he can arrest Jack?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  “What if you’re caught putting the stuff back?”

  “Won’t happen.”

  Grady smiled at Corie. “Remember he said that so you can use it against him when the time comes.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CORIE REMEMBERED GRADY’S words an hour and a half later. She and Ben were huddled together on the floor in Pimental’s office, putting the files back in the bottom drawer.

  They’d gained entry the same way they had earlier that morning, and Corie had used all the familiar steps to get into the office then into the file cabinet.

  “I can’t believe this worked,” Corie whispered.

  Ben closed the drawer, pushed in the lock and they turned together to hurry out through Sukie’s office when the bathroom door opened and the overhead light went on, catching them in a blinding glare.

  Corie felt all her bodily processes shudder to a halt. She had no sight, no breath, and she was absolutely sure her heart wasn’t pumping. Her action to try to stop Jack from being involved in what she’d done had not only deepened that problem but caught Ben in its tentacles, as well.

  Pimental walked out wearing a white terry-cloth robe belted at the waist. He held a gun. Instinctively, Corie moved in front of Ben.

  “Relax, Mr. Pimental,” she said. She hated that her voice shook. “This is all my fault.” She pointed Ben toward the door. “Ben has nothing to do with this. He followed me here to try to stop me.” Close enough to the truth. At least it had been earlier. “He’s leaving, and you’re welcome to call Bigelow on me. I’m sure he’d be happy to help you. Ben, get out.”

  Ben took hold of her arms and moved her out of his way. “You listen to me, Pimental,” he said. His voice shook a little, too, but she knew it was anger. “We discovered your Craigslist scam. You’ve bilked the town out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not to mention your blackmail schemes to keep your patsies in line. We have enough on you to put you away until you’re an old man. Your little power trip here is over.”

  “You stole those files,” Pimental said, his gun still aimed at Ben’s chest. “The court won’t let you use anything you found because you stole it. Fruit of the poisoned tree. It’s inadmissible.”

  “No, I’m an officer of the law. I have a right to investigate.”

  “This isn’t your jurisdiction.”

  Ben waved a sheet of paper. “I have a special search warrant.”

  Corie had watched Ben pick up that sheet of paper. It was the to-go menu from the Grill.

  Pimental looked a little off balance, unsure whether or not to believe him. Ben pushed his advantage.

  “And does Tyree know that you and his wife are having an affair? You think he’ll still be willing to cut you in on the Pennington Properties’ deal when he finds that out?”

  Pimental’s eyes blazed. “My. You two have been busy.” He cocked the gun. “But if you’re not here to share that information...”

  Corie tried to get between them again and Ben yanked her aside. “You’ll notice neither one of us has a weapon. It’ll be hard to prove that you felt endangered and had to shoot us in self-defense.”

  “I’ll say you tried to take mine. I know. It’s a little old and overdone, but I think in this case, it works.” He leveled the gun.

  * * *

  DAMN IT, BEN THOUGHT. He was going to get shot again. He remembered the hot, searing pain from the last time, the jolt to the body, the terrible confusion that took hold as the brain tried to function through pain. He hated confusion. That is, he had until he’d gotten mixed up with his brother’s sister who wasn’t his sister and had to learn to deal with it.

  He also hated the fear. He loved Corie so much he was willing to take a bullet for her. And he was probably about to. But what would happen to her when he went down? He had to find another way.

  Then, from somewhere behind Pimental, a high, indignant voice said, “You’re having an affair with Delia Tyree?”

  Pimental’s cold attitude turned to hot aggravation and he struggled to firm his stance. His fingers worked nervously on the gun. “Not now, Sukie. Stay out of the way.”

  The pudgy blonde walked right around him in a short, flowered robe, seemingly unaware of the weapon, and got in his face. “You were cheating on me? With a woman ten years older than me?” Her high, angry voice filled the office.

  He shoved her aside. The crushing betrayal was evident in her face as she caught herself against his desk. Corie stopped her from running at him again. With the two women out of the line of fire, Ben rushed Pimental.

  Damn it, there it was. The explosive sound, the searing pain in his arm, the fear that caused him to choke on his heartbeat, the confusion...

  He heard Corie scream his name, her voice filled with horror. There was love in that sound. He realized he wasn’t confused at all. If he didn’t stop Pimental, the man was going to kill him and then Corie—just when the whole Manning family was about to come together. He couldn’t let that happen to her.

  Ben landed a punch to Pimental’s jaw and managed to knock the gun out of his hand. As the deputy mayor flew backward, Corie beaned him with a carved wooden bookend. He slumped to his knees and Sukie finished the job with a foot to his back as he went down.

  Corie grabbed Ben by his good arm, put him in Pimental’s chair and then called 9-1-1.

  Ben stopped the call with a finger on the buttons.

  “Ben!” she said, the sound that had been in her voice now a dark shadow in her eyes. “You’re bleeding! A lot! I have to—”

  “Do you really want anyone to know you were here?” he asked and then whispered for her ears alone, “Like Chris?”

  She tossed her head and dialed again. “That hardly matters now. You have to go to the hospital.”

  Sukie came to yank the phone out of her hand. “Hello? Yes! I need an ambulance at city hall. This is Susan Sophia Cunningham. The deputy mayor just shot one of my friends. And you might want to send the county sheriff. I’m not sure who we can trust in the police department. Please hurry.” She fixed Corie with a steady stare as she hung up the phone. “You let me do the talking when they arrive.”<
br />
  Now dressed in a white shirt and jeans, Sukie was masterful. As the emergency medical technicians worked on Ben, she showed the two county sheriff’s deputies who’d accompanied them the files in the open cabinet drawer. “I’ve been Mr. Pimental’s secretary for some time, and I’ve suspected some shady dealings for a while now. I brought my friends with me for support to help me reclaim the record on my gambling debts. He’s been using them against me to make me conceal some of the purchases he’s made with town money, then sold on Craigslist. When he walked in and saw the drawer open, he flew into a rage.

  “Mr. Palmer, there, tried to defend me, and Robert shot him. I’m guessing there’s things in there you all might want to see. I believe he was ordering extra office equipment and furniture and selling it online. He accepted a bribe from...” Sukie went on as the deputy took rapid notes.

  * * *

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE you let someone shoot you again!” Ben’s mother sat behind him in Jack’s rental car as they drove home from the hospital.

  “Helen, I’m sure he didn’t let himself be shot,” his father said. “He was just trying to defend Corie. Very commendable, son. It would have been smarter to not let him shoot you, but, hey...”

  Ben turned to Jack, who spared him a glance away from the road, doing his best not to laugh.

  “I mean, last month,” his mother continued, “when we got home from Arizona, and you were wearing two miles of gauze around your arm, that was one thing, but now we come all this way to spend Christmas with you, and Jack gets a call from Corie to come to the hospital instead of to Teresa’s because you’ve been shot again! Same arm!”

  “Sorry.”

  “I hope so. I’ve half a mind to take back the desk we bought you for Christmas.”

  He turned to look at her over his shoulder. He winced when the action hurt his injury, which had turned out to be a simple flesh wound. “You bought me a desk?” he asked in complete surprise.

  “Yes. For your new office.”

  “That’s wonderful, Mom, but I don’t even have an office yet.”

  “Sarah and I got you a Realtor for Christmas,” Jack said with another quick grin. “To help you find just the right place.”