The Deputy's Witness

by Tyler Anne Snell

  Alyssa hoped Mary had called the cavalry in.

  She turned tail and moved to the second closed door, also pausing to test the temperature of the doorknob. It was cool to the touch. She put her hand around it, ready to turn, when a god-awful crack split through the air.

  Over the sound of a house being devoured, Alyssa heard a man’s voice boom.

  “Get out!”

  The entire house seemed to shift above her.

  She didn’t waste any more time. Flinging the door open, she was fully planning on using the room’s window as her escape when she saw another empty room.

  But it wasn’t empty.

  “Hey!”

  The room was used as an office. A large desk and computer were set up on one wall, while a small sofa was against the other. Picture frames covered the walls along with plaques and awards. However, the dog crate that sat in the corner pulled Alyssa’s full attention.

  A puppy with dark brown fur stood in the middle of the crate, its tiny yaps no match for the noise of everything else that was going on. Alyssa never would have heard him from outside.

  “I’m coming,” Alyssa said, running over to the crate. The puppy was yapping its head off now. She dropped to her knees, broken glass from the window scraping her bare skin, and tried to flip the lock.

  It stuck.

  Alyssa cursed beneath her breath. The dog kept barking. And then a sound she didn’t know how to even describe drowned both of them out.

  The walls shook, picture frames clattered to the floor. She whipped her head around to the open door and watched in horror as the wall of the hallway collapsed. Wall and smoke made a cloud that reached into the office like an oversize hand trying its best to grab her.

  Alyssa covered her head but kept working on the latch. The sound of yelling filtered in from the broken window. She didn’t care.

  “Don’t worry, pup, I’m not—” She cut herself off with a round of coughing. “Not leaving you.”

  With one hard tug the latch finally fell free. She opened the door and held her arms open wide. She wasn’t about to let the dog run wild. Not when she was sure they were both on borrowed time while still inside.

  The puppy stopped its barking and, thankfully, ran right up to her. Alyssa scooped him up, adrenaline surging so she barely felt the glass bite against her skin. He was heavy and would no doubt be a big dog when he grew up. But what about his owner? Alyssa shook her head, trying to ignore the fate of whoever had been on the second story.

  Instead she moved to the window and stood back to kick out at the last two jagged pieces clinging to the frame. The dog squirmed as the first shattered. By the time the second fell, he was all-out trying to escape from her hold.

  So Alyssa let him.

  She tossed him out of the window onto the grass as another wave of coughing racked her body. The movement finally caught the attention of the man and woman she’d seen in the backyard from the laundry room.

  The man started to yell and run toward them.

  Alyssa didn’t have time to wait and see what he was saying. Without an ounce of grace, she clambered out of the window and fell hard against the ground.

  “Come on!”

  The man was soon at her side. He put his arms under her shoulders and more or less dragged her to his backyard. Alyssa didn’t complain. The smoke had finally gotten to her. She didn’t stop coughing until she was lying next to a vegetable garden.

  “That was stupid of you. You could have been killed,” the man said, standing over her. He didn’t say it with any real conviction. “But I’m glad you got Sergeant out.”

  Alyssa was about to ask who Sergeant was when something wet ran across her face. Then it clicked. The puppy’s name was Sergeant. She reached out and stroked her new buddy but felt no joy.

  She knew his name but not his owner’s.

  “Please tell me—tell me no kids were in there,” she managed, trying to keep from falling into another coughing fit.

  “No,” he said. “No kids. Just Ted.”

  The man’s wife was all-out weeping next to them.

  Then Alyssa remembered something Robbie had told her. About who lived down the street from him. Her body went numb.

  “Ted Danfield?” she had to ask, even though she already knew.

  The man nodded.

  “The one and only.”

  * * *

  “WHAT ABOUT THE man with the glasses?”

  Caleb was looking across the desk at Captain Jones, both men frustrated.

  “We already put an all-points bulletin out on him,” Jones repeated. “But apart from what you and Miss Garner described, we don’t have much to go on. We don’t even know if he’s involved, your suspicions aside.”

  Caleb had opened his mouth to protest that point—the man in the horn-rimmed glasses had spoken to Alyssa and even given her the keys she’d “dropped” before she found the fake bomb—when Jones held up his hand to stop him.

  “Listen, I get it,” he said, expression softening. But only a fraction. He still in no way had warmed to Caleb. Especially not after he’d disobeyed direct orders. “You like her and want to protect her. Hell, everyone in Carpenter does. But getting emotionally involved is dangerous.” Again Caleb started to argue with that point and again the captain held up his hand to stop him. “I’ve seen that look,” he said. “Hell, I’ve even seen it on our sheriff’s face. And I get it. Our job is to protect people, and sometimes those people get under our skin. But you of all people should understand that letting your emotions take over on a case can make everything worse, not better.”

  Caleb’s defense died on his tongue. He felt his jaw harden. The change in demeanor wasn’t lost on the captain. He exhaled with a long breath.

  “I promise you we will get to the bottom of this,” Jones continued when it was clear Caleb wouldn’t add in any of his own remarks. “Just try to be patient. We have good men and women out there searching for this man as well as anyone else who might have information. All we can do until then is—”

  A knock sounded on the door, interrupting him. Before he could answer, it opened. Dispatcher Cassie Gates didn’t look apologetic in the least.

  “We just got several calls in about an explosion in a residential neighborhood,” she rushed. Captain Jones and Caleb both shot out of their seats.

  “Where?” Caleb asked, heart galloping.

  Don’t say Dresden Drive, he thought. Don’t say Dresden Drive.

  “Two-eleven Dresden Drive. We’ve already dispatched fire and rescue.”

  Caleb’s stomach stopped in its descent to the floor.

  “Two-eleven?” he repeated. “I dropped Alyssa off at 198 Dresden,” he told the captain. “At Robbie Rickman’s house.”

  Jones turned to the dispatcher.

  “Do we know who lives at 211?”

  Cassie nodded. Her face pinched in worry. He already didn’t like her answer.

  “Ted Danfield.”

  Caleb’s mind raced.

  “And they said there was an explosion?” Jones asked. “Not just a fire?”

  “Yes, sir. All callers said the same thing. They heard a loud boom and when they went outside they saw Mr. Danfield’s house on fire.”

  The captain swore.

  “Ted is one of the witnesses for the Storm Chasers trial,” she added, just in case they hadn’t made the connection. But Caleb had. In fact, he’d made one more.

  “This morning Alyssa was taken off the witness list because of the fake bomb,” he said. “So not only is he a witness, Ted Danfield is the first witness.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “She what?”

  Caleb was about to blow a gasket. He’d kept the gas pedal pressed to the floorboard all the way from the department r
ight up to Robbie and Eleanor’s driveway. The rest of the street was filled with fire trucks and rescue workers frantically trying to save at least some of Ted’s house plus the two neighboring houses that were close enough that the fire was threatening to spread. Caleb and Eleanor were standing in her front yard. Alone.

  “She ran with Robbie toward Ted’s,” she repeated. “I haven’t seen either of them since.”

  Caleb hated to admit it, but since hearing that it wasn’t the Rickmans’ house that had been affected, he’d felt nothing but relief. And while half of the department rushed over to Dresden Drive, Caleb had done it with only one person in mind.

  And she had run toward the explosion.

  “Stay here,” he told Eleanor. “And when I mean here, I mean don’t go back inside, okay?”

  Eleanor wasn’t a dumb woman.

  “In case there’s a bomb,” she supplied.

  He hated to do it, but he nodded. “I don’t know if that’s what happened to Ted, but I wouldn’t take any chances.”

  Eleanor took a long, ragged breath but nodded.

  “Go make sure they’re okay,” she said.

  He didn’t have to be told twice.

  Deputies and police officers alike were trying to secure a perimeter while the firefighters did their job. Smoke was clouding half of the street. Caleb felt like he was navigating a disaster zone, weaving in between residents and responders alike, trying to find two people among a sea of strangers.

  The captain’s words of wisdom from earlier seemed like a lifetime ago.

  Don’t get too emotionally attached. That wasn’t just a good rule, that was his rule.

  Yet here he was, mentally holding his breath until he saw her.

  “Caleb!”

  He swung around so fast his shoes scraped.

  Robbie and a man he didn’t recognize were standing on the lawn across from Ted’s house. The man’s face was ashen. Alyssa wasn’t with them.

  Caleb ran over to him. “Where is she?”

  Robbie held up his hands.

  “She’s okay,” he assured him. “But she’s being seen to.”

  He pointed to one of the ambulances farther up the street.

  That breath of relief hadn’t released yet.

  Instead of getting an explanation, Caleb was running again. He rounded the side of the ambulance, fists clenched, until finally he saw her. “Alyssa!”

  Sitting on the tail of the ambulance door, Alyssa looked worse than she had when he’d pulled her from her car the day before. Once again she was wearing a blouse tucked into a nice skirt and a pair of heels, no doubt for the trial, but this time they were wrinkled and covered in soot. Across her knees and shins was blood. Her hair was disheveled and a smear of blackness bridged over her nose and to her chin.

  What was perhaps the most surprising part was the puppy sitting on her lap, wrapped in her arms.

  It was the only thing that stopped his impulse to wrap his arms around her.

  That breath of relief finally released. It transformed into one question.

  “You ran toward the fire?”

  Alyssa averted her eyes.

  Guilty.

  So guilty, in fact, that Caleb took a second to really look at her again. “Alyssa, did you go into the house?”

  She brought her baby blues up to his stare before cutting them away to the dog in her arms. The pup was panting, unaware of his anger.

  Not at Alyssa, but at himself.

  He should have been with her.

  Caleb threw his hands up and walked around the side of the ambulance out of her view. He watched as firefighters made headway on killing the flames. It sobered him.

  He walked back around to face the woman. When he spoke his voice was lighter, calmer. “Are you okay?”

  Once again he looked at the blood on her legs. There wasn’t a lot, but it was still more than there should have been.

  “Yeah, I wasn’t in the part of the house that collapsed,” she said.

  Caleb felt his eyes widen. It prompted her to explain her statement. “I was in the back of the house getting him out of his dog crate when that happened. Then we got out through the window. I promise I’m okay.”

  Caleb focused on the dog. He realized that it wasn’t just sitting on her lap. She was holding him to her. It softened his anger at her for being so reckless. She’d risked her life to save a dog. Somehow, though, that didn’t surprise him. It was becoming clear that Alyssa Garner had a penchant for trying to save people, dogs apparently included.

  “Did they tell you who lives here?” she asked, motioning to the house.

  Caleb nodded.

  Alyssa’s chin shook slightly as she spoke again. “Robbie said a firefighter told him they couldn’t ID him for sure but they found a body. Ted lost his wife a few years back and never remarried. They never had kids either, so it’s probably a safe bet that it’s him.” She cleared her throat and started to pet the dog absently. “So what happens now? Surely it’s not a coincidence, what happened to Ted and what happened yesterday.”

  “No, I don’t think it was a coincidence either,” he agreed. He moved closer so only she would hear him. The EMT was a few steps away talking to another deputy. “I think someone might be targeting the witnesses from the trial.”

  Alyssa sat up straighter. “But why did I get a fake bomb that played music and Ted...” She let her words trail off. The smoke in the air around them was reminder enough that Ted had indeed gotten a different surprise than she had.

  “I don’t know,” Caleb answered honestly. “But I intend to find out.”

  * * *

  THE TRIAL WAS postponed for two months. Alyssa didn’t know the reasoning behind the new time frame, but she did know it meant that the two Storm Chasers were being sent back to their respective prisons. Meanwhile their victims were scrambling to make sense of their new possible reality of being targets, yet again.

  “I was supposed to take the stand first,” Alyssa had explained to Captain Jones after the fire was officially put out. “Ted is—was second. Davis Palmer, one of the managers, was third, and Missy Grayson, one of the bank tellers, was fourth. Then one of the bank-goers, Margret Smith, and lastly Robbie.”

  “That’s a lot of witnesses,” he had remarked.

  “No one wanted the possibility of them not spending the rest of their lives in prison,” she had pointed out.

  Just listing the witnesses, though, had made Alyssa feel like squirming. It didn’t feel real. Maybe it had all been some crazy misunderstanding...

  But then they confirmed it was Ted who had been killed and that some kind of explosive had done the trick. What was left of the device had gone to a lab while Captain Jones and Police Chief Hawser had met to try to figure out a plan for the witnesses who were left.

  Finally, all of their houses were searched by bomb squad. Nothing was found, but that did little to ease their nerves. Missy, especially, wasn’t keen on the idea of being under house arrest with a guard. Instead she told the captain in secret where she planned to hide out and then left town with her husband. Margret Smith followed their example and by that night Robbie, Eleanor, Davis and Alyssa were the only ones who opted to stay.

  Although the couple tried hard to get Alyssa to leave. While she did the same with them.

  “Go stay with Robert,” Alyssa had pleaded, standing in the hallway at the department. “He’s got that cabin on his property you two could lie low in.”

  Robbie shook his head. “If someone really wants to try to blow us to smithereens, then what makes you think they’ll stop because we’re outside Riker County?”

  “That doesn’t mean you have to make it easier on whoever is doing this by staying,” Alyssa bit out.

  “You’re one to talk,” Caleb said at
her shoulder. His sudden appearance made her jump.

  “But I’ve already been targeted,” she pointed out, annoyed. “Robbie hasn’t yet.”

  Eleanor reached for her hand.

  “We aren’t leaving our home,” she said calmly. “And we aren’t potentially putting Robert or any of our kids in danger by hiding with them.” She squeezed Alyssa’s hand but turned her gaze to Caleb. “We trust that the men and women of the Riker County Sheriff’s Department will figure this all out and, in the meantime, keep us safe.”

  Caleb gave one curt nod.

  Though Alyssa thought she saw an uncertainty there. Still, she already knew one thing for sure. She trusted Caleb Foster, even if he didn’t trust himself.

  “You’re a stubborn woman,” Alyssa said with a sigh.

  “Takes one to know one.” Eleanor winked and dropped her hand. “Now, Deputy Foster, what happens to our Alyssa when we go home?”

  It was a pointed question, reminding everyone that Alyssa was indeed stubborn. They’d spent a good few minutes trying to convince her to stay with them instead of alone at her house. She’d declined. If someone was truly targeting witnesses, then having two in one house might entice their bomber to break order and try to take them all out.

  Assuming the bomber wanted her dead. It shouldn’t, but it bothered her that she’d gotten a fake bomb. Was it just the bomber’s way of being theatrical about the start of what he was about to do to Ted?

  Alyssa turned her attention back to the conversation, knowing she wouldn’t suss out the motive behind the actions of a cold-blooded murderer standing in the hallway at the sheriff’s department.

  “Everyone will have a deputy keep watch at their residence. Including Alyssa.” A muscle in Caleb’s jaw jumped. He angled his body so he was mostly facing her. “Because I haven’t been off the clock since yesterday morning, I’ve been told to take the night off to regroup.”

  Alyssa tried to rein in the raw panic that tore through her. Caleb might not have saved her from any danger in the past two days, but she was finding it hard to shake the idea that his companionship still helped her. It was one thing to survive an ordeal. It was another to live with it. Caleb had helped with that part during the last two days. She didn’t know why, or maybe she did but refused to think about it at length, but the idea that the deputy wasn’t being forced to keep guard was more than just a disappointment. It was a fear.