Donut A Day

by Sattler, Gail

  Not wanting to give Kincaid or Donnie any indication that the police knew something was going on, the timing of their surveillance had to be increased very gradually. Their biggest downfall was that a member in uniform, even on breaks, wasn’t a very subtle form of observation. They hadn’t been able to gather enough evidence of a magnitude that would justify an undercover surveillance team. The last thing they could afford to do was have Kincaid and Donnie shut down or move the operation because the place was suddenly swarming with cops.

  So far, their best source of information was from someone working on the inside, and that someone was Sarah. With what appeared to be “only” money laundering happening, at least as far as Donnie was concerned, Matt figured that if she were careful not to be noticed, and if she were careful that no one saw her talking to the police, she was safe. The RCMP would eventually get their man.

  Matt removed his notepad from his pocket and scribbled down some notes. “So you saw more money, but you didn’t see how it came in.”

  “Wait. That’s not all. Today I saw something else.”

  Matt’s hand froze midword. With Kincaid involved, a sensation of dread coursed through him.

  “I saw Donnie with drugs today. And it wasn’t medicine-type drugs. It was the bad kind.”

  “What exactly was it? Do you know how much there was?”

  She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “I couldn’t see that well through the vent, and remember, the vent is right next to the floor, so I was looking up. I only know that it was a black duffel bag, about twice the size of my purse. I saw it on the desk when Donnie was counting the money. When he finished with the money, he reached into the black bag and pulled out a sandwich bag full of white powder. He dropped the bag on the desk when the phone rang, and some powder spilled out. That’s how I saw it.”

  Matt stiffened from head to foot. What they were talking about was probably either heroine or cocaine. As accurately as he could recall, Sarah’s purse wasn’t huge. However, it was large enough for her to hold a book, her umbrella, plus the regular paraphernalia women liked to carry around for no good reason.

  In that case, if the only contents of the duffel bag in question were drugs, then the quantity was far more than could be considered reasonable for personal use.

  This was trafficking. Kincaid was supplying. Donnie was selling to pushers.

  Sarah was right in the middle of it.

  The concept that she wouldn’t be in danger dissolved like a sugar cube in a cup of hot coffee. Suddenly, everything had become very complicated. Not only was Donnie laundering Kincaid’s money, he was also selling some of Kincaid’s drugs. They still had to follow Kincaid around and see where he was getting them. The department would be happy they’d pinpointed where some of Kincaid’s supply was going. Now they would have to determine to whom Donnie was selling it and at what level.

  “What do you think Donnie’s doing with all that stuff?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll have to find out. Somehow.”

  Her eyebrows arched. She snapped her heels together and lifted one hand in the form of a salute. “Detective Cunningham, on duty, Sir!”

  Matt sucked in a deep breath. When he’d called her Detective, he had only been joking around. There was nothing funny about what she was implying she would do. Quite the opposite, the situation was spiraling out of control and becoming more dangerous every time she came to him with additional information.

  “This isn’t television, Sarah. It’s not as easy as it initially looks. There are real risks involved. This is no child’s game.”

  “I know that. I don’t know how to describe what it was like to watch Donnie and then get out of there before anyone saw me and then tell you about it. It’s kinda fun and kinda scary at the same time. Know what I mean?”

  She smiled from ear to ear, but Matt didn’t feel much like smiling back. He knew exactly what she meant.

  As a police officer, he was well aware of the adrenaline rush when working a dangerous case. But he was a professional, fully trained, with a few years of experience under his belt.

  And when worse came to worst, he was big and he had a gun. He also had a radio and the entire police force on call behind him. Even still, the good guys didn’t always win.

  It would have been bad enough to ask any civilian to put their life at such risk, but this was Sarah. If something happened to her that he could have prevented, he would never be able to live with himself.

  “No. I’ll brainstorm with my staff sergeant and see what we can do, and who we can get involved. Thanks for what you’ve told us so far, but this is now out of your hands.”

  “But no one else would ever get access to see what I see.”

  Matt’s stomach clenched. If she were caught, he didn’t want to think of what could happen. “You have no concept of what you’re getting involved in. If you really want to do something, yes, tell me who comes in and if you see anything. But please, stay out of the closet from now on.”

  Her arms fell to her sides. “But. . .”

  Matt stepped up closer to her until they were toe-to-toe. This time she had on a pair of fuzzy bedroom slippers, but they were flat and didn’t add anything to her height. He still had his boots on. The contrasting footwear added to his already pronounced height advantage. He now towered above her by a good ten inches.

  Knowing how intimidating he could be when he wanted, he straightened himself to his full height and tipped his chin down. He tapped the brim of his hat, crossed his arms, and lowered his voice. “Promise me that you’re going to stay out of the closet.”

  “But I—”

  “I said. . . Stay. Out. Of. The. Closet.”

  Her mouth dropped open and her beautiful green eyes widened, nearly causing him to lose it. He wanted to kiss her so bad it hurt.

  “I mean it, Sarah. This is more dangerous than you think it is.”

  Her voice trembled when she spoke. “If I see something, I can still tell you about it, right? Deal?”

  He smiled and relaxed his position. “Of course.”

  “If Donnie has a bunch of drugs, then besides watching for Kincaid, I should also be watching for anyone else too. But I’ve never seen Donnie take anyone besides Kincaid into his office, at least during the night shift. So I guess it would be easy for me to see, once I know what to look for, if Donnie is keeping company with any other suspicious characters.”

  “I don’t want you hanging around and spying on people. Just do your job there, and if you happen to see something, then you—”

  His radio blared from his shoulder. “16Bravo4.”

  He turned his head and hit the button. “16Bravo4 copy.”

  “Break and enter in progress at the storage warehouse 12th and Forbes. Request immediate response.”

  Matt checked his watch. “16Bravo4 copy. ETA four minutes.”

  “16Bravo4 copy.”

  He reached for the doorknob as he glanced over his shoulder. “I have to go. Please, Sarah, stay safe.”

  “I will. You too.”

  He closed the door before he had time to reply. Right now, the elevator was his worst enemy. The indicator lights above the door indicated the elevator was currently going up, with eight more floors to go before began its descent. Matt glanced down the hall, then ran for the stairs.

  On the way to the warehouse, he called the dispatcher to see who else was attending to discover he would be alone for approximately five minutes, which wasn’t good. But he would deal with that when he got there, if the perps were still on the premises. He was still worried about Sarah. He didn’t have the chance to finish what he was going to say before the radio called him out.

  That today was Friday was in his favor. For tonight, she was safe, because she wasn’t going back to work until midnight Monday morning, which gave him the weekend to talk to her again. Today was his second day shift, ending at seven o’clock this evening. He didn’t have to start again until his night shift, at 7:00 p.m.
, Saturday.

  That gave him a twenty-four-hour time period in which to convince her that now it was best for her to step back and let the police finish the job.

  Twelve

  “Matt, can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “Yeah, just a sec,” Matt muttered as he finished the last sentence of the last report for the day. He looked up to see the staff sergeant standing beside the workstation. “What’s up, Jeff?”

  “I read your last report on what’s happening at Donnie’s Donuts. Can I ask you something about where you got your information?”

  Matt’s heart nearly stopped. He breathed deeply and forced himself to grin as he leaned back in the chair with his body at an angle, stretched out one leg, and slung one arm over the back of the chair. “What do you need to know?”

  “Your informant. How did you get her?”

  Matt forced himself to breath evenly. “She came to me, actually.”

  “What’s she like? How well do you know her?”

  Matt’s heart picked up its pace. He didn’t want to talk about how well he knew Sarah. “I don’t know how to answer that. Why do you ask?”

  “I see you noted that she wants to remain anonymous when we do the bust. I’m sure we can do that. I was wondering if she could maybe help us speed things up and save the department a few dollars. Do you think she’d be willing to give us a call next time Kincaid walks in, so we can get someone down there right away to follow him and see where he goes? It would help us see where this latest batch is coming from.”

  “She doesn’t have a cell phone. I’m not sure that’s a good idea, anyway. I don’t want anyone seeing her placing calls like that from the premises. If Kincaid found out he was being followed after seeing Sarah make a quick phone call, that would put her at considerable risk.”

  Matt realized he made a mistake by referring to Sarah by her first name when Jeff’s eyebrows rose. “Point taken. Are you emotionally involved with your informant?”

  Matt stared up at Jeff. He knew the department’s policy on a member keeping an emotional distance from a witness, which was what Sarah might later turn out to be should the situation go to court. They always tried to keep informants away from court, but occasionally they did have to use them as witnesses when the case went to trial. If it did in this case, once again Kincaid would have a high-priced and unscrupulous lawyer. Unless they actually caught Kincaid red-handed, which Matt doubted they would, any and all evidence would rest with the only witness, which in this case would be Sarah.

  First, the defense would do everything they could to discredit the witness. Kincaid’s lawyer would establish that a relationship existed between the witness and the officer in charge, which was himself. They would then slant the questions and badger the witness to “prove” that the police officer in charge had coached the witness, guiding her in her testimony and actions, to the detriment of the accused. After drawing the only evidence they had into question, the judge would have no alternative but to throw the case out of court. Matt didn’t want that to happen. Not this time.

  Sarah had been right when she said his desire to put Kincaid behind bars was personal. But above all else, he wanted Sarah to be safe. Now that there were drugs involved, staying safe would be harder to do.

  At this point, he didn’t know from one minute to the next how emotionally involved he was with Sarah. Nor did it matter. She wasn’t a Christian, so he wasn’t about to marry her. The point was he loved her enough to keep his own needs separate. No matter what happened, no matter how she felt about him, he had to keep her safe.

  He’d told her to keep out of the closet and stop spying on Donnie, but in his gut, he knew she wouldn’t. The only way to keep her safe would be to keep tabs on her himself. He couldn’t do that if they pulled him from the case and put someone else as the officer in charge.

  “The issue here is keeping a civilian safe. She’s an innocent and only doing what she feels is the right thing to do. I wouldn’t care if the informant were male or female. It’s not a good idea to have them making calls like that from their place of employment when it can’t be done in private.”

  “I had to ask. Does your informant think anyone else there is involved or just the owner?”

  “We haven’t talked about it. So far it’s just the owner.” Nor did he want Sarah poking around. However, Jeff’s question further reminded Matt that Sarah’s last comment had been about watching for other suspicious characters. He hadn’t broached the subject of the other employees, nor had he had time to respond properly. The thought opened up a whole new area of risk.

  “Okay. Just wondering. See you next time you’re on dayshift, Matt.”

  Matt stood. “Yeah. See you, Jeff.” He quickly turned and walked to the locker room to stow his equipment and change.

  Tomorrow was another day. The day he was going to get Sarah to behave herself and stay safe.

  ❧

  Sarah sighed and looked around her apartment. For the first time in weeks, the whole place was clean, except for the unmade bed and a bit of laundry piled in the corner, which didn’t really count. Because she’d finally managed to catch up and get ahead on her homework and assigned reading, she finally caught up on her housework.

  For today, she could read for pleasure. She picked up a book Gwen had loaned her months ago, a Heartsong Presents novel by Gwen’s favorite author. She settled back on the couch and began to read, but she barely made it past the first page when the buzzer for the main door sounded.

  When she hit the button, a deep, flowing male voice came over the speaker. “Hi Sarah. It’s lunchtime. I brought food.”

  “Matt?” Sarah looked around the apartment one more time, just in case she missed something on her earlier cleaning spree. “Uh, come on up.”

  Since she only had to close the bedroom door, Sarah stepped into the hall to wait for Matt as he came up the elevator. When the door opened, the fragrance of pizza radiating from the largest pizza box she had ever seen reached her before Matt did. Balanced on top of the pizza box, were two large cups of flavored coffee.

  “What are you doing here? What if I wasn’t home?”

  He grinned. Something funny happened in her stomach, making her realize she must have been hungry after all. “Then I’d eat this whole pizza myself.”

  “I guess.” She turned around and led Matt into the kitchen.

  She took the plates and napkins out of the cupboard while Matt centered the pizza box on the table and placed a coffee at each setting.

  “I’m really surprised to see you today. I thought you usually went to the gym on your stretch between dayshift and nightshift.”

  “I wanted to see you instead. Do you like anchovies and olives?”

  Her stomach churned. “Ugh, no!”

  “Good. Me neither. I brought ham and pineapple.” He flipped the box open.

  She couldn’t help but smile at him. “How did that call go?”

  “What call?” he mumbled as he carefully lifted two slices of pizza to each plate.

  “That one that made you run out of here so fast yesterday.”

  His eyebrows quirked, then he grinned. “Oh, that. It went well. Great, actually.”

  He sat in one of the chairs and folded his hands on the table. This time, Sarah knew what to expect, so she also folded her hands on the table and bowed her head.

  “Dear Lord, thank You for this food before us and for friends to share it with. I ask for Your blessings on this day and for every day to come. Amen.”

  “Amen.”

  He took a big bite. “Good, isn’t it?” he asked through his mouthful.

  Sarah only nodded as she ate, not wanting to be rude.

  “When I got to the warehouse, I was alone for a few minutes. No one likes to check out robberies in progress in industrial areas all alone, but the other member wasn’t due for five minutes, and I heard movement inside the building. I know five minutes doesn’t sound like a long time, but it is when there was only one
of me, and I could hear three or four voices inside the building. We never know if it’s just kids checking things out, getting a thrill out of being where they shouldn’t be, or if there are really thieves who know what they’re after and are prepared for the risk they’re taking of being caught. We also don’t know if they’re armed, and if they are armed, if they’re experienced with a gun.”

  Sarah pressed her palms to her cheeks. “What did you do?”

  “I knew they’d never listen to me if they knew I was alone, so I told them I was going to send the dog in.”

  “I didn’t know you had a dog.”

  He grinned. “I don’t have a dog. I’m not a K-9 unit. But they didn’t know that. I barked a couple of times, told myself, ‘down boy,’ and then said if they didn’t come out, one at a time with their hands up, the dog was going in. I also called out to the other member that I’d located them. They didn’t know he wasn’t there yet. It was a bunch of kids, and they came out. They never did know I didn’t really have a dog; they thought the dog was back in the car. I had two of them cuffed by the time Rick got there.”

  He stopped to laugh and wiped his mouth with his napkin. “You do what you gotta do. Sometimes the good guys really do win.”

  All Sarah could do was stare at Matt as he continued to snicker to himself.

  She didn’t think he was very funny. The only thing she could think of was how potentially dangerous the situation could have been. Yet, he was unbothered, like it was a normal, everyday occurrence. Maybe for him it was. She had to admire his ingenuity. No one was hurt, and even though he was so badly outnumbered, he single-handedly caught the criminals. But she also knew he’d taken a big risk. If they had looked outside and seen him all alone barking like a dog, the outcome could have been very different.

  The concept scared her witless.

  Matt took a sip of his coffee and lowered the cup to the table. “While I’m here, I was wondering if we could talk about what’s going on at Donnie’s.”