Guardian of Justice (5 page)

EIGHT

“You’re going to have to get the social worker back in here, Brooks. I need her statement,” Sergeant Shaline said, stepping out of his office. He dropped the report on the bench next to Dallas.

It had been a week since the incident, and Dallas still hadn’t heard from Kira Matthews. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying. “I’ve phoned every shift. She doesn’t return my calls.”

“Doesn’t sound good. Before you head out, you need to see the captain.”

“Now?”

“If you’re going on patrol, then yes, before you head out would be now.”

There has to be a wise guy in every crowd.Dallas walked up the stairs of the station and knocked on the officer’s open door. “Hi, Captain. Sergeant Shaline said you—”

“Sit down, Dallas.” Captain Galyard straightened a stack of papers by tapping the full bundle on the desk, then moved it out of the way. Finally, he turned his attention to Dallas. “I need to reassign you for a few weeks.”

“Okay,” Dallas said with interest. “Which shift?”

The captain stalled a few more minutes, staring at him. “Days.” He paused, as if that was supposed to upset Dallas.

What’s all the drama about?“Not a problem,” he said aloud, even though he wasn’t thrilled. Days were nice for the schedule, as long as you liked traffic and cold calls. “When do I start?”

“Tomorrow,” Captain Galyard said. “Report to the high school. The school resource officer—”

Dallas’s reaction was instantaneous, and he knew the captain was expecting it. He took a deep breath. “You’re joking, right?” He thought a second. Was it April Fool’s Day, or just another of the captain’s practical jokes? This was no joking matter. Not even Galyard, king of pranksters, would put him through this. Would he?

“I’m afraid not, Dallas. Brad Johnson needs some time off. He’ll go over the school policies with you tomorrow—”

“Wait just a minute.” Dallas shook his head. This was the last thing he’d expected to hear. “Back up. You’re serious?”

Captain Galyard gave him a look that dared him to question an order. “I wouldn’t joke with you about this, Dallas. Brad’s going on medical leave, and it can’t wait. I know this is going to be tough for you, but we don’t have time to train a new school resource officer, and no one else in the precinct has any experience.”

Dallas felt his world turn upside down. The flashback to his last day as an SRO was quick, but no doubt complete. The actual event hadn’t taken much longer. With one gunshot, Steve Waverley’s baseball hopes were gone, and Alek Beeson was dead.

This wasn’t in the deal, God. I agreed to come back to protect and serve. I said no kids. No schools. We had an agreement.

What was he thinking, arguing with God? He’d already tried that, and God had led him to Antelope Springs, a quiet rural town in northern Colorado. What could happen here? He shook his head.

“You’re trained, you have invaluable experience and we need you there, Dallas….”

Though his head was nodding, Dallas wasn’t really absorbing any of the conversation. After a few minutes, he pulled himself out of his fog. “Does anyone else know what happened in Phoenix?”

“It’s nobody’s business but ours. There is nothing in your personnel file on it, if that’s your concern. It’s just for a few weeks, then school will be out for the summer. Hopefully, Johnson will be back on the job in the fall. I’m here anytime you need to talk. Anytime, night or day, and I expect to hear from you.”

A few weeks. Surely I can hang on for a few weeks.“I’ll make it work.” He stood to leave.

“Unless it’s unusually busy tonight, leave as soon as you get Miss Matthews’s statement. School starts at 7:25 a.m., so Johnson would like to meet with you at 6:30 a.m.”

“Yes, sir,” he muttered. At least the captain didn’t expect him to work a double shift.

He called Kira from the station, hoping he could make it a quick deal, get her over here to write up her statement so he could finish the report and be done with it. No such luck. He stopped into Sergeant Shaline’s office again and let him know he wasn’t able to reach her.

“I guess you’re driving to Fossil Creek, then, aren’t you? If that doesn’t produce any results, you might consider putting out a BOLO for her,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, that ought to build a few bridges between us and Social Services, wouldn’t it?” Dallas replied, shaking his head. The last thing he wanted tonight was to chase the woman down. He had made every attempt to get her here already.

Thirty minutes later he was surprised to find a security gate at the entrance to her upscale village of Victorian style town homes. Looks like they pay social workers a lot more than they do cops these days.He parked in the visitors lot, wound his way on foot through the streets to her condo and rang the bell. No answer. Why am I not surprised?

He pulled out her release form from her ride-along and dialed the number listed for next of kin, only to get the Office of Protective Services, again. This time, though, he followed the instructions to reach an after-hours operator. After he’d explained the situation, the woman put him on hold for what seemed like forever.

“Officer Brooks,” the operator finally announced, “Miss Matthews hasn’t been at work for the last three days.”

“She’s sick?”

“Don’t know. I just know she’s been out.”

“Thanks. Do you have an emergency contact for her?”

“You’d have to call her supervisor tomorrow for that.”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Dallas knew it was ridiculous to believe the worst, but he couldn’t take that chance. The DEA hadn’t arrested Mickey Zelanski yet. What if, for some idiotic reason, he’d come after Kira?

She hadn’t returned his calls, and he couldn’t even get hold of her at work. He’d come this far, and he wasn’t giving up now. He didn’t want to make another mistake. Not with Kira.

He rang the doorbell again, and not expecting a different response, looked for an open curtain so he could peek inside. He froze when he saw a window gaping wide. He shone his flashlight around the yard, looking for other signs of an intruder, then back into the house.

“Kira?” He shone the light along the wall, able to make a guess as to the layout of the unit. It looked like she had a living room and kitchen on the main floor, bedrooms upstairs. He took a step, and his foot caught on something. Dallas looked down and saw the screen to the window. Immediately, he pulled out his cell phone and called the local police department to send an officer.

While he waited, he looked around the yard for anything else that was out of place. When an officer arrived, he was so young he looked like he should be reading Shakespeare in high school English class. “Officer Richards.” He extended his hand, “You must be Officer Brooks?”

Dallas nodded, then explained the situation in full.

“Matthews? We have an officer on the force by that name. What’s she look like?”

Dallas didn’t have to think about that, “African American, light brown skin, brown hair, brown eyes, slim…” While Dallas described her, the officer took notes.

The kid shook his newly buzzed head. “Must not be related. So the place looks like it’s been broken into….” He jotted more notes, then looked up again. “When did you talk to her last?”

“It’s been almost a week, and apparently her office hasn’t seen her for several days, either.”

“Have you talked to any of the neighbors, asked if they’ve seen her?”

“Not yet,” Dallas said, wishing he could speed things along. He began to pace, anxious to make sure he hadn’t left another innocent victim in the path of destruction. While the obviously new cop asked the standard questions about a missing person, going back and forth on the cell phone with his supervisor, Dallas knocked on doors. He was perplexed that no one had seen or heard anything out of the ordinary, and no one had set eyes on her in several days.

When he returned, the kid was on with dispatch. “Be on the lookout for Kira Matthews, a social worker with Poudre County, about thirty years old, light brown skin, brown hair and brown eyes, five foot seven. Last seen in Antelope Springs, Colorado, on Friday evening. Need to do a welfare check at her home.”

“Hold on, Officer Richards,” the dispatcher said.

Over the radio they heard another officer respond that he would be right there. Within minutes, a detective showed up in plain clothes, wearing his badge on his belt and a phone to his ear. With him was a corporal in a regular patrol uniform.

Dallas could hear the phone ringing inside the unit again. “Come on, Kira, answer,” the detective muttered. He looked at Dallas and nodded. “I’m Nick Matthews and this is Garrett.”

“Dallas Brooks, from Antelope Springs Police Department.”

“You’re the one looking for Kira?” the corporal asked as he opened the storm door and pulled a key from his pocket.

“Yeah, I need her to complete some paperwork.”

“Um, did either of you try to bust in?” The corporal turned toward them. “Get your camera, Nick. The door wasn’t like this last time I saw Kira.”

“We didn’t touch a thing, except the doorbell,” Dallas answered. “I checked around the side, and it looks like someone entered through the window. Probably ought to get pictures of that, too.” He watched the two men interact, deciding they were brothers. “So you know Kira?”

“She’s our sister.” Garrett looked at Dallas.

Officer Richards joined the conversation. “When I heard her name, I suspected she could be related to you, but Dallas said she’s African American.”

“Yep, we adopted her when she was six.”

“You were right, Officer Brooks,” the young cop replied. “Do you want me to stick around or—”

“Yes,” both brothers said.

The detective continued as he took pictures of the scraped up door with a muddy shoe tread on it. “We can’t process our sister’s case. It’s officially yours, Richards. I just want to get pictures before anyone touches anything. You’ll have to call in someone else to process. We’re here as brothers, not officials.”

“You haven’t heard from her, either?” Dallas asked.

“She called a few days ago to apologize for missing my birthday,” Garrett answered. “She said she’d had a bad week and forgot.” He stepped aside as his brother returned from taking pictures of the window. “You have something to do with her bad week?”

Realization hit Dallas like a fist in the gut. This was his fault, and Kira hadn’t told anyone about what had happened. “Yeah,” he said, “it was my fault. I’ve been trying to get hold of her all week. She wouldn’t return my calls.”

“And you have the nerve to show up here and put her name out over the entire region? That’s a misuse of the system! We ought to write you up.” Garrett stepped toward Dallas.

The detective pushed his brother back. “Calm down, Garrett. I don’t think this was personal.”

Garrett stood his ground. “What makes you think that?”

“He’s not her type, for one thing. He’s a cop. You really think she wants another copin her life?” The detective put his gloves on. “So, give me the key.”

His brother didn’t move.

“Garrett. Let’s see what’s going on here and then we can jump to conclusions.”

Dallas wanted to laugh, but this was too bizarre. Right now, he just wanted to know where their sister was, that she was okay. He’d deal with the second punch in the ego later.

Garrett glared at Dallas as he handed the keys over. It looked as if he was used to taking orders from his brother. So Nick was the arrogant detective, and Garrett the one with a temper. He probably had a chip on each shoulder. Dallas crossed his arms over his chest and met Garrett’s stare, as if he could look inside and size the man up. A muscle flickered in Garrett’s jaw. He was trying to prove himself, especially on the job. He was probably the younger of the two, though with his buzz cut, it was difficult to be sure.

Officer Richards leaned close. “So what didhappen between you two?”

Dallas really didn’t want to be the one to tell her brothers what had happened. She had her reasons for keeping it from them. “I came to get a statement for an incident that happened when she did a ride-along. I’ve phoned every day, but she’s not returning my calls.”

“You called in a BOLO just because she didn’t phone you back?” Garrett eyed Dallas with a protective glare. “She didn’t say anything about the ride-along when I talked to her.”

“Mom said she’d been talking to someone about her new project.” Nick looked at Dallas. “So what makes you think something is wrong, Brooks?”

Dallas wasn’t getting anywhere with this tack. “I’m just worried. She doesn’t seem like the type to not follow up on business.”

“Follow up on what?”

“While I was inside the house that night talking to the mother and son, the mom’s boyfriend must have been hiding in the backyard, and tried to break into the cruiser…with your sister inside.”

Nick looked as if he wanted to punch him.

“I’ve done what I could to let her do this in her own timing,” Dallas continued. “Now I need her statement so I can finish my report. I found out she’s not been at work for days, she’s not here, and I found the screen torn off one of her windows. The inside of her condo looks fairly torn up, too. That’s when I called your officer in.” The two brothers stared at Dallas in disbelief. “Are we going to stand here, or make sure Kira is okay?” he asked them.