Relentless Pursuit (5 page)

Pierce tried to pay attention as Henry explained how the arraignment and bail hearing worked. His eyes kept drifting toward Tammy as she took notes and tried to look reassuring. All Pierce could see were Mrs. Oldham’s tears. Had he caused that?

“Pierce.” Henry interrupted Pierce’s downward thoughts. “You don't say a word to anyone tomorrow unless the judge asks you a direct question. Most likely, Judge Cooper won't speak directly to you. He’ll address each question to me. We’ll plead not guilty and move for bail to be set immediately due to your roots in the community and the fact you have no priors. Then we’ll see if we can raise the money necessary to get you out of jail. Hopefully, by tomorrow afternoon you’ll be home.”

“Really?” Pierce sat up in his chair, suddenly feeling a little better.

“Yes, really. Just keep your head down, keep quiet, and we’ll pull through this,” Henry said as he stood up. He looked at Pierce and then at Tammy still sitting in the chair. “Tammy, why don’t you stay here while I get the car pulled around and answer any questions Pierce has about his family.”

Tammy nodded and then looked over to Pierce. He sat, watching her until Henry left the room.

“Tammy, why are you doing this?” Pierce asked softly. “God knows I don’t deserve it for the way I’ve treated you.”

“Pierce, you’re a guy. If you were perfect all the time, then you’d be a woman,” Tammy teased. She stood up and walked around the table and sat down next to him. “Seriously, right now I'm just worried about you. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“No, you’ve done so much.” He looked into her face and the worry he was feeling for himself abated. There were dark circles under her eyes. Her naturally light complexion was ghostly after her long night. “Have you slept yet?”

“Not since the night before the wedding. I was just falling asleep when Marshall called me,” she told him, the exhaustion clear for all to see.

Pierce stood up and couldn’t resist pulling her toward him. She was so small and tired. He felt the immediate urge to protect his little fighter. Her head fit perfectly against his chest as he felt her give a sigh and relax into him. “Go home and get some rest. I need you in that courtroom tomorrow,” he spoke into her slightly disheveled blonde hair.

Tammy pulled away and gave him her best shot of a smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll be there for you.” She grabbed her bag and knocked on the door. As she walked, out he thought he heard her say
always
, but it was so soft, he was afraid he imagined it.

Tammy closed her eyes the second Henry started driving. The ride back to Keeneston was way too short. Before she knew it, she was awakened by a curse. She opened her eyes and saw that Marshall had pulled up alongside Henry’s car.

“You need to hurry out to Pierce’s house. The detectives are out there with our new police dog and handler conducting a search of the property,” Tammy heard Marshall say before eliciting another curse from Henry.

“Dammit! What are they after now?” Henry said through gritted teeth as he turned his car to follow Marshall out to Pierce’s farm.

“It must be drugs, right?” Tammy remembered the time she met Marko, the police dog Cy had gifted to the Keeneston Police Department at the Christmas party.

“No, the dog is dual-trained, so it could be drugs or explosives. But, probably drugs; pot is my guess.” Henry put his foot on the pedal and hurried to catch up to the sheriff’s cruiser.

The detectives, a forensic team, and a K-9 vehicle were parked out front when they arrived at the farm. Noodle and Dinky, both Keeneston sheriff’s deputies, were keeping a watchful eye on everyone.

Marshall was talking to a tall woman with strawberry blonde hair. A slight dusting of freckles played across her nose and cheeks. She stood in stark contrast to the dark and brooding man sitting next to her in the car. Well, she thought, this should be fun. The athletically built woman looked sweet as sugar and Henry looked like he wanted to light into someone.

Tammy opened the door and walked over to where Marshall stood with the trainer. Her brown dog was resting his black face on his paws as he waited to be put to work.

“Henry Rooney, Tammy Fields, this is Bridget Springer,” Marshall introduced.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you both.” The polite, slightly Southern voice with a hint of authority made Tammy smile. Something about her made her realize this woman wouldn’t be intimidated by anything.

“And what do you think you’re doing here now? I mean, don’t get me wrong, honey, you’re nice to look at, but where are the big boys? I don’t want some amateur mucking up a search like this.” Henry put his hands on his hips and stared her down.

Tammy almost broke out laughing when Bridget simply smiled sweetly. “I know you’ve had a long day, Mr. Rooney. I’ll make this as painless as possible for you all. Marko is to sweep the area for drugs. The detectives over there seem to think Pierce was dealing.” She paused and took her time to slowly look Henry over. “And as for the big boys. Well, I train the big boys, Mr. Rooney. You just try to keep up.”

Marshall snorted as Bridget turned with a toss of her hair and headed with Marko over to the house.

“What are you laughing at?” Henry asked Marshall who was grinning ear-to-ear.

“You'd be laughing too with how stupid you just looked. Big boys, huh? Bridget was just explaining the reason it took Marko and her so long to arrive. After Christmas, they were called overseas to train a group of handlers in Afghanistan for the military. Then the president called her and asked a personal favor of her and Marko, which, of course, she couldn’t turn down.”

“What was it?” Tammy couldn’t help but ask. She was too intrigued.

“Bridget was in charge of personal security for the Duchess of Cambridge’s baby shower. They had need for a woman who could dress up and blend into the crowd. She acted as the Duchess’s assistant and was by her side as her personal bodyguard. That is, after she and Marko swept the area for explosives.” Marshall rocked back on his heels and watched Henry’s reaction.

Henry looked back at her and then shrugged. “Either way she’s pissing me off by looking for drugs. She’s messing with my case and my client.”

“You don’t think I know that? I know what those detectives are doing. If they find drugs, they’ll use it as a reason to prevent bail tomorrow,” Marshall responded. “But that’s not Bridget’s fault. I have to cooperate or they’ll just say the Keeneston Sheriff Department is covering up evidence on behalf of the sheriff’s brother. Yet it’s still funny. This may be the first time you messed up with a woman and a pick-up line wasn’t involved.”

“Well, let’s just hope they don’t find anything,” Henry mumbled as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

“We’re about to find out.” Tammy watched as Bridget and Marko stepped up to the front door of the house.

Tammy watched as Henry stalked toward Bridget and Marko. They were going to trail her to observe Marko in action. The detectives met them with grudges in the living room. They all stood in the center of the room as not to get in Marko’s way.

Bridget brought Marko into the room, “
Zit
.” Marko immediately sat and waited his next command. “We’re going to start on the far end of the house and then work our way into the kitchen and then head upstairs. Marko,
zoek
.”

Bridget led Marko around the back wall and then to the furniture and cabinets. Marko’s tail wagged happily as he stuck his nose under the couch. “Good boy!
Zoek
.”

“What the hell is
zoek
?” Henry whispered.

“Marko's from Holland. He’s trained in Dutch commands, Mr. Rooney.
Zoek
is Dutch for
search
. Okay, the living room is clean. Let’s move into the kitchen.”

Tammy leaned against the car and lifted her face toward the warm afternoon sun. She was so exhausted that she was sure she'd fall asleep where she stood. The house, the garage, and the shed were all clear. No signs of drugs. Marko was now off leash and searching the surrounding woods and fields. Henry, Marshall, and Detective Cowell were still trailing behind Bridget while Detective Basher was nearby on his cell.

She overheard enough to know the police chief was putting pressure on them to find something and to make the case a slam-dunk. As if Pierce’s fingerprints all over the murder weapon weren’t enough, Tammy thought.

“We found something!” Bridget yelled. “Don’t run too fast, Detective Basher, it’s not drugs.”

Tammy saw the slump to the detectives’ shoulders and they started the hike across the yard. “You know, Detective, Pierce is a good man and by focusing on ways to make the evidence fit, you’re not looking for the person who is actually responsible.”

“So you say. You know how many murderers are nice guys? I’ll wait for the DNA evidence, thank you,” Basher grunted as they pushed through a bush and into a small crop field hidden by the dense brush. “What did you find?”

“A very heavily locked and concealed outbuilding. Marko’s not detecting anything but he should get his nose in there just to verify. I need to know the exact wording of the warrant to see if we have permission to unlock it.” Bridget pulled out a tennis ball from the pocket of her black cargo pants and threw it for Marko, who happily snagged it out of the air.

“Yes, we have permission to search every standing structure on the property. Stand aside, I’ll cut the locks off.” Detective Cowell started to push his way forward when Bridget gave a nice yet very assertive smile and held up her hand.

“Don’t worry, Detective. I've got it.” Bridget pulled out a small lock-picking case and had the three locks open in less than a minute. “So much cleaner that way. Then we don’t have to worry about locking it back up, which is hard to do with broken locks.”

Tammy tried to peer in as Bridget opened the camouflaged painted door. Bridget and Marko went in and the rest of them crowded the door to see what was so important it needed to be hidden in a camouflaged building with multiple locks hidden in the woods.

“What the hell is that? Is it an explosive?” Cowell grunted in anger as he realized that Marko had completed his sweep and no drugs were found.

“Nope, it’s not an explosive,” Bridget said as she pulled out the tennis ball from her pocket again. “It looks like a robot.”

“If this is what I think it could be, then I can’t believe what I'm seeing,” Marshall gasped as he walked around it.

“Can you tell us what this thing is, Sheriff?” Detective Basher asked as he followed Marshall around it.

Tammy slid in the door and looked at the contraption. It was shaped like R2D2 from
Star Wars
, but on steroids. It had tank treads along with a spiky cylinder attachment across its back. There were four mechanical arms, two on each side of the drum-shaped body. The top of the drum appeared to be able to swivel and displayed multiple spray heads. To top off the futuristic machine, there was a computer screen on the “belly” and an old-fashioned trailer hitch above the spikes on the back of it.

“Maybe. There’s a debate going on in the farming community concerning agricultural robots. Some say that it defeats the purpose of farming—being out there and tilling the land with their own two hands. Others say it’s a miracle. They either can’t find or can’t afford the help of farm hands needed to bring in and maintain the crops.” Marshall walked around it again and just shook his head in amazement.

“So, this thing acts like a farm hand?” Detective Basher wondered as he started at it with a look of slight confusion on his face.

“That’s right. If this is what I think it is. I just don’t know how,” Marshall answered.

“Is it worth killing over?” Detective Basher asked.

Everyone in the room froze at the question. Tammy bit her lip; if Marshall was that amazed, then they all knew the answer to that question.

Tammy forced her legs to move across the gravel parking lot behind the Blossom Café. The only thing keeping her going was knowing her bed was only a flight of stairs away.

Never once did she doubt Pierce. But she'd be naïve if she didn’t acknowledge the strong case against him. The loud sounds from the dinner crowd at the café drew her attention away from her worrisome thoughts and refocused them instead on the fact that she hadn’t eaten all day. However, a whole circus of flying pigs singing “Howdy Doody” wouldn’t be enough to get her to face the town right now.

Unfortunately, fate hadn’t finished with her yet. Years of trained instincts came into play as the Rose sisters threw open the back door the second Tammy tried to tiptoe past it. It really was uncanny. It was like they could sense gossip.

“Oh! My poor dear! Bless your little heart, you must be exhausted,” Miss Violet pulled Tammy into a tight hug as Miss Daisy and Miss Lily fussed about.

“We made you dinner, dear.” Miss Daisy pulled out a large tray from somewhere. Tammy wasn’t quite sure where it had come from, but her stomach rumbled as she saw the chicken salad on a large buttery croissant with a glass of sweet tea, a side of fruit, and a huge, honking slice of chocolate cake.

“Let’s get you upstairs before you drool all over the place.” Miss Lily urged her up the stairs and Miss Violet went back to work in the café.

Tammy opened the door and collapsed in a heap on the second-hand couch she had bought when she was eighteen. She was so proud of how it looked now. After her promotion, she had covered the hunter green-checkered couch with a beautiful tan slipcover and two pink ruffled pillows. The cushions enveloped her as she sank into them.

“Here you go. You need to eat to keep your strength up and bring our boy home.” Miss Lily placed the tray on her small coffee table.

“What happened today? Are there any new developments?” Miss Daisy asked.

She had been half-asleep the second she had touched the couch and barely knew the Rose sisters were there. Tammy jumped as someone knocked on the door.

“Don’t worry about that, dear, they’ll go away soon enough,” Miss Lily cooed as she urged Tammy to start talking.

“I know you’re in there, Lily Rae! Don’t think I wouldn’t find out!” The deep voice boomed through the door.