There were a couple of ways to take that, but Buck decided to take it favorably until he had reason to think otherwise.
That was when Rankin looked up. “Holy cow,” he said.
“What?” the sheriff asked.
“This guy’s for real. I mean, really real.”
“Would you like to explain that?”
“You want the list of medals or the job description?”
The sheriff took a printout from Rankin and led the way to an office in the back. Buck followed with his coffee, waiting to see how this played out. Every muscle in his body was coiled and ready. He’d seen corruption in local law enforcement before, and trust wasn’t his strong suit.
For now, though, everything seemed on the up-and-up. The sheriff’s office was small. The nameplate on his desk, identifying him as Gage Dalton, Sheriff, looked as if it had taken more than one tumble to the floor. A computer filled one corner of the desk and a stack of papers the other.
Gage sat behind it, and Micah and Buck took up the two chairs facing it, while Gage scanned the printout. A moment later he handed Buck’s IDs back to him.
“Okay,” he said. “You’re former CID. Plenty of commendations. Plenty of blanks, too.”
Buck said nothing.
“Being former DEA myself, I know about those blanks. They don’t worry me much. So maybe you’d like to explain to Micah and me why someone would think you’re harassing Haley Martin and what you’re doing hanging around in my town.”
Buck hesitated a moment longer, glancing toward Micah.
“SF,” Micah said, referring to Special Forces. “Retired.”
“I wanted to scope things out a bit more before I came to you,” Buck said frankly. “I don’t know much about what’s going on right now, but something is, and I wanted to have some feel for who might be involved before I go shooting off my mouth.”
“It looks like the time for that is past,” Gage said bluntly. “You’re the stranger here, and you just got some unwanted attention. We can make your life easy or hard. Your choice.”
“I’m worried about Haley,” Buck said. “Among other things.”
“Why would you be worrying about somebody you hardly know?”
“Good question. I asked myself that same thing. It remains, I’m worried anyway. Old instincts die hard.”
“So explain,” Gage said.
Buck explained. He gave them his boss Bill’s name, he told them about the shipment problem, he pointed out that Haley had seen something unusual in the parking lot, that Ray shouldn’t be dead, and that he was seriously concerned that something was happening here that could endanger her if someone thought she knew too much.
“You could have just told us to keep an eye on her,” Micah pointed out.
“Sure. And then everyone would know the cops smelled something wrong and I might never find out what’s happening with those shipments.”
“Are you sure you’re not just dragging her in deeper?”
“Nobody knows I’m investigating except my bosses. Everyone would think I was just hanging around because of Haley. At least that was the plan. A lot of guys would hang around because of her.”
“So she’s your cover.”
“Yes. And I tried to reassure her about it, but that didn’t seem to work. Which I can understand. But I tried. I didn’t want her to think I was
actually
stalking her.”
“Backfire,” Micah remarked.
“Clearly,” Buck agreed.
Gage drummed his fingers on the desktop. “Apart from this being totally unconventional, was your master plan to follow Haley around until you figure something out?”
“Well, I need an excuse to hang around until the next irregularity occurs. Then I’ll follow the second truck to see where it’s going. If I can. At the very least, I have to confirm that shipments are being switched here. That’s my official task. What happens after that...” He shrugged. “Let’s just say I might want to know where the other truck is going.”
At that Gage leaned forward. “If you find out, you’re going to let us know. Right? You’re not going to take the law into your own hands. Not here.”
“I’m not allowed to anymore. I get it. But as everyone keeps pointing out to me, this is a small, tight-knit community. How many people around here don’t know every single one of your deputies by sight?”
Gage and Micah exchanged looks.
“He’s got a point,” Micah remarked.
“He damn well does.” Gage leaned back, grimacing faintly. “I’ll agree on one point, Mr. Devlin—”
“Buck.”
“Buck. Okay. I’m Gage. I agree with you on one thing. This seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to unless something illicit is being shipped in some of those containers. Illicit and worth considerable money. There’s no point in it otherwise. And maybe you’re right about Ray talking a little too much about coming into some money. Around here that would get attention.”
“So did his anonymously-paid-for funeral.”
Gage disagreed. “That doesn’t fit with the rest of the story.”
“Unless the Listons are in on this somehow.”
“It’s possible,” Gage said after brief reflection. “That family has been dirt poor forever. They might be willing to do almost anything to make ends meet.” Then he shook his head. “Only one problem. In all their lives, they’ve never done one thing wrong.”
“Except for that scrape Ray got in right after he graduated,” Micah said.
“Alcohol and tough words don’t mix well,” Gage remarked. “I’ve seen worse sins in my day. He paid for it.”
From Buck’s perspective, it was interesting to hear how well these lawmen knew the people of this area. He’d almost never had that advantage in the army. “So,” he asked slowly, “who might be up to something?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Gage regarded him thoughtfully. “All right. When can I call your boss?”
Buck looked at his watch. “Right now if you want. He’s on until midnight Pacific time. Ask for Bill Grayson.” He recited the phone number and Gage scribbled it down.
Gage called, waited a few minutes, then started speaking to Bill. From Buck’s perspective, it was interesting.
“Your employee didn’t have much choice, Mr. Grayson. Strangers around here get a lot of attention. We’re a small town. We wanted to know why a truck driver was hanging around. This isn’t exactly a vacation destination. He’s sitting in my office right now. Yes. No, we’re not getting directly involved in what he’s doing. It might create more problems. Yes. I’ll tell him.”
Gage hung up. “That’s one upset man.”
“He wants this quiet so the company doesn’t lose business. It hardly looks good for a trucking company to keep messing up its manifests.”
“Doesn’t look good at all.” Gage sighed. “Okay, you’re legit. I see two problems here. First, you stick out like a sore thumb. Second, you’re right, if
we
start doing anything different, half the county will be wondering what’s going on within a day or two. So I’m going to give you free rein. Within the law, that is. As for Haley...”
Buck waited while Gage frowned. “Why couldn’t you have picked someone else?”
“Like I said, it’s Haley I’m worried about. Micah knows she reported that something was going on in that parking lot that night. So two deputies and at least two other people know what she thought she saw—the guy everyone calls Hasty, and the other waitress. I gather folks around here talk about nearly everything.”
“The downside of a small town,” Gage remarked. “If you want to know what you’re doing, ask a neighbor.”
That surprised a laugh from Buck. “That bad?”
“Damn near. On the other hand, nosiness doesn’t keep people from hiding things they want to hide. It just makes them a damn sight more cautious.” He looked at Micah. “If Buck here is right, these folks are willing to kill.”
“We won’t know that until the reports are back.”
“No, but can we afford to take the chance? So I guess we’d better let Haley know Buck is okay. She can decide how much she wants to trust him or help him.” Then his gaze returned to Buck, as strong as laser beams. “You be careful of that girl, hear? She’s strong, but there’s a part of her that’s fragile. No hanky-panky with her. No leading her on. You’re here for a few days or weeks, and I don’t want to see any broken hearts.”
“That’s not on my agenda. At all.”
Gage continued to study him. “Why do I get the feeling you like to give people a hard time?”
“I’ve heard that before.” And damned if he was going to apologize for it.
“I bet you have.” A lopsided smile appeared on Gage’s scarred face. “You know you’re at a disadvantage. Being an outsider, nobody around here is going to tell you much.”
“I’m used to that.”
“I’ll bet,” said Micah. He looked at Gage. “If you think a stranger investigating around here is going to be tough, watch an MP looking into a unit of Rangers. You’d think they all became instantly deaf, dumb and blind.”
At that Gage cracked a laugh. “Okay. I’ll call Haley and tell her you check out. But that’s all I’m going to tell her. I want her to sleep easy. Other than that, it’s all her decision. If I hear you pushed her even a little, you’re on your way out.”
Buck could live with that. He just hoped he hadn’t tipped his hand to the wrong people. Given the way these cops seemed to know about every little thing around here, he had to wonder how they could be unaware of whatever was happening at the truck stop.
It didn’t leave him feeling easy at all as he walked back to the motel.
* * *
Haley didn’t exactly feel nervous when she got home. Buck hadn’t tried to follow her, and she was still torn between believing him and thinking he was some kind of nut. What he said made a certain sense, and in her heart of hearts she found it hard to believe that Ray had rolled his truck on that stretch of road unless something major had happened. Then there was that shadowy exchange in the parking lot, which might or might not be weird. What did she know about the trucking business, after all? Maybe it had been a delivery for some place near here. That struck her as far more likely than that someone was doing something wrong.
But then there was Buck’s story of mixed-up shipments. That sounded even stranger, but she had to admit it had an element of plausibility to it. The things he’d said about money...
She sighed after she finished brushing her teeth, then climbed into sweats for sleeping. Summer nights sometimes turned cool around here, and this one was cooling a lot. She didn’t want to turn on the heat because she needed to save money.
Padding around in slipper socks, she went to get her nightly glass of milk. She didn’t care for it warm, so despite the night’s chill she drank it cold.
Well, if she had anything to be grateful for, it was that Buck hadn’t dumped his story on her earlier in the day. At least she had finished studying for the exam tomorrow morning. She looked at her nutrition books, piled on her cheap little desk beside a lamp, and decided enough was enough. She needed to get some sleep, needed to calm her mind down.
She paused to look at a framed photo of her mother, one taken before illness had robbed her beauty, and found herself thinking about the costs of funerals. How
had
the Listons afforded all of that? Even if the entire county had chipped in a dollar per family, it wouldn’t have covered that coffin.
There she went again, pondering matters that had no answers. It occurred to her to be sorry she had ever talked to Buck Devlin at all. Before he had entered her life, things had seemed so generally uncomplicated. At least since her mother’s passing. She needed some calm and stability after those long years of riding the cancer roller coaster with her mother. She
wanted
her life to be calm and even dull. For a while.
She knew life had been bound to knock her out of her quiet little pond at some point. She might be young in some respects, but she figured she was pretty old in others. Old enough to know that smooth sailing was the exception rather than the rule.
Sitting in her mother’s old armchair, she sipped her milk and tried to absorb all her conflicting feelings about Buck Devlin. At some point, she realized she wanted to believe him, but was afraid to.
Interesting. She wanted to believe there was some illegal activity going on in the parking lot at Hasty’s and that Buck was seriously investigating it? That she might be in danger because she had glimpsed something she could barely make out through a window that had acted more like a mirror?
That Ray had been murdered?
That wasn’t a world she wanted to live in. But much of her life had been a world she hadn’t wanted, and that was probably true for most people.
She sighed, finished her milk and headed to the kitchen to rinse the glass, wondering if her attraction to Buck Devlin wasn’t screwing up her thinking. Claire’s warning drifted back to her. Yeah, he was a rolling stone, here today and gone tomorrow. That alone should make her wary.
Then the phone rang. It startled her because she wasn’t used to having late-night calls. There’d been a time when such calls meant that her mother had taken a bad turn in the hospital.
It was over now, but the dread of late-night phone calls remained. Her heart started hammering as she reached for the receiver as if it were a poisonous snake.
“Hello?”
“Haley, this is Gage Dalton.”
That made her stomach lurch. Immediately her mind started scrambling for ideas of what might have gone wrong to make the sheriff call her at such an hour.
“I just wanted you to know,” he said, “we had a complaint tonight that a truck driver, Buck Devlin, was harassing you at the funeral home.”
Haley felt her stomach sink. She hadn’t wanted this, no matter what. He might be what he said he was, or he might be a nut, but he hadn’t hurt her. He hadn’t even scared her enough to get the police involved. “Not really,” she managed to say.
“I’m not saying he did. I’m just letting you know we had a report so we checked into him.”
She caught her breath. “And?”
“He’s exactly what he says he is and is doing exactly what he told you he’s doing. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether to get involved with him. But I don’t think you need to fear him.”
That slight emphasis on
him
left her wondering if Gage thought she had something else to fear, but if he had, wouldn’t he have said so?