Chapter 2

TWO

SUNDAY

I'm just about to get out of my Explorer and go into Purdy Women's Prison when my phone rings.

"Detective Carpenter?" Nan asks as if she doesn't know who she just called. I bite my tongue.

"It's me, Nan. Megan Carpenter. What's up?"

I can almost see her snooty look. She doesn't like smart-ass remarks. But then she doesn't like anything except herself.

"Hold for Sheriff Gray, please." She's being very professional. I'm on edge knowing I'll be face-to-face with my bitch of a mother in a few minutes. I take back the snarky remarks I just made about Nan.

"Megan." Tony's voice comes over the phone. "I'm glad I caught you. Are you working on a case? Do you have a minute?"

Sheriff Tony Gray can have all of my minutes. I owe him. He found me just surviving, using street smarts, and got me into the police academy, hired me, and soon I was a detective. My entire world changed from day-to-day survival to having a family. A police family.

But I'm about to do something I'd promised myself I'd never do. I'm going to visit my mother at Purdy Prison. Tony has no idea about this part of my life. Well, maybe he has a tiny suspicion because of a recent case where the killer had pictures of me from high school when I used the name Rylee, and had left the pictures to be found at a murder scene. Tony had found them and secreted them away until he could give them to me. He didn't ask questions. He has trust in me and I would do anything for him. Except I don't want to let him know where I am. Not that I couldn't be going to a prison to interview someone about a case, but I'm not. So I tell a white lie.

"Yes, I am involved in something at the moment."

"Oh. Okay," Tony says, and I can hear his disappointment.

"But it can wait, Sheriff?"

"Great. This thing with Councilman Johns and his wife…Just a moment."

I hear Nan asking him if he wants coffee.

"That'd be nice, Nan."

"Cream and sugar, Sheriff?" Nan asks.

"Just cream, Nan. Oh, and a donut."

"Oh my goodness, Sheriff. They're all gone," Nan says.

I wish she'd get gone.

"I'll get some down the road from that new bakery that just opened."

"Just a moment, Megan." He puts his hand over the mouthpiece but I can still hear him. "Nan, I'm on a call so just get whatever you want. I'll pay you when you get back. And can you shut the door to my office, please?"

I hear the door shut, and Tony is back. "Sorry about that, Megan."

"Office emergency?" I ask, and he snorts.

"Just Nan sucking up. Now where were we? Oh yeah. Councilman Johns and his wife."

"She didn't stab him again, did she?" The councilman was having an affair, and his wife caught them together and stabbed him. Johns has quite the reputation for being a consummate liar and now a cheat. Deputy Davis was first to arrive and told me the wife caught the councilman with a naked woman on her knees bent over the bed and spanking her.

"Now, Megan, you know we would never be able to prove she stabbed him on purpose."

On purpose? The stab wound was on his lower groin, near Captain Happy. Another inch to the left, it wouldn't have been happy any longer. But Tony's right. We could never make a case since she claimed she was doing dishes and was drying a boning knife when he came up behind her and surprised her. We knew their stories were bullshit. They called an ambulance and the paramedic called us. The blood was on her clothes and the bed sheets. But he refused to press charges and backed up her story. We never located the spanking victim.

I ask, "Did anyone get injured?" Or lose an appendage?

"Councilman Johns wants to hire you to discreetly follow his wife. He suspects she's cheating on him."

I say, "First of all, Washington State has a ‘no contest' divorce. They don't have kids. She gets half of everything. Secondly, I don't do that kind of stuff. Cheating isn't a crime."

"That's what I told him."

"Tony, I need the morning off. I'm not on a case. It's personal."

"You got it, Megan. If you need the day, just let me know. I've got some other things backed up here but nothing urgent."

"I won't be long and then I'll take whatever you've got." At least I hope this will be brief.