Page 27 of Liberating Mallory

“Okay, are we going to just gloss over how Tasmanian devil knew about the bugs?” Diesel piped up several minutes later.

Before anyone could answer, both the Sheriff and Charles Hart walked into the room with Knight following behind them. Knight nodded at Carter then headed back outside.

“Someone want to explain to me what the hell is going on and why all the secrecy?” Sheriff Collins demanded when he walked into the room, Charles Hart standing nearby, confused.

“The conference room you assigned to us was bugged as well as our hotel rooms.” Sgt. Brocard informed the Sheriff, watching his reaction.

“No one in my department…”

“Where was Deputy Beachman at today?” Taz asked, interrupting the Sheriff’s incoming tirade.

“He called out today. He helps take care of his ailing father. Apparently, he had a bad night last night according to Marco.” The Sheriff answered, confusion evident in his response as he looked at each woman.

“Why couldn’t his brother help with the father?” Taz continued asking the questions, making the others in her team look at each other strangely.

“His brother is in the hospital, your teammate shot him in the dick, remember?” came the response that had everyone say ‘what the fuck’ all around the room.

“Wait, you’re telling me that you have a male deputy on the force, whose brother is a criminal that likes to attack officers?” Pratt asked, her voice going hard and cold.

“Bo and Marco have nothing to do with each other. Bo left home when he turned eighteen and hasn’t been home since. He stays in trouble with the law, but lives in another county. He stays out of mine because he knows I’ll haul his ass in and have no qualms sending him to prison for the rest of his life. Marco is a damn good kid. I’m not going to punish him for his brother’s sin.”

“Are you sure about that, Sheriff? There were listening devices in the conference room we were using and only in Alpha Squads hotel rooms. Bo is in the hospital, the only ones who knew we were working the case was you, Mallory’s parents, your deputies, now Bo, Rodney and their attorney, Bainfort.” Carter pointed out for the Sheriff.

“What’s wrong with his father?” Sgt. Brocard asked, softening her voice as she stood between Carter and the Sheriff who was locked into a stare down between the two men.

“He’s got cancer, but treatments won’t work for him because of his liver disease he’s got from years of alcohol abuse, it’s only a matter of time before the old man dies.” The Sheriff sighed heavily as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Diesel turned to look at Raso. “Bo was already a douche bag of untold magnitude, but what if he managed to get to his little bro and tell him that his boss would pay all of papa Beachman’s medical bills and hire a nurse to help Marco with all of it, if he just plants the bugs and keeps tabs on us?”

“Would make sense to me. He’s not really thinking of the actual wrong of what he’s doing, all he’s thinking about is his dad’s health. I mean, I can honestly say I understand because if it was my dad. I’m from a small town like this, if a bunch of big city slickers come in and take over my boss’s position on a big case, I’d want to know what’s going on so it can not only help my old man, but my boss too.” Raso reasoned, tilting her head to the side as she studied Diesel and her thought process.

“Bo is a low-level jackass. Someone else has to be pulling the strings on this. No way Bo came up with that idea on his own.” Sheriff Collins advised the women. “That boy was always in fights, dropped out of high school his junior year. Their daddy wasn’t the nicest man. Hell, even I knew he beat his wife and boys, but I couldn’t arrest him without solid proof other than the nights he was drinking. Best I could do back then was keep him in jail on a drunk and disorderly for a few days to give his wife and boys a reprieve…”

“You did the best you could, Sheriff. If she wasn’t going to press charges, without solid proof, there is nothing you can do without them cooperating. Sounds like Bo got his daddy’s evil side of the genes but went a step higher. But, I agree with you, he couldn’t have come up with that thought process for Marco. Someone else pulled that. I am betting it was Jeffe…”

“What are you thinking, red on the head?” Jordyn asked, watching Pratt stop in the middle of a sentence to nibble on her fingernail.

“What if it wasn’t Jeffe though? Jeffe would stick out here like a sore thumb, even with asshole Bainfort as his ‘chaperone’ in this town. He couldn’t even pass for Hispanic with his coloring or accent.” Pratt summarized her thought process that hit while talking to the Sheriff.

“You think there’s someone else in town that we aren’t aware of that Bainfort may have bought into the town to run the operation that doesn’t stick out?” Raso asked Pratt, trying to catch on with her thought process.

Brody, Carter and Jordyn watched with rapt attention at the women and their way of working things out in their heads. All three admitted the group of women were a site to watch when they bounced ideas off of each other. They threw things out there that popped in their head and made them realize that these women saw pretty much the same horrors and nightmares they did in their jobs.

“Are they always like this?” Abbott whispered to Brody in amusement as she watched them brainstorm, oblivious to those around them.

“Yeah, they are. Not many teams that work together have the dynamic those women do. Those women are a family down to the bone with the shit they’ve seen. Any one they rescue in the human trafficking world gets those women as vicious protectors. While Mallory is someone you guys rescued, her being with Opie made her one of theirs and I’m more scared of those women than I would be a rabid Rottweiler.”

“Seriously? Them things are nasty.” Abbot said in shock looking over at Brody.

“A rabid Rottie is only doing what he does because he’s rabid, he honestly doesn’t realize what he’s doing. I feel sorry for them. Those women over there, when they catch whoever has Mallory, he’s going to wish it was a Rottie putting his ass down because those women will have fun with his flesh before they hand him over to the Sheriff. Carter even has the shivers thinking about it.”

“He’s not lying.” Carter answered, never taking his eyes off of the women.

“Sheriff, what cities are between here and Montrose?” Sgt. Brocard asked the Sheriff, startling everyone out of their amusement into confusion by the question.

“Well…” Sheriff Collins took his hat off and scratched his head for several moments. “There are several but most of them are small towns with no more than a hundred people, if that many.”

“They wouldn’t hide there. Way to easy to point out newcomers into town…” Diesel advised her teammates.

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