Page 46 of Cornered

Hopefully today would be as slow. By the time he went off shift tonight, he would have put in sixty hours for the week. Not that he minded. Extra shifts meant overtime pay. And long hours at work meant fewer hours at home staring at the walls.

All he had on his agenda was to clear out some paperwork and then walk up and down Main Street. There were two other officers on duty today, but both were tied up until midafternoon. They were providing security for a chili cook-off sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.

Donovan had still been in Chicago when it happened, but two years earlier, a questionable judging decision led to a full-on brawl with pots of chili, bowls of cheese, sour cream, jalapeños, and at least one cast iron skillet of cornbread being thrown about. The melee appeared to be transitioning from a food fight to a fist fight when one of the town’s elders hopped on his Harley and drove it into the crowd. Somehow there were no injuries.

Since then, the mayor had insisted on a police presence. Which left Donovan as the only officer available if they had a call for most of the day. Normally, Gray would fill in if needed, but today, the chief was off somewhere playing bodyguard to Dr. Meredith Quinn, DDS, town princess, and do-gooder extraordinaire.

Donovan liked Meredith, but he didn’t love her penchant for going off by herself into areas that held hidden dangers she wasn’t prepared to handle. Gray had finagled a promise from her that the next time she decided to run a charity dental clinic in the more remote nearby counties, he’d get to tag along. And while it was clear to everyone in a twenty-mile radius that she wasn’t happy about it, she’d stayed true to her word.

Donovan hoped Gray could keep Meredith out of trouble.Cassie would be devastated if anything happened to Meredith, who was more big sister to her than cousin. Truth be told, the Quinns were pretty loose about how they defined family relationships. Cousins, first cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters ... it didn’t matter. They were Quinns.

His own family of origin had given him no framework to understand the kind of loyalty the Quinns gave each other. Now, a year and half after moving to this tiny village in the mountains of North Carolina, he’d experienced the full force of the Quinn family.

When he’d been dating Cassie, he’d been welcomed. After he broke up with her? No one had shunned him, but there’d been a shift in the Quinns’ reactions to him. They smiled. They shook hands. They nodded when they saw him or raised a hand in greeting when they passed by.

But he was very much on the outside looking in.

He’d hurt a Quinn, and they’d closed ranks around her. He didn’t blame them. In fact, he admired them for it.

“Donovan?” The stricken features of Glenda Justus, their secretary, came into view moments after her voice had reached him. “You need to get out to The Haven.”

A chill skittered across his body. Was Cassie in trouble? No. She wouldn’t be there this early. He stood and grabbed his keys from his desk drawer. “What’s happened?”

“Bronwyn called. She and Cassie found the kitchen at Hideaway vandalized.”

The chill returned as a wave of ice.

Glenda wrung her hands and kept talking in a pitch higher than he’d ever heard from her. “Bronwyn said everything’s destroyed. You’ll need the camera to document it.”

Donovan didn’t fuss at her for telling him how to do his job. “Are they okay?”

“Bronwyn said they’re fine. But, Donovan ... what if whoever did this is still there? What if it’s a trap?”

She’d been watching too many crime shows for her own good.

“I’ll check it out.” He could call the two officers who’d worked the night shift if he needed them, but he’d wait to do that until he evaluated the scene. “Please let Gray know what’s going on.”

“Will do.”

He didn’t run lights or sirens, but he did exceed the speed limit on his way to The Haven. The security guard at the gate waved him through without a word, and he made his way down the winding entry road, slowing only when he approached the populated areas.

When he came to a stop at the back of Hideaway, he paused to let Glenda know he’d arrived and was leaving his vehicle.

He grabbed his small forensic kit, camera, and notebook, then stepped out of his car, nodded at the two security guards flanking the ladies, and focused on Bronwyn and Cassie. “Are you okay?”

Both nodded. Both wore matching expressions of barely contained fury mixed with a splash of fear and a healthy helping of confusion.

“Give me a few minutes to see what we’re dealing with, and then we’ll talk.” Donovan walked into Hideaway’s back entrance. He paused at the door and put on booties.

He looked around as he entered the space. Lockers filled the walls on his left. To his right was a long hanging rod filled with the white jackets the serving staff wore.

Two more steps and he hit the swinging doors that opened into the kitchen and came to an abrupt stop. He studied the scene. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but this kind of destruction looked like the work of an angry individual. It felt personal.

And the word “oops”? That was a taunt.

Would property destruction be as far as they went?

He took several minutes to investigate the space. He squatted down and shone a light on the floor, but there were no footprints. In fact, with the exception of the word “oops” and the random cooking implements that had been tossed around, the floor was pristine.

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