Page 6 of Wild Justice

It was mostly men, to be honest. Kai had stopped into Leon’s for a beer last night, and a few of the regulars were bitching that women shouldn’t be cops. That it wasn’t natural. That sort of bullshit. They’d made a few jokes of getting her an apron and a rolling pin. Kai was pretty sure that Lulu knew exactly what to do with a rolling pin.

Hit stupid guys upside the head with it.

Kai was trying to keep an open mind about her appointment. It was true she didn’t have much or any experience but the job, for the most part, was fairly routine and uneventful. If it hadn’t been, he would have had more to put in the newspaper.

If she needed to break up a fight on Saturday night, she had a few burly deputies to help her out. If she needed to look into some cattle rustling, that involved more brains than brawn. Honestly, only time would tell if Lulu had what it took to succeed. He’d heard there hadn’t been any other people wanting the job either. The deputies didn’t want the responsibility, and more experienced lawpersons wanted more money. So, they’d hired Lulu.

“Hey, Kai. What’s up?” Deputy Steve asked. “What can we do for you?”

“I was hoping to talk to Lulu. Is she here?”

The sheriff’s station wasn’t large, just a few desks in the main room, the sheriff’s personal office, which was more like a closet, a few storage rooms, and an interrogation room in the back with a table and chairs. Upstairs was a small apartment where Lulu’s mom had lived when she first moved to Harper. At least that’s what Kai had been told. There were a lot of stories from back then, and he’d always wondered if they were all true.

The town grapevine had said that Lulu was now living there with some guy named Henry.

“She ran upstairs for a minute, but she’ll be back down. Help yourself to some coffee and relax. I’m sure she’ll want to talk to you.”

The old story was that Presley put a fancy coffeemaker in the sheriff’s station and people began hanging around and visiting. Then she opened a coffee shop a few blocks down, but the coffeemaker at the station had been replaced as the years had passed. Everyone knew they could always get a hot cup of good coffee there, along with help for whatever they needed.

“Don’t mind if I do. I left the house with only half a cup under my belt.”

“The pot’s fresh.”

“What do you think of your new boss?” Kai asked as he poured himself a cup. “I’m sure you’re going to miss Seth.”

“We will,” Steve said, his expression sad. “He’s a good man to work for, and we all respect the hell out of him. But it was his time, you know? He deserves to have some fun in his retirement. As for Lulu, she said she’s not going to make any big changes for a while. She wants to see how things run, so I’m not too worried. I’ve known her since we were both kids. She’s not a tyrant, and she’s always fun. It should be fine. It’s not like we’re a hotbed of crime here in town.”

That had been one of Kai’s questions. What changes was she looking to make? He still planned to ask her and get the answer straight from her lips.

“Do all the deputies feel that way?”

Steve chuckled and rubbed his chin at the question.

“If you’re looking for dissension in the ranks, I don’t know what to tell you. None of us wanted to be sheriff, so we’re not mad that she got it. If someone doesn’t want her to have the job, they aren’t being vocal about it.”

Kai hoped it stayed that way. The last thing Lulu needed was a deputy that didn’t have her back.

“Were you surprised about her being named sheriff?”

“Hell, yes. But so was her daddy. You should have seen his face.”

That might be the story. Right there. How did Seth feel about all of this?

“He didn’t know?”

“Apparently not. He was as shocked as we were. They all went to his house this morning, and they must have worked it all out because she came back and got right to work looking through open case files.”

The door to the stairwell that led to the apartment opened, and Lulu entered the main station. She was wearing blue jeans and a beige uniform shirt, just like Seth always had. Except that the former sheriff hadn’t had a fantastic figure and face. Lulu took after her mama in the looks department, and she was every bit of a beauty that could turn heads. Long light brown hair, sky-blue eyes, and legs that were made to wear blue jeans and cowboy boots had made Lulu Reilly the prom queen her senior year.

At over sixty, Presley Reilly was still a stunning woman, too. The whole family had won the gene pool lottery from what Kai could see. Ben and Chase weren’t exactly ugly either, and both had broken a few hearts along the way.

“Hey, Lulu,” Steve called. “Kai was hoping to talk to you. Got a minute?”

“Sure,” she said, her gaze intent as she walked toward him. “My mom told me that you’d taken over your granddad’s newspaper.”

Her tone was neutral, not making his actions sound good or bad. He’d heard plenty from his friends and some of his family about how stupid it was, coming back here to save a tiny local paper that should have been out of business years ago. So far, he hadn’t had any regrets. Yet, anyway.

“About six months ago,” he replied. “I’ll get right to the point. I was hoping to do an article about you coming back to take over for your dad. Why you did it, your plans. How you feel about being back in your hometown after a few years away, that sort of thing. And then maybe a day in the life, as well. Honestly, I’d love to have a regular column about what’s happening from the sheriff’s point of view.”

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