Page 71 of Wild Justice

Allie’s ties to Bradford seemed pretty strong to Lulu, but she wasn’t going to argue with the district attorney. If he thought he had enough to prosecute, then she’d do it. In the end, it wasn’t her call.

“Where did they find it?”

“Allie’s bedroom closet, hidden at the back behind some dirty laundry and boxes of shoes. I guess she didn’t think that anyone would look there.”

“I don’t want to arrest her in a classroom in front of a bunch of kids,” Lulu said, more to herself than Steve. “I’ll call the DA and see if the end of the day is good enough.”

“You did great, Lulu,” Steve said. “You wrapped up this case in good time. The town is going to be thrilled.”

“The town is going to be shocked,” she replied. “They were waiting for me to fall flat on my face. Then they could all say that I’d just been a nepotism hire, and that they always knew I couldn’t do the job.”

“Well, fuck ‘em all, right? You showed them, didn’t you?”

“I guess I did.”

Then why didn’t she feel vindicated? Shouldn’t there have been some sort of rush of accomplishment? An achievement unlocked? Why didn’t she feel something more? It was almost…a letdown. Was this how her father felt after a case was solved? The rush of the chase simply leaked away like a hole in a birthday balloon?

After Steve left her office, she called the DA to discuss the timing of the arrest. He agreed that traumatizing a bunch of elementary students wasn’t a great idea, and that she should time the arrest for after school. As long as no one tipped off Allie, it should go smoothly.

They also discussed that Harper didn’t have the resources for a long-term prisoner, should the judge not offer bail. Or if they did, that Allie Baker couldn’t pay it. The DA assured Lulu that they had an agreement with the county lockup to house any prisoners for Harper that exceeded twenty-four hours.

Before hanging up the call, the DA congratulated her on a job well done.

“Your dad would be proud of you,” he said.

After she hung up the phone, she sat at her desk for a long time letting the feelings wash over her. She’d solved a murder, and that was good. She’d proved to the town - and herself - that she could do this job. She should be jumping for joy.

Maybe I’m just not the jumping for joy type? Maybe I’m the all-business kind of person.

It was then that it hit her that she might not be feeling the “completion” love because it wasn’t really done. She still had to arrest Allie Baker, and then the DA would either broker a plea deal or have a trial. If she was found guilty, then there would be sentencing. There was still a great deal that needed to happen. Her part of this wasn’t over.

Later today, she was going to arrest Allie Baker for the murder of Dana Cartwright.

Kai wouldn’t have been doinghis job if he hadn’t covered the arrest of Allie Baker. He’d been tipped off by a teacher at the school who called him and said that the sheriff and two deputies had just picked up Allie, put her in handcuffs, and were taking her to the sheriff’s station.

For a brief moment, he was a little hurt that Lulu hadn’t told him herself, but then he realized that she, of course, couldn’t. She was the damn sheriff, after all. She’d probably wanted to keep the arrest as quiet as possible so there wouldn’t be a bunch of onlookers.

Instead, he headed for the sheriff’s station where the local television news already had a truck and a reporter with a microphone waiting for Lulu to show up. A small crowd had gathered as well, but a deputy was keeping them behind a barricade that had been set up.

Three official vehicles pulled up and parked in front of the station. The television reporter smirked at Kai before rushing up to the lead car where Lulu was climbing out of the driver’s side, sticking the microphone in her face.

“Tony and I will give a joint statement in a moment,” Lulu said to the reporter, dismissing the smiling woman rather efficiently.

The reporter wasn’t put off, however, and they rounded the vehicle to where Tony Witscoff, the district attorney was exiting the car. She tried to ask him a few questions, but he shook his head, too.

A deputy climbed out of each of the second and third vehicles, before striding up to the back door of the middle car and opening it. Allie Baker, cuffed and angry, emerged from the backseat, her gaze taking in the crowd that had gathered to see her “perp walk” into the station.

Another car pulled in behind the three, and Jay Bradford rushed out, urgently speaking with Lulu who was trying to calm him down. Everyone disappeared into the station, the door closing behind them. Kai didn’t move from his spot since he’d heard Lulu say that a statement would be made in a few minutes. Some of the crowd, however, began to drift away now that there wasn’t anything exciting to see.

“Looks like your girlfriend pulled it off,” the reporter said, a smug smile on her heavily made-up face. “To be honest, I didn’t think she had it in her. Or was this just pure luck? You have to wonder if her father’s entire law enforcement career was just actually luck. Being in the right place with the right people like Logan Wright and Tanner Marks.”

Kai had researched the men that had brought in Wade Bryson and later his son Jake. There hadn’t been one man in that group that was just hanging on. They’d all played their parts. Every one of them. But they didn’t need him to contradict what she’d said. Their legacies were secure.

“It wasn’t luck,” he said. “Lulu’s damn good at her job.”

“Can I quote you on that?”

“You can, but I doubt you will.”

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