Page 1 of Shelter for Sharla

Chapter 1

“Damn it!”Instead of wiping the water from the windshield, the wiper blades just smeared it until it was even harder to see out. He squinted slightly in the light of dusk and wished he’d washed the glass with his last gas fill-up.Note to self: Buy a new set of wiper blades, Carter thought, cursing under his breath because he couldn’t write it down while he was driving. With everything on his mind, remembering something that small would be difficult unless it kept raining.

Was his mother okay? Ever since WildaFern Melton had fallen, Carter had been on red alert anytime his phone rang. He’d managed to work through her surgery and her hospitalization, then through her rehab, asking the guys to help him out when they could. The smile on his mom’s face when Justin had brought her home from rehab in his cruiser made Carter almost laugh out loud. But she was doing better, thank god. She’d asked him dozens of times to fix that banister but he hadn’t, and the guilt he felt over her pitching off the side of the stairs was huge. He tried not to beat himself up mentally over it, but it was difficult.If onlywas his daily beratement.

It was hard enough to be sheriff of a small county like Trigg, much less have time for taking care of a parent.I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have a wife and kids, he told himself as he drove. He’d almost gotten there with Mandy, but she just couldn’t take the idea of him being out all hours of the night, maybe being shot at, maybe being in a high-speed chase, maybe… So many variables, and none of them good. She also couldn’t stomach the idea of holidays without him, and they all would’ve been without him. He felt it was his duty to let his guys have holidays with their families, so he always worked them.

The thought that he hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast made him want to stop at the next convenience store. If they had some kind of sandwiches, that would have to be okay. Burning plenty of calories in the gym left him able to eat most anything he wanted. Not being in shape wasn’t an option. It was bad enough that he was the oldest guy on the force, and that meant the pressure to keep performing at an optimum level was imperative. He couldn’t let his guys see him falter.

Henry’sFast Gas was at the next exit off I-24, so Carter decided he’d get off there and grab a bite. He was ready to snap on his blinker when his radio crackled to life, and it wasn’t county dispatch.

“KSP post two. Any unit in the vicinity of mile marker eighty-three, shots fired and officer down. Repeat?shots fired and officer down. Please respond.”

“TriggCounty unit one responding,” Carter barked into the radio. The convenience store’s exit was eighty-one, just two miles from the scene, and he pressed the older CrownVictoria cruiser until he was moving at well over one hundred miles per hour.

As he approached the area, a chill ran up his spine?there was a Kentucky State Police cruiser there, and no one else, at least not that he could see. Drawing closer, he saw a small, dark car in front of the KSP Dodge Charger, and Carter slid to a stop behind the cruiser. He could see a form on the ground, and he trained the spotlight on his door toward it.

A gray uniform. Bile leaped into his throat as he drew his weapon and opened his car door, crouching behind it. Flashing his tactical light around, he saw no movement, so he crouch-crawled to the trooper on the pavement. Carter assumed he was dead, but the man made a gurgling sound. “Central, this is Trigg unit one. I’m on scene. Need a bus and backup. No perpetrator sighted. Copy?”

“Roger that, unit one. Emergency services are enroute, ETA of two minutes. Status?”

“He’s hanging on, but barely. Looks like…” Carter did a quick survey of the trooper’s body. “Two GSWs to the abdomen and one to the chest.” The trooper made another sound and Carter looked down into his face. There was no fear in the young man’s eyes when Carter said, “You’re gonna be okay. Hang in there, bud.”

A hand came up and grasped Carter’s wrist. “My fiancé… my mom…”

“You’ll get to see them in a couple of hours, officer. Help’s coming.”

“No. I… promise…”

“I promise, I’ll tell them you said you love them, but you can tell them yourself.” Carter listened?there was no siren sound. Where was that bus? “You’re gonna be fine.”

“I won’t…” The trooper’s hand went slack and fell from Carter’s wrist, and he didn’t even have to check. He knew the man was gone. That was the moment Carter saw movement in the small, dark car.

Drawing his nine-millimeter Glock, he advanced slowly on the vehicle. “Hands where I can see them!” he yelled. “Come out slowly! NOW!” The back door of the car opened and a young woman stepped out, hands in the air, followed by a young man. “Down on the ground! NOW!” He watched as both people fell to their knees, then lay face down on the pavement. “Hands straight out! DO IT!” When they were finally laid out prostrate, he stepped up to them, weapon still pointed at first one and then the other. “Cross your hands behind your backs!” It took him less than a minute to zip-tie their wrists. As soon as they were secured, he went back to the trooper, but he knew there was no point.

Two hours later, it was official: Kentucky State Trooper DerekPalmer was dead, shot by a woman they were tracking. The two young people, one the shooter’s brother and the other her cousin, told them who they were looking for. For seven hours KSP, CaldwellCounty, TriggCounty, and LyonCounty deputies tracked her by the signal from her phone in what would be one of the most bizarre turn of events any of the law enforcement members had ever seen?the perpetrator posting on social media every few minutes all night long, admitting she’d done a horrible thing and wouldn’t live to see the light of day. At a little after five thirty the next morning they closed in on her, and when she was ordered to surrender, she instead lifted her weapon.

Seven rounds, one each from seven different handguns, ended her life.Suicide by cop, they called it. A sad, confused, misguided young woman named TamaraKent lay dead in a thicket of bushes just yards from a high-dollar resort on the shores of LakeBarkley.

CarterMelton was there. He saw it all. And his gun was the first to fire.

* * *

I know what she wants,and I just can’t. His phone kept ringing, and he didn’t even have to look at it to know it was his mother. She was probably worried sick, but he had too much to do. The first order of business was to turn his service weapon over to the KSP investigators who’d shown up on the scene. There was paperwork to fill out, a statement to give, and a state police psychologist with whom he was expected to meet. Then there was the matter of the two young people who’d been in the car. Since he’d been the first to see them and the one to secure them, he was expected to sit in on their questioning. He wasn’t looking forward tothat.

But it was exactly what he was called to do first. Each of them was in a separate interrogation room. The lead KSP detective, Albert“Bud” Griffin, wanted it that way so officers could compare their stories. “Where do you want me?” Carter asked as he stepped up to the detective.

“Door number one or door number two. Your choice. One gets you a week’s time off duty. The other gets you a week’s time off duty. Pick a winner, sheriff.” Carter reached for the second door?he’d never liked odd numbers.

It opened to a weeping young woman sitting at a table, her straight, blond hair sticking to the sweat on her brow. An officer was already there, talking to her, asking her for her name, address, birthdate, and anything else needed on the customary forms. As soon as he entered the room, she looked up and cried out, “Oh, god, officer, please! I didn’t do anything! I’m so sorry! Please let me go, please? I need to call my mom!”

Emotions collided in the seasoned officer. He hated the tears on her face, her pleading, the desperation in her voice, and yet he’d seen a fellow officer bleed out in front of him, his life ebbing away while someone this girl knew played the coward and left him there like a stray dog hit by a car. Those kinds of feelings were hard to rectify. “Miss, please, just cooperate with us and we’ll get this over with as quickly as possible.”

“But I didn’t know she was going to do that! I swear! Please, let me call my mom? Please?”

“How old is she?” Carter asked the officer collecting information from the young woman.

“Nineteen.”

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