Page 67 of Justice for JoElla

“Doesn’t matter. Brandon’s down the hallway, fighting for his life, and he’s got me to thank for that.”

“Sounds like he’s got his own bull-headedness to thank for that.” Roy patted JoElla’s back. “Look, he did what he did because he cares about you. If you could ask him right now if he’d do it all over again, I promise you, he’d say yes.”

“SheriffBillings?” They all turned to find a woman standing there, dressed to the nines and with a camera crew in tow. “I’m MarshaWeaver from Channel Seven Action News. We were wondering if you could give us a statement regarding what happened tonight in the officer-related shooting.”

“Tell you what. I’ll be glad to do that?outside. I’ll meet you out there in a couple of minutes after I’ve finished talking with my detectives here,” Roy answered.

“Good enough. Thank you, sir. We’ll be waiting.” The reporter and her entourage turned and walked toward the door.

“You’re welcome. I’m sure you will be,” Roy muttered under his breath. “Damn vultures. Guess I’d better go give themsomethingor they’ll make something up. That’s what they do. Look, Tompkins, you’ve done a good job. You closed a case we had open, and you exposed one we didn’t even know we had.”

“What? What do you mean?” That comment didn’t make sense to JoElla.

“I’ll explain later. Plus you’re going to be exonerated in regard to the earlier shooting, completely exonerated, because now we know you were set up. So, DetectiveTompkins, well done.”

“Oh, shit! Where’s Mick?”

Roy laughed. “Back at the station. He said he’d stay there, field calls, handle all that stuff. And he’s pretty pissed because he missed out on all the action!”

“Oh, he missed me almost getting myself killed, huh?” JoElla asked with a smirk.

“Hey, you’re still in trouble because you did something you knew you shouldn’t. You never should’ve gone there by yourself.”

“But I wasn’t by myself,” JoElla said, pointing at Quint.

Roy stood. “Yeah, but you didn’t know that! And thank you, Quint.”

“You’re welcome. I’d say ‘my pleasure,’ but it wasn’t.”

“No shit. And you.” He pointed at JoElla. “All I’m going to say about that is, don’t do it again. Hear me?”

“Yes, sir. I hear you. And I won’t. Unless I have to. At which time, I will. If I need to.”

“Damn it, JoElla!” Roy started toward the door. “I have a feeling I’m going to be saying, ‘Damn it, JoElla!’ pretty often in the future.” He spun and pointed at both of them. “Tomorrow. Ten o’clock. Both of you in my office for a debriefing. Don’t be late and if you are, there’d better be muffins involved.” The door closed behind him and he was gone.

“Well, that went better than I thought it would. And thank you for having my six.”

Quint let out a little chuckle. “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Let’s get back upstairs in case there’s some word on Brandon.”

JoElla followed him to the door, and he opened it and held it for her. The fluorescents in the hallways were harsh compared to the soft lighting in the cafeteria, and she took a seat again and settled in for the long haul. The doctor said Brandon would likely be okay.

What she really wanted was to see for herself. And get another chance to tell him she loved him without calling him a dumbass. That would be nice too.

* * *

JoElla had stayedat the hospital as long as she could. But when Brandon’s parents had shown up and Landon finished explaining what happened, the looks they gave her were intended to melt cast iron, so their real purpose was to make her spontaneously combust, she was sure. As she made her way across the parking lot, she passed two teenagers running toward the building, and something about their faces left her pretty sure they were his kids. It was a shame it took him almost being killed for them to have even the tiniest bit of concern for him.

The next morning, she called the hospital to make sure Brandon was okay before she stopped at a little bakery between her apartment and the sheriff’s department and picked up two dozen assorted muffins. If there was no hot coffee, that wasn’t her fault. They sure as hell had a coffee pot.

Quint was just climbing out of his rental car when she pulled in. “Let me take those,” he offered and held out his hands, so JoElla deposited one of the boxes of muffins in them. “Let me guess?muffins,” he said with a grin.

JoElla snorted. “I can follow orders when I want to.”

Everyone in the station house crowded around them when the boxes of muffins were opened, and a big booming voice called out, “What’s going on out here?”

“JoElla brought muffins!” David sang out.

The group parted to let Roy through. “I see you can follow orders when you want to,” he muttered. JoElla and Quint’s eyes met and they both burst out laughing. “That wasn’t supposed to be funny,” Roy said, trying hard to look annoyed. “So let’s get this over with. I’m guessing you’re headed back to Texas, Quint?”

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