Page 202 of Come Back to Me

“Take a deep breath, Amy,” I soothe. “It’s all right. Look, I’m here to help.”

“You can’t help me. I don’t even know why I called you,” she weeps.

“What happened? Talk to me.”

“I should never have called. Once a cop, always a cop?—”

“No,” I grate out. “I’ll help if I can. I swear.”

I have no right making that offer, but fuck, Amy’s Colt passed away in the line of duty. Not everyone has a support system as good as mine. And in comparison to her old man, Clyde might be a lesser monster.

“Can you come to the bar?”

“You’re in Pigeon Creek?!”

“We came here yesterday.”

I’ve no baseline other than too many years with her older brother, but somehow, I know she’s lying. “Were you there when we ran sweeps of the bar?”

“There’s a hideout spot behind the refrigerator,” she whispers.

“Why tell me that?”

“Trust. It has to bequid pro quo.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I’m twenty minutes away from the bar. What do you need me for?”

“There’s a body?—”

“Whose?”

“James F-Fairweather,” she cries. “T-They want to dispose of it.”

“The MC?”

“Y-Yeah. Paulie would be so fucking mad at me. He told me to get out. Told me to take this new school as an opportunity to break ties, but I destroyed everything.”

Her weeping morphs into sobbing, then as a crash sounds in the background, her heartbreak shifts into terror.

I straighten at the change, just before someone yells, “Who gave her that phone?” I can hear a struggle before that same voice growls, “Who is this? Who’s talking?”

Instinct has me lying: “I’m friends with Amy.”

“From school?”

“Yeah.”

“Amy doesn’t go to that school anymore.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped being friends with her.”

I hold my breath, hoping that eases the situation some, but the stranger’s response is to disconnect the call.

Just as my instinct told me to lie about my identity, it also keys me into the fact that I can’t deal with this on my own. I snag my radio.

“Dispatch, this is Cody. Where’s the nearest patrol car to the Rabid Wolves’ bar?”

Once Marty shares his code, he continues, “We were en route to sweep for Amy Nygard so we’re five minutes away, over.”

---