Page 42 of Stilettos & Whiskey
“I might have said something about him putting Roger Evans in your beat.”
“What?” Gemma gasped. “Are you kidding me? He’d be lost within an hour.”
More like forty-five minutes. “It’s not one of the sarge’s better decisions.”
Another fire truck zoomed into the parking lot with its sirens blaring.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m at an apartment fire.”
A note of alarm in her voice, Gemma said, “But this is your day off.”
“Yep. Roger Evans was a no show and Sergeant Bergman needed me to fill in for him,” I lied.
“Sergeant Bergman needs to fire his ass.”
Frank muttered, “It’s in the works.”
“Is that Frank?”
He winced.
I hit the speaker button on my phone. “It is. He’s helping me. We have a bunch of lookie-loos.”
“Hi, Frank.”
“Hey, Gemma. Have you tried parasailing yet?”
“We did and it was a blast.”
“Good. Good.” Frank pointed at the sky.
Damn. A DPS chopper was heading our way. “Ah, gotta go Gemma. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Is that Mom’s Huey?”
Frank quickly inserted, “No. It’s Channel Three’s helicopter. The fire is breaking news.”
“Is something going on?” Gemma demanded. “You both sound funny.”
“Everything is fine. I really gotta go.” I disconnected. My cellphone immediately rang again. If Gemma found out what Roger Evans had done, she’d be on the first plane home, and I couldn’t let that happen. She needed time to decompress from her ordeal.
“Your assault didn’t make the local news, so Gemma shouldn’t be able to google it,” Frank said.
“Let’s hope so.” I frowned when the helicopter’s door slid open.
Frank squinted. “Isn’t that your dad and Logan?”
“Yep.” I watched them rappel down from the chopper. Something was up.
Dad released the rappel line and walked over to me with a harness in his left hand. He hugged me tightly. “You okay, peanut?”
“Yeah, I’m still breathing.” I gestured at the modified walker. “Thanks to Sam Foster emptying a clip into my apartment.”
Dad nodded. “Nate filled us in.” He gave me the harness. “Put it on. Your mother needs another pair of eyes to find a missing hiker in the Superstition Mountains.”
“Oh, but my apartment just got blown up and I want to help with the investigation.”
