Page 65 of Blood Bearon
Eight. She’d known there had been a spate of them, but that was more than she’d even expected. This was bad. Really bad.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Sir.”
Dottner sighed and leaned back in his chair. “You can tell me if these were all owned by that Ursa company. Or your partner can at least. I need to know if this is the same group, or copycats trying to turn our city into a battleground.”
Rachel tensed as she saw the Sheriff look past her out into the office. He frowned, then returned his attention to her. Curiosity burned at her to know what he’d been looking at, but she kept her eyes laser focused at a point on the wall above the Sheriff’s head. Now was not the time to earn more of his ire. Even if she felt it was somewhat misplaced.
After all, her planhadsucceeded. They had caught four men, all of whom had confessed or been implicated in prior attacks. One of them was still sporting bruises from where Khove had knocked him out in the restaurant, before it had been bombed to hell. How was she supposed to know there were more of them? Even Khove hadn’t predicted that would happen.
But he did warn you that you hadn’t gotten the big bad guy. Korred is still out there.
Could one man have been responsible for all eight attacks? It seemed unlikely, but if he truly was a mage like Khove insisted, then anything should be possible. Not that Rachel could tell Dottner about that. She barely believed what she was thinking, and she’d seen evidence such a world existed outside her own. Dottner would just strip her from the case.
“Well, anything to say for yourself, Corningstone? Do you have another plan?”
“Do you?” she fired back, losing her temper at last. Dottner was a good man, and she disliked getting on his bad side, but he was overwhelmed, and it was showing.
The silence in the room was frosty. For a moment, she thought he was going to lose his top on her. Then, incredulously, the Sheriff leaned back in his chair, motioning at one next to her.
“Sit.” It wasn’t a request. She sat.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Dottner said.
Rachel carefully kept her face blank, not letting the emotions and thoughts racing through her head show. This was most unexpected.
“You did a good job last night,” he continued. “But regardless of that, whatever is going on out there, gang war or something else, it’s not slowing. Maybe we made a dent in their plans. Maybe we didn’t. But I just got my ass chewed out by the Mayor this morning.”
She nodded slowly, beginning to understand what was going on.
“He’s on the verge of panic, Detective. Calling in the FBI. Getting the governor to declare a state of emergency. The whole nine yards.” Dottner’s normally handsome face twisted in a mixture of disgust and dismay. “If that happens, the Feds will come and intervene. They’ll take over, and you can bet your ass it won’t reflect well on any of us. I don’t have plans for advancement, I’m quite happy being Sheriff of Plymouth Falls, but I won’t let that happen to any of my officers. Understood?”
“Understood, Sir,” she said sharply, appreciating the respect from her commanding officer and his desire to protect those under his command.
“So that means we need to crack this case wide open. I’m going to need you and Khove to be on your game.” He frowned. “Where is that giant anyway? Usually, he sticks out like a sore thumb in the office. I want to know what other progress you have, ideas, clues, anything.”
Rachel did her best not to flinch at mention of Khove, but her efforts obviously weren’t enough. The Sheriff’s eyes bore into her.
“What is it, Detective?”
“It’s just me now, Sheriff,” she said firmly, hoping if she spoke in a confident voice, he might not push her.
Ha, fat chance.
Leaning over the desk, Dottner stared at her in concern. “What? Why? You two make a great team. I thought he would just be getting in the way when he showed up, but I was wrong. What happened, where did he go?”
She bit her lip, choosing her words carefully. “He didn’t agree with my way of handling this case to conclusion.”
Dottner snorted. “Right. That’s some fancy bullshit, Corningstone. Figure it out, because right now you aren’t handling shit, are you? Find him, make nice for the sake of our town, and get me some more leads.”
“Yes, Sir,” she said sharply, letting her anger seep through, enough for him to know she didn’t appreciate his lecturing, and stood up to leave.
“This is the biggest, most important case we’ve ever had, Detective. I’m not here to play politics. I’m here to protect this city. You had better be as well. Don’t let your personal prejudices get in the way.”
“Yes, Sir,” she repeated, and left the office before saying something she would later regret.
Dottner was a good boss overall, and he wasn’t wrong when he said she needed to put personal feelings aside to solve the case. Innocents were going to get hurt otherwise. Unfortunately, Dottner had no ideawhyshe had sent Khove away. And she couldn’t tell him.
Which meant she had to suck it up and call Khove. At least until they apprehended their man. Then she could switch tactics and send the leader to jail. Khove would be pissed, but in the end, she figured he would understand.
