Page 86 of Out to Get Her
“You okay?”
Erin nodded. “You?”
“I’ll live. Thanks to your quick thinking.” Samantha gestured at the bloody metal object on the ground. “What is that?”
Erin didn’t want to touch the thing now that it had blood and Zach’s eye juice all over it.
“A visor clip. St. Florian. Patron saint of firefighters. Mom bought it for my dad’s car to keep him safe.” Erin couldn’t help the sarcastic chuckle that escaped. “They’d taken my mom’s car instead of his on the day of the crash.”
Samantha held Zach tight by the arm and gave a sympathetic cringe at that bit of irony. “I’m glad it was in there. Did you know?”
“Not about the notes. But I knew Grandpa kept the clip in here. He’d wanted me to have it when I started driving, but I remembered how pointy those angel wings were and told him I was more likely to be impaled by the thing than saved by it.”
Samantha gave a sad but comforting smile. “We should call an ambulance.”
Erin forced herself to look at Zach, slumped and held by Samantha. Rage replaced her shock and relief once again. “Okay, but what if—”
“Call the ambulance.” It came out as an order that ended in a nervous chuckle of exhaustion. “Grab my handcuffs from the car too, please. Or zip ties if you have more here. I, unlike Zach here, know how to use them properly.”
* * *
Samantha stood aside while paramedics strapped a patched-up Zach to the gurney and wheeled him out of the bedroom. She’d already handcuffed one of his wrists to the rail, so he wasn’t going anywhere.
Marty squawked as they rolled past his cage.
A parish deputy was taking Erin’s statement in another room, while Trey sat with her. Apparently, Erin had told Trey to call Samantha at the station, and upon hearing more of the story and not being able to reach Samantha, Chief Vidrine had decided to call in the cavalry.
The storm had been downgraded and the back end of it fell apart as it moved over land, so it was mostly just gusty on the other side of the eye now. Despite the curfew still in effect until dawn, Trey had arrived before the ambulance and the chief and half the sheriff’s department. He refused to stay outside and hadn’t left Erin’s side, which made Samantha feel a little better about being separated from her.
Samantha had enough to deal with, anyway. Jordan insisted on getting the run-down of everything that had happened over the last couple of hours. She’d given him the basics so far, careful not to divulge anything in front of Zachary. Even though he’d been half-conscious due to the pain, they needed to keep a lock on the evidence they had against him.
“I know you’re going to file a report, and I know you’ll cross and dot everything like you always do,” Jordan said. “But Sam, if Dustin really was involved, we can’t risk anyone getting off on a technicality or some lawyer spinning a frame-up or cover-up.”
Samantha turned to him in shock. Was that a compliment tucked in there? From Jordan?
“My report will be pristine,” she promised. “But I’m handing the case over to your department. For exactly those reasons.”
Jordan blinked at her. “You fought for this case like a starving tiger, and now you’re going to just give it up? I thought I’d have to gladiator brawl you for it.”
Samantha didn’t care about the glory of solving this case. She never did. She wanted to bring Paul’s killer to justice and protect the people in this town, and she’d still have a hand in that. The difference now was she didn’t give a damn if handing over the case cost her the election.
She still wanted to be chief, but if she hadn’t earned the respect of this town by now, she never would. All she could do was be true to herself and continue to do the next right thing.
Chief Vidrine entered the room, his figure casting a large shadow on the wall from a lantern on the floor. The storm was dying down, but the power was still out and would be until the morning. He shook his head at the blood on the wooden floor and the ice pack Samantha held against the back of her skull.
“Ah good, you’re here,” Jordan said. “Make sure your sergeant gets checked out before the EMTs leave. I’m pretty sure she has a concussion.”
“I probably do,” she admitted. “But it’s still the right thing to do.”
“What’s the right thing?” Chief Vidrine asked.
Jordan answered for her. “Sam here is giving the case to me. No fight. Just handing it over.”
“No,” she corrected. “I said I’m handing the case over to the parish. I think you should recuse yourself as well.”
Jordan scoffed. “And why would I do that?”
“Because those notes Erin is giving to the deputy in the other room tie your biggest campaign donor to the investigation.”
