Page 96 of Don't Back Down

“Yes. I’ll be okay. And I want to say right now to the both of you… It’s embarrassing to admit I am sometimes out of my depth in this job. I don’t understand the concept of clans. Of being so trusting and connected to each other like all of you people are on the mountain. And because I sometimes feel inadequate for this job, I overreact when it comes to defending myself, like I did at the campground. Thank you for helping me clear this with the feds.”

“I appreciate your honesty,” Rusty said.

Cameron walked him to the door, then stood in the doorway watching Woodley shuffle back to the patrol car and drive away.

“Well, that big bubble just popped in our faces, didn’t it?” Rusty said as Cameron shut the door.

“That’s for sure. What next?”

“Back to the drawing board. I’m going to go back over Emily Payne’s arrest statement and Jack Barton’s files. He has just become the daily special. It’s time to start digging deeper.”

“I suspect Dewey Zane is going to get grilled again, and this time when they throw out the name Jack Barton, it would be interesting to see his reaction,” Cameron said.

“Yes, I’m sure the guys are already all over the new info. But in the meantime, I’m here on the spot. It may be time to come out into the open again. It might be just what’s needed to shake things up.”

Cameron frowned. “Shaking things up can be dangerous.”

“But that’s how I roll,” Rusty said. “And I’m still a federal agent until this case is over.”

“Then what?” Cameron asked.

“Then I’m all yours. Body and soul for the rest of my life,” she said, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He groaned as their lips met, and then lost himself in the kiss.

***

Boss didn’t know about Zane’s arrest.

And Carly Zane wasn’t telling people what happened, but she was weighing her options as to even staying in the area.

Dewey was still in shock that there had been a trail cam and that he’d been identified. He blamed Boss. He was supposed to know that shit ahead of time.

***

Later that morning, Jack Barton came back from Jubilee with a sack full of groceries and realized Dewey had never showed up for work. He called his cell, but got no answer. Disgusted, he grabbed a box of garbage bags and took off in the golf cart to make the rounds.

The air was cold and the garbage smelled. He was seeing Dewey’s job from a different angle and guessed he might need to raise his pay.

Chapter 16

That same morning, there was something of a to-do at the cell block where Danny Biggers was housed. The guard discovered Biggers’s body as he was making early-morning rounds. Biggers was flat on his back on the floor in the middle of the cell. No blood. No signs of having been in a fight. Just his arms outstretched on either side, and his feet crossed at the ankles, like Jesus nailed to the cross, staring sightlessly up at the light burning in the ceiling.

His body was quickly moved off the cell block, but not before everyone there knew that he’d died. The silence was telling. It had to be someone’s fault, but who?

The warden had to report to the feds. The report went up the chain of command until all of the agents were edgy. This was another broken link to the human-trafficking gang, and they were thrown back to the beginning of the case as if the last two years had never happened.

Who’d gotten to him?

What were they missing?

It would all come down to the autopsy as to how he died. But it wouldn’t tell them who had done it.

***

Rusty was still nursing her swollen thumb and in a mood. She’d reread Emily Payne’s arrest statement, and there was something about it that kept bugging her.

Cameron had made them a late lunch and they were just finishing up when she got a text.

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