She’d no sooner gotten settled upstairs than Colt reappeared. “I’m headed back to the scene. Obviously, we’re going to need a witness statement from you, but it doesn’t have to be done now.”
“Thank you. I’d prefer not to talk about it in front of Austin.”
He met her eyes. “How about I come by your house tomorrow morning? Say around eight?”
Shelley nodded.
“And then there’s the matter of your car...”
Shelley bit down in frustration. She’d been so concerned about her son, she hadn’t even thought about that.
“Would you like help with that, too?” Colt offered.
She swallowed hard, realizing it would be so easy to lean on him, now that she was back in town. “You can get it to me?” she asked, trying hard not to think about what had happened the last time she had let herself count on a man.
He smiled as he locked eyes with her son, and then turned back to her. “In a strictly unofficial capacity, yeah, I can.”
Despite herself, Shelley found herself really appreciating his propensity for going above and beyond the call of duty. “That would be great, Colt. Thank you.”
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” He paused to bestow another tender smile on Austin, tipped his hat at her and strode out the door.
* * *
“A WORD WITH YOU, COLT?” Sheriff Ben Shepherd said late the following morning.
Colt pushed back from his computer and followed his boss into his private office.
Ben shut the door. A humorless brunette in her mid-forties was already there, waiting. “You remember Investigator Adams?”
Hard not to. Ilyse Adams was the internal affairs officer for the department. Colt sat down in the chair indicated.
Ben took a seat behind his desk. Ilyse, already sitting, opened up a notepad on her lap. A veteran of the Chicago police force, she had been hired after a traffic ticket and bribery scandal erupted the previous year in an adjacent county. Her job was to keep corruption at bay and ensure protocol was followed at every level.
“What’s going on?” Colt asked, afraid he already knew.
Ben steepled his hands in front of him. “There’s been a complaint you acted unprofessionally at the accident scene last night in not citing Mr. Zellecky for reckless driving.”
Colt exhaled. He’d known, after talking to the others in the E.R., that there was going to be trouble. “It didn’t seem appropriate, given Mr. Zellecky’s medical condition.”
Ben sighed. “The New York couple Mr. Zellecky hit feel otherwise. They allege deference was paid to the local resident who caused the accident over them.”
Aware the complaint mirrored what actually had been going on in Spring County the previous year, Colt protested, “That’s not true. Rio and I tended to both of them on a priority basis.” They’d been nothing but helpful and accommodating.
“I’d agree if you had cited Mr. Zellecky for causing the accident, but you didn’t.” Ben fixed Colt with a somber glance. “You will now.”
Colt pressed his lips together. “Yes, sir.”
“Do you have a problem with that, Deputy McCabe?” Investigator Adams asked coyly.
“Yeah, now that you ask,” Colt drawled, “as a matter of fact, I do.”
“Go on,” Ilyse encouraged with her usual can’t-wait-to-gut-you smile. Although, to date, she had yet to actually charge anyone in the department with illegal or unethical behavior. Some were questioning the value of such a high-salaried employee when there was no corruption to be found.
Colt looked the IA officer in the eye. “Taking Mr. Zellecky to court is a waste of time and resources.”
As protective of his officers as he was determined to run a clean department, Ben Shepherd intervened sternly, “That’s not for you to decide, Colt.”
Wasn’t it? “I beg to differ.” Colt leaned forward to make his point. “These kinds of decisions are what set us apart from big-city police forces. We know our residents. And this accident, as unfortunate as it was, wasn’t caused by deliberate carelessness—it was illness-related.”
Although his boss listened intently, the internal affairs officer looked skeptical. Undeterred, Colt continued, “It’s no secret Mr. Zellecky’s recently been under an enormous amount of stress. Consequently, his blood glucose levels have been all over the map. Very low blood sugar levels cause acute disorientation, to the point the diabetic both acts and appears drunk.”
“Exactly why he shouldn’t have been driving,” the IA officer said.
Colt interjected, “I talked to Mr. Zellecky last night after he was stabilized. He said he felt fine when he started out on his errand. So there was no point in citing him with reckless driving since I did not think the charges would stick.”
“So you’re judge and jury, is that it?” Ilyse Adams asked coolly.
“I used my judgment and my common sense,” Colt affirmed.
The IA officer consulted her notes. “Well, that judgment is suspect. We’re going to be confidentially reviewing every case you’ve handled in the last six months. Should this prove to be a pattern with you, you’ll suffer the appropriate sanctions.”
Sheriff Ben Shepherd said nothing to counter the IA officer’s assertion.
The knowledge he could face disciplinary action hit Colt like a blow to the gut.
“And if it proves I’ve done nothing wrong?” he asked, taken aback that an outsider might hold the keys to his future. “Last night or at any other time?”
“Then no one but the three of us and the department attorney will ever know there was an investigation,” the sheriff promised. “In the meantime...” Sheriff Shepherd retrieved a thick envelope from his desk and handed it to Colt. “You have a chance to prove you can do your job, no matter whom or what is involved.”
Colt looked at the name and address on the papers due to be served. He swore inwardly.
“Got a problem?” Sheriff Shepherd queried.
They wanted to see him do his job no matter what? Then that’s exactly what he’d do.
“No, sir,” Colt said crisply. “I do not.”
* * *
SHELLEY OPENED THE DOOR to find a uniformed Colt McCabe on the other side of it. A faint hint of beard shadowed his face, a hint of weariness in his midnight-blue eyes, but otherwise, he was as handsome as ever. Which was a true testament to his stamina after what had to be—if her calculations were correct—nearly fourteen hours on the job.
“Thanks for getting my car back to me last night.” It had been in the hospital
