Bounty (Walk the Right Road) (15 page)

Her eyes burned, and for a second she fought the misty dampness that seemed to have a mind of its own. She wouldn’t cry. Diane Larsen did not cry like some hysterical broad who fell to tears every time something didn’t go her way. She stretched her jaw and then moved it back and forth, stubbornly fighting for control. Zac just tilted his head with a sympathetic glance, reaching over and touching her tightly clasped arm.

“I am so sorry, Diane. The last thing I want to do is upset you.”

“Why would you treat me like that and say such awful things that weren’t true?”

“You don’t get it, do you?” He leaned back against his door and then reached for his seatbelt, shoving it in. “Put your seatbelt on,” he said, and he gazed over at her when she ignored him. Instead of just driving like anyone would have done and letting her stew, he reached across her and pulled the belt around her seat, fastening it for her. A tear slipped down her cheek, because only a fool would have missed the caring in that gesture, even though he was still being a first-class jerk.

“Why would you treat me like that, Zac?” She wouldn’t look at him as she stared out the driver’s window and then checked her sidearm, releasing the clip and then checking the bullets. It was the only thing she could think of doing that would help her gain control. Refocus, look at the gun. Ignore him.

“In case you didn’t notice, it’s like we stepped back into the Wild West, where guys call the shots and women are subservient. There are a total of eight officers working under the chief. Two are women: One is the file clerk, makes coffee, and waits hand and foot on all the other cops, and the other woman answers the phone and handles all the petty stuff the guy cops think is beneath them. You saw that the chief, with the way he talked to you, saw you as a nuisance. What you don’t know is that the other cops had their eyes glued to your ass and were taking bets on whether you were one of those butch women who wear the pants in the family. Each of those motherfuckers put money down to see who could tame you and have you begging for the real thing.”

Diane couldn’t keep her jaw from falling open, and she exhaled. She tried to say something, but the only thing that slipped out was a pathetic squeak.

“You asked. I didn’t want to tell you, but I felt we needed to do some damage control, because they had no respect for me and Sam, as Deputy Wally remarked when he released us yesterday, as we needed to report our asses to the little lady leading us around by our nose hairs. I’m sorry if I hurt you, but it was the only way I could think of to get us on better footing. We need their help.”

“Not at my expense,” she snapped. “That was really low, Zac. You made me look like a…”

“Actually, I’m not sorry,” he said, cutting her off.

“What?”

“You heard me.” He was gripping the wheel hard and driving awfully fast until they came up behind the cruiser, which was stopped at a set of lights.

Sam was in the front. She could see through the back windshield that they were talking, and the deputy appeared to be laughing and smiling. Sam did, too. She didn’t like it one bit.

“What they said about you, I wanted to kill them, but Sam agreed with me that we aren’t going to get anywhere in this investigation if we burn our bridges. They were never going to respect you, Diane, but at least now there’s no mistaking that you’re a woman, you like guys, and you’re mine. Maybe they’ll be a lot more willing to work with us, and I won’t have to worry that one of these guys will do something to you.”

“You destroyed any credibility I have. The chief and the deputy, they’re not going to work with me now. I’ll get no cooperation.”

“Don’t you get it?” he hissed. He pressed the gas when they started driving again. “They weren’t going to work with you before. At least now, Sam and I have a better chance of getting them to help us find out who this girl belonged to.”

“And what makes you think they’re not about to send us on some wild goose chase? I mean, we don’t even know where to start. The deputy last night did his damnedest to block me, you saw it, taking the photo of the girl so I couldn’t interview the night clerk, and that clerk knew something!” She realized she was yelling, and Zac seemed to just take it. She’d never met a guy who listened…and then it hit her. Jack, her father, had been such an amazing man. He had listened and understood and said very little.

“He was never going to change his mind, Diane. If I had to choose between not saying what I did back there to belittle you in their eyes and worrying about whether one of these backwoods yahoos would catch you in their scope and take you down, it wouldn’t even be a choice. I won’t apologize. Your safety is my priority, and you can’t change something that’s been bred into these guys since they were young, impressionable minds. I’ve seen it before in the Army.” He shook his head, firming his lips as if refusing to say one more word.

“So what am I supposed to do now? Hang back and flutter my eyelashes and hang on to your every word like I’m a little woman? Seriously, Zac,” she said. “Where are we going, anyways, and what about you? The motel maids, did you track anyone down?” She stared out the front window as they drove outside the city limits, into rural land. The deputy turned down a gravel road, and Zac followed.

“Turns out there may be a polygamist family here after all, living outside the town limits.”

“And why is this the first I’m hearing of it?” She crossed her arms again because she felt as if Zac was keeping her just outside this investigation. There was one thing Diane didn’t like, and that was surprises.

“I just found out. The young maid cleaning our room, when I was talking with her and showed her the photo, she turned white as a ghost. She said there’s a polygamist family living just outside Bonner’s Ferry. Keep to themselves. Wally knocked on my door and interrupted before she could say whether she knew the girl, and I knew then the disgust he had for me, thinking and believing I was taking orders from a woman. He’d make sure we never talked to that family. He knows them, or at least he’s taking us to them.”

“Oh yeah, so what happens when we visit them? We talk with them and Wally shuts it down, making sure they don’t talk?” Diane asked, because she couldn’t believe Zac was taking charge of this as if he were her self-appointed knight.

“He won’t.”

“You don’t know that,” Diane snapped, again fighting the urge to smack his shoulder.

He pulled in to a large two-story house surrounded by open land. There was the odd tree and lots of overgrown grass, and there appeared to be dozens of children outside playing. “Actually, I do, Diane. While he’s helping me and Sam like a good ol’ boy does, you’re going to be talking to the women.”

Diane was still sitting stunned in the passenger seat with her seatbelt on. Zac reached over and touched her arm, and she jumped. It was déjà vu, it had to be, as she felt so cold, watching these kids gather around two women who hurried from the house, one of them pregnant. She was short and dark haired, while the other one was slightly overweight, average height, and had shoulder-length mousy brown hair.

“You okay?” Zac asked. “You can do this, Diane. You’re just talking to them.”

She took a deep breath, watching both Sam and Wally step out of the cruiser. Sam glanced back at them before stepping in beside Wally to the middle-aged, average-looking man who approached them. The man shook the deputy’s hand, wearing a plaid flannel shirt rolled up to his arms.

“Ready?” Zac asked.

Diane looked at him and saw his worry for her. “I won’t screw this up, so stop worrying,” she said.

“That’s not what I’m worried about, and you know it. This is hitting close to home for you, and I’m concerned.” He pocketed the keys in his leather coat. “Just say the word if this is too much, and I’ll pull you out of here.”

Okay, that had her stumped with an unsettling, misty feeling. He was concerned about her. When had anyone put her first? She didn’t know how to make sense of this, any of this, so she opened the door and stepped out into the cool air that felt more like October than the April morning it should have been. She took in the women, who were dressed as average people, wearing jeans, t-shirts. Even the kids were dressed normally, as they hovered around the two women, all asking questions about who the cops were and why they were there.

“Hi, I’m Diane Larsen,” Diane said as she approached the women, deliberately avoiding eye contact with the man. Deep down, she hoped she’d piss him off. She opened her badge. “I’m an officer with the Sequim detachment,” she said a little arrogantly.

The women exchanged looks with one another, and the pregnant dark-haired one clapped her hands together and faced the kids. “Okay, all you guys, back to cleaning up the yard. Grab your rakes, Josh, Melissa,” she said to two of the older kids. “Take all the kids around back to finish.”

“Why are the cops here talking to Dad?” the older boy asked.

The woman wearing glasses said, “Well, that’s not your concern. You let your dad deal with it. Come on, get back to work.”

The kids grumbled and shuffled off, but each of them was whispering, pointing, and looking back at the deputy, Sam, Zac, and Diane.

“What’s this about?” asked the pregnant one, shifting her gaze between Zac and Diane.

The man spoke up: “These are my wives. Wally, you remember Janet?” The man gestured to the one with glasses, and she shook the deputy’s hand. “And Rosy,” he said, sliding his arm around the pregnant one.

“Rosy, Janet, you got the kids working hard today, I see.” Wally smiled at the women.

“Yeah, well, they’re starting to get bored. They’ve been at it for only an hour, and they’re looking for any excuse to have some fun,” said Janet.

“Well, why don’t we go into the house?” the man said.

“Zac, Diane, this is Ray Quinn,” Sam offered. The man reached out and shook Zac’s hand.

Diane flipped open her badge and then tucked it into her waistband, over her belt, showing her sidearm. “I’m with the Sequim detachment, investigating a murder,” she said. She didn’t miss the way Zac crossed his arms and gave her a look, letting her know she was pushing too hard, but she didn’t give a shit. She was pissed off with this whole thing, and she didn’t like this Ray Quinn guy one bit. She wanted to let him know quickly that she was the one in charge and didn’t give a shit who he thought he was here, because as far as she was concerned, she wasn’t above humiliating him in front of these children and the women.

He met her gaze with hazel eyes that shined with a light she hadn’t seen in a long time.
Don’t be fooled
, she thought. She stared back at him with a hard, unfeeling gaze, one she’d mastered for dealing with scumbags. The jerk simply put his arms around his wives and said, “Come inside.”

“Thank you, Ray,” the deputy said before giving Diane a hard look that she was sure meant
Watch your step.

Sam followed first, then the deputy. The pregnant woman climbed the steps, first to the front door, and then shouted out to the kids, “You kids all stay out here and finish. I want to see all that dead grass raked up.”

Zac nudged Diane by pressing his hand in her back. She looked up at him, and he smiled at her. “Let’s go.” He opened the door for her and gestured with his hand for her to go first.

“Zac, I…” She wanted to say she was sorry for flexing her muscles and acting like a jerk.

“It’s all right.” He said it so softly that it touched her heart in a way that made her want to weep, because any other guy would have pulled her aside and asked her what the hell that was about, read her the riot act, and told her to cool off.

The deputy poked his head out to Zac. “You coming?” he asked. When he gazed down at Diane, his expression hardened again, and he stepped back to let her pass.

Diane wiped her feet on the colorful mat.

“Oh, leave your shoes, but thank you for wiping for your feet,” said Janet from the kitchen, where she was filling a kettle with water. “Can I make you some tea?”

The pregnant woman, Rosy, sat at one of the dozen stools around the kitchen island. Ray stood behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders. Sam was looking around the kitchen, and Deputy Wally pulled out another stool at the other end to sit.

“Ray, how many kids you got now?” Wally asked, smiling as he accepted the mug of coffee Janet set in front of him.

“My five, four with Rosy and, as you can see, another on the way, and eight with Dorothy.” It was Janet who had spoken as she walked up to her husband, sliding her arm around his waist as he set his around her shoulder and pulled her into him, kissing her forehead.

“You have how many wives?” Diane asked as she took a seat across from Wally.

“Three wives,” Ray said. He didn’t try to make her feel small by talking to one of the guys, instead giving her all of his attention.

“Is Dorothy still working at the courthouse?” Wally asked again, smiling at Ray as if they were good friends and they were here for nothing other than a friendly visit.

“She loves her job,” Janet answered. “She’s clerking for Judge Simmons now, putting a lot of hours in.”

Diane couldn’t take her eyes off Ray and the other wife, Janet, who was leaning into him as if talking about Dorothy, the other wife, made her extremely happy. Diane turned her gaze to Zac, trying to figure out what to say, because she couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d landed on Mars. This was insane, and she wanted to take each of these women aside and shake them. The other wife worked for a judge, clerking, so she had to have a law degree. What the hell?