On Deadly Ground (Dan & Chloe Book 2) (9 page)

Dan glanced at the body parts sprawled in the dirt and nodded his head.

An hour later and the sun had slowly started to climb out from behind the mountains and the first rays of dawn started to spread across the paddock.

Dan could see Weiser pawing at the ground with one front hoof; the horse was near the fence and as far as Weiser was concerned his early morning apple was late in being given.

Dan turned back to Sheriff Lawson.

‘I’m sorry Sheriff, can you say that again, I didn’t quite catch that. I guess I’m still a little shaken up by the events of this morning.’

Lawson rubbed his eyes with the knuckles of his left hand and cleared his throat. He was sat on one of the long sofas in the main living room. Dan and Chloe were sat together on another sofa facing him, an ornately carved coffee table was between them.

Lawson reached forward and picked up his mug of coffee, coffee that Chloe had insisted on making for all of the emergency workers, a gesture greatly appreciated by the mass of tired deputies, EMTs and the man and woman from the coroner’s office.

Chloe had put on two huge pots of coffee once it was clear that neither she nor Dan were going to be arrested for what had transpired earlier that morning. So far the Sheriff and his team had taken their version of events as fact.

Dan’s subterfuge appeared to be paying off and the two man and one woman CSI team had so far not found any evidence to contradict Dan and Chloe’s story.

‘I said that I should have called you late last night when young Mister Berg was released. There was always the very slim chance that he’d come looking for trouble.’

Dan sat forward on the sofa, ‘I don’t follow you Sheriff.’

Lawson sipped his coffee and said, ‘Berg has a history.’

‘What, he’s done this sort of thing before?’

‘No, no, nothing like this, after we arrested him earlier we ran his ID through the system. I have his file in the car.’

Lawson excused himself and headed out of the room. Chloe turned to Dan and squeezed his hand, ‘I think we’ve struck it lucky baby.’

Dan wasn’t so sure but he didn’t want to tempt fate.

‘I hope so.’

Another deputy came in to the room and explained that he needed to do a sweep of the house.

‘Why?’ Dan asked with some concern.

‘Just a precaution sir, its standard procedure, it should have been done the minute we arrived, but in all of the excitement it was overlooked. I need to do it otherwise the Sheriff will have my ass served up on a plate by lunchtime.’

Chloe stood up.

‘Sure thing deputy,’ she said, ‘I can show you around if you like.’

‘That won’t be necessary ma’am, until I’ve signed off on the form we need you to stay here, for your own safety.’

‘Okay deputy, we understand but really there’s no need for you to be concerned, the house is safe.’

Lawson came back in to the room, he’d overhead Chloe’s last statement.

‘I’m sure it is Chloe, but Charlie here is just doing his job,’ Lawson shot a look at the deputy. ‘A job that he should have done the minute he got here.’

Charlie reddened and suitably chastised left the room. He called out for another deputy to assist him and Chloe and Dan watched the two deputies heading up the stairs.

Chloe sat back down on the sofa next to Dan and when Lawson wasn’t looking directly at them Chloe mouthed one word:
arsenal
.

Dan squeezed Chloe’s left hand reassuringly, he’d had exactly the same thought, if the deputies opened the fake door then there would be some uncomfortable questions to answer.

Lawson sat back down and opened up a manila file and started to read from its contents.

‘Okay, Douglas Berg, twenty two years old, from Boston Massachusetts. Picked up three times for possession with intent to supply, the first two cases were dropped, insufficient evidence, never even saw the inside of a courtroom but he served six months in a state correctional facility on a fourteen month sentence for the third possession count. Model inmate by all accounts, early release, couple of traffic violations and he was currently under investigation by the Feebs, doesn’t say what that investigation relates to. I put a call in to our local Bureau office but so far no one has got back to me and what with Mister Berg now lying in two pieces out in your yard I figure the Feebs will want a word with you both.’

‘That still doesn’t explain why he’d come out here loaded for bear, shit Sheriff, how’d he even know where to come?’

Lawson looked a little uncomfortable and he rubbed at his eyes. It was a gesture that Dan had clocked Lawson doing several times this morning and even a few times the previous evening during the barbeque. Dan surmised that the Sheriff didn’t handle stress well, which seemed odd for a man in law enforcement, Dan stored this little observation away for later dissection.

‘It would appear Mister Berg came from money, within ten minutes of his admittance to the hospital he was lawyered up. An expensive lawyer from out of the state, refused to answer any questions until his lawyer arrived, which he did two hours later. His lawyer tore our case apart in minutes. Mister Berg wasn’t found with any drugs on him and a sweep by my deputies of the route that he’d run didn’t reveal any discarded narcotics. In the end all we could charge him with was a public disorder notice which carries a two hundred dollar fine, the lawyer paid up and Mister Berg was out of there. The piss-ant even threatened to sue the department.’

‘Again Sheriff, I don’t see the correlation between any of that and him turning up on my doorstep ready to do god knows what to us.’

‘Yeah well, it’s a small town Dan, it wouldn’t have taken much asking around to find out the name of the good Samaritan that had pole-axed him.’

Dan nodded his head but he wasn’t entirely sold on the Sheriff’s argument. Dan had to wonder whether someone in the police department had given his name up for a little cash on the side. Not that it made any difference in the grand scheme of things but he would make some subtle enquiries in to the integrity of the Rockspur Sheriff’s department.

‘Would you like a refill Sheriff?’ Chloe asked and she got to her feet.

‘Would you?’ Lawson drained his coffee and held the empty mug out for Chloe to take. ‘It’s going to be a long day and I think I’m going to need the caffeine.’

‘No problem Sheriff, can I fix you and your men something to eat?’

‘That’s mighty kind of you Chloe but we have a deputy coming out with breakfast, but what would be of’a great help is if y’all have a restroom that my men could use when they needed to.’

Chloe told Lawson he and his men could use the toilets in the stables.

‘I’d hate to have dirt dragged through the house,’ Chloe said, playing the humble housewife. ‘You understand?’

Lawson smiled and nodded his head.

‘I can see you keep a lovely home, and I’ll tell my men to use the stables.’

Dan stood up, ‘I’ll show you where they’re located Sheriff.’

‘Your coffee will be waiting for you Sheriff.’

‘Thank you Chloe,’ Lawson said.

The Sheriff pushed himself up from the sofa and followed Dan in to the kitchen and out through a side door in the utility room; this was the entrance that they’d all been using due to the porch now being a crime scene.

Chloe waited until the Sheriff had followed Dan out through the utility room’s exit and then she walked out to the hallway and slowly started to walk up the sweeping staircase. Half way up and she saw one of the deputies walking along the mezzanine. He saw Chloe and tapped two fingers to the wide brim of his hat.

‘Ma’am, it’s all clear up here.’

He headed down the staircase and Chloe stepped to the side to let him pass.

Chloe continued up the stairs and was six stairs from the top when she spotted the other deputy; he was walking towards the false-door.

Shit
! Chloe mentally kicked herself and then she had a thought. She unbuttoned her blouse entirely, took a deep breath, and then she slowly started to remove her blouse.

Chloe started up the last few steps and she had the blouse half way down her arms as she stepped out on to the mezzanine.

Chloe acted shocked as the deputy turned from the false-door, she could see his hand on the handle ready to turn it when he had heard Chloe’s approach.

His mouth dropped open at the sight of Chloe’s exposed breasts and Chloe froze.

Don’t over act
, she warned herself as she counted two beats and then pulled the blouse shut, covering her breasts.

‘I’m sorry; I thought we had the all clear.’

‘Uh, ma’am, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...’

Chloe smiled with what she hoped was the right amount of shyness.

‘The other deputy said he’d cleared this end, I thought you were already back down with the Sheriff.’

The deputy still had his hand on the knob and Chloe slipped the blouse back up her arms and began to once more button the blouse, she took her time and asked if the deputy would like another coffee.

‘The Sheriff is so I’ll put a fresh pot on.’

Chloe turned to the deputy and smiled at him.

‘Well thank you ma’am, that would be most appreciated.’

Chloe almost breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the deputy let go of the handle and joined her at the top of the staircase. Chloe started down the stairs making sure that the deputy was a couple of stairs above her. Chloe made sure it took her until she reached the bottom of the staircase to fully button her blouse. Chloe hoped that the deputy had been peering down over her shoulder; if flashing the deputy some breast kept him from discovering the hidden room then Chloe considered it a fair trade.

‘Follow me deputy,’ she said over shoulder as she walked through to the kitchen.

One look at his red face let her know that he had indeed been looking exactly where she had wanted him to.

Disaster averted, Chloe you’re just too good at this
, she thought as she picked up the coffee pot.

                                                        *****

CHAPTER NINE.

‘Almost seventy two hours,’ Chloe
remarked as the Sheriff’s patrol car made its way out along the dirt track towards the highway. Dust bloomed in the vehicle’s wake and Chloe stepped up on to the porch.

‘I thought they’d never leave,’ Dan said.

He stood leaning against one of the porch’s support columns sipping an ice cold beer. The sun was high overhead and the temperature was threatening to hit a hundred before the day was out.

Chloe stopped in front of Dan and took the bottle of beer from him. She chugged a quarter of its contents before handing the bottle back. Chloe wiped the back of one hand across her mouth and stretched her arms high above her head, she did a couple of stretching exercises.

‘I need a swim, care to join me?’

Dan watched the patrol car until it was no longer in sight. He tilted his cowboy hat back on his head and glanced at Chloe as she started to strip out of her clothes.

The porch had been washed down several times and disinfected and the yard had been swept and cleared by a clean-up crew. There were no longer any visible signs of what had occurred here the previous week and except for the splintered post and the bullet-impression in the front door no one would ever guess that a gunfight had taken place.

Chloe turned away from Dan and bent over as she peeled her thong down over her buttocks.

Dan laughed and stepped forward and slapped her ass, his palm connected hard with Chloe’s right buttock and she cried out in a mixture of considerable pain and arousal.

Chloe turned back to Dan and rubbed at her stinging buttock.

‘What the hell was that for?’

‘No reason, your ass was there so...’

‘So you figured you’d just slap it?’ A teasing lilt had come in to Chloe’s voice and she reached back between her shoulders and unclipped her bra, she let it drop to the wooden porch.

‘Uh huh,’ Dan chugged the remainder of his beer. He put the empty bottle down on a small wicker table. Dan popped the buttons of his jeans and reached in to his boxer shorts, he could feel his hardness swelling and he smiled at Chloe.

‘What?’ Chloe asked playfully.

‘Bend over,’ he said.

Dan spun her around by her right arm and Chloe let out a startled laugh and she allowed Dan to manoeuvre her up against the porch’s railings.

‘This isn’t exactly romantic baby,’ Chloe said.

Dan pushed her shoulders forwards and Chloe rested her elbows on the rail. Dan pulled her hips towards him and he kicked her feet apart and then he pressed down on the middle of her back.

Dan gripped her buttocks with his left hand and spread her ass cheeks, Chloe laughed again.

‘My husband, ever the
romantic
.’

Chloe let out a loud groan as Dan’s cock pushed deep in to her wetness. Chloe tightened her vaginal muscles around his hardness.