Shelter in Place (Page 93)

“I might agree, but you were stupid enough to make enough noise and get caught. Be smarter next time. Now, where’d you get the TP?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Reed turned from Jamie to Mathias. Cecil’s brother had his hood up, too. “You know Donna the dispatcher.”

“Yes, sir. She’s grandmother to a friend of mine, and friends with my mom.”

“Here’s the deal. She had me take an oath with my hand on the damn Bible—shit, she’d skin me for saying ‘the damn Bible’—I’d keep her grandson, who I suspect was in on this, and the rest of you out of trouble.”

“She would.” Mathias ducked his head, but Reed saw the grin.

“I’m not risking the wrath of Donna to slap you back for TPing a house. I’m asking because if you were stupid enough to buy it, that’s going to come out, and I’ll have to do something.”

Mathias hunched his shoulders, scuffed the ground with his already scuffed Nike KD’s. “We each took a couple of rolls from home.”

“Not completely stupid. Don’t do it again—and pass that to the ones I haven’t caught. Yet. Meanwhile, stay away from Dobson outside the classroom, keep your heads down. Don’t go around his house, and for Christ’s sake, don’t go bragging about doing this. You hold to that, all that’s going to happen is you’re all—plus Donna’s grandson, who I have caught but haven’t talked to yet—going to do some community service. Two weekends of yard work, or whatever your mother needs around the house. No bitching about it. I’m going to check.”

“You’re not going to tell Mr. Dobson?” Mathias asked.

“No. You’re all going to college or into the world of employment. You’re going to run into more Dobsons, trust me. Figure out a better way to deal with them. Get to class.”

“Thanks, Chief,” the three of them said, almost in unison.

Reed walked off satisfied. Yeah, he thought, it was good to be back to work.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Mail took its time getting to the island. Reed got the next card five days after his weekend off, and right before the Memorial Day weekend with its village parade, LobsterFest, early bird summer specials, and the first influx of summer people.

As always, Donna picked up the mail on the way in and arrived shortly after him. He’d made his first cup of station coffee from the machine he’d paid for himself. He’d settled the dog down with a chew bone and, though it humiliated, the little stuffed dog Barney loved.

Reed expected Barney to chew the toy to bits, but Barney habitually clamped it gently in jaws or paws and did no real damage.

As he booted up his computer with an eye toward looking over the June calendar again, Donna came to his open door.

“Chief.”

“Yeah. So this Arts and Crafts Festival the second weekend in June? I remember my mother being all about that one year. Do we have an estimate on…”

He trailed off as he glanced up, saw her face.

“Problem.” It wasn’t a question.

“You got another card in the mail. It’s the same handwriting, I know it. The postmark’s from West Virginia. I only touched it by the corner to stick it in my tote.”

“Let’s have it.”

He hadn’t expected another card as much as he’d hoped for one.

Another trail. Another break in control.

Donna set it carefully on his desk, sat.

“I’ve got something to say first, before you open it.”

“I need to get to this, Donna.”

“I know you need to get to this, but I’ve got something to say first.” She clutched her big summer straw purse in her lap. “I want to say it before you open it, because we both know this is another threat against you.”

“Go ahead then,” he said as he got out a pair of gloves, his penknife.

“You kept your word. I believe you’d have kept it whether or not you took an oath on the good book. But that’s a kind of insurance. You did the right thing and didn’t let those boys—including my grandson—off scot-free, but you didn’t mess up their lives over a prank. Dobson hammered at you, pushed at the mayor, but you did the right thing.”

“It was toilet paper, Donna, probably biodegradable.”

“That’s not the point. I didn’t know what to think about them bringing you in as chief, but I didn’t think very well. You’re young, you’re from the mainland, and you’ve got a sassy way half the time.”

He had to smile, even with the slow burn working inside him over the card waiting on his desk. “I’m sassy?”

“That’s not a compliment. But you do a good job, you treat the deputies with respect, and you kept your word. You’re good to that idiot dog.”

“He’s only half an idiot these days.”

“I didn’t like the idea of you bringing him in here, but I’ll tell the truth and say I’ve got a fondness for him now.”

Her fondness, Reed knew, included sneaking the dog tiny bone-shaped treats from a bag she now kept at her station.

“Barney grows on you.”

“I think you need a decent haircut and real shoes instead of old beat-up sneakers.”

Reed frowned down at his high-tops. They weren’t that beat-up. “Noted.”

“Otherwise.” She sniffed. “You’re doing reasonably all right. More or less.”

“I’m touched.”

“And you’re chief, so that’s that.” She dug into her bag, pulled out a black ball cap with CHIEF over the crown in white. “So this is for you.”

“You got me a hat.”

“I watch these TV movies all the time and the chief of police has a hat like this one.”

Touched, sincerely, Reed took it, settled it on his head. “How’s it look?”

“Well, you need a decent haircut, but it’ll do.”

He took it off, studied the CHIEF, put it back on. “I appreciate it, Donna. I’m proud to wear it.”

“At least people will see it and not think you’re some beach bum with that ragged hair and those beat-up sneakers.” She pushed up from the chair. “I’ll call in the off-duty deputies, so you can brief them after you’ve looked at that card.”

“Thanks.”

She paused at the door. “You be smart and you be careful.”

“I intend to be both.”

“See that you do. I paid good money for that hat. I don’t want anything to happen to it.”

He smiled for a moment as she walked out, then put on the gloves, slit the envelope with his knife.

This one read:

THINKING OF YOU

On a floral background.

Inside, over a rainbow and more flowers, the sentiment read:

YOU MEAN SO MUCH TO ME, I NEED TO LET YOU KNOW.

NO MATTER WHAT I SEE, NO MATTER WHERE I GO.

YOU’RE ALWAYS IN MY THOUGHTS.

She’d signed it XXOO Patricia, and on the inside cover had written her personal message.

I can’t wait until we’re together again. It’s been too long! I hope you think of me as often as I think of you, and with the same—should we call it passion?

Enclosed is another token of my undying loathing.

Until … Patricia.

He lifted out the lock of hair inside the sealed bag.

It wouldn’t be McMullen’s, he thought. McMullen, the abduction, the video, the killing, all that had been not just personal for Hobart, but intimate.