Page 25 of Falling for Her

CHAPTER NINE

LINCOLN

“Hey.” I do a chin-up as I enter the station.

Cathy looks up from her computer screen. “Hey, Burke, how have you been?” She greets me with a smile. Before I can answer, the headset she’s wearing flashes red, and then the phone starts ringing. “Montgavin Emergency Department, how can I assist you?”

I move past her to the end of the hall, where the offices are. Two guys are on duty. “What’s up?” I walk over to my desk in the corner, tossing my keys and my phone on it.

“Look who it is.” Trevor leans back in his chair, his white coffee mug in his hand. He’s been with the department for the last two years and is trying to work his way out of traffic cop work and into something more. “How’s it going?”

“It’s going.” I sit down and boot up the computer on my desk while Captain comes out of his office, looks around, and barks out my name.

“Burke!” He motions with his head toward his office. I get up.

“Shut the door,” he says as soon as I step inside.

Closing the door behind me, I sit down while he waits, hands folded on his desk. “Get me up to speed,” he says.

“Not much to say. We’ve gone over the possible routes, but to be honest, there are so many that it’ll take more daytime hours to cut it down. I think the only thing that will help us is a tip.”

He nods. “You think there’s a tip in this town?”

I take a deep inhale. “Not sure, I could ask around.” I put my ankle on my knee. “I was going to spend today meeting up with a couple of our sources.”

“You going to be okay going out there alone?” he asks, worry on his face.

“Yeah, I think so. If you want, I can take someone, but then we would have to fill them in.” He looks out the window to where a couple of the guys are lingering.

“I want you checking in hourly,” he instructs. “Either with Cathy or me, but I want a check-in.”

“Got it.” I stand and head to the office door. “See you later. I’m going to try and get home at a decent hour tonight.” He nods.

I put my truck keys in my desk drawer before going back to the front desk. “I need a car,” I tell Cathy. She takes a set of car keys from her own drawer and hands them to me. “I’ll be checking in hourly,” I inform her, and her eyes widen.

“You really pissed him off.” She snickers. “Hourly is a big deal.”

I shrug, not willing to give her more information than I should. I grab the keys and head outside to the fenced area, waiting for the gate to open before walking over to the car. When I get behind the wheel, my phone rings.

“Hey, my boy,” I answer.

“Hey, Dad,” Asa mumbles, and I can tell he just rolled out of bed.

“How did you sleep?” I ask, annoyed that I haven’t been there when he woke up for the last two days.

“Good.” He sighs, and I wonder if he’s lying on the couch while he’s on his tablet.

“I’m going to be home early tonight, and we’ll spend some time in the tree house.”

“Really?” His voice perks up.

“You bet. I’ll call you later and check up on you.”

“Okay, bye, Dad.” He disconnects, and I put the phone in the cupholder before pulling out of the parking lot. I make my way to the bakery first to grab myself a to-go coffee and then head to the outskirts of town.

I pull up to a house known to be where you go to get things you shouldn’t be getting. I park in the driveway and can hear a dog barking. The front lawn has seen better days, that’s for sure. The side of the house has two cars that look like they haven’t been able to start in a while. They are both dust-covered, and one of the black one’s tires lies on the ground. The front steps creak under my boots, and the light on top of the doorbell turns green.

“You are being recorded,” an electronic voice warns when the light turns red.