LYING COP Read online

  “Oh no, that’s not what I’m saying.” He removed his arms from the table and leaned back likewise. “I’m totally into you. If we were to have sex and then you sent me on my way that would hurt my feelings.”

  The light in the kitchen grew dimmer by the second from the setting sun. Her eyes twinkled like stars and her lips formed a mischievous smile. Then she said, “It’s not my intention to send you on your way after having sex. I was planning on keeping you around so we could have more sex.”

  Unmoving, he gazed at her. Her southern, sultry voice in a conversation about sex turned him on like a blowtorch. He’d bypassed the question and it was time to change the subject before he succumbed to her. The probability she had knowledge of an escaped convict took priority. Maybe he’d get lucky and the captain would call his cell and inform him Blade Roper had been apprehended. Or better yet, her phone would ring and she would be told her brother had been caught. Then he could confess the fact he was a cop, and salvage the relationship they had started. And then they could have the sex they’d been talking about.

  He broke eye contact, pushing his chair back. He crossed his leg with his ankle, but then uncrossed it. He looked back at her and smiled. “Why don’t you tell me about your family, you mentioned to the sheriff something about your grandmother?”

  Alaska got up and flipped on the light switch. “She was a horrible old bitch and I despised her.” She placed the dishes in the sink in silence.

  Colt drummed his fingers across his knee.

  She turned the water on, added dish soap, and began washing. “My mother was into drugs pretty bad. We used to watch her shoot up all the time. She literally abandoned us on my grandmother’s doorstep when I was six, and I never saw her again, or any other family member. And me and Blade,” she let out a subtle laugh, “well, we were thick as thieves growing up.”

  Colt saw her as if seeing her for the first time, and he adored her.

  “You must think badly of me now for calling my grandmother a bitch, but you see, she was a cruel woman. Her method of discipline was jabbing at us with a butcher knife.”

  His rolling fingers ceased. “Is that how you got that scar on your face?”

  She turned and smiled at him. “Good guess, but no.” She resumed the dishes.

  “How did you get it?”

  “Whip Cunningham.”

  “What did he do?”

  She hesitated. “Blade told me something last night that’s a real shocker.” She picked up a hand towel, pulled her chair next to him, and sat. Her knees touched his. “I’d like to confide in you about something. It’s serious.”

  “Baby, you can tell me anything.”

  “There are people that me and Blade are up against, well Blade, but since I’m his only family, me too. And we could use some help, but not just from anybody, from somebody like you, maybe. I mean if I had a boyfriend or husband, we’d be right on it, but I don’t, and I thought—”

  “Of course, I’ll help. I’d do anything for you.”

  “These people are dangerous. They did something really terrible to Blade, and you have to swear you won’t tell anyone, or my plan might not work, and somebody could get hurt.”

  “Hey I’m a smart guy.” He chuckled. “I’m not afraid of anybody.”

  “This is life and death and I need to trust you.” Her eyes widened.

  “You can.”

  “Prove it, give me your cell.”

  Thinking she was going to call someone who was hiding her brother, he handed it over.

  She tossed the hand towel on the table, got up, and opened the built in pantry.

  He couldn’t see what she was fiddling around with in there. The door was in the way. He didn’t have a clue, but when she closed it with a hammer in one hand and his cell in the other, his head flinched back as if his mind got struck.

  He tapped the linoleum with his work boot. Maybe he should ask her if he could remove his SIM card. But then she might expect him to pull out his billfold to put it in. He couldn’t do that, not when his badge would appear the moment he flipped it open.

  She placed his cell on the counter top and gave him an enquiring glance.

  If he was going to cop out on his charade this would be a good time, but what if it meant an escapee not being caught, possibly a dangerous one. Someone could get hurt. She was now opening up to him. Once he got the information he needed he could use her house phone while she was in the bathroom. And who are these people she’s up against? And what was this plan she was concocting?

  He shrugged.

  “Do you have to be anywhere the next couple of days?” she asked.

  “No, I’m free as a bird.”

  “What about your parents?”

  “I have my own cabin. I don’t check in with them.”

  She raised the hammer. “You do realize what I’m about to do?”

  “You’re going to destroy my cell. That’s all right, it was old and acting up anyway. There’s no numbers in there that I can’t easily get. Go ahead.”

  *****

  Alaska put the hammer down. “That’s not necessary.”

  She picked it up, went out the door, and strolled through the yard past her truck. Crickets clicked in surround sound. She reared her arm back and almost threw the phone, but instead she walked across the road and laid it down in the bushes.

  Heading back to the house, she observed Colt looking out the window. She knew he couldn’t see her. The large hardwoods cast black shadows but his face was as clear as day in the kitchen light. She didn’t think she had ever made out with a man as brutally handsome as him. She picked up her pace.

  He was sitting back down when she stepped through the doorway.

  She went to him and straddled his lap. Her arms curled around his neck. She kissed his temple, cheek, nose, and then traced his lips with her tongue. His hands stroked her sides and she wished he would go ahead and slide them underneath her tank top. She rocked on him.

  He gripped her waist and lifted her up. “Whoa, baby-doll.”

  “Huh?”

  “Time out.”

  She backed up until they were no longer touching.

  Colt’s brows arched. “I gave you my cell to hammer on. And well, I was just kind of wondering why?”

  “But I didn’t.”

  His face seemed to glaze over, and then he relaxed as if he had slipped into something warm. “Tell me about these dangerous people.”

  “I want to show you something.” Alaska twirled into the living room, yanked the pull chains on her Tiffany replica, and went over to the entertainment center. She picked up a framed photograph of her and Blade sitting in the café.

  Colt followed and stood by her side.

  “Blade was happy, carefree…” Alaska swallowed down the lump in her throat and sniffled. “And he didn’t hurt anybody, except for some hearts, and even that pained him.” She handed Colt the photo.

  He sat down on the couch and held the picture under the light.

  “He looks different now of course.” She plopped down on the middle cushion. “His hair’s cut short.”

  Still looking at it, Colt asked, “When was the last time you saw him?”

  “Last night.”

  His eyes switched over to her. “Did you pick him up?”

  She nodded. “At the truck stop, I couldn’t believe it when he called and told me he escaped. I really freaked.”

  He laid the picture on the end table. “Where did you take him?”

  “I dropped him off at a safe place. Nobody will find him there.”

  Colt’s expression asked a thousand questions.

  “He’s not a murderer.”

  “So it was an accident?”

  “No.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Blade told me that another inmate came up to him and laughed in his face and called him a dumb-ass for being in there for murdering Whip when Whip wasn’t even dead.”

  She waited for Colt’s re
sponse. He shifted his position, laid his arm across the back of the sofa, crossed his knee with his ankle, and gazed at her.

  She moved her butt up to the edge of the couch and faced him. “Blade figured he was trying to start a fight so he walked away. But the next day, he apologized for making fun of him and gave him a cigarette.”

  Colt blinked.

  “So anyway, Blade got to talking to him, he was a meth dealer and he used to buy from Floyd Cunningham, Whip’s brother. Well, a couple years ago, one day Garland, that was his name, was supposed to meet Floyd but he wasn’t there at the house. Whip and Tom Ketch were, Tom’s their cousin, and they told him that they quit cooking and Floyd joined the military and that he had no business coming around no more. You see, Garland was good friends with Floyd, but he thought Whip and Tom were assholes. And he knew Floyd well enough to know he didn’t join the military, it was bullshit. So he thought maybe Whip got busted and turned Floyd in to save his own ass, but Garland checked, Floyd wasn’t at the jailhouse. He was suspicious that something bad had happened to Floyd, so he asked around and everybody was told the same thing, that he joined the military. Garland said it was as if he disappeared from the face of the earth. And he wanted to do more checking, you know go to the cops or something but he couldn’t, cause he was a dealer. So he just dropped it.”

  Alaska breathed deeply and studied her hot new boyfriend. He was such a good listener, and so understanding, he was perfect.

  “Well anyway, just recently, before going into the pen, Garland went into some bar in Branson and saw Whip in there. It stunned him at first, because Whip was supposed to be dead. He said he wasn’t skinny like he used to be and his hair was short and kind of yellow. Whip’s hair used to be dark brown and it was always messy like he never brushed it. Garland realized it had to be somebody else who really resembled him so he let it go and minded his own business. Well, while drinking his beer, the corner of his eye watched him. And when Whip noticed him sitting there it seemed to have startled him. He downed his drink real quick and took off limp and all. You see, Whip tried to run Blade down on a dirt bike but hit a tree instead and broke his leg in two different places and one leg is shorter than the other so he limps.”

  “What I want to know,” Colt said, fondling her hair, “is what did Whip do to your face?”

  She was flattered from the attention, how he had gone back to their earlier conversation in the kitchen. “He tried having his way but I pushed him off of me. We were teenagers back then, I ran, he tackled me and I landed in some tall grass. There was part of old cannon there and it sliced my face really bad.” Her mind spaced out in a blur from the memory of the pain and the blood, her screams for help, and Whip pulling on her pants.

  “And then what happened?” Colt’s tone was compassionate.

  “I was out on a field with some friends trying to catch a horse, they heard me, came running and pulled him off.”

  “Was your brother there?”

  “No, we were skipping and Whip followed us. I went to the hospital and my friends went back to school and told Blade. After school, Blade beat the crap out of Whip.”

  “And that was when Whip tried to run Blade down?”

  “No, it was about a year later.”

  The wall phone rang in the kitchen. She got up and answered. Stormy asked a bunch of questions. Alaska only answered the ones concerning the café, and the ones about Colt—her only reply was I can’t talk now.

  She brought two beers back out to the living room, handed one to Colt, flipped open the tab on the other, and took a long swallow. She was convinced she was doing the right thing by bringing him in on the situation. It had to be fate that brought him to her.

  “What do you plan on doing?” Colt asked.

  “Garland figured it out. He asked the bartender about him and she said that his name was Floyd and that he came in there everyday. You see, something happened to Floyd, he got killed somehow but his family hid his death, for some reason, and told everybody that he ran off and joined the military. Then they faked Whip’s death and now he’s using Floyd’s ID.”

  “Our theory is that they bought life insurance on Whip. And they’re collecting.”

  Colt popped his beer and took a sip. “Let me get this straight, your brother was convicted for killing the same person that hurt you?”

  “Yes, don’t you see that they used Blade? He was a perfect candidate for their scam.”

  “Who else knows this story?”

  “Whoever Garland’s told it to. His plan was to go back to Whip’s family, find out what really did happen to Floyd, and blackmail them. But then he got busted for dealing meth before he could, and that’s what sent him to the pen where Blade was.”

  “Do you really believe all this?” Colt jutted his head forward an inch. “Insurance scam, fake death, it takes hard evidence to convict a person of murder, for starters a dead body.”

  “Yes I believe it. Whip’s Aunt and cousin Tom are both driving brand-new vehicles. I’ve seen them.”

  “Baby, that doesn’t mean anything. There had to have been a coroner’s examination to issue a death certificate.”

  She upped her beer. Shit. He didn’t believe her. “We always thought that Tom killed Whip after Blade left, whether it was an accident or a fight or whatever. But Tom’s mother testified against Blade, to cover for her own son. And now it all makes sense. It was a set-up from the very beginning.” She made a beer-run then sat back down on the far end of the couch, pulling her legs up.

  Colt rubbed his temple like he had a headache.

  Maybe she made a mistake involving him. She ought to fetch his cell and send him packing. She didn’t need him.

  He put his hand down and leaned toward her. “Tell me everything, from the beginning.”

  “Okay. Blade’s a mechanic and Tom started bringing his truck to the shop a lot, something was always wrong with it. Then Tom told him he couldn’t pay because his mother was having financial problems and he had to help her. Blade was understanding and said he’d wait until things got better. Then one day Tom came in and said he wasn’t going to be able to pay at all and offered to give Blade an antique automobile that he had inherited from his dad. So, Blade went out to Tom’s house, well actually it was his mother’s, to look at it.”

  She stretched her legs, relaxing a bit. “Now Blade has had nothing to do with Whip for years, avoids him like the plague. Well, in walks Whip. Blade ignored him of course, but Tom took off to the house to get the key to the car. While he was gone, Whip attacked Blade with a two-by-four and Blade hit him back one time.” Alaska raised a finger. “And then left, that was it. He didn’t kill him!”

  “Didn’t Blade have an attorney?”

  “Yeah, one that sucked. I’ve been trying to get another one to appeal his case.”

  Colt got up and paced the living room a couple of times then stopped. “Was Whip taken to the hospital?”

  “No. The coroner came out and pronounced him dead at the scene. His Aunt identified him and he was taken straight to the funeral home. She protested an autopsy.”

  “Who was the officer that responded?”

  “Deputy Haggard.”

  “Was any other law enforcement at the scene?”

  “No. When Blade’s attorney asked about that, Haggard said it wasn’t necessary.”

  Colt shook his head, went over to the sliding glass doors, and peeked around the drapes. “Where was the sheriff?”

  “Conveniently out of town at his annual Civil War reenactment.”

  Colt’s eyes connected with hers. “So what’s your plan?”

  “It’s pretty simple. I’m going to Branson, find Whip and drag his ass to the cops. And Blade will be exonerated.”

  “And you want me to go with you?”

  She nodded.

  “What about your brother out there, aren’t you worried about him?”

  “He’s okay for now, he’s camping. Oh he’s not a threat to anybody if that concerns y
ou.”

  Colt circled the coffee table, sat next to her, and put his arm around her shoulder. He pulled her in close to him. “When are we leaving?”

  “Before dawn.” Her hand slid down his chest and over an enticing bulge. Then she got up to go to the bathroom.

  Chapter 7

  Colt indulged in a long swallow of beer. What was he getting himself into? The plan to apprehend a supposedly dead person sitting at a bar was not all that simple. Was it a scam?

  The decision to not pursue Blade’s whereabouts anymore that night put him at ease. He was hunkered down somewhere out there in the dark, but come daylight, the threat of his presence would be imminent. As the Ozark wilderness boasted numerous trails for hikers, trail riders, and 4- wheelers. And then there were the locals who lived in the hills. Better to drop it till morning, unless Alaska brought it up.

  She had been in the bedroom for a while so he got off the sofa and went to check on her. A snow-white comforter lay rumpled on the bed, and a lamp on the nightstand illuminated dragonflies on its shade. Next to it was an alarm clock and a paperback. He turned on a fan perched in an opened window and reveled in the cool airstream as he inhaled the aphrodisiacal, perfumed aroma of honeysuckle.

  The sound of running water titillated his mind. He glanced toward the bathroom, the door hung slightly ajar. He moseyed on over and pushed it wide enough so he could peer in.

  The see-through shower curtain exposed Alaska’s naked form. Her boobs jiggling as she washed her hair coupled with the curve in her back snaking over her ass sent him overboard. His dick hardened and became captain of the ship.

  He backed up, sat on the bed, and pulled off his boots. He was going to stay there all night. And he probably was not going to sleep on the couch. It was a sure bet Alaska would not keep her hands off him. Then he stood and undressed. As he tugged his jockeys down, a full erection popped out.

  He spread out in the middle of the bed, kicked the comforter down to his feet, and crossed his arms behind his head. His mind relaxed with the rest of his body, except for the one part of him that stood at high alert.