This Fallen Prey (Rockton #3)(31)

“Martial law.” Dalton shakes his head. “I saw it done when I was growing up, and I was kinda proud of the fact that I’ve never had to resort to that. Thought that meant I was a better sheriff. Bullshit. It just means I got lucky.”

“Rockton has never dealt with anything like Brady before. Right now, I think we’re just in the unsettled phase. People are on edge. Once his cabin is built, they’ll settle.” I stretch out on top of him. “We’ll be okay.”

His arms go around my waist. “We will be.”

Which is true. We’ll be okay, as both a couple and as individuals. We’ll weather this, however it plays out. The problem is everyone else. Everyone we are responsible for.





18





“That is not perfect,” Anders is saying early the next morning. “Casey cut the board backward.”

“I was just—” Kenny says.

“Being supportive. Encouraging.” Anders puts the board in place, and the angle is indeed the wrong way. “Well, at least it’s straight. A for effort, Case.”

I take back the board, with my middle finger raised.

As I carry it to the sawhorse, Anders says, “Casey hates the effort award. She wants the honest A-plus overachiever award.”

“Ignore him,” I say. “But yes, Kenny, you can tell me I did it wrong. I’ll survive. And I’ll do it right the next time.”

“Overachiever,” Anders calls.

Kenny comes over and helps me line up the cut. I don’t tell him I can handle it. He means well. While I’ve chopped wood, even that was a new experience for me six months ago. When I was growing up, we never had so much as a saw in our garage. My parents would say sharp tools were unsafe, but part of it was also the mentality that such tasks were meant for people who lacked a surgeon’s IQ.

Brady’s new quarters are almost done, and we’re spending every spare minute building.

I hand the fixed board to Kenny.

“Now it’ll be a half inch too short,” Anders says. “It’ll leave a gap, and Brady will get his fingers through and pry it open and escape.”

“It’s for the bathroom interior wall.”

“He’ll still escape through it. Just watch. All because you cut an angle backward.”

“Didn’t we have to take down half a wall because someone put the damn door on the wrong side?”

“You said the door went on the west wall, and you know I’m directionally challenged.”

“The sun was setting. It doesn’t set in the east.”

Jen walks by with a bucket of nails. “You two keep bickering like that, the sheriff’s gonna get jealous. Sounds like someone has a crush.”

“Only if you’re twelve,” Anders says. “Grown-ups bicker ’cause it’s fun.”

“The word you want is ‘annoying,’ ” she says.

“You only say that because you feel left out. Hey, Jen, can I have a few of those screws?”

“They’re nails.”

“I know, but yesterday I asked you for screws, and you brought me nails.”

She shakes her head.

“That’s an opening,” he says. “You’re supposed to make a sarcastic retort.”

“The only ones I can think of are puns on screwing and nailing, and every woman in Rockton knows not to mention those words around you, Deputy, or you’ll think it’s an invitation.”

“Ouch.”

“Good one, though,” I say. “A little below the belt, but it’s an A for effort.”

Kenny snorts at that, and he starts to say something when I hear “Will? Will!” and Paul races around the neighboring building, pulling up short when he sees us. “Will and Casey. Perfect. I need you both at the station. There’s something wrong with the prisoner.”

Anders takes off ahead, Storm follows at my side.

“You didn’t leave him alone, right?” I ask as Paul runs a pace behind.

Silence. Then, “He was sick, and I had to get Will, and there was no one else—”

“Is his door locked?”

“The station door?”

“Cell. Did you open his cell?”

“I don’t have the key. Eric took it. He got called across town. As he was leaving, the prisoner said he had to take a shit, and Eric said to hold it or use the bucket. He wasn’t leaving the key.”

I send up a silent thanks to Dalton.

I yell ahead to Anders, “Careful! I think it’s a trap,” and he raises a hand, as if to say he’s already figured that out. The medical emergency is a hackneyed escape ploy. The fact that it happened while Dalton was out? And after Brady tried to get him to leave the key? Yeah, this screams setup, and not a very clever one at that.

I race into the station to find Anders outside the cell. Inside, Brady is on all fours, vomiting. Vomiting hard, as if he’s going to puke up his stomach lining. His back arches like something out of a horror movie, his body convulsing before he spews more of his stomach contents onto the floor.

Paul looks at me. “Should I go find Eric for the key?”

I take mine from my pocket. Then I proceed with measured steps toward the cell. Paul stares at me, and I see that once again, we are trapped in this dilemma, where caution seems callous.