Cole released her hand. “Then I’ll let you get back to your job. To protect and serve. Thank you for that, Deputy Mattie Cobb. But be careful out there.”
She smiled in a small way that touched her eyes and relaxed her face. She gave him a left-handed salute and went through his front door, saying, “Come, Robo. Let’s go to work.”
“And phone me after you’ve seen Dr. McGinnis,” he called to her as she walked away.
She raised her injured arm in acknowledgement.
Cole stood and watched the black shadow gamboling at her side, white teeth visible as he grinned up at her, until she passed outside his entry light and got into her car. Although he wasn’t a religious man in a traditional sense, he made a mental request for someone out there to watch over Mattie and to keep her and her dog safe.
Mattie could still feel the tingle in her left hand from when Cole had held it. She gave her head a slight shake, trying to dispel the fact that she was drawn to him more and more. His divorce had been finalized for only a few days; this was not a time that he’d be interested in a new relationship. And it was silly to think he might ever be interested in her anyway.
As she drove to the station, she couldn’t help but think about the stuff that made up a family. She’d always craved a regular family life like Cole’s. But his family had been flawed even when she believed it to be perfect. She decided that a perfect family didn’t truly exist.
Then there was the O’Malley family, one she’d completely misread. Her own family background had colored her judgment, and that wasn’t good in her line of work. She’d learned a lesson she needed to remember in the future: all families are different, and stay open so you can read the signs you’re being given. That lesson would be second to the one she now truly understood: always listen to your dog.
At the station, she found the entire team. Stella had stayed to question the suspects. She still wore her tailored pantsuit, but she’d exchanged her dress shoes for black sneakers, and she was returning her service weapon to its holster under her jacket. Mattie could tell she meant to go with them to search Brennaman’s house.
“Did you get anything out of Brennaman?” Mattie asked her.
“Nah,” Stella said, clearly disgusted. She did a double take, looking from her to Robo and back again. “Mattie, what happened to you and your dog?”
“Brennaman.”
“Let’s get photos of your injuries before you go home tonight.” With her head, she gestured back to the interrogation rooms. “Brennaman asked for a lawyer first thing. Won’t say a word without one. He’s in there with Justin McClelland. I told them both I’d be back in an hour. They can sit in there and cook. Let’s go find something that gives me leverage.”
Brennaman lived outside of town on a plot of land adjacent to the national forest. His log house sat at the back of the property near the trees. McCoy and Stella led the way, followed by Brody and Johnson. Mattie and Robo brought up the rear. Their caravan pulled to a stop in front of the house. The house was dark, and as far as they knew, the only person present inside was Mrs. Brennaman.
“Brody and Johnson, you cover the rear door,” McCoy ordered. “I doubt this lady’s involved, but we need to be prepared in case she tries to run. Detective LoSasso and I will serve the warrant. Deputy Cobb, you wait out here. I’ll wait two minutes for you men to get into place. Then I’ll knock on the door.”
Robo stood when the men walked away. “Wait,” she whispered to him. Her senses sharpened. She inhaled the scent of pine and heard a night bird take flight from a tree behind her.
After two minutes, McCoy stepped up on the porch and pounded the front door. Stella waited behind him, her service weapon held down at her side. After a long pause, the sheriff pounded the door again.
Lights came on inside the house and on the porch, but no one opened the door. A feminine voice called through it. “Who is it?”
“Mrs. Brennaman? It’s Sheriff McCoy.”
The door opened immediately, revealing a short woman of medium build dressed in a night robe. Her short, silver-gray hair was tousled. “Sheriff? What are you doing here?” She put her hand to her throat. “Something hasn’t happened to John, has it?”
“Could we come inside, Mrs. Brennaman?”
“Surely.” She held the door wide while McCoy and Stella moved inside. “Please tell me.”
Mattie could see the woman’s distress. While she waited by the cruiser, she imagined her shock when McCoy explained—that is, if she was truly innocent.
It didn’t take long for Stella to signal her to come inside. With Robo beside her, Mattie passed through the front door into a living room filled with fussy furniture and knickknacks. Mrs. Brennaman was sitting on a couch, looking stunned, with Sheriff McCoy sitting beside her holding the warrant. He was still explaining the process to the woman in a gentle voice. Brody and Johnson had moved inside through the back door and stood by, Johnson shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other and Brody standing solid with his thumbs hooked onto his utility belt.
Stella signaled for Mattie to follow her down a hallway to a room that looked like a home office. “This is a good place to start,” Stella said.
With her right arm still throbbing, Mattie used her left hand to hold Robo’s leash and guided him with her injured arm, starting at the desk and then working around the room. He paused at the closet door, sniffing its edges, and she opened it so he could move inside. A navy-blue sweatshirt hung amid coats and jackets; a black ski mask and a pair of leather gloves lay on the shelf above.
But Robo was busy sniffing the floor. Then he walked in and sat in the middle, looking up at her to tell her he’d found something.
Mattie praised him and asked him to come out. “We need to see what’s under that carpet,” she told Stella.
Together they started to move in, but Stella gently pushed Mattie aside. “Let me do it. You should be using that arm as little as possible.”
She watched Stella work, pulling up carpeting that was barely tacked down and then lifting a hatch-like cover to reveal a hollowed-out space below the floor. “Do you have a flashlight?” Stella asked.
Mattie handed her one.
Stella lit the space where they could see two leather briefcases and numerous small parcels wrapped in plastic. Stella photographed and carefully opened a package of each type. The leather case contained cash, and the plastic parcel contained cocaine.
They also found a small box that held a cell phone with its battery removed and a dainty ring, its thin gold band set with a ruby. Grace’s ring—her last birthday gift from her parents. Tears filled Mattie’s eyes, and she looked away.
“I think this should be enough to put him away forever,” Stella said in a sober voice. “Let’s have you sweep the rest of the house and then let the CSU finish up here. We’ll take these things and the wife back to the station. Maybe all of it combined will be enough to make him come clean. Great job, Mattie.”
Mattie shrugged. “It’s all Robo,” she said. Her body may have felt battered and bruised, but her spirit soared. She couldn’t have been more proud.
Chapter 30
Tuesday
Sheriff McCoy had ordered Mattie to go home shortly after they finished up at the Brennaman house. He told her, in no uncertain terms, not to come back to the station until she’d seen Dr. McGinnis. The good doctor had agreed to open early so that he could x-ray her arm, and he’d given her a clean bill of health to return to work.