The Cop by Jan Hudson

Author:Jan Hudson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Cole spat out an oath and threw the magazine across the room. He’d been cooped up in this place for nearly two months, and he’d watched about all the television and movies and read all the books and magazines he could tolerate. The thought of another jigsaw puzzle or crossword puzzle drove him up the wall.

He wasn’t cut out for the life of an invalid. The only thing that held any interest for him in Naconiche was Kelly, and if it hadn’t been for her, he’d have been long gone. But she was working most of the time, and he wasn’t. He was still in physical therapy three times a week, but he could get that anywhere. Even a desk job at the department didn’t seem so awful now. To ease his boredom, he’d been reduced to sitting in on domino games with the old geezers.

Having a car would help. The doctor had released him to drive for short distances the day before, but his SUV was in Houston and Naconiche didn’t have a rental agency. He was tempted to buy a clunker at the used-car lot just to have some wheels.

And why not? He had money in the bank from the oil lease on his land, and he wasn’t as broke these days as he was for a while. It didn’t even have to be a clunker. He could buy something decent and sell it later. He’d feel like more of a man if he could pick up Kelly instead of having her drive them all the time.

He was thinking about calling J.J. to give him a ride to the lot when somebody rapped on the door. Probably one of the domino players needing a temporary partner. They often called on him if one of them had some work to do around the place.

Instead it was J.J. and a short, hefty guy wearing a suit.

“Hello, J.J. I was just about to call you.”

“Guess I saved you the trouble. Cole, I’m sure you remember Mayor Fletcher.”

Cole didn’t, but he shook hands with the man and said, “Good to see you, Mayor. What can I do for you?”

The rattle of the dominoes in the outer office stopped, and J.J. said, “Can we come in and talk to you about something?”

“Sure.” He stood aside for the men to enter, then closed the door. “What’s up?”

“We’ve got a problem,” the mayor said. “This morning Wally Gaskamp who owns the feed store was out walking with his dog and came across some bones down by the creek not far from here.”

“Human?” Cole asked.

“Appear to be, but we’re not sure,” the mayor said. “We’ve got Ham Rayburn down guarding the site now.”

“Who’s Ham Rayburn?”

“Dick Rayburn’s oldest boy. He signed on with the police force about six months ago.”

“We need your help on this,” J.J. said, and Cole felt a pump of adrenaline. “The police chief had a heart attack three days ago, and he’s in Tyler having a bypass. The rest of the force are good boys, but they’re kind of green, and this is out of my jurisdiction.

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