Starting with June

She was just full of joy today, wasn’t she? “My mother’s second marriage.”

“Ah.”

“What in the hell is that supposed to mea—” The squawk of their radios cut him off.

“Jones. Report.”

Sam ID’d Roth’s voice.

“On Deer Trail, Chief,” June responded. “Still making the rounds.”

“Someone’s egging cars over on Oak Hill. Check it out.”

“Will do.” She flipped on the blue lights, accelerated and waved as they passed a senior citizen waiting by her mailbox. Despite the woman’s obvious disappointment, June didn’t stop. Sam said a silent thank-you. He’d been grilled enough today.

“Eggers are usually kids, aren’t they?” he speculated. “And kids should be in school.”

“Speaking from experience?”

He refrained from answering. A few miles later she rounded a bend, slowed and turned off the lights simultaneously. He spotted two heads rising from the ragweed in the ditch, arms reared back. Boys. In their early teens. They dropped their ammo and took off.

“We have runners,” she said into her radio. June threw the car into Park, flung open her door and raced after the kids. Sam followed, a beat behind, logging details as he sprinted through the waist-high weeds. Deputy Jones was fast and agile. The boys split up.

“Take right,” June called over her shoulder, then veered after the one on the left.

Sam thundered across the unfamiliar terrain. He was used to creeping undetected, not trampling plants, careless of the noise he made. Adrenaline pumping, he went down into a shallow creek bed and back up the other side, gaining on his target and ignoring the briars ripping at his clothes. “The farther you run, the more you’ll piss me off,” he shouted, but his quarry didn’t slow.

Sam could take down and incapacitate an insurgent in seconds, but he had no clue how to deal with a troublemaking kid not wearing explosives. This one showed no signs of surrendering. Sam made a running tackle, banded his arms around the brat and hit the dirt. He rolled to take as much of the impact as he could and skidded across the leafy forest floor holding on to the bucking boy. When they stopped, he pinned the kid to the ground and scrambled for the cuffs on his belt. It took a couple of tries with the unfamiliar equipment before he had the subject hog-tied. Now what?

He rose and yanked the redheaded, freckle-faced youth to his feet. They were both breathing hard.

“I didn’t do anything,” Freckles shouted.

“Then why’d you run? Running from cops can get you shot.”

“It was Joey’s idea.”

No loyalty. A Marine would never give up his man. “Let’s go.”

Grabbing the narrow biceps, he frog-marched the teen back to the patrol car and met June and her quarry strolling side by side out of the woods. No cuffs. She took one look at Sam and though she said nothing, her disapproval was clear in the hiking of those golden eyebrows and her down-turned lips.

“Suspects apprehended,” she said into her shoulder radio. “It’s Joey and Tyler.”

“Affirmative,” Roth responded.

“What were you thinking?” she asked the boys as they approached the patrol car.

“Aw, c’mon, June, it’s not like we were hurting anything.”

“Eggs damage paint. Get in the back, Joey.”

“But, June—”

“Save it.”

Sam circled to the opposite side of the cruiser and opened the door. That was when he noticed neither June nor her kid were covered in leaves, twigs and debris the way Sam and his prisoner were.

“Deputy Rivers, please remove the cuffs before putting Tyler in the back.”

The kids referred to her by name, and she knew theirs. Frequent fliers? She returned to the ditch, grabbed a basket, which she put in the trunk, then climbed back behind the wheel. She acted as calm as if they’d taken their guests on a picnic. His blood was pumping. This was probably routine for her. Not so for him.

“That’s Miss Letty’s basket, isn’t it? Isn’t it?” she repeated when they ducked their heads and didn’t answer. “You know she and her son live off what she grows. She’s poor, and Jim Bob isn’t like the rest of us. And you took their food. Shame on you.” The boys shrank into their seats.

“You’re not gonna call our parents, are you?” the one Sam had nailed wailed.

“Oh, I’ll talk to your parents, but first I have something else in mind.”

Sam glanced through the grate and saw worry and dread in the faces too young to shave. “Vandalism is a crime. Do you want a criminal record to ruin your futures?” He used his sternest voice, trying to scare the piss out of them. Their pale faces and wide eyes told him it had worked.

“Guys, this is Deputy Rivers. Sorry you had to meet this way.” June put the car in motion, heading away from the station instead of toward it. Was she going to torture her passengers with the same parade through town Sam had endured?

Two klicks down the road she turned up a dirt driveway flanked by overgrown grass and weeds. A small, old, formerly white clapboard house smaller than his rental came into view. She tooted the horn. A tiny woman as weathered as the peeling building came out the front door. The teens sunk even deeper into the seat with a chorus of Oh man’s.

June got out and released her passenger. Following her lead, Sam did the same. Then she retrieved the basket from the trunk. Sam kept an eye on the boys, expecting them to bolt.

“Miss Letty, this is Deputy Rivers. He helped me catch these rascals. They’ve been in your henhouse.”

June cut a razor-sharp glance at the boys, who shuffled their feet and tucked their chins, then mumbled, “Sorry, Miss Letty.”

“Ya stole my eggs?”

Heads bobbed. “Yes, ma’am.”

June passed her the basket. “There are a few left. After school tomorrow Tyler and Joey will each bring you two dollars.”

They boys eyed June, then each other in dismay.

“Well, I...” the old lady started to protest.

“It’s the least they can do, Miss Letty.”

The old woman nodded. “I’d appreciate that.”

June snapped her fingers. “Back in the car, boys.”

Sam was more than a little surprised when they docilely did as ordered. June crossed to the old woman and gave her a hug. “Have a nice afternoon, Miss Letty. Tell Jim Bob I said hello. I’ll be back on Thursday with banana bread. If these boys don’t show tomorrow, you let me know.”

“What was that about?” Sam asked her over the car’s roof after the boys were back in the car and before she opened her door.

“Around here we don’t steal, and we take care of our own.”

Take Care of Your Own was a motto Marines lived by and could be iffy if abused. Was June overstepping her authority by forcing the boys to pay the woman? Seemed like it.

Again June steered away from the station. Approximately ten klicks down the road she turned the cruiser into a church parking lot, and the boys groaned. “C’mon, June. We’re sorry.”

“You will be.”

The building was old enough to have a historic marker out front. Founded in 1898 by Ezekiel Jones, it proclaimed. Signs along the road and driveway advertised a barbecue fund-raiser being held this Saturday.

“Just call our parents, please,” Carrottop pleaded.

“I did that last time. It didn’t work, did it? ’Cause here you are, hitching a ride with me again,” June replied. “This is the second time I’ve picked you two up for malicious mischief.”

She stopped the cruiser in front of the stone house beside the church, exited the car and then released their prisoners. The boys exchanged panicked glances.

“Don’t even think about running,” June warned, and the boys’ shoulders sagged. “I’m faster than both of you and I know where you live.”

They obediently followed her up the walk with scuffing feet and bowed heads. No cuffs. No use of force. What in the hell? Each one outweighed her but they made no attempt to escape. Sam took rear guard just in case. June knocked on the arched wooden door and a few moments later it opened, revealing an older man in a suit.

“Hi, Daddy.”

The words floored Sam. June was a preacher’s daughter? Then he noticed the lack of welcome in the man’s eyes—the same green as June’s—and the absence of a hug. His father would have crushed him with one if he’d shown up on the doorstep. That thought drove a bayonet of guilt into Sam’s ribs. He wanted to talk to his father, to get his advice, and yet he didn’t want to admit failure. Being separated from the corps was definitely a failure. Unless he could fix it.

“Justice.”

“Joey and Tyler have come to volunteer their services to the church this Saturday. They’d like to wash cars during your barbecue. They won’t charge the church, but they’ll accept donations for the youth mission fund.”

The boys grumbled again until the preacher’s hard stare silenced them. “Is that so?”

He continued giving them the beady eye until they nodded and Yes, sir’d.

“They’ll be here at eleven and they’ll stay until the last car leaves. I’d appreciate it if you’d feed them and keep them hydrated.”

“Good to know some of our members know how to repent,” the preacher said, and June paled. “I’ll see that they get lunch.”

“See you Saturday, then, Daddy.” She turned on her heel and headed back to the cruiser. The teens fell in behind her like baby ducks following momma duck.

Sam took another look at the man’s harsh face, then at June. He couldn’t help wondering if the clichés about a preacher’s daughter being wild were true. From the man’s comment about repenting and his chilly attitude, it sounded like it, but that didn’t fit June’s image as Quincey’s sweetheart. As Roth had predicted, everybody they’d encountered this morning adored her.

One thing was certain. His fellow deputy had just become a whole lot more interesting if she’d done something her father couldn’t forgive.

* * *

SAM STALKED INTO Roth’s office at the end of his shift. The day had been worse than enemy capture and torture. “You have to pair me with one of the men tomorrow.”

Roth pointed at the chair in front of his desk. Sam sat, relieved to see the end of his first day as a deputy. “Why?”

“After we apprehended the egg throwers, June took them to the lady they stole the eggs from and promised they’d reimburse her. Then your deputy took them to her father’s church and volunteered them to wash cars for a church fund-raiser. She never Mirandized them. And that’s not by the book.”

“No, it isn’t, but neither is it out of line. They weren’t formally charged.”

Matter of opinion. Not Sam’s. “After that she took them to school and told their science teacher that the boys would like to do a report and a presentation to their class on how eggs damage auto paint. She touted it as a great learning experience for all.”

Roth’s face remained inscrutable. “Is that right?”

“Only then did she drive each one of the brats to his daddy’s office and tell the fathers what their sons had done and where the boys would be on Saturday and about the school project. Instead of wasting an entire afternoon on these little vandals, she should have hauled them here and tossed them into a cell to cool their heels until their parents posted bail and picked them up. June is more mommy than deputy.”

Roth rocked back in his chair. “I told you small-town policing is like nothing you’ve ever seen. I had issues with June’s technique, too, when I first started here, and then my father-in-law set me straight. June’s approach may be unconventional. It certainly wouldn’t work in Raleigh, where she trained. But it works here. For what it’s worth, Miss Letty barely scrapes by since her husband died a few years back, and the boys attend Pastor Jones’s church. They’re probably even going on the mission trip. Reparation might not be a bad idea. As for the school thing...we could do with a few less juvenile delinquents. They’re Quincey’s biggest problem.”

Dumbfounded, Sam stared at his friend. “What has small-town living done to the rule-following Marine I knew? June’s dispensing her own brand of justice. Hell, she was judge and jury, too.”

“Supposing she’d done as you suggested and brought the boys to the station and charged them with petty vandalism, following textbook procedure. Tyler’s daddy’s a lawyer, a good one, I hear, and Joey’s dad was Quincey’s all-star quarterback fifteen years ago. He took the team to the state championship and threw the winning touchdown. That’s something folks around here don’t forget. I suspect the judge would have thrown out both boys’ cases.”

“You have to be kidding me. We caught them red-handed.”

“I hear what you’re saying, Sam, and now you understand some of my frustration. In reality, strings would have been pulled, charges dropped, etc. The boys’ punishment would have been over before the ink dried on the paperwork, and they’d have learned that their daddies can get them out of trouble. Or if by some fluke the charges weren’t dropped, the boys would have a permanent juvenile record for stealing and throwing a couple dollars’ worth of eggs. You and I both did worse as kids.

“Now put yourself in their current situation.” Grinning, Roth shook his head. “June’s going to torture the ever-livin’ hell out of them for a week. Tyler and Joey will also serve as examples to their peers when they’re stuck washing cars Saturday afternoon while their buddies are eating barbecue and throwing around the football on the church lawn. And when they’re forced to stand up and give that oral report, the message will be driven home again. Screw up in Quincey and you pay. You tell me which punishment is more likely to discourage repeat offenders.”

As soon as Roth said it, Sam got it. He didn’t like it. He preferred rules and clear-cut consequences for breaking them. He liked going through the proper chain of command. But he understood June’s angle. He nodded.

“I hear you, but I’d still like to work with Morris or Aycock tomorrow. That woman likes a captive audience. She nearly talked the boys’ ears off. Mine, too.”

Roth cracked a smile. “Sam, she’s the most even-tempered woman I’ve ever met or worked with. How did you manage to get on her bad side so quickly?”

The chair suddenly felt harder. “What makes you think I did?”

“She’s beat you in here by ten minutes to request that your training be handled by one of the other deputies.”

That rankled. Sam had never had anyone refuse to work with him before. On the contrary, he’d had more ask to be assigned to work with him than his superiors could accommodate. He was imperturbable, eternally patient, a damned good shot, and top-notch at calculating trajectories, wind velocities and spindrift.

“She doesn’t want to work with me? What’s her problem?”

“You. She claims you’re too rigid and used excessive force when you handcuffed Tyler Newsome for throwing eggs.”

“I cuffed the little bast—brat for evading arrest. He ran.”

“He’s barely thirteen.”

“So were two of the suicide bombers I was sent to take out.”

A sobering silence filled the room. Roth had been there, done that. The first kid Sam had been sent after hadn’t even started shaving, but the explosives wrapped around his chest as he’d strolled into a crowded marketplace that had included many Marines had been impossible to miss. That had been a hard one. The bastards over there had used women and children on a regular basis. Subsequent assignments hadn’t gotten any easier. But Sam had done what was necessary to save lives.

He replaced the bad memories by dredging up an image of angry green eyes and golden hair pulled into a stubby ponytail instead.

“What else is she whining about?” Sam groused.

“She claims you were abrupt with the citizens who tried to welcome you. You even refused Mrs. Ray’s turtle soup.”

That bit him like belly-crawling over a ground nest of yellow jackets. “I don’t like turtle soup, and I met a hundred people today. June never got the car above ten miles per hour. And then she took me to the diner for lunch. A cavity search would’ve been less invasive. It was like being autopsied while I was still alive.” He’d barely been able to eat for people dropping by their table and grilling him.

Roth’s grin widened. “Welcome to Quincey. Give it time. It’ll grow on you.”

“Like fungus?”

Roth laughed. “Ah, you remember my description of coming home. See you in the morning. If you’re nice, maybe June will let you drive.”

Frustrated, Sam rose. “If I wanted to be tortured by females, I’d go home to my sisters.”

“Good idea. I’ll give you three days’ leave if you want to visit your family. But you’re still partnered with Jones.”

His sisters made the citizens of Quincey look like amateur sleuths.

“I don’t need leave.”

At least he and June agreed on one thing. Neither wanted to work together. But he’d change her mind. Then when he repeated his request for a different partner, maybe Roth would listen.

CHAPTER FOUR

JUNE PACED HER tiny den, waiting for Madison to get home. But instead of her landlord’s truck, she heard the low growl of Sam’s high-performance engine rumbling up the driveway. Tension snapped her nerves as tight as overwound guitar strings. He parked in front of his cottage and headed for his front door.

If it had been anyone else, she’d have invited them to join her for dinner. It was the neighborly thing to do. But not Sam. She’d had enough of his impatience and disapproving glares today. Not that she’d been able to see his condemning eyes through the dark lenses, but the way he’d looked at her, with censure pleating his brow and turning down the corners of his compressed mouth, she’d seen all she needed to see.

Why had he taken this job if he hated small-town life so much? Or maybe he just hated her. That bothered her more than it should have. His opinion did not matter.

A minute later her landlord’s truck turned into the driveway. June grabbed the Crock-Pot and picnic basket and, juggling her load, hurried across the yard to meet Madison as she climbed from the cab.

Madison spotted June, and her dark eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Hi. Please tell me that’s dinner. I’m starving. Piper and I didn’t get a lunch break.”

June struggled to contain her questions and forced patience she did not feel. “It is. I made white chicken chili, corn bread and salad. Busy day at the office?”

“There are always pet emergencies after a holiday weekend, but today everyone’s ‘emergency’ was more of a need to stop by and question me about my wedding plans and my replacement, Dr. Drake.”

“You got in late last night,” June said in an attempt to make polite chitchat before getting down to facts as they crossed the yard together.

“It was hard to say goodbye to Adam.” Madison’s time with her fiancé and his family had been good for her. She looked more relaxed than June had ever seen her.

Madison, June and Piper had often shared meals, potlucking it at each other’s houses until Piper and now Madison had become engaged. Once Madison moved to Georgia after her wedding, June would be solo. Except for her annoying neighbor...unless she could convince her landlord to turf him. But she couldn’t blurt out that demand. She’d have to work up to it.

Madison twisted the backdoor knob, then frowned over her shoulder at June. “You locked my back door again. Why?”

“You don’t know your new tenant. I don’t trust him.”

Madison dug her keys out of her pocket and opened the door. “Oh, c’mon. Sam’s a nice guy. And I don’t think you can get a better referral than from Quincey’s chief of police.”

Nice guy? June practically choked on her own saliva as she followed Madison into the kitchen. She set the slow cooker, basket and salad bowl on the table. “Why didn’t you tell me Roth’s friend was renting the cottage?”

“Because Roth asked me not to mention it. He said Sam needed time and privacy to get his head together about being forced out of the military. And Sam was as pleasant as he could be when I met him at Piper and Roth’s, so I didn’t think it would be a problem. Of course, that was before he lost his job. That might affect his mood, I guess, if he’s acting differently with you.”

“He’s the new deputy. Roth stuck me with training him.”

“Ah...you’re working together.”

Madison’s knowing tone raised her hackles. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It explains the friction between you. You have not had great luck with the men you’ve worked with. You especially don’t like guys who are condescending or boss you around. Does he?”

Had he? No. Not in that way. “He accused me of coming on to him when I took him the key and a welcome basket.”

Madison’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll bet you gave him your phone number, too.”

“In case he had questions. What’s that got to do with it?”

“A pretty single neighbor brings food to the new guy. And I know you. That basket was probably loaded with delicious home-cooked stuff. Then that neighbor offers her phone number. How do you think a stranger to Quincey would take that kind of overture?”

When Madison put it that way... “As a pickup attempt?”

Madison nodded. Then June put the pieces together and grimaced. Heat climbed to her hairline. “To make matters worse, I was wearing Kelsie’s bikini. He showed up while I was killing time by the pool.”

Madison chuckled. “Poor Sam. That explains a lot. Your sister’s taste borders on trampy. He’d never know you’re as comfortable in a bathing suit as you are jeans and a T-shirt, thanks to your siblings’ enthusiastic sports matches at family get-togethers.

“You and Sam got off on the wrong foot. Once you get to know him, you’ll see he’s a decent guy. He made it very clear when I met him that he wasn’t looking for a relationship. Again, that was before he lost his job. I don’t know if his status has changed. But to be on the safe side, treat him like one of your brothers and you should be fine.”

Even at their worst her brothers had never been so irritating. They had never questioned every decision she made or looked at her as if she was wasting their valuable time. And they never handcuffed children.

Madison gathered plates and bowls from the cabinets and set the table. “I’m glad you’re here. I was going to knock on your door later anyway. Adam and I are having trouble deciding where to get married. I value your levelheaded advice.”

June would prefer to talk about Sam and find out everything Madison knew about the former Marine. But that would have to wait. She gathered utensils, then sat and dished out the food while Madison poured sweet tea. “What’s the problem?”

“I don’t want to get married in the Drakes’ church. That’s where I married Andrew.”

“I can see where taking vows to your deceased husband’s identical twin in the same spot might be awkward.”

“Exactly. Plus, it gives a negative vibe. That marriage didn’t work out. On the rare occasions I attend services here I go to your father’s church with Piper. But I don’t want your dad marrying us either. He may be a gifted orator, but I don’t like the way he treats you, and I really want you and Piper with me when I promise forever to Adam.”

“This is your wedding, Madison. Get married wherever you want. I can handle my dad.” June would be there—even if it meant going to her father’s church, where he’d humiliated her in front of all of Quincey.

Madison shook her head. “No way. I still remember the excitement in your voice when you called to tell me your guy had planned a special dinner and you thought he was going to propose. Then I remember the pain in your eyes when you showed up on my doorstep three days later dragging a U-Haul trailer and telling me you’d quit the job you loved and left Raleigh and you needed a place to stay. Your parents should have been there for you.”

“I didn’t need them. I had you and Piper.”

“And we were happy to help—even though you wouldn’t let us castrate the lying, adulterous bastard. But that’s not the point, June. You didn’t know the jerk was married. You were the victim and not the offender. Your father shouldn’t have condemned you then and he shouldn’t continue doing so now, years later. I wish your mother would grow a backbone and tell him to go to hell for treating you so badly.”