Scent Of Danger

One way or another Parker would find whoever was using the center as a clearinghouse for their drugs. He wasn’t going to let what happened to his brother happen to someone else.

He didn’t think Melody was involved. At least he hoped she wasn’t because he really liked her. Liked her determination and seeming dedication. She appeared sincere and genuine in her earnest attempt to effect some change in the lives of the kids in Sagebrush. His gaze skipped over her lush dark hair and her beautiful face. In all honesty, he liked a few other things about the detective, too. Sherlock jerked on the towel, bringing him back to his senses. The woman had a locker full of drugs. Now was not the time to be noticing her appeal. He shifted his focus to Sherlock. “Drop it.”

The beagle let go of the towel and sat, his tail thumping softly against the floor. Parker put the toy back into his pack, glad for something to do so he could regain control of his emotions.

A young woman with long blond hair came down the hall. When she saw the locker and its contents, her face paled. “Oh, wow. Is that what I think it is?”

Melody took the woman’s hand. “It is.” To Parker, Melody said, “This is Ally Jensen, my assistant.” She turned back to the young woman. “Do you have any idea how that got there or who’s been using this locker?”

Ally shook her head. Her gaze darted to the group of kids and back to the locker. “No. No, I don’t.”

Parker narrowed his gaze on the girl. Could the drugs be hers? “Are you sure?”

Her green eyes shimmered with anxiety. “I’m sure.”

The doors at the end of the long corridor opened and the crime-scene techs walked in.

“Called to the youth center twice in one day,” Rose Bigsby said as she approached. She pushed up her wire-rimmed glasses with her free hand. “Did you have another break-in?”

Melody grimaced and looked as if she might be sick. “Not a break-in this time.” She gestured to the drugs.

Clay whistled through his teeth.

Rose held up a staying hand. “Hold your horses, everyone. With all due respect to Sherlock’s awesome track record for sniffing out the real stuff, we need to test it first, especially considering the whos and wherefores around here...” Her gaze slid to Melody. Parker could hear the unspoken thoughts about respecting coworkers. Rose set the duffel bag she carried on the ground and pulled on rubber gloves. “Everyone back up and give me room to work.”

She opened her bag and withdrew a vial, then carefully opened a baggie, taking a tiny sample and putting it into the vial. The color the substance turned when mixed with the chemical agent in the vial would determine the type of drug.

“Cocaine,” Rose announced, holding up the vial to reveal the purple-colored bottom.

Parker had figured as much. Rose and Clay set to work on fingerprinting the baggies and the locker.

Melody went to the group of kids and talked to them in a low voice. Frowning, Parker walked over.

“If any of you know anything about the drugs, I need you to tell me. You won’t get in trouble for telling the truth,” Melody said.

Parker’s eyebrows rose. Was Melody really that naive to think these kids would reveal anything? If one of them was involved, they certainly wouldn’t confess. And they would get in trouble.

Was she making this show of trying to find the culprit to throw suspicion off herself? His gut clenched.

What did he really know about her? She could very well be on the crime syndicate’s payroll. Or her partner, Jim, could be. Parker needed to have both officers’ finances looked at, see if either of them had money troubles, because that would be the only logical reason why someone like Melody, who was so smart and competent, would ever betray the oath she took to protect and serve.

As much as he hated the directions his thoughts were taking, he needed to report this to his boss.

And her boss.

They were supposed to be on the same team. If Melody had something to hide, then she’d have to pay the price. That thought didn’t settle well with him at all.

* * *

Melody watched Parker step away to make a call. Tension coiled through her. She needed a plan of action. Get the kids to talk, and then track down the culprit. She would get to the bottom of this situation and prove to Parker the center wasn’t being used for drug dealing. This was a one-time incident. It had to be. But the unease in her stomach taunted her.

“I saw John Riviera hanging around that locker,” Joy Haversham said, drawing Melody’s attention back to the question she’d asked the group of teens gathered in a nervous circle around her.

“Joy!” Tony Roberts made a slicing gesture across his throat.

Melody would be talking to John ASAP. If he were the culprit, then he would pay the price for his bad judgment and illegal activity.

“What? I did,” Joy said. The fifteen-year-old girl twirled a brown curl around her finger. “He was standing there, leaning against the lockers last Thursday night.”

“Doesn’t mean those are John’s drugs,” Tony countered. “They could be anybody’s. This place is easy to get into.”

Melody arched an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

Tony shrugged. At nearly eighteen, the kid was more man than boy. Had he been the one dressed in black this morning?

She eyed the width of his shoulders and decided no, he wasn’t the man who’d rammed into her and knocked her against the wall. That man had had broad shoulders as hard as bricks. “What do you mean this place is easy to get into?”

A guilty, sheepish look crossed his face before he carefully masked it with insolence. “The windows in the locker room are never locked.”

That was a surprise. Well, they would be from now on. The locker-room windows were at street level since the locker rooms were in the basement. She’d make sure Jim secured them every night.

Parker returned, pocketing his phone. He leveled her with an inscrutable look. “Our captains want us over at the station house as soon as Rose and Clay wrap things up.”

“You two can go,” Jim volunteered. “I’ll stay and keep an eye on the place.”

Parker shook his head. “They want to see you, as well.”

A flash of annoyance shot through Jim’s gray eyes. “I don’t know anything about this. I’m just a volunteer.”

Melody frowned. Technically, he was her co-director. “Jim, we’ll both go. The center is both of our responsibility.”

“Yeah, well, I keep telling you these kids are trouble,” Jim groused. “Wouldn’t surprise me if the captains decided the youth center was too much of a liability.”

His words sent a shaft of apprehension sliding straight to her core. Jim knew how much this place meant to her. He and his late wife had taken Melody under their wing when she’d first arrived in town. Jim had tried to talk her out of opening the center.

But she wouldn’t be dissuaded. And so he’d stepped up to be her co-director.

She suspected he’d volunteered to help her in order to protect her. But would Jim take this opportunity to help Parker convince the captains to close the youth center doors for good?

She sent up a silent plea for God’s protection over the center. They were doing good work here. It would be a shame for everything they’d accomplished and all they could do in the future to end now. There were still so many kids who needed the help, the guidance the center offered. She’d made a promise to herself she’d do all she could to see that teens like Daniel were given every opportunity to choose a path other than drugs.

“I’ll keep an eye on things,” Ally assured Melody.

Melody wanted to trust Ally. The young woman had been a faithful volunteer from the beginning. They shared the bond of grief. Ally had been Daniel’s girlfriend. After that horrible night, Ally had pulled her act together and had been clean ever since. At least Melody believed so. But at the moment, she wasn’t sure what to think or who to trust. Someone with access to the center had stored his or her drug contraband in the locker.

“That’s okay, Ally. I think it will be best if we close the center for the rest of the evening,” Melody said, hating to cancel the classes and programs scheduled for the night. But Parker was right. The place had to be shut down. At least temporarily. “Would you mind posting a note on the doors?”

Ally sighed. “No problem.”

Melody caught Parker’s gaze. She detected a hint of approval mingled with the surprise in his brown eyes. Her hackles rose. She wasn’t doing this for his sake. “Best to close now and sort this out than...”

Let you close us down for good. She let the unspoken words form in her mind.

He nodded as if he’d heard and understood.

Rose put all the bags of cocaine into a large evidence bag. “We’ll take all this to the station. There’s too much to print to do a good job here.”

“I’m done,” Clay added. “I got everything I could off the locker.”

He and Rose gathered their things and exited the center. Jim followed closely behind.

Melody ushered the teens out the door. Hating to see the disappointment and confusion on the kids’ faces, she said, “You all can come back tomorrow.”

She could only hope and pray she’d be able to keep that promise. Would God come through for her? She’d find out soon.

“I’ll give you a lift to the station,” Parker said as he and Sherlock followed her while she locked up.

She shook her head. “I can manage to walk over there by myself.”

“I’ve no doubt you can,” Parker said. “But the captains are waiting.”

“True.” Realizing that it would be quicker to accept the offer of a ride, she followed Parker and Sherlock to the SPD vehicle.

The thick tension between her and Parker made her shoulder muscles tighten. Despite what Parker might think, she knew she’d done a good job with the youth center. And she’d do whatever it took to find who the drugs belonged to. She couldn’t allow these kids to be in harm’s way.

She rolled her shoulders, trying to release the tightness. Someone had breached the center with their

poison.

After arriving at the station house, they went straight to the conference room. An oval table with leather chairs dominated the center. A floor-to-ceiling window stretched across one wall while the far wall was lined with shelves full of procedure books.

Jim was already there as were Rose and Clay. They’d filled the captains in on the situation. Captain Drexel stood by the window. A tall, African-American man in his late forties, he had his hands clasped behind his back as his dark eyes assessed them.

Captain McNeal sat at the table, his piercing blue eyes no less intense than his colleague’s. He waved her and Parker in as Rose and Clay exited. “Any ideas who stashed the drugs?” he asked.

Melody shook her head and answered honestly. “No, sir. But the kids did give me a name of someone to question. Another boy that wasn’t there tonight.”

“It could belong to any one of those teens or even one of the other volunteers who come in,” Jim stated. His gaze shifted from Melody to Parker and back to the captain.

The idea that one of the adult volunteers who came to the center to help the kids would be involved with drugs made Melody cringe. “I can’t believe that.”

“Can’t? Or won’t?” Parker’s voice held a note of cynicism. Sherlock sat at his master’s heel. He seemed to be staring at her with the same cynical look as his handler. Great. Now a dog was judging her, too.

“Both,” she shot back, resenting his insinuation. She understood where his animosity stemmed from, but it didn’t stop her from wishing he had some confidence in her. Though why she felt the need for his approval, she didn’t know. She hardly knew the man. His opinion shouldn’t matter in the least.

She turned her attention back to her captain because his opinion did matter. “Sir, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“How do you propose to do that?” Drexel asked, stepping forward until his thighs hit the edge of the table. His sharp gaze speared through her.

Good question. She racked her brain for ideas. Her gaze landed on the bookshelves behind where Captain McNeal sat. “More education. More security measures.”

“Like?” Drexel pressed.

Before she could answer, she felt something nudge her ankle. Sherlock had moved closer. His nose pushed at her pant leg, hiking the material up until he could lick her skin. His wet tongue was warm and rough. She lifted her eyes to meet Parker’s.

Mild surprise reflected in his chocolate eyes. “He likes you.” He gave a slight tug on the leash, bringing the dog back to heel.

An idea formed. “A formal demonstration of how easily drugs can be detected by the police would be a start.”

Parker’s eyes widened, then a grin tugged at the corners of his mouth and knocked some of the air out of Melody’s lungs. Boy, talk about devastating.

“Sherlock and I could do that,” he said.

“That takes care of the education part,” McNeal conceded.

“We could search the kids as they come in,” Jim suggested.

Melody’s gaze snapped to Jim in disbelief, then to Captain Drexel. “We can’t treat the kids like criminals. That will only drive them away. We’ll keep a closer eye on things and manage the facility better.”

With a thoughtful expression, Drexel exchanged a glance with McNeal. “Okay. For now. But there can’t be a repeat of this incident.”

“I’ll do everything in my power to see that drugs never make their way through the doors of the teen center again.”

“And I hope, Officer Zachary,” Drexel intoned with a good dose of censure, “that you will think twice before confronting known drug addicts alone.”

“Yes, sir,” she assured him with a sidelong glance at Parker. Obviously, he’d informed them of the need to run off Zane and his buddies when he’d called the captain earlier.

“Drug addicts?” Jim interjected harshly. Clearly he was affronted that his partner would act without him. “What’s this?”

She slid him a glance. “I was asking Zane Peabody questions about Daniel.”

“Your nephew?” He shook his head. “You need to let that go.”

Anger bubbled and threatened to explode like a geyser. This was an old argument. He’d made his position clear on her quest to find her nephew’s murderer a long time ago. “I can’t.”

The empathy in Jim’s gaze made it clear he thought she was working a lost cause. “You’ve done everything you can and still haven’t been able to solve this crime. You need to accept the fact that you’re not going to.”

“You don’t know that,” she shot back, hurt by his lack of faith in her abilities. Captain Drexel had given her permission to work her nephew’s case on her own time when she’d hired on with the department. “This case isn’t unsolvable. No case is,” she said. “It just takes time and effort. It’s not a waste.”

“Time and effort away from your responsibilities,” Jim reminded her with a pointed look.

She gritted her teeth. Meeting her captain’s arched eyebrows, she winced. The fact that she’d done some investigating today during working hours was something she was going to have to answer for, she knew, but letting Jim’s negativism influence the captain wasn’t something she planned to let happen.

“With the exception of today, I’ve only worked on Daniel’s case after my shift.”

Captain Drexel held up a hand. “I trust you’ll use better judgment from now on.”

The gentle chastisement hit its mark. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. I understand you closed the youth center for the night,” Drexel said.

“Yes, sir.” Aware of Parker’s gaze on her, she added for his benefit, “Just for the night. It seemed the prudent thing to do given the circumstances.”

Her captain nodded. “Agreed. And it will give you time to do a thorough search of the facility to make sure there are no other drugs hidden on the premises.”

“We can help with that,” Parker spoke up.

Remembering how Sherlock acted at the boys’ locker-room door, Melody decided having the supersniffing dog’s help would be a good idea. “We’d appreciate the help, Officer Adams.”

If there were more stockpiles of drugs in the center, she wanted to know. Parker Adams and his dog, Sherlock, were the best means of uncovering any illegal substances. Even if spending time with the handsome detective and his police dog put her on edge.

“Parker, a word?” Slade said as Melody and Jim filed out of the office. Captain Drexel paced back to the window.

Parker nodded and waited until the others were out of earshot before saying, “Yes, boss?”

“What are your thoughts on the center?”

Aware of Drexel’s scrutiny, he replied honestly, “Mixed. I know the center fills a need and provides a safe place for the teens. But finding those drugs leaves me with a bitter taste. Something’s going on over there.”

“Do you think Officer Zachary is involved?” Drexel asked, his deep voice reverberating through the room.

Remembering how upset she was when they opened the locker gave him hope she wasn’t. “I don’t think so. But I know not to come to any conclusions without more information.”

“And Officer Wheaton?” Slade asked.

“Again, without evidence to the contrary, I have to believe both officers are on the up and up.”

The two captains exchanged another look. Drexel gave a slight nod. Slade turned back to Parker. “Given the break-in this morning and now the drugs, I want you to stick close to the center. If something illegal is going on, and if either Officer Zachary or Officer Wheaton is involved, we want to know about it ASAP.”

“Yes, sir.”

With the captain’s backing, he hoped she would accept his protection more easily. Though he had a feeling easy wasn’t going to apply when it came to Melody Zachary. The detective seemed to have an independent streak as wide as the Rio Grande.

Parker started to leave but then turned back to ask, “Any word on Rio?”

Distress clouded Slade’s blue eyes. “No. Not since Jackson spotted him last month in the Lost Woods.”

Fellow K-9 officer Jackson Worth and his dog, Titan, a black Labrador, were the unit’s explosive-detection team. They’d been working on another case when Jackson had seen Rio.

“Melody said the man who had broken into her office this morning was wearing a ski mask,” Parker said. “From her description it’s the same guy Jackson saw in the Lost Woods with that German shepherd.”

Unfortunately, the pair had gotten away while the K-9 unit was in the midst of tracking them.

Slade’s expression hardened. “All the more reason for you and Sherlock to become a presence at the youth center. If this guy in the black mask returns, I want him taken down.”

“Roger that.” Anticipation revved through Parker. This creep was a menace to society and needed to be brought to justice.

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