Tempting The Sheriff. Kathy Altman
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taste?”
“He likes bright colors as much as you do. Just not—” Lily floundered. “Not as coordinated.”
“Well—” Clarissa shrugged “—I turned him down.”
“Because of our new deputy?”
Clarissa’s gaze sharpened. “Would that matter to you?”
“Hardly.” Shut up, Lily Anne. Shut up, shut up, shut up. “Are you having second thoughts? About Noble?”
“I need a sanity check.” She tipped her head. “He strikes me as the type to be looking for more than fun. You know I don’t have time for anything but casual.”
Lily winced as she reached for her coffee cup. “I’m sorry about keeping you up so late last night.”
“Don’t be. The truth is, you and I are just damn good together.”
A throat cleared outside Lily’s door. Fulton stepped into view, filling the frame. “Am I interrupting something?”
Clarissa winked at Lily, daring her to tease him with what he’d overheard. Lily gave her head a slight shake to indicate she’d pass. Besides being inappropriate, she didn’t need Fulton taking any tales back to the mayor.
“Good morning, Deputy,” Lily said, keeping it civil, ignoring the disappointment on her dispatcher’s face. “Grab some coffee. We need to discuss collateral duties.”
He nodded and disappeared.
Clarissa leaned in. “You going to assign him as school resource officer?”
“Hard to do when school’s on summer break,” Lily said dryly.
“Animal Control, then?”
“Too easy. He faced down the Catlett sisters, Audrey Tweedy and Mr. Katz, all at one time. He’s proved he can handle the local wildlife.”
Clarissa pushed to her feet. “I give up. Do whatever you want with him.”
“Do I get any say in that?”
With a laugh, Clarissa turned toward the door, where Fulton stood sipping a cup of coffee. “Sometimes it’s more fun if you don’t know what’s in store,” she said.
Fulton opened his mouth, glanced at Lily and wisely opted for another sip instead. Clarissa left and Lily waved Fulton into the now empty chair.
He had squeezed back into JD’s uniform shirt. It was tucked neatly into his jeans, revealing his hip holster. His jaw was freshly shaved, and he smelled like a forest on a sunny day.
Lily scowled. “Can’t you ask your mayor pal for money to buy a uniform?”
“He just scored me a flatscreen TV,” he said mildly. “I don’t want to take advantage.”
She peered at him over her glasses, caught the glint in his eyes and wished he didn’t make her feel like such a fuddy-duddy. “There’s a spare rig in the back,” she said. “I’ll pull it out for you. A badge, too.” She should have taken care of that yesterday.
“Thanks.” He sipped his coffee, gaze steady on hers over the rim of his mug. “You sizing me up for a reflective vest?”
“What?” Lily blinked. Had she been staring at his chest? Fudge.
His lips twitched as he gestured with his cup. “Figured you had me in mind for crosswalk duty.”
“I don’t have you in mind at all, Deputy.” When his smirk graduated to a grin, she regretted her words immediately. “What I mean is, I haven’t decided on your collateral duty.” She swiveled toward her computer and stared blindly at the spreadsheet she’d been working on. She had to stop caring that this man had the ear of the mayor. She had to get on with her job.
She hit a few keys. “Court security or records management?”
“You’re giving me a choice?”
“I am.”
“Court security, then.” While she typed, he cradled his cup in his hands and scooted forward in the chair. “Listen. About this thing with the mayor—”
Clarissa appeared in the doorway. “Just got a call from Audrey Tweedy. The Petroskis are at it again.”
Five minutes later, Lily and Fulton were headed south on Route 5, with Lily behind the wheel. Beside her in the passenger seat, Fulton took off his shades, polished them on his shirt and slid them back on. “What’s the story?”
She flicked on her signal and changed lanes. “One of our old-timers, Jakub Petroski, owned a candy store on Buffalo Road. He passed away about six months ago. His kids arrived to settle his estate and we’ve had nothing but trouble since.”
“You liked him.”
She gave him the side eye. “Why do you say that?”
“You’re talking. Can’t be me. Must be him.”
“Anyway,” she said pointedly, “we get these calls once a week. When John and Sadie argue, they do it loudly.”
“Anything more than words exchanged?”
With a shake of her head, she pulled into the driveway of a weathered brick Colonial with teal shutters, a columned porch tucked under a deep copper-coated gable and a chimney on either side of the house. A row of feathery spruces screened the property from the road. She never could understand why Jakub’s kids were so eager to get rid of it.
She parked her cruiser and they got out.
Fulton rounded the hood. “How do you want to do this?”
Lily couldn’t help a glimmer of respect. The last thing she needed on her team was a hotdogger.
“Wait here,” she said. “JD handled these calls on his own. We don’t want them to think we’re here to do anything other than help.”
He frowned, but nodded.
Lily grabbed her hat from the backseat and started for the house. She was halfway up the walk when the front door opened.
“Stop right there, Sheriff,” John, a dark-haired, wiry man with the whitest teeth she’d ever seen, shouted at her through the screen door. “This isn’t your business.”
“It is when a crime’s being committed,” Lily responded calmly. “Let’s start with disturbing the peace.”
“That’s bullshit. No way the neighbors can hear us. That bitch next door has been creeping around again.”
He meant Audrey Tweedy. When the elder Petroski had realized he was dying, he’d begged Audrey to look after his flowers and shrubs until the house changed hands. The old woman had kept the masses of lilies and hydrangeas and irises looking lush. The rest of the property? Another story.
Lily glanced over her shoulder at Fulton, who was eyeing the shin-high grass and the newspapers littering the front porch. “The kids are in it for the money,” he said flatly.
She nodded once. The Petroski twins had made it clear to JD that they couldn’t sell the house and get out of Castle Creek fast enough. As far as Lily was concerned, they’d already taken way too much time.
She turned back to face the house. “We’re just here to talk, Mr. Petroski.”
“Come any farther and my sister’s going to regret it.”
Oh, fudge. This was new. “Want to tell me exactly what that means?”
Silence.
“Mr. Petroski,” she shouted. “Can I call you John?”
“Only if you do it on your way off my property,” he shouted back.
Beside her, Fulton grunted. “Funny guy.”
Lily