“If you’re calling the mayor, don’t bother. He’s not going to answer.” I glanced at my watch for show. “Right about now, he’s telling his wife about his illegitimate daughter.” I heard a sharp gasp from Gene, but I kept my eyes on Moody. “As of now, your days of blackmailing Mayor Jenkins are over. Sit down. We have more to discuss.”
Refusing to admit defeat, my erstwhile captain kept the phone to his ear. “You need to call me,” he said.
Good. Jim John had taken my advice not to answer a call from Moody. “Sit down, Mr. Moody, or I’ll throw you in a jail cell right now. Believe me, I have cause to slam you with a baker’s dozen worth of charges, and I will if you don’t cooperate.”
“You won’t get away with this.” He sat.
Oh, but I would. I’d barely begun to show my hand. I opened the folder Gene had given me. I signed my name on the first page, then held it up. “This is a restraining order on you to keep away from the mayor.”
I signed all the rest, ignoring Moody’s attempts to see what all I was putting my name on. When I finished, I waved some more pages in front of him. “These are restraining orders keeping you away from me and all the officers of the Blue Ridge Valley Police Department, the town manager, and the councilmen.” I dropped them on my desk, then picked up three more. “These are blank except for my signature, intended for anyone else you might decide to harass or threaten.
“Before you say a word,” I said, holding up my hand, “there’s more.” I pretended to study the report I pulled out of my desk drawer. “Aside from putting your family on the department’s payroll at an exorbitant rate, and aside from your outrageous charges all over town, there’s this.” I handed him a copy of the proof of his outright stealing from the department’s pension fund. His face paled when he saw what I’d uncovered, which made me gleeful. I shouldn’t delight so much in a cop’s downfall, but this one deserved what he had coming.
“Yeah, thought no one would stumble on that, didn’t you?” He didn’t answer, not that I was expecting him to. “A word of advice, Mr. Moody. When you set yourself up as the treasurer of your fellow cops’ pension fund, don’t write checks to yourself for bogus expenses.”
Gene’s expression went from looking at me with shock at hearing that bit of news to glaring at Moody with the kind of disgust one would have when realizing you’d stepped in dog shit. “Can I kill him now?” Gene said.
I regretfully shook my head. “As much as I’d love to give you that pleasure, you’re too valuable to have to arrest for murder.” I turned a hard eye back to Moody. “Tell me why I shouldn’t put handcuffs on you, take you on the walk of shame so the men and women you were supposed to protect don’t find out what a piece of scum you are?”
“I want a lawyer.”
“I bet you do.” If I’d thought he hated me before, that was nothing compared to the way he looked at me now. As long as he was around, I’d be watching my back. Time to make that problem go away. “You have two choices, Mr. Moody. Stick around Blue Ridge Valley and I’ll have no choice but to arrest you. If that isn’t to your liking, be gone by Friday. By ‘gone’ I mean you disappear so far away that I lose my desire to find you. Because I’ll be looking. Don’t ever doubt that.” I leaned across my desk, putting my face as close to his as possible. “And if you do decide to get stupid and come after me or anyone under my protection, I will throw your ass in jail. That you definitely shouldn’t doubt.”
I hadn’t been sure how he’d react to my threat, so I waited. Moody’s face turned lobster red, his breaths coming in erratic bursts. For a minute I thought I’d have to call for paramedics.
“That badge you wore, Mr. Moody, represented honor, integrity, and dedication to the people you swore to protect, which included your fellow cops.” I took his shield back out of the drawer and curled my fingers around it. “Contrary to what you seem to think, this piece of metal is not a ticket to steal. I’m being beyond generous here by even considering letting you walk away when you’ve shamed every cop on this force. Which will it be? A jail cell or a new town you can terrorize?” I asked, keeping my voice deceptively soft.
As much as I wanted to throw him in jail and lose the keys, charging him with crimes that would send him away for most of his life, I was doing Jim John a favor by encouraging Moody to disappear. A trial would ruin the mayor because all of Jim John’s secrets would come out. At this point I only wanted the mess that was Moody gone so my cops could forget he’d ever existed.
Moody walked out without answering. I lifted my gaze to the security monitor on the far wall and watched him until he stormed out the lobby door. He’d apparently forgotten I had his throwaway gun, but I wasn’t complaining about that. Not that I doubted he had more weapons at home. I’d never run a man out of town before. It was kind of fun.
“Holy Mother Mary,” Gene murmured.
I swung my gaze to Gene. “Think we’ve heard the last of him?”
“Don’t know, but Chief, you ever decide to come down on me, just say, ‘be gone by sundown’ and I’ll heed the warning. You’re damn scary when you want to be.”
I laughed, couldn’t help it. “Hope Moody thinks so.” While Gene slid his chair back in place, I slipped my gun back into my holster.
“It was common knowledge around here that Moody had something on the mayor, but I never would have guessed Jim John had a secret daughter.”
“Yeah, about that. Not a word, okay?”
“No one will hear it from me. We all knew Moody was up to no good in a lot of ways, but to steal from our pension fund? That burns.”
“Yeah, I know. Gather the troops for me. I need to tell everyone Moody’s gone.”
“You got someone in mind to replace him?”
“Why? You interested?” I hoped not. He was more valuable as a detective and too mild-mannered to control a bunch of cops.
“Not even.”
“I didn’t think so. Yeah, I have someone in mind.” I debated telling him but decided I wanted to get his reaction. “Sarah Griffin.”
A big smile appeared on his face. “She’ll do you a good job.”
“I don’t doubt it. Now round up everyone you can. I’ll be out in a few minutes to talk to them.”
