He’s quiet for a minute before he growls. “I’m on my way. Do not get involved.” He hangs up as Arlo and Marcus move in closer, sensing something going on. “I’ve gotta go.”
“Everything okay?” Arlo asks him.
Wade looks between us before sighing. “Olivia just witnessed the rookie getting heavy-handed with a woman outside Andy’s hardware store. He’s taken her to the station. I’m going to head over and see what’s going on.”
“Need us to help with anything?”
“Can one of you monitor the scene? Olivia is there right now. She says the woman’s van has been tossed, the doors left open, and the cart full of her shopping tipped over on the ground.”
“I’ll go,” Marcus offers, grabbing his jacket and heading out.
“Who did he take in?” I frown.
“Don’t know. Oliva couldn’t tell from where she was. By the time she walked over to ask questions, she was basically told to fuck off.”
“Wow, the rookie’s really looking to get his head knocked off,” Arlo mutters. Wade is uber-protective of his wife.
“Where was Olivia?”
“Coming out of the Sip and Spoon.”
The coffee shop had been a staple in Tempest since I was a kid, but it had recently been bought out and rebranded. Peoplehadn’t stopped raving about the coffee there, thanks to the new barista.
“That’s right opposite Andy’s. I’ll see if they have any camera footage of what happened. I’ll let you know,” I tell him, grabbing a can of Fanta to take with me.
“Thanks, I’ve got to go.”
We watch him leave before I turn to Arlo, who is scowling at the door. “Any of this sitting right with you?” I question.
“No, none of it. The rookie might be new, but he’s hardly green, so I’m not gonna pass judgment until we know what’s going on. For all we know, the suspect could be wanted for kidnapping or murder charges.”
“In Tempest?” I chuckle.
“Stranger things have happened. It might be home to us, but to others, it’s the perfect place to hide away.”
“Arlo, if you want to hide away, the last place you should be is Tempest, or any small town for that matter. Nobody is a stranger here for long,” I point out.
He grins. “Good point. Alright, you head to the coffee shop. I’m gonna give Blake a call and fill him in, just in case.”
I dip into my office, grab my keys and cell phone from my desk, shove them in my pocket, and head out to my truck. When I get to the coffee shop, I park in the empty spot on the street before climbing out. I spot Oliva talking animatedly across the street with Marcus.
I push the door open to Sip and Spoon and walk in. Half the tables are full, and people are rubbernecking to see what’s going on outside. I walk up to the counter and smile at the woman standing there. “Hey, Jenny. Any chance I can ask a favor?”
“Now that really depends on what that favor is, young man.”
Jenny moved to Tempest with her husband, Harvey, a few years ago. Harvey was a local boy who was welcomed back into the fold along with his new glamorous wife, only to find himselfdying of a heart attack six months later. Jenny was a mess, but the town adopted her as one of our own and has been fussing over her ever since.
“You have cameras out front, right?”
“Yeah, we had some vandalism while we were doing the refurbishments.”
“Any chance I can review the footage from this morning?”
“This has something to do with what happened out there earlier with the new cop?”
“You see it go down?”
“Not from here, but a bunch of customers were getting worked up. Oliva flew out of here in a rage. I thought she was going to walk over and smack him one.”
