“Hell no,” Jericho said. “We should stay. At least I should.”
“If Jackson’s with them, we’ve already got one more loose cannon than necessary. I don’t think having two will make anything better.”
“Kay . . .”
“Jay. I’ve got this. It’s not going to convince them that I’m fit to be sheriff if I have to get backup just to talk to a few concerned citizens.”
“It’s your dad being investigated, not you.”
“And I will certainly point that out to them if they seem to be confused. But I’ll do it on my own.” She raised her eyebrows and nodded toward the door. “Go.”
Jericho looked over at Hockley, who seemed equally conflicted, then at Garron, who said, “You heard the sheriff. Let’s go.”
Well, shit, when he put it like that, Jericho couldn’t argue. “We’ll be right next door,” he told Kay on his way out, and she actually laughed.
“Lighten up, Jay—they’re not going to jump me.”
Jericho didn’t have a response for that, so he followed Garron out of the room and stalked into his own office. Montgomery and Hockley followed him, and so, surprisingly, did Garron.
“That little punk wants her job,” the old cop growled. “He’s trying for a recall election so he can run against her, and he’s got plenty of ammunition to shoot at her during the campaign.”
Jericho shook his head. He was pretty tired for the start of the day, and it wasn’t only because he’d gotten limited sleep the night before. “Does he have enough support, do you think? Can he pull it off?”
“It’ll be close, I’d say. There’s always been some people who have a problem with a woman in the job, and some people who don’t like the idea of a dynasty or whatever. And some who’ll vote for a recall because it’ll add a little excitement to things, give ’em something to talk about at the hardware store. The ones causing trouble only need ten percent of the electorate to get the recall, as long as they get the wording right.”
“Just a recall, though. That wouldn’t be enough to kick her out?” Jericho probably should have paid a bit more attention to all this, but it had never been an issue with the LAPD and he hadn’t thought it would ever be an issue in Mosely, either.
“Just an election. But Jackson will run against her and that little shit-sack has been campaigning since his first day on the job. She’s busy taking care of business while he’s spending all his time out kissing babies and badmouthing her to anyone who’d listen.” Garron’s expression was as dark as it had been back in Jericho’s border-skipping days. “And how many people are going to turn out for a special election in the middle of tourist season? Maybe just Jackson’s pals.”
“Shit,” Jericho said. Not exactly profound, but from the expressions on the others’ faces, maybe not completely inappropriate.
“It’s her show, though,” Garron said, the warning clear in his tone. “She’ll have a plan, and it’ll be a hell of a lot better than whatever half-assed bullshit you come up with, so you need to do as you’re told. Absolutely no cowboy crap, not on this one.”
“That’s the only kind of crap I have.”
“Then keep your crap to yourself.” Garron turned to look at the DEA agents. “And there can’t be any federal involvement, either. One of you piping up could do her more harm than good up here—in case you hadn’t noticed, most of us don’t much like outsiders telling us what to do.”
“Yes, we’ve picked up on that,” Montgomery said carefully.
Jericho blew out a huff of air. “So this is another bad situation we can’t do anything about? Can’t help with the militia because the FBI doesn’t want us. Can’t do anything for Kay because—”
“You can do anything she tells you to do,” Garron corrected. “You were in the Marines for how long, and you never learned about the chain of command and taking an order? And even in LA, cops must have bosses, don’t they?”
“But getting away from all that stuff is one of the best parts of working in Mosely! More freedom, more independence. That’s what Montana’s all about, isn’t it?”
“You start showing freedom and independence from the sheriff right now and I’ll kick your ass,” Garron growled. “You are loyal and obedient until I tell you otherwise. Clear?”
“Will you ever tell me otherwise?”
“I wouldn’t count on it.” And with that Garron left.
“This is an unnecessary complication,” Montgomery said. Then he frowned at Hockley. “Another unnecessary complication. I’ll leave you to deal with the other one.” With that, he followed Garron and shut the door behind him.
Jericho flopped down into his battered leather desk chair. “Seriously? There’s something else?”
Hockley sounded reluctant as he said, “Remember when I told you Mike DeMonte was starting to talk to us about your father’s death? Remember the ‘tell Junior to look closer to home’ comment?”
Jericho tried to look unconcerned. “Yeah?”
