“What?” Someone had gotten hurt? That wasn’t the norm in Poplar Springs, even in a bar fight. The last barfight I’d had to break up involved my brothers but other than a couple of bruised egos, there had been no long-term damage.
“You know Margie.” Mack gave me a wide-eyed look.
“I know who you mean.” Everyone in town knew the Squeaky Wheel’s bartender and manager. She’d been working there since I could remember. “Sliced by what?”
“The red shirt guy had a knife, about a five-inch-long blade. Before I got there, Margie’s arm got cut when she tried to break up the fight herself.” I pressed between my eyes, feeling a headache coming on. Margie knew better than to get between anyone fighting.
“Any idea what sparked the fight?” I asked. Mack nodded enthusiastically and I bit back a sigh.
“Some leftover BS from the rodeo. They’re both bull riders. Denim shirt beat red shirt by a smidge during their events on Sunday and was ragging on him about it. After a few beers, theystarted to shove each other around, and it got worse from there. Like I said, denim had red in a headlock when I walked in.”
I shuddered to think what my overly enthusiastic cowboy of a deputy did then. “Your response?”
“Just like we trained for a couple months ago, I started talking to them, trying to de-escalate the conflict.” Mack adjusted his tone as if he were speaking to the drunks.
I had all my deputies take the course, but I wouldn’t have bet money that the training had sunk in for Mack. I was reluctantly impressed. “And it worked?”
“Took some time, but yeah. Red shirt agreed to drop his knife so long as the other guy released the headlock. I counted it down from five, just like we were taught. When I got to one, they both did what I asked. By that time Sofia was there, so we took them into custody and brought them back to the station. What charges do you think we should file? I mean, we could go for attempted murder because of the knife, but I’m thinking assault might be better. Sofia said to wait and ask you.”
“Right.” I wanted to hear Sofia’s take on the story before making any decisions. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Mack—especially since it sounded like he’d handled this surprisingly well—but getting two perspectives was always better. My door opened and Sofia walked in. “Mack, you go on out and get working on your report. We’ll be out in a minute.”
“Sure thing, boss.” Mack went past Sofia, but not before giving her a lingering look. I shook my head. I was going to have to deal with that office crush sooner rather than later. Not at the moment, though. There were bigger problems.
“You tell me what happened,” I said to Sofia. She went through the incident for me, and her account matched Mack’s. “So he really did de-escalate it?”
“Yeah,” she assured me. “I was keeping an on eye him in case I needed to step in, but he knew what he was doing.”
“How’s Margie?” I asked.
“I just got off the phone with the hospital,” Sofia said. “She’s got a slice on the forearm, not deep, but it took five stitches to close. She was lucky it wasn’t worse.”
I thought the same about the whole damn incident. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because I had it under control.”
“Bar fight with an injury and a deadly weapon, and you don’t contact me?” My people had managed it, but still, I couldn’t believe they’d left me in the dark.
Sofia huffed out a sigh. “It’s okay for you to take a day off every once in a while, Brian. We had this. You made sure we had the training, and Mack, for all his flaws, handled it perfectly. And if he hadn’t, I was there along with Parsons as backup—and I would have stepped in. What more do you think you could have done? What’s the point in making me chief deputy if you don’t trust me to make decisions while you’re gone? Don’t you have confidence in me?”
Dammit. I hadn’t meant to insult her but judging the way she was firing question after question at me without giving me the chance to answer, it seemed I had. “Of course I do. It’s not that.”
Sofia crossed her arms in front of her and eyed me. “Then what is it?”
“Nothing. You both did great. Will you go help Mack get the report completed, please? I’ll be out in a few minutes to look at it.” I waited for her to leave the room before slumping back in my chair. My team had done everything they should have without me being there, but the situation could have gone all kinds of wrong. For one thing, what if either of those guys had gotten behind the wheel and caused an accident, or worse? I knew I could never live with myself if I let down my guard and disaster struck.
I scooped up the paperwork I’d come for before going to check Mack’s report. I spent an hour with my youngest deputy, assisting him in creating a report that the prosecutor would accept and tamping down Mack’s excessive enthusiasm. He’d done the right thing, but this was one incident. The key to this job was doing the right thing every time. I would have to keep a close watch on him to make sure he stayed on track.
Long after I expected to, I made my way home. It was already evening, and I wanted nothing more than to sit on the back deck with Caitlin…but I couldn’t.
“Hi.” Caitlin met me just inside the door and put her arms around my neck. “Do you want to order a pizza for dinner or do you want to come upstairs with me?”
“Not tonight,” I said, stepping out of her hold. The fact that I was so tempted to give in to her proved that I had to be firm. She had too much pull on me, but I couldn’t let myself get distracted from my responsibilities.
“What is it?” she asked and put her hand on my arm, making me pause. “Did something happen?”
“Yeah.” I could tell her what, but I didn’t see the point. “And it reminded me that I can’t avoid my responsibilities like I did today.”
“You regret today?” she asked softly, and I could hear the hurt in her voice.
