Clearly, they had walked into this cold.
JB, Evans and an EMT gathered around them and started speaking in low tones. Cain saw the moment their worlds changed. The brother’s face blanked as JB reached out to support him.
The woman began to pace, fidget with her hands, gasp for a breath. “Hospital…we need to get to the hospital, honey. Your brother…and his family…will need our support. I’m sure the police can take care of what needs to be done here.”
“Yes, ma’am. We’ll lock everything up when we leave,” JB said.
Hastings stepped up to guide the couple out to a police cruiser. “Come with me. We’ll get you to the hospital right away.”
“Thank you,” the man said. “I’m…I’m sorry for being… I was out of line.”
“Don’t you worry about that one bit. Let’s get you two to your family now.”
Cain had hoped to never be in the middle of that type of scene again. But here he was. Here he was.
JB stepped up beside him as the couple left. “I know what I’m asking of you, but?—”
“I’ll go back to the station. Make a few phone calls,” Cain said. “See if I can come up with a plan for you. See if my boss will give permission for me to consult with the Crayton Police while I’m here in town.”
“Thanks. I owe you one.”
“You got that right.” If things kept going the way they had since Cain got back to Crayton, he’d have a mile-high stack of IOUs from JB. Trouble was, he’d pay hell ever cashing them in. “How about you start with answering my questions from our Sunday morning conversation at the lake?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” JB replied.
“Give me the lowdown on Betsy? And don’t look through rose-colored glasses this time.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Eight o’clock the next morning, and once again Cain sat in the chair next to Evans and Kennett while JB sat behind his desk. All of them looked like sleep had been non-existent last night. Cain knew it had been for him. Plus, he still didn’t have answers about Betsy from JB.
His DEA boss had called JB to get details on the case Crayton wanted help on at the moment. After a lengthy question and answer conversation between the three of them on a conference call, his boss agreed to Cain consulting with them.
At this point all the men sitting around him could do was brainstorm. Take the info on everything from the two events last night and see how they matched up in any way. Turn it upside-down. Shake the tree. See what, if anything, fell out.
Cain wrote down a few more details in his notes. Peyton’s Automotives. Earl worked there. Kennett reached over and added that Steven sometimes picked up odd jobs around the lot.
“Are you two geniuses going to share with the rest of us?” Deputy Evans glared at Kennett and Cain, making sure his tone hit the point that there’d be no secrets.
The deputy was known for his to-the-point attitude when it came to business, but if you met him on the street during downtime, he was carefree as a kite in an uplifting lazy breeze.
“Might not be anything, but Earl works at Peyton’s, and evidently his son makes spending money there, too.” Cain bit the inside of his cheek as he tried to remember what all was in a report he’d recently read on drug deal targets in the Midwest.
“So?”
Cain tossed his pen on the table. “A few months ago, I read a report on drug runners using auto dealerships as drop points because it was so easy to blend in as a customer. So that scenario jumped out in my mind. You know…Peyton’s, Steven, his dad, the report. I thought maybe?—”
“Betsy would never tolerate anyone using her lot for drug deals. Never.” The look JB shot him across the table would have leveled him if it had been a fist.
Deputy Evans pointed his pen at Cain. “You need to mark that idea right off your list.”
Obviously the two men had jumped to the wrong conclusion. They seemed to think Cain was accusing Peyton’s, and Betsy in particular, of being part of the whole corrupt arrangement. Nothing had been further from his mind. Innocent people unknowingly ended up in a bind all the time because of crooks surreptitiously using them to hawk their own crimes.
“That’s not what I said.” Cain didn’t like having his words twisted. Especially where other law enforcement was concerned.
The deputy wadded up a piece of paper and made a three-point shot at the trash can in the corner. “Well, that’s what it sounded like.”
JB hadn’t said anything further, but the clench of his jaw spoke loud and clear. What was Cain missing? What had he missed in the years he’d been gone from Crayton? But he for sure wasn’t marking the idea off his list.
