“No problem,” Wade grunted. “Glad that CID is involved at this point. Galloway got suspended by the town council today.”
I heard that from Casper when we finished up. Apparently, they had no choice after being presented with evidence from CID. It was either that he was incompetent or that it was criminal, and Casper would prove one way or another, but Galloway was suspended until then.
“Are they going to bring him up on any charges or anything for this bullshit?” East grumbled, breaking a peanut shell and tossing one into his mouth.
“There are a lot of things that would need to happen before they could accuse him of a crime. Did he not do his job? For sure, but can they make criminal charges stick? If they could prove that he was the one who cleaned up the blood in the car, that’d be tampering or concealing. That’s a crime. Right now, we know for sure that he didn’t place the order to process it properly. That might be enough. We’ll see.”
One of the waitresses came over with a pitcher for us and another glass. “Figured you guys would want one of these.”
“Thanks, Aurora.”
Wade picked up where I left off. “It sucks East, but the legal shit only goes so far.”
“It does suck. Y’all know that guy is dirty,” he grumbled, tossing another peanut in his mouth. “I don’t know how y’all do it.”
“He won’t work again—that’s for damn sure. My goal is to get his pension cut.” It was brutal, but now that I saw the car and the evidence, he deserved no less. Doubtful he’d get jail time, but I didn’t want him fat-catting on his piece of property somewhere. “Least he deserves.”
“That’s for sure,” Wade grunted, raising his arm in greeting. “Cole,” he called. “Come on over.”
We all smiled in greeting as Cole Truman, Wildwood Meadow’s resident fire chief, crossed the bar. He had come out for a few hours but was called away for most of the day. His department was small and staffed with limited personnel, so he was often on call. Like us, he loved the community, and in the year he’d been here, he and his daughter had begun to find their place.
He slapped me on the back as he sat. No denying the guy was a hard worker, and I respected the hell out of his wildfire management experience. I liked him too.
“Sorry, I got called away. I would have liked to have been there the whole day.”
Aurora slid past our table and handed him another mug, receiving a grateful smile before she hurried off to where theladies were, apparently having ordered shots. I cringed a little. My sisters were all on the wild side when it came to tequila. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. It was mainly Sage’s fault. She was the tequila monster.
“No worries. We get how call-outs go. How’s Elvie?” I asked.
Cole’s face broke into a smile. We all knew by now that he came alive around his little girl, a dark-haired four-year-old who had him wrapped around her finger.
“She’s amazing as always. Runs me a little ragged, but she’s smarter than all the other kids in daycare. When she calls me daddy, it’s the best feeling in the world.”
“I can imagine.” Wade gave him an indulgent smile.
The thing was, I was imagining what it would be like to be called ‘daddy’ now, too. Just a month ago, it would have sent a wild panic through me, with my bowels quivering, but the idea had settled into my bones now.
“How’s Lila, East? We haven’t been able to get to the bookstore lately, and Elvie has been on my case about it.”
East’s face softened immediately. “She’s good. Making her book club plans always keeps her super busy, but she has a lot of fun doing that. I’m going to build her a new kids’ reading nook next month. Elvie will probably like that.”
Even though East’s contracting business here in town had taken off and he and his partner, Jett, who hadanother branch in Idaho, were busy, he always found time for side projects. I’d meant to ask him for some help with the property over on the Annex side of things. I only had one isolated cabin there right now, and it hadn’t ever been rented. I needed to build an access road to the main lodge, but hadn’t gotten around to it. Initially, Lila was going to help with marketing for the cabins, but she’d gotten busy, and truthfully, I hadn’t been ready to rent them out yet.
We had a few more cabins renting this week, and Sage’s portal was up and running.
“I’m sure she will. Anything relating to the bookstore she loves. It might be because she gets a treat when she goes in, and she feels like a princess. They do a great job of making sure the kids feel good about themselves when they visit. Elvie loves the stickers and looking for letters she recognizes in the stacks. That seek-and-find alphabet setup for the younger kids was ingenious.”
East smiled proudly. “Lila comes up with great ideas.”
“She does. I can’t wait to see the reading nook you come up with.” Cole popped a few peanuts in his mouth while glancing at the girls dancing on the floor, trying to teach Hattie how to line dance. “Hattie going to stick around?”
“I hope so.”
Wade shot me a sidelong glance. “You want her to stay with you up at the cabins in your secluded wonderland?”
“Maybe I do,” I chuckled.
Wade let out a low whistle. “So it’s like that.”
