Page 9 of Final Inning

It would be interesting to see if Knight’s initial profile of all the players here ended up being accurate. And he wanted a few moments with his partner. Because just as he was cataloging everyone around them, so was she. And that pain-in-ass often saw so much that Knight missed.

The look in her eyes told him exactly what she was thinking now.

Chapter 5

It took them fifteen minutes to shake Johnson. In that time, Knight had studied every person in that room. Johnson, his five deputies, and two clerks. And Deputy Lindhour, who somehow physically kept herself out of range of every male in the room.

Even though he suspected at least two would be highly receptive to that woman’s attentions, including Johnson’s chief deputy. The thug.

Now they were back out into the warm April sunshine, with Lindhour leading the way. She hadn’t said much in front of the sheriff. He found that interesting.

She intrigued him.

Deputy Hagan Lindhour was an attractive woman. A very attractive one.

He made a habit of cataloging details about everyone they encountered in this job, after all. She reminded him of some of the women he'd worked with in PAVAD. She had that same grace and quiet dignity that his teammate Jaclyn Jones possessed, and that was very obvious. Nothing like the fiery woman walking at Lindhour’s side—Miranda was all fire and passion, Jac was quiet grace. They were the closest of friends and combined were enough to have his blood pressure rising on numerous occasions.

He was going to figure out Deputy Lindhour, too.

She had fought to get them there on this case—he wanted to know the full why.

They walked the three blocks to the parking lot where he'd left the rental. The deputy’s Helery County Sheriff's Department SUV was two cars down.

"Sorry about that. The county sheriff’s building is my least favorite place to be in this county. It's just gotten worse since this case. Since word came that the FBI was taking over because of me." The woman sounded determined, and not the least bit repentant at their presence. But there was an undertone to her words he couldn’t quite explain just yet. A hesitancy and almost fear.

He watched her look over her shoulder, almost unconsciously. Like she felt the man was watching her. Johnson, or one of the others? There had been two that had somehow seemed to crowd Lindhour—plus the sheriff. He’d stepped into Lindhour’s personal space several times in a way that wasn’t exactly socially acceptable.

But Lindhour hadn’t backed away. Knight would give her points for that—she had not backed down.

"Why is that?" Knight asked.

He despised small-town politics. And bumbling idiots. He'd seen far too many investigations go sideways because of the incompetence of local officers. Not every training academy turned out competent deputies. Then again, he'd seen some FBI agents who couldn't give anyone around them their money's worth, either.

His phone buzzed in his pocket—probably that damned Lorcan wanting more answers. Knight would deal with him later.

"Sheriff Johnson follows very step-by-step protocols for investigations. His own steps, actually. And his first step…is always making assumptions and not deviating. Especially if it’s the easiest answer. He’s lazy. But this…is the first major case I’ve seen in two years with the county. The only homicide in over ten years. He thinks Harper was just meeting a drug dealer at the ball field. Buckbert is the lowest socioeconomic area of our county, with unemployment and drugs at times. He only steps foot there when he is campaigning."

“And that is where you patrol?” Miranda asked. “Exclusively, I take it?”

"Yes, mostly. Other times I am allowed to assist in the rest of the county if needed. I've been given basically every area of the county that he and some of the others don't want to go. But I don't mind. People live there, too. They deserve someone to watch out for them."

That told Knight more than she realized. She was probably just as much of a do-gooder as the woman beside him. Ran on heart and emotion. And she was a fighter; they’d already been told she’d fought for them to be requested—defying authority to do so. In spite of the problems it would cause her.

He had to admire that in some ways.

It was clear—they’d walked into a powder keg already. What remained to be seen was whether it would impact the case, or not. He had come up against similar types of stumbling blocks before. He and Miranda would be having a blunt conversation to come up with a game plan the first moment they were alone.

Once they figured out all the players.

Chapter 6

They were not what she was expecting. For some reason, Hagan was thinking she’d end up with a handful of FBI agents who were older, or small and thin and the paper-pusher types. She’d met an FBI agent before, on a previous case in the county. But he had been nothing like the two people with her now—she’d had to keep him supplied with a never-ending box of Kleenex and she was almost certain his service weapon had weighed more than he had. Hagan almost had herself, and she wasn’t exactly in the heaviest weight class.

These two looked like they should be the stars of a police procedural or crime drama on Netflix or something. Very pretty people. And when they spoke, it was obvious they were more educated than most of the people she encountered around Helery County. Their vocabulary alone was far more complex. It was hard not to feel intimidated. She’d had insecurity issues her whole life, but Hagan was working on it. Right?

Hagan drove toward the trailer park and ball fields after giving Dr. Knight directions. GPS wouldn’t lead him the right direction—if he followed it, he’d end up in the lake. He’d just looked at her from intense gray eyes.

He was very intimidating. And seriously hot.