Devils Among Us (Devin Dushane Series Book 1) (12 page)

“Buy a girl a milkshake?”

He lit up like the sun had just risen for the first time during
the rainy season. “Devin! What a nice surprise. I’ll buy you anything you like
for some decent lunch company for once.” His boyish grin was charming and it
was so nice to have someone happy to see her.

“How did you manage to escape Shane for an entire lunch
hour? Did you insult his delicate sensibilities?” She reached over and stole
one of his fries.

“He had errands to run, but he’s gonna be sick to know I had
you all to myself for an hour.” He slid his plate across the table to offer her
another French fry.

Their favorite waitress approached the table for Devin’s
order with her blonde ponytail bouncing enthusiastically behind her.

“Afternoon Detec…” Devin cocked an eyebrow at her and she
changed up midsentence “...um Devin. What can I get you today?” Her pen was
already poised over her pad.

“Casey, I’d like to know what your best milkshake flavor
is.” She swiped another fry off of Adam’s plate. Casey and Adam answered at the
same time.

“Chocolate peanut butter.”

“Peach peppermint.”

Casey and Devin turned to stare at Adam in horror. “Peach peppermint?
That’s disgusting. That may be even more disgusting than iced tea. Casey, I’m
going with you on this, I’ll have the chocolate peanut butter.” Casey nodded
her head in agreement, not bothering to write down the order. She was still
staring at Adam as if he had some grave disease as she backed away from the
table.

“You were just trying to freak her out, right? I would peg
you as a straight vanilla shake guy, maybe strawberry if you’re feeling feisty.”
She leaned back against the vinyl of the booth and propped an elbow on the back
of the seat to rest her head on her hand, but she kept her gaze steady. His
gaze was steady as well, tracing the shape of her full lips until she smirked
and jerked her chin up slightly to get his attention. He laughed easily at
being caught so blatantly staring.

“Hey, who are you to judge me? From what I hear, you eat
tree bark.” His eyes were still twinkling with mischief.

“Oh, really? Gee, I wonder where you would have heard that?”

He leaned across the table and motioned her to lean in. She
folded her arms on the Formica table top and brought her face a few inches from
his.

He whispered conspiringly, “As a well-connected detective, I
can’t reveal my sources. Just know I’m plugged in to the pulse of this
community.” He nodded sagely with narrowed eyes as he leaned back in his seat.
Devin nodded along with him as her milkshake appeared.

“Ahh. I see.” She plucked out the miniature peanut butter
cup nestled in whipped cream and popped the whole thing into her mouth, closing
her eyes in a moment of bliss. After she had finished chewing and licked the
leftover cream off of her lips, Devin flicked her eyes back to Adam.

“So when did you talk to Henry?” She had to work hard on the
thick milkshake to get a sip, but it was worth it. She turned and gave Casey
two thumbs up.

Adam was diving in to the second half of his Reuben sandwich
with a wide smile. “I saw him at the grocery store last night. He was very
proud of the fact that he was shopping for his dinner with you tonight.” He
took a huge bite of his sandwich and wiggled his eyebrows at her. It took all
her willpower to keep milkshake from shooting out of her nose.

“You know, my friend Marcy works in the cardiac unit at St.
Mary’s Hospital, and she said last week they had a pharmaceutical rep bring
them lunch and do a presentation about a drug that removes fat from your
arteries. I think I’m going to need about a half a dozen of those for my after
dinner mints tonight.”

“What time are you going over? I’ll start saying a prayer
for your cardiac health.”

“Five-thirty, so my heart would appreciate some divine
intervention around seven o’clock.”

He chuckled as he sucked some thousand island dressing off
his thumb. “Speaking of interventions, we didn’t get any calls of an assault in
progress this morning, so I take it you left Delluca in one piece?”

She scoffed at him. “Please! He was a teddy bear. Some
hardened criminal he turned out to be.”

He had been in the process of flagging the check down, but he
paused to cast a wary eye at her. “Devin, seriously. That guy is trouble…”

She held up a hand to stop him. “Save it, I’ve been a cop
for a long time. I can call a spade a spade. He was nothing but helpful, and I
think he actually liked me.”

Casey brought their check and a to-go cup for the rest of
Devin’s shake.

“Of course he liked you. There’s a line around the block of
men in this town that like you.” He looked a little sour as he grabbed the
check.

“Hmm, jealous much?” She cocked her head and an eyebrow at
him.

He blushed ever so slightly as he grinned at her,  and pulled
his wallet out to dig for a tip. “Did Delluca give you anything you could use?”

She transferred what was left of her shake into the
Styrofoam cup. What was left would constitute a large in most restaurants. “I’m
not sure, I want to take a look at a few things in the files this afternoon,
but it sounds like his alibi was sound. He pointed me back to some holes that
just keep resurfacing. Someone is definitely holding something back, and that
may be the key. We’ll see.”

He held the door for her as they strolled into the
oppressive heat of the summer afternoon. The timing could not have been any
better. They were halfway across the square when Shane’s F-250 pick-up pulled
off Main Street into the space behind Devin’s Mustang.  She couldn’t be sure
from that distance, but Devin would swear that Shane was scowling at the two of
them walking together. He stepped out of the truck with a grocery bag in one
hand and a case of diet soda under his arm.

Adam mumbled under his breath, “Speaking of helpful guys
lining up around the block…” He wasn’t fast enough to dodge the elbow Devin
threw into his ribs. She still couldn’t tell if Shane was scowling behind his
sunglasses, but she saw his jaw tighten as he watched the exchange.

She leaned against the door of his truck in the shade of the
oak tree he was parked under and continued to sip on her shake. “You know I
didn’t really have you pegged for a diet soda kind of guy.” She looked down
into his bag. “And what a coincidence! Almond granola bars and black licorice
are two of my favorite snacks. I mean really, what are the chances that of all
the snack foods in the world, you would pick those two today. Hmm?” She took a
long sip of her shake and pinned him with big, questioning eyes until he began
to fidget. Adam was grinning from ear to ear enjoying the show.

“Wow, your favorites? That is something.” He had the grace
to look uncomfortable. “I do aim to please.” He rocked back on his heals and
waved a hand towards the sheriff’s office. “You know, trying to keep our guests
comfortable…” He had begun to gain momentum with this story, so Devin had
hardened her gaze into a stony glare and he stuttered into a confession.

“At least, that’s what I told the cashier at the grocery
store, and she told me what you had bought the most of this week.” He finished
with a boyish grin designed to get him out of trouble. It didn’t work.

Devin simultaneously shook her head and rolled her eyes.
“Stalker.” With that she spun on her heal and took the steps to the sheriff’s
office two at a time as Adam roared with laughter. As she flung the door open
she called over her shoulder “Fight amongst yourselves, children, I’m not
interested!”

Shane and Adam were left standing soberly on the sidewalk.
Adam shook his head. “Nice, moron.”

Shane sighed and looked at him out of the corner of his eye.
“Jealous you didn’t think of it?”

“
Very
.” They both grinned, and Shane threw the bag of
groceries at Adam as they raced each other up the steps.

Shane and Adam suffered under Devin’s bad temper for most of
the afternoon.  They were trying to get back into her good graces by helping
sift through the jumbled case files, but the disjointed notes and lack of
information was wearing everyone’s nerves thin.

“For the love of Pete!” Shane slammed the folder shut that
he had been reading and tossed it across the table. “Couldn’t they have used a
standard form for interrogations? I can’t tell if this is the first interview
or the follow-up or if they were talking to the father or the son.” He leaned
his elbows on the table and rubbed his hands up over his face. “I’d like to go
back in time and teach those guys a thing or two about how to conduct police
work.”

Adam snickered. “Oh yeah, cause you’re such a shining example
of administrative excellence.”

Devin’s irritated voice cut them both off. “How about if
you’re going back in time you just hang out in the woods and prevent the murder
so this would all be a moot point?”

Her cell phone began to ring, and she snatched it off the
table and flipped it open impatiently without even looking. “Dushane.”

“Don’t use that tone with me young lady! Not with everything
you’ve been putting me through!”

Adam and Shane watched in curiosity as Devin squeezed her
eyes shut and hunched over like a child caught sneaking out the back door of
the kitchen with fresh cookies.

“Mama! How’ve you been?” She was too stressed to see the
quizzical look that passed between Adam and Shane.

Or to hear Shane whisper, “I thought her mom died when she
was a kid.”

Adam shrugged in response, and they both leaned back in
their chairs, Shane chewing on his pen cap, listening to the side of the call
they could hear. Apparently, it never occurred to them to step out and give her
some privacy. Anything that made the unshakeable Devin Dushane this
uncomfortable had to be juicy.

“Now, Mama, I didn’t go off without a word to anybody,
Carter knew where I was going. Hell, uhm…
heck,
he was the one that came
up with the idea! And I just talked to him the day before yesterday, so he’s
just as much at fault here for not keeping you in the loop.” Devin grinned to
herself. She’d always been an expert at getting Carter in trouble with his Mom.

“Oh, don’t you worry, little girl, he’s already had his
earful, and now it’s your turn.”

Drat!
So much for putting this all on Carter. “The
least you could have done was come let me take care of you for a while.”

Here we go, she’s gonna get on a roll with this one.
Devin sighed as she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with her
thumb and forefinger.

“I heard that! Don’t you sass me, girl!”

“No, ma’am.”

“You show proper respect to your elders, I don’t care if you
are a fancy pants police detective.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Here you were injured and grieving and you run off to the
boondocks chasing ghosts. You never take proper care of yourself anyway,
probably haven’t had a decent meal in weeks. I bet you’re living off of diet soda
and cigarettes.” Devin’s eyes snapped open and she stared at the soda can in
front of her. It was her fourth one of the day.

“Now, Mama, that’s not true, you know I gave up smoking
years ago.”

“Girl, don’t you even try to lie to me! I raised six kids
including you. I can spot a lie before it can get from your brain to your lips!”
How does she do that?
In truth Devin had had a cigarette late last night
in the dark of the front porch glider.

“Well, Mama, rest assured that I am having a southern-fried
home cooked meal tonight, complete with greens…of some sort.”

“Hmmm, well I’d feel better if you were eating my cooking,
but I guess it will have to do.” She paused for a moment and her brassy
exterior lowered ever so slightly. “Baby girl, I just worry about you being out
there all alone. It’s practically the wilderness.”

Mama Dushane didn’t approve of Devin’s less-than-ladylike
behavior, so luckily Devin was able to turn a snort of laughter into a coughing
chuckle. “Mama, you make it sound like I’m camping in the Alaskan wilderness.
If I can survive inner-city Richmond, I think I’ll be okay in small-town USA. Besides, I’m not alone. I’ve made a few…friends.” For the briefest instance her eyes
flicked across the table.

“Devin, I’m serious. Some of those places out in the country
still have active chapters of the Klan, and those good old boys don’t have an
opportunity to act up very often. I’d feel a lot better if you got out of there
before you’re somebody’s initiation gone wrong and a headline on the evening
news.”

By this time Devin was chewing on her lip and tears of
laughter were burning her eyes. She had to take a deep breath before she could
answer. “Well, Mama—” another deep breath “—it’s true that in the Deep South
there are still active chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.” Both Adam and Shane
froze, their eyes going wide. Shane’s pen cap fell out of his mouth and rolled
across the floor. This was obviously not where they thought this conversation
was headed. “However, I haven’t seen any evidence of a chapter around Fenton.”
She paused and looked to Shane and Adam for confirmation. They were still
staring wide eyed but did manage to move their heads slowly back and forth in
the negative.

“Really, I’d say the city is far more dangerous.” She leaned
back in her chair and began counting off malices on her fingers “I mean, since
I’ve lived in Richmond I’ve been beaten, stabbed, shot, burned, nearly drowned
and run over by a car. I really don’t see what the Klan has left to offer. Besides,
Mama I know this may come as a shock to you . . .” She paused and lowered her
voice to a dramatic whisper, “but I’m white.” At that point Devin could no
longer hold her composure and with a snort broke into gales of laughter that
had her shaking in her seat.

“Oh, Devin, you…I…fine! But you were married to a black man,
and to some people, it’s the same thing!”