Lucky Like Us

chapter Fifteen
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Friday, 8:09 A.M.

SAM SAT IN his cubicle reading through the Silver Fox files. He glanced up when Tyler stopped beside him.

“What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on leave. You look like a new man. Haircut, clean face, not sitting home brooding about what happened. You must be feeling better.”

“My nephews thought I looked more like a bad guy than a good guy. I’m here for my meeting with Vernet about the internal investigation into the shooting.”

“Doesn’t that guy hate you and have it out for you? I heard he reviews all of your cases, hoping to bring you up on charges and get you fired.”

“I don’t know about every case, but he does watch my every move. You make a guy look like an idiot in front of his boss one time and he never lets you live it down. Can I help it if the guy can’t take a joke?”

“I heard his boss didn’t think it was a joke, and Vernet had to attend some class on ethics.”

“Let’s hope he learned something, because he’s about to get his wish to have me fired granted, if he can prove I shot Elizabeth knowing she tried to help me. I don’t know how she remembers the events, but I remember them quite clearly now. I might be up shit creek without a paddle if her memory and mine don’t match. Vernet is looking for any excuse to go all the way and flush my career down the toilet.”

“I didn’t want to say anything, because the investigation is supposed to be ongoing and confidential, but I spoke with Vernet yesterday about my part of the operation. He’s on a witch-hunt and you’re the one he wants to tie to a stake. He’s trying to make it seem like we didn’t have proper backup at the bar, and perhaps you knew the Silver Fox was going to show up instead of Scott. He thinks you were hot-dogging again.”

“I don’t hot-dog anything. I’d be dead if I went off half-cocked all the time.”

“Just be prepared when you go in and tell him what happened outside Elizabeth’s place. Davies is backing us up on what happened at the bar. As for the shooting, you and I both know you were incapacitated by the drug you were given. You would have never fired your weapon unless you thought you were in mortal danger. You didn’t even draw the gun yourself. She had it and appeared to be a threat. Besides, you nicked her in the arm. It’s not like you killed her.”

“Thanks, I feel so much better about shooting an innocent woman.” Sam held up his hand to stop Tyler from protesting further. “I know what happened, and Vernet can’t change the facts. Even if he wants to say I shot her on purpose, the fact I was drugged and unable to think clearly and rationally is in my favor. I’m not worried about him, it’s such a pain in my ass to jump through all these hoops.”

“Give him the facts. Be the man of few words you are. Make him work for it.”

“That’s what I intend to do. On another subject, have you looked through some of these cases? Since I’m on leave, you’ve been stuck with all my pending files. The most pressing one is the missing person I got the day before all this happened.” He rifled through the files on the desk and came up with the one he wanted. “Here it is. Dianne Wales. She’s seventeen. Went missing about two weeks ago. No one has seen or heard from her. No troubles at home, suggesting she ran away, no witness has come forward or ransom demanded to suggest an abduction. She disappeared after school one day. The police are doing a good job of putting the word out and distributing her picture.” He handed the photo of Dianne over to Tyler.

Tyler scanned the high school graduation photo of a young blonde. Short hair, blue eyes, an all-American girl. The girl next door. She wore the standard black cap and gown, along with a pearl necklace with a gold charm. He looked more closely at the pendant, a rose in full bloom. The message from Morgan hit him all at once. He remembered the news reports, years ago, about the death of Princess Diana of Wales. They called her “England’s Rose,” or something like that. Dianne Wales was the Rose Princess from Morgan’s message.

“She’s the Rose Princess.”

“Excuse me? The what?”

“Remember I told you about the message Morgan left for me about you and Elizabeth. She also left a message about another case. I think it’s this one. She told me the Rose Princess is under the grand oak, and I need to find the King of Hearts.”

Sam’s eyes held a skeptical gleam.

“See here, in the picture. She’s wearing a rose. Her name is Dianne Wales. Princess Diana of Wales was known as ‘England’s Rose.’ Don’t ask me how I remember that. I recall seeing all the coverage of the princess’s funeral. That’s a pretty good tie-in to the message and the young girl who’s missing. Dianne resembles Princess Diana in some ways. It could work.”

“Okay, let’s say she is the Rose Princess. Who’s the King of Hearts?” Sam asked, surprising Tyler with his easy acceptance of Morgan’s message.

“I don’t know. I’ll have to go through the file. I’ll head over to the police station and talk to the detective in charge. Maybe I can come up with some viable suspects for the King of Hearts from their people of interest.”

“Let me know what you discover, or if you want to bounce ideas off me. I can’t be an active part in the investigation until I’m cleared, but I’ll go nuts sitting around doing nothing.”

“Why don’t you head to Colorado and hang with your family for a few weeks?”

“Not until I know for sure Elizabeth is all right, and we have some kind of closure with the Silver Fox. He’s still a threat to her, until we can figure out whether or not she remembers what he looks like.”

“Vernet, Davies, and I are meeting with her today to hear her official statement. It should be interesting to see Vernet try and coax her into taking you down.”

“Elizabeth will surprise him. She’s not one to let anyone tell her what to do or what to say. Don’t forget Judge Hamilton is her father. I understand she’s the only one in the family that goes toe-to-toe with him. I have to say, I’d love to see that. He’s notorious for his brilliant arguments and his temper. She’s probably quite something to see going up against him in an argument.”

Tyler grinned, recognizing Sam’s infatuation with her. Not surprising, since they’d been through a traumatic experience together, but Tyler thought it a good sign Sam wasn’t as close to burnout as he’d thought.

“I’ll get to see her in action later today if Vernet pisses her off.”

“Don’t let him upset her. She’s been through enough and with that dickweed, Jarred, showing up the other night, she doesn’t need any more stress during her recovery.”

“I’ll try to keep things calm and remind Vernet she’s our only link to the Silver Fox at this point. We need her cooperation. If she can ID the Fox, I’ll have a sketch artist work with her on a drawing of the guy. We can have her look at mug shots, but I don’t think this guy has ever been arrested. We didn’t find anything on the DNA profile in our system. As for Dickweed, the local police paid him a visit and warned him about contacting or seeing Elizabeth again. It seems the restraining order ran out. She’ll have to petition the court for another if she still believes the guy is a threat.”

“He is a threat. He grabbed her leg and hurt her. And then, the guy says she’s marrying him. He’s completely delusional. He won’t stop harassing her.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure her father will make sure the restraining order is put in place again. I understand he was the one who insisted she have one in the first place.”

“He did. She’s very important to him. Watch out for the brothers too. If they find out you were there that night and lost track of me, you might get decked. The young one, Daniel, is a hothead when it comes to his sister.”

“Sounds like there’s a story there.”

“He got in my face the first time I got out of bed.”

Sam ignored Tyler’s cocky grin. “Let me know about the missing girl. I’d love an update after you see Elizabeth. I don’t want to be blindsided by Vernet if things don’t go well.”

“I’ll be in touch. Good luck with Vernet.”

“Thanks.” Sam rolled his eyes and got to his feet prepared to face anything Vernet had in store for him.