“Are you and Grandpa mad?”
“No. We were just talking.” In her nightie, with her fair curls tousled, she looked so sweet and vulnerable, it made his heart ache. He scooped her up and carried her into her bedroom, settling into the rocking chair with her on his lap, cupping his hand around her bare toes. “I heard you got a new DVD.”
She snuggled against him and nestled her head on his chest. “Grandma brought it for me when we went to Walmart.”
“Is it about a princess?”
“She lives in a castle. But it’s got holes in the roof and mean birds fly through them and scare her.”
“She lives there by herself?”
“Her mommy’s in heaven like mine.”
She rarely talked about not having a mother, but any time she did, it was like being speared in the gut, the soul. “What about her daddy?”
“He’s funny. He has whiskers.”
“Whiskers? Maybe I should grow some. How would you like that? Big, bushy whiskers.” He delighted in her giggle. Nuzzling her neck where she was ticklish, he said, “You’re my princess, and I love you.”
“I love you, too, Daddy. Are you really gonna grow whiskers?”
She offered her opinion of that by wrinkling her nose, looking so damn cute, he laughed out loud. For the next quarter hour, he held her close. Just yesterday, he’d gone to court, hoping that it would end with him moving her permanently into her new bedroom. It would remain vacant a while longer.
“I have a big surprise waiting for you the next time you spend the night with me,” he told her.
“What is it?”
“I can’t tell or it won’t be a surprise. But I’ll give you a hint.” He whispered in her ear. “It’s pink.”
She made a few guesses, then yawned hugely.
“Bedtime for you, young lady.” He carried her over to the bed and tucked her in.
She rolled onto her side and mumbled into the pillow, “I already said my prayers.”
“Okay,” he whispered and kissed her cheek. “Sleep tight.”
In the hallway outside her bedroom, Joe was waiting like a sentinel. The implication that Georgia needed to be protected from him made Crawford livid. But he didn’t give in to it, mostly because he figured Joe would enjoy seeing him upset.
“Joe, prepare yourself for a bombshell.” He told him about Rodriguez not being the shooter.
Joe maintained his military stance, but he blinked rapidly several times. “How did you discover that?”
“That’s a matter for the police,” Crawford said, taking pleasure in throwing Joe’s words back at him. “The only reason I’m telling you tonight is because the news will probably break in the morning. You and Grace may be called on for comment.”
Joe looked him up and down with scorn. “Jesus Christ. The calamity you’re capable of never ceases to amaze me.”
Crawford went around him and opened the front door, looking back in order to deliver his parting words. “Don’t push too hard, Joe, or I swear to God, you’ll be sorry.”
Chapter 15
Overnight, Neal Lester must have done as Crawford suggested and had the ME check Rodriguez’s knee cap for a bruise, because Houston and Tyler TV stations aired the story about the “egregious error” during their local break-ins of the national morning shows. A public information officer from the Prentiss PD owned up to the mistake.
“It’s been determined that the man killed by SWAT officers on the roof was not the individual who opened fire in Judge Spencer’s courtroom minutes earlier.”
Just like that, Crawford’s hero status was corrupted.
He didn’t care. Hero wasn’t a label he was comfortable with anyway. But it chafed that he had made news again at all. After the shootout in Halcon, he’d hoped never to have notoriety again in his lifetime.
He knew that a long and tedious day lay in store, but at least Holly was safe. When he checked in with Harry, he was told, “Not so much as a mouse fart all night.”
“Later today, after some locals have been cleared, we’ll let them take over.”
“The major told Sessions and me to stay on it till you say otherwise.”
“Thanks.”
Preferring to work alone and from his own office rather than in police headquarters where everyone would be walking on eggshells, he drove to the DPS building. One lone news van from the Tyler station was in the parking lot. The resourceful reporter and his cameraman leaped from it when he alighted from his SUV. They jogged alongside him as he strode to the employees’ entrance. He didn’t say anything into the microphone poked at him, not even “No comment.”