“Is that legal?” Jordan asked sweetly.
Haden had a real mean streak in her. She poked herself in the chest as she said, “I can do anything I want in this town. Understand? I’m not as soft as I look.”
Jordan couldn’t resist. “No one could ever think you looked soft.”
She’d gotten a rise out of the chief. Her face colored. “I wonder how much sass you would have if I decided to turn you over to the Dickey brothers.”
She pointed her finger at Jordan and was about to threaten something more when she was interrupted by Carrie.
“Maggie?”
“I told you to call me Chief Haden,” she bellowed.
“Chief Haden?”
“What?”
“The FBI’s here.”
Chapter Eleven
“Where is she?” Nick asked.
“This is my investigation,” Chief Haden said. “The FBI has no place here.”
Nick and Noah had entered the police station expecting to deal with a competent law enforcement professional. They were mistaken. And neither of them was in the mood to put up with foolish territorial issues.
“He asked you a question,” Noah barked. “Where is she?”
“Never you mind where she is,” Haden countered. “Like I just told you, this is my investigation. You and your friend need to get out of my police station.”
Nick had already told her that Jordan was his sister, and he’d shown her his identification and credentials. Now it was her turn. She damn well was going to answer his questions.
Chief Haden would have taken a step back to get away from his anger, but the railing was behind her, trapping her. She knew she had started out on the wrong foot, but she wasn’t about to back down. The sooner the two of them realized who was in charge, the better.
The man who identified himself as Agent Nick Buchanan was intimidating and fierce, but he wasn’t nearly as frightening to her as the agent who walked in with him. There was something in his piercing blue eyes that told her not to get in his way. She knew it wouldn’t take much to get him to pounce, and she didn’t want to be the one he pounced on. Her only option was to strike first.
Nick was about to lose his temper when the young woman sitting in front of a blank computer screen piped up, “Your sister is sitting in a cell just around the corner. She’s doing okay, but wait until you see her.” She was winding a strand of her long curly hair around one finger and smiling up at Noah when she shared the information.
“My sister is locked in a cell?” Nick asked.
“That’s right,” the chief answered after flashing a glare at her assistant.
“What are the charges?”
“I’m not willing to share that information just yet,” she said. “And you’re not going to be seeing your sister or speaking to her until I’m finished with her.”
“Nick, did she just say, until she’s finished with her?” Noah asked. He sounded amused.
Nick didn’t take his gaze off the chief when he answered. “That’s what she said.”
The chief’s lower lip jutted out, and her eyes narrowed. “You don’t have any jurisdiction here.”
“The chief thinks she can mess with the federal government,” Noah remarked.
Haden was furious. The two agents were pressing in on her. She pushed through the swinging gate and stood alone near the doorway, blocking access to the cell.
The FBI agents were arrogant thugs, she thought, smart-mouthing her. The two of them were so full of themselves and so cocky the way they tried to throw their weight around. But they didn’t know who they were dealing with. The fact that a woman had risen to the position of chief of police in Serenity, Texas, should have been an indication to them that she wasn’t a powder puff. Even though Serenity was a bit-of-nothing town, she had had to work hard screwing others, both figuratively and literally, to get where she was. Two muscle men carrying badges and guns had rattled her for a few minutes, but she was back in control now, and they weren’t going to tell her what to do. Screw them. This was her town and her rules. She was the power here.
“I’ll tell you what you can do. You can leave your phone number with my assistant, and when I’ve finished interrogating my suspect, I’ll give you a call.” She addressed Nick. “Now go on and get out of my police station and let me get back to work.”
The suspect’s brother smiled at her. She thought he might start laughing. The possibility didn’t sit well.
“What are we gonna do about this situation?” Nick wanted to know.
Haden’s bravado ended abruptly. Noah started walking toward her. She stepped out of his way. If she hadn’t moved, he would have walked over her or through her. He didn’t leave any doubt about that.
Noah glanced over his shoulder at Nick and grinned.
Nick conceded, “Yeah, yeah, you’ve still got it.”
The “it” was spook tactics. Noah had always been able to freeze anyone, male or female, with one hard look. Nick, on the other hand, according to Noah, had still not perfected the art.
“You can get the key from her,” Noah said.
“You listen here. I’m not letting that woman out until she starts cooperating.” Haden’s voice was loud and surly.
On the other side of the wall Jordan patiently waited for someone to come and get her. She knew that Nick and Noah had arrived because she could hear the chief of police arguing. When she saw Noah, her shoulders sagged with relief. She was so happy to see him.
He was appalled by the sight of her. “What happened to you? You look godawful.”
“Thank you. It’s lovely to see you too.”
Noah ignored her sarcasm. Given the circumstances most women would have been a little upset, he thought, but Jordan wasn’t like most. As miserable as she looked, she could still give him attitude. He had to admire her spunk.
He leaned against the steel bars and smiled at her. “You want out of here?”
Exasperated, she replied, “What do you think?”
“Tell you what. You tell me what happened to that pretty face of yours, and I’ll let you out.”
She gingerly touched her cheek and winced. “A fist ran into it,” she said. “Is Nick still out there? I don’t hear him.”
“I can’t imagine you could hear anything over that woman’s screeching.”
“How did you get here so quickly? I thought you were going to send some agents from the district.”
“I was able to charter a small plane, so I didn’t need to call them.”
“Nick willingly got into a small plane? It takes a lot of coaxing to get him into a commercial jumbo jet. I can’t imagine he’d fly in a small one.”
“I didn’t say willingly, did I? I had to do some pushing and shoving.”
She was impressed. “Did he get sick?” she asked, smiling over the possibility. It was comical to see him turn green.
“Yeah, he did.”
She laughed. “I’m so happy you’re both here,” she admitted.
He shrugged. “You should be.”
His arrogance didn’t bother her so much today. She heard the chief’s raised voice again and asked, “What’s going on out there?”
“Nothing much. Your brother’s just having a little chat with the chief of police.”
“Chief Haden’s a real softie, isn’t she?”
Noah laughed. “She’s about as soft as a rattlesnake,” he said. “She’s trying to give my home state a bad name, but don’t you worry about her. Nick can handle her.”
Jordan stood and tried to brush the wrinkles out of her blouse. “Do you think you could find the key and get me out of this cell?” she asked sweetly.
“Sure enough,” he agreed. “Just as soon as you tell me whose fist ran into your face.”
At that moment Haden stormed around the corner, a sour look on her face, the key in her hand. She unlocked the cell door, muttered something under her breath that Jordan pretended not to hear, and said, “It’s been…suggested that we sit down and talk this out. You know…get to the bottom of this mystery.”
Nick was standing in the doorway. Jordan’s hair had fallen forward, partially covering her face, but when she brushed it back over her shoulder, he got a good look at her injury.
“What happened to you?” he demanded. “What son of a—”
“It’s okay,” she said quickly before he could finish his obscenity. “I’m fine, really.”
His eyes blazed with anger as he addressed the chief. “Are you responsible for this?”
“Of course I’m not responsible,” she snapped. “I wasn’t even there when the alleged incident occurred.”
“Alleged?” Noah spun around to confront Haden.
“Jordan, who hit you?” Nick asked.
The chief swung the door open as Nick posed the question. The woman wouldn’t move out of Jordan’s way, so Noah stepped forward, took hold of Jordan’s arm, and pulled her toward him.
“Jordan, answer me,” Nick demanded.
“His name is J. D. Dickey. I don’t know what the J and the D stand for. His brother Randy is the sheriff of Jessup County. The two of them were together in Sheriff Randy’s car. We’re in Grady County now,” she added.
“Why wasn’t the guy who assaulted you arrested?”
“I tried to press charges.”
“What do you mean, you tried?” Nick asked.
“I mean I tried. She wouldn’t let me.”
She’d rendered her brother and Noah speechless. They’d never encountered such incompetence.
They all filed into the outer office. Since there weren’t enough chairs to go around or the space to put them in, they ended up standing in a cluster near the assistant’s desk. Jordan noticed that Carrie was trying—without much success—to get Noah’s attention.
Maggie Haden made her way around the group to her office and sat on the edge of her desk tapping her foot impatiently while she listened to the conversation.
“We’ll get him in here,” Noah promised.
“Where exactly were you arrested?” Nick asked.
“Three or four blocks from here.”
“She was never arrested,” Haden called out.
“Then why was I locked in a cell? Remember what you told me? You weren’t going to give me anything to drink or eat until I answered your questions. You also said that you didn’t care if I starved to death.”
“I said no such thing.”
Carrie had been quietly content to stare up at Noah until she heard what the chief said. Her head snapped up, and for a second she stopped twirling her hair.
“Yes, you did. I heard you,” she said.
“I was bluffing,” the chief said.
“Bluffing?” Noah questioned. “Don’t we call that lying to a federal agent and obstructing justice, Nick?”
“That’s what we call it,” he agreed. “You want to arrest her or should I?”
“Now hold on.” Haden’s voice had risen an octave. “Your sister wouldn’t cooperate. I had to lock her up.”
“Jordan, is that true?” Nick asked.
“What do you think?”
“Just answer the question,” he demanded impatiently.
Nick was behaving more like a big brother than an FBI agent now, but she was still too thankful and happy that he was there to be bothered by his high-handed attitude.
“I requested an attorney,” she began, “and I also informed Chief Haden that I had called you. She then informed me that I wasn’t a suspect but that she was going to interrogate me with her tape recorder on, and when I wouldn’t answer her accusatory questions without an attorney, she changed her mind and decided I was a suspect after all.”
Turning to the sour-faced woman, she said, “I can’t remember. Was that before or after you threatened to hand me over to the Dickey brothers?”
All turned to stare at the chief, waiting for her explanation.
Haden’s chest heaved as she took a deep breath. “I did not threaten any such thing.”
“Yes, you did,” Carrie volunteered. “You said—”
The chief cut her off with a scorching glare. “Put a cork in it, Carrie, and get back to that computer. You’re on work release, not a vacation.”
Carrie’s face turned bright red. She lowered her head and stared at the keyboard. Jordan could see that she was embarrassed that Nick and Noah had heard what the chief said.
“I can’t work the computer. The stupid thing’s broken.”
Jordan felt sorry for her and wondered which would be worse, working for the chief from hell or going back to prison to serve out the rest of her sentence.
Carrie sounded pitiful. “I don’t know what to do.”
As galling as it was to inadvertently help the chief of police, Jordan couldn’t stop herself from helping Carrie. With a sigh, she reached around Carrie, hit two buttons, waited half a second, then hit a couple of keys, and the computer screen lit up.
Carrie looked like she had just witnessed a miracle. Wide-eyed, she stared at Jordan and whispered, “How did you do that?”
As Jordan explained, Nick argued with the chief about jurisdiction. The chief liked the word and used it as an answer no matter what question was asked.
“Has the coroner given you an approximate time of death for the victim?” he asked.
“This is my jurisdiction and therefore my case. You don’t need to be butting your nose in.”
“Why haven’t you brought J. D. Dickey and his brother in?” he asked.
“What business do you have with the sheriff?”
“What business did he have in Grady County?”
“This is my jurisdiction,” Haden huffed.
“When are you going to arrest J. D. Dickey?” he asked.
Haden’s cell phone rang. She turned her back on the agents and stepped around her desk.
She covered her mouth. “I know who it is,” she snapped under her breath. “You listen here. They’re pressuring me to arrest you.” Several seconds passed, and then Haden said, “For socking the woman. What’d you think they wanted me to arrest you for?”
“Doesn’t she know we can hear every word she’s saying?” Noah asked Nick.
“Apparently she doesn’t.”
Haden’s voice had risen. “And I’m telling you my hands are tied here. I’m doing the best I can.”