Badge of Honor (4 page)

N
ick reflected on his first night back on the job as he drove up the canyon west of town in the Colorado foothills. Officer Roberts wasn't far from his mind. It was difficult enough that his trainee was a former federal agent, but that it was brainiac Sarah Roberts made the assignment pure agony. Even though he knew it could be worse—he could be training a young rookie fresh out of the academy—he now regretted the day he'd accepted a field training officer assignment. That seemed a lifetime ago….

Before fellow officers had accused him of selling evidence to their drug ring.

Before his fiancée had walked off, worried that the scandal would ruin her journalism career.

Before his honor had been assaulted from every direction.

“I'm not sure how much more You think I can handle, God, but it might be time we have another discussion. Bringing an FBI agent to the department is one thing, but making my former high school crush my trainee is a really low blow.”

As Nick pulled into the gravel driveway of the custom-built log home, his black Labrador greeted him from behind the six-foot chain link fence. She ambled toward the gate, her tail wagging and cheeks lifted in a smile. “Morning, Lexee.”

She yipped a greeting, stretching her lanky body.

“You ready to go inside?” Though the dog had a door of her own into the garage, he opened the gate and brought her in through the main entrance with him.

The dog ran across the room, fetched a stuffed animal and attacked him with her toy. He couldn't help but smile. “You don't care what kind of night I had, do you?” he said as he tossed the toy down the hall for their early morning ritual. He filled a glass with orange juice and sat on the sofa to catch up with the news and baseball scores on his digital television recorder. The dog toy dropped at his feet and Lexee smiled at him again, eagerly awaiting the next toss. “You don't want to hear me complain about my cute new partner, do you?”

Lexee cocked her head to one side, as if to say, “Of course I do.” Then she flung the toy at him and crouched, ready for him to throw it again.

The phone rang, and Nick jumped. He figured it had to be one of his brothers calling to see how his first night back on patrol went. He checked the I.D. display to be sure it wasn't someone else calling at three in the morning.

“Hey, Garrett, what's up?”

“That's what I was going to ask you,” his younger brother said. “I'm taking a break while it's quiet. Sounds like you had a fun evening. It's deader than a doornail now. Man, I'd have loved to have been in your boots!”

Nick smiled, thankful that he could share the peculiar sense of humor of the law enforcement officer with his family. What was bad to most people was great to a cop. “Yeah, it was a good evening. I suppose you also know that I finally made it as a field training officer,” he said, waiting to see if his brother had heard that, too.

“Did you get the FBI agent?”

“Ten-four,” he said with a chuckle. “What's worse, she went to high school here. I played basketball with her twin brother. We used to call her the brainiac. I guess I'm not done being investigated, after all.”

“Get over that already, Nick. If they didn't trust you they would have come up with some reason to can you. I hear she whipped the bank robber. What's her name again?” his brother asked.

“Sarah Roberts. And yes, she has some pretty amazing defensive moves. She's the shortest trainee with long dark hair…”

“Yeah,” he said, obviously distracted. Nick could hear the radio in the background. “She didn't look familiar. Did I know her?”

Lexee dropped to her belly and squeaked the toy. Nick wrestled it away so he could hear Garrett, searching for something quieter to play with. “Probably not. Sarah and her twin brother are two years older than me, so she'd have been long gone by the time you and Kira were in high school. She remembered we'd adopted Kira.”

“I think everyone remembers that. It was still pretty odd around here to see a mixed-race kid in our family.”

“Yeah, I suppose so.” Nick put his feet up and closed his eyes. “Her brother was the kid that I replaced in the championship basketball game my sophomore year. She razzed me about it. That was kind of weird.” He didn't tell Garrett that she was even cuter now than she'd been in high school. “But all in all, it was a good night. It's definitely good to be back to work.”

“And how'd the guys respond?”

Though Garrett couldn't see him, he shrugged. “About like we figured. Some were okay, but there were a lot who seemed sure I would kill their careers if they showed any support.”

“At least you knew what to expect,” Garrett conceded. “I thought you were imagining things until I saw guys avoiding me when they found out that we're related.”

“I hate to say we told you so. I just can't help but wonder if they still suspect I was involved, and are trying to dig up some dirt. The captain either gave me the FTO to show his faith in me, or to let Sa…Roberts dig for more information.” Nick cringed, hoping his brother didn't notice he'd almost called Sarah by her first name.

“Keep believing the first option, Nick. You have a good record on the force. Plus, it's only a few weeks. It won't take long for things to return to normal.”

Nick gave a quick overview of the bank robber call, hoping Garrett would overlook his slip. “Has anything new been mentioned about the assault victim?”

“Yeah, didn't you hear rumors that the mayor is raising a ruckus over it? This is the second woman assaulted in the last five months. The last victim was leaving a church meeting….”

“And who would tell me the latest rumblings from City Hall? It's not like Kent hears the downtown rumors from the undercover narcotics office.”

“Are you kidding? Half the time they're the first to know. It's like they have a bug in the locker room sometimes.” His younger brother hesitated. “Well, rumor has it we may all be assigned partners until this rapist is caught.”

Lexee dropped the toy and Nick snatched it away. She jumped for it as he tucked it behind his back. He tossed the dog a tennis ball, hoping it would keep her busier than the squeaky stuffed animal.

“You haven't heard a name yet? No suspects?” he asked.

“We've just been told to keep a close eye on the university, so I presume she was a student or an employee there. Why?”

“I don't know. It seemed kind of odd that Roberts didn't mention it. I mean, everyone in the men's locker room was discussing it. Roberts and I were right there on the east side of campus, and she never said a word about it.”

The line was quiet for a minute before his brother responded. “She was probably overwhelmed from the bank robbery. I'm guessing that's her first really good incident on street duty. Give it some time. She'll be talking your ear off as soon as she gets comfortable.”

Nick didn't dare admit that he was probably as hyped up about the robbery as she was. She'd been one hundred percent in control of the situation. Completely sure of her every move, which made her that much more dangerous as a trainee.

He'd have to make sure she didn't push too far. Take too many liberties. Do any damage to his already tenuous reputation.

“Nick?” His brother's voice broke into his thoughts.

“Yeah. I should let you get back to work. I need to go in early to order some new uniform shirts. Seems I gained a little weight in the last three years in plainclothes.”

“Maybe you should reconsider playing basketball with the police team this winter. I'll work it off of you,” Garrett said with a chuckle.

“I'm sure nothing would make you happier than to do it, either.”

Nick set the phone back on the charger and locked up the house.

Instead of falling asleep like he usually did right after coming home, he found himself wide awake thinking of Sarah Roberts. He pulled his high school yearbook off the shelf and thumbed through the slick pages, admiring a much younger version of his partner.

She wore her hair down in those days with bangs hanging into her eyes. He remembered it as if it were just yesterday. He'd been too shy then to talk to her let alone ask a senior girl out.

He couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he had?

S
arah had checked in with her sister every day since the attack. Pretending everything was okay seemed to be catching up with her; Beth hadn't attended her night class all week. At some point, Sarah had to convince her it was time she get professional help.

Sarah called after work one night, only to be greeted by a very grouchy voice. “I'm fine. I was sound asleep,” Beth mumbled.

“I'm sorry, I figured you'd still be awake, like usual. It's only two-thirty in the morning.”

Her sister yawned. “I'm turning over a new leaf, getting to bed when normal people do.”

It sounded like depression to Sarah. “I just wanted to talk to you about seeing a counselor, Beth.”

“Sarah! Drop the subject. You're only making things worse.”

Beth refused to deal with this. She wouldn't tell their parents, though Sarah didn't totally blame her there; they'd be on the next plane to Colorado. “Beth, it's not just going to go away.”

“Don't…” Her voice cracked. “Sarah, don't start…. Go home and get some sleep.”

“Later then,” she said gently.

The line went dead, and Sarah stared at her sister's darkened windows. For now, all she could do to protect her was to check to make sure the doors were locked and no one was lurking outside.

Sarah went home to her apartment and went to bed, but no matter how much warm milk she drank, or how many pages of her book she tried to read, she wasn't sleepy. She struggled to follow her sister's wishes to leave her alone. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. She'd grown up protecting her siblings. As the oldest, even if only by ten minutes, she felt it was her self-appointed duty.

After traveling the world as a military brat, she'd gone to college planning to teach foreign languages. When one of her roommates was raped in the bedroom across the hall, however, Sarah changed her major to criminal justice and found her niche, even if it had taken awhile to figure out exactly what aspect of law enforcement fit her the best.

How could Beth, the free-spirited youngest child, expect Sarah to turn off her concern? It was time she shared what had happened to her roommate. She needed Beth to realize she wasn't just being a cop, she was a sister, too.

After three hours in bed, tossing and turning, Sarah gave up trying to sleep. She unpacked a few boxes, went shopping for some fall decorations and stopped in to get her hair trimmed. She tried everything she could to avoid thinking about her sister and her new training officer. Doing so was pointless. She needed to ease her mind about Beth so she could focus on her job.

 

Her sister had ignored her phone calls for two days, leaving messages when she knew Sarah couldn't answer. Sarah couldn't stand it anymore; she went to Beth's house, only to find she wasn't home.

Sarah waited outside the small two-story until it was time to go to work. After four days of the swing shift, worrying about her sister, and trying to gain the trust of her untrusting training officer, Sarah just wanted to be there to help Beth cope with the aftereffects of the assault. She was the only person her sister had confided in, and that, too, was a burden she didn't take lightly.

She hurried into the police station with just enough time to get dressed and duck into the briefing. She wasn't ready for another night of strained silence with Nick Matthews. Every time she opened her mouth she was afraid she'd say something stupid about the crush she'd had on him in school. That he'd thought of her as a brain wouldn't be half-bad, if he hadn't added “iac” to the end of it. That said it all. He'd thought of her as a nerd. He was trying to be nice.

The other female officers had left the locker room when she heard the door open. Nick Matthews called her name.

“Yeah?” she said, fastening her Kevlar vest over a black T-shirt.

“Hustle, would you? We need to get over to the jail and question our bank robbers. Their lawyers just got here and don't have any patience. It's okay they kept us waiting five days to question our defendants, but they can't wait ten minutes.”

She slipped her uniform shirt on, doing up the bottom few buttons so she could tuck it in and fasten her pants. She tugged her tactical boots onto her feet, dropped her hair clips into her breast pocket and stuffed her street clothes into her locker. She was out the door two minutes later, wrapping her loaded equipment belt around her waist as she met Sergeant Matthews in the hall. She'd laced up her boots so she didn't stumble, but saved the rest of her primping, not wanting to keep him waiting.

He took one glance at her and raised an eyebrow, erasing an ambiguous smile from his lips. “You don't plan to go into the men's jail looking like that, do you?” He flicked her hair from her shoulder.

She held up her hand, showing him the hair band around her wrist. “You said hustle—I'm here.” Sarah combed her hair into a braid with her fingers and pulled a hair clip from her pocket. She normally fixed her hair at home, but with her concern for Beth, nothing had gone as planned.

“One demerit for sloppy uniform, two extra points for hustling. You might want to finish buttoning up, Officer Roberts. I'll drive.”

Sarah took two steps to his one, feeling tiny next to him. She hurried to button her shirt before they reached the car. “So why are these lawyers in such a big rush?”

“Probably so they can go out for dinner. Who wants to sit with a couple of convicts when they could be out on the town?”

Sarah groaned. This wasn't a good way to start the night. She hadn't slept well, worrying about how to get her sister to come to her senses. When she'd applied for this job, she had never thought about how difficult it would be to leave a case that involved her own family for someone else to handle. And she knew that when her parents found out Beth hadn't told them right away, they'd hit the ceiling. It had already been a week since the assault.

They finished the interviews with Turrow and his getaway driver and headed out on patrol. She didn't think it possible, but Nick was even quieter than he had been the other nights. If it hadn't been for one boring call after another, they'd have had no communication at all.

Just as they walked into a burger joint for a quick bite, another call came in. “All units to the university. Backup assistance requested at an on-campus disturbance.” At least the call gave them a break from the confines of the car, where the dispatcher's voice almost became welcome company.

Nick was the first to turn around and head back to the squad car. “What's another hour without food,” he said to Sarah as she followed. “Officer 318 responding with FTO 235. Cancel our dinner break.”

“Copy 235 and 318. Better luck next time,” the dispatcher said, a hint of sympathy in her voice. She gave the address of the disturbance as Sarah pulled out of the parking lot onto University Drive.

When they arrived, teens and young adults littered the lawn of the huge, two-story, gothic-style house.

“You can always tell when it's rush week,” Sarah muttered to Nick as she turned on the police lights and pulled to a stop in the street. They climbed out of the squad car and approached the campus police chief. “I'm Officer Roberts and this is my FTO, Sergeant Matthews. How do you want us to help?”

“We're trying to get everyone inside, first off. We cite for underage consumption. If we have any minors, ticket them, and contact the parents. Watch for dangerous levels of intoxication and alcohol poisoning. We have an ambulance on standby, just in case. Check every room and closet. I don't want another surprise, like the death we had last year. Didn't you work that investigation, Matthews?”

“I did.” Nick quickly told Sarah about the girl who'd passed out in a closet, to be found dead several days later.

Officers were corralling people and ushering them back inside. As she contacted the students, Sarah struggled with the realization that the man who'd attacked her sister could be nearby, watching, selecting his next victim. She leaned over to look at a young man Nick was cuffing. No match to her sister's description. The only similarity was his dark hair.

You can't get involved, Sarah. Leave it to the detective assigned to her case.

Nick looked at her strangely, glanced around the crowd, then to his suspect. “What?”

“I was thinking about that APB from the other night,” she whispered. “I thought he looked a little like the suspect.”

Nick looked at the kid, then back to her. “Stick close, in case you have questions.”

Sarah was stunned by his remark, but tried to convince herself that he was under a lot of stress, too, and probably didn't mean that the way it came out. She wasn't a rookie in the traditional sense of the word, but she had to remember that that didn't remove any responsibility from his shoulders.

She had to get past her insecurities all over again, only it was worse this time. Before, she'd been a five foot one, twenty-four-year-old woman fighting for respect among the elite agents of the FBI, with all their expectations. For some idiotic reason, she hadn't thought she'd have to prove her competency now, after ten years experience. The first time she had every reason to feel insecure. This time she had no excuse. She was her own worst enemy.

She shook her head and put her mind back on the task at hand—catching underage drinkers; keeping the public safe and drunk drivers off the streets. She'd come home to reach out to the community. That was why she left the FBI—to have a chance to make a difference. This was where she needed to be. She was sure of it.

Once they'd gotten everyone inside, officers were posted at the doors while everything was sorted out, closets checked and alcohol levels measured.

“Your driver's license or identification, please,” Sarah asked a woman who looked far too young to be at a college party.

“I'm not drunk,” she snapped.

Since Sarah hadn't mentioned alcohol or any other accusation, the girl's defiance sounded like a blatant confession. “Good, then you won't mind breathing into this….” Sarah handed her a Breathalyzer, fighting the urge to inform her of what could have happened from being so careless. She thought of what had happened to her sister the week before, without being under the influence of alcohol. These kids didn't want to face facts, and while Sarah remembered those days, she wished she could make a difference.

“No way,” the girl said, pushing Sarah's hand away.

“If you choose not to provide your I.D. or take the breath test, we'll need to take you to the police department for questioning.”

Nick moved closer, as if concerned about how she was handling the situation.

“I'm not drunk,” the young woman repeated, sticking her nose in the air.

Sarah noted the fear in her eyes and thought of her sister. “You're making this worse than it needs to be,” she said softly. “Right now, I suspect there's an underage drinking citation to issue, but we're here to help maintain safety for everyone. Alcohol consumption could impair your judgment, make you more vulnerable….” Sarah looked her in the eye, noting tears forming. She imagined Beth, and the many times she'd gotten into trouble merely by refusing to think anyone would spike a drink, drive drunk or intentionally harm her, and Sarah's heart softened. Kids make mistakes, she reminded herself. She'd even made a few herself. “We're not trying to make your life miserable. What's your name?”

The tears streamed down her face. She wrapped her arms around her body. “Tiffany…I need to go home.” The young woman trembled.

“Not yet, Tiffany. Tell us what you know about who is hosting.”

“I don't know,” she answered. “A friend invited me to come with her. She'd heard about this huge party on the Internet. I only had one drink,” Tiffany said, holding up a plastic cup.

Sarah was puzzled. “Help me understand. Your friend got an e-mailed invitation, but didn't tell you who was hosting?”

“It wasn't an e-mail, it was on an announcement board.”

Sarah guessed the girl to be about nineteen, maybe twenty at the most. Too old to be so naive. “And you never questioned whether it might be safe?”

She shrugged. “No.”

Sarah couldn't believe that with all the education on personal and online safety, this was still happening.

“So was it a campus announcement board?”

“No, it was…” she closed her eyes and swayed a little “…an online announcement board,” she repeated, obviously growing more irritated with Sarah's questions.

“Where did you say the invitation was posted?”

“I didn't.”

“It would help us keep campus safe if we knew.”

The young woman rolled her eyes. “I'm not sure, but probably on Coedspace,” she muttered. “Now can I go?” she asked defiantly. Her eyes wandered, not tracking well. “I've got to go.”

“Are you okay?” Sarah stepped back, in case the girl got sick. What she had done to finally get through to her, Sarah wasn't sure, but she was relieved that they had made progress. “Why don't I take that cup for you?” Sarah reached out, but Tiffany didn't respond, just swayed. “What's your last name and address, Tiffany?”