On the Line (42 page)

“Do you have news?” Kelsey asked, practically bouncing where she stood.

“We do,” George replied as he reached the steps. As he climbed, Janelle watched his
face for any indication as to whether his news was good or bad. His calm façade gave
nothing away.

“What is it?” Kelsey gripped her father’s arm as he reached the porch floor. “Is
it good?”

George chuckled. “Wouldn’t you like to go in first so we can sit down?”

“No,” Kelsey answered.

Mason snorted as he walked past Janelle and she regarded him questioningly. He propped
himself against the wall of the house, met her gaze, and promptly looked away.

“Daddy!” Kelsey whined. “Tell me.”

“She reminds me of our daughter,” Nathan whispered across Janelle’s ear, and she
felt a shiver down her spine as she nodded her agreement.

“Fine,” George replied good-naturedly. “The prosecutor had his experts look at
all
the evidence, both what Bonner had originally presented and everything else they
had collected that Hayes came forward with. They had to re-interview a few witnesses,
but,” George paused, a smile slowly forming as he looked from one daughter to the
other. “The charges will all be dropped.”

Kelsey nearly screamed as she turned in Patrick’s arms. She threw her arms around
his neck, and he picked her up, holding her tightly against him. Janelle thought
she saw a single tear trickle down his cheek and looked away.

Nancy and Elizabeth were hugging each other on the swing, both sets of cheeks blotchy
and moist.

Nathan’s arm snaked around her shoulders, his head came to rest on her shoulder,
and she sank back against him. The weight of the past few weeks lifted, and she felt
lighter than she had in months. “It’s over,” she whispered and felt him nod against
her head.

“Yes, Janelle,” George said as he turned to face her. “It’s over. We can finally
put Richard to rest and be done with him.”

Her eyes began to sting and she pulled away from Nathan. As she turned into his arms,
she caught sight of Zach standing in the doorway, watching them all with a smile
on his face. She grinned through her watery vision, and Nathan laid his hands on
her cheeks. She looked into his clear hazel eyes, and he thumbed her tears away.

“I love you,” Janelle said as his lips got closer to hers. His turned up slightly
just before they met hers, and he kissed her so deeply she felt it all the way to
her toes. He moved his lips against hers, and she resisted the urge to give him the
more he was asking for. Slowly he pulled away and looked down at her. “Later,” she
mouthed.

“We have all the time in the world now,” he agreed and pulled her against his chest
again in a warm, comforting hug.

Forever
, Janelle thought.

Nathan avoided making eye contact as he strolled through the station on his
way to
Captain Little’s office. The captain had called him within an hour of George’s report
and asked that he come in right away. Patrick and Kelsey had still wanted to run
their errand, so they thought it would be perfect if he rode along and they dropped
him off at the station. Reluctantly, Nathan had agreed, but he’d have preferred to
stay home with Janelle to celebrate their newfound freedom.

As he got closer to the office, he could hear raised voices. Paying closer attention,
he realized it was only one voice. And it wasn’t happy.

“I let it slide when you went above my head and directly to the sheriff to get assigned
to this investigation,” Captain Little was practically yelling. “I chose to give
you the benefit of the doubt. I chose to believe you were showing initiative.”

“I was,” came another loud voice. Nathan froze inches from the door when he recognized
it as Bonner’s.

“The only thing you were showing was a desire to make a name for yourself,” the captain
countered. “And in the process, you’ve made a laughingstock of this department. You
took all of the evidence and selected only the parts that would help you blame a
nonexistent crime on a man simply for the thrill of bringing down one of the country’s
biggest celebrities. Not only that, but you implicated one of our best cops as an
accomplice and had him arrested as well.”

“A man is dead!” Bonner shouted.

Nathan fell back a step and looked around. He was alone but saw a chair beside the
door. He walked silently toward it and sat down.

“And both Harris and Mr. Lyons are guilty,” Bonner continued.

“The dead man in question kidnapped his own child, shot his sister-in-law, and had
every intention of killing the child and himself !” Captain Little’s voice boomed
as Nathan heard a chair scrape across the floor. “And by all the evidence I’ve seen,
Miss Morgan would have died had Mr. Lyons and Sergeant Harris not been so quick to
act.”

“That’s irrelevant,” Bonner snapped.

“That’s perfectly relevant,” Little disputed. “Mr. Wagoner put himself in that situation,
you cannot ignore that. You cannot ignore that he was an abusive alcoholic who bullied
and blackmailed Miss Morgan repeatedly into paying off his gambling debt.”

“If she’d kept the little brat to herself he wouldn’t have been able to blackmail
her,” Bonner grumbled, and Nathan’s heart began to race as his vision blurred red.

How dare he try to blame this on Kelsey?

“This is not her fault!” Captain Little roared. “And how dare you make such an insinuation.
The man was a bully to everyone he met, I’m sure you realized that in your interviews.”

“Well—”

“
I
sure as hell did, after simply reading them. On top of the restraining order Miss
Morgan filed in December and the pictures of bruises he’d left on both her and her
sister, you interviewed coworkers that claimed he’d bullied them,” Captain Little
said. “He’d been out of work for six months, he’d been fired for showing up drunk.
My question is, why did none of this show up in the report you gave to the prosecutor?”

“I didn’t think it was important,” Detective Bonner said at the top of his voice,
but Nathan could tell he was losing his bravado.

“Of course it’s important. It speaks volumes to the type of man he was and shouldn’t
be left out of a case like this,” the captain continued, his volume maintaining a
loud, commanding tone. “And another thing, I don’t appreciate you waiting until I’m
on vacation to finally take it to the district attorney’s office. I’ve been asking
you about it for weeks, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to hide
it from me.”

Silence fell for a few long seconds, and Nathan held his breath as he waited for
a response. He knew there would be one—Bonner couldn’t let an accusation like that
go unchallenged.

“What do you expect?” Bonner snapped. “Harris is your golden boy. You think he can
do no wrong. For God’s sake, he actually stayed away from
her
when you told him to.”

“How do you know about that?” Little questioned.

“We all knew that,” Bonner hissed loudly. “You treat him like he’s some sort of perfect
example of what a cop should be. But he’s not perfect. He had an affair with the
victim’s wife! He fathered her child, and she tried to pass it off as her husband’s.
How do you know she didn’t make up the abuse? She obviously can’t be trusted either.”

Nathan jumped to his feet and started toward the door. He had his hand
out to turn
the knob when an arm stretched across his chest. He looked down and followed the
line of the arm to its owner. Sergeant Hayes stood staring at him, and when Nathan
met his gaze he shook his head. Nathan’s jaw clenched and he inhaled slowly and deeply.

“That’s enough!” Captain Little bellowed so loudly his door rattled.

Nathan turned his stare to the mahogany door. He dropped his hand and took a step
back.

“This isn’t about Mrs. Wagoner and Sergeant Harris. This isn’t about Miss Morgan
or Mr. Lyons. This is about the shitty job you did with this investigation,” Little
boomed.

“I did a very thorough investigation,” Bonner argued.

“And yet you managed to leave some of the most pertinent information out of your
report,” Little said calmly.

“It won’t happen again,” Bonner’s voice sounded strained, like he was speaking through
clenched teeth.

“You’re absolutely right, it won’t.” Captain Little’s voice got closer to the door.
“You have an hour to get your desk cleaned out.”

“What?” Bonner sounded shocked. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m very serious. I’ve listed everything you’ve done, but to sum it up neatly for
you, I’ll tell you again. You went behind my back and directly to the sheriff to
get assigned to this investigation. You left out information unless it suited your
agenda, and this isn’t the first time you’ve done that either, don’t think I’ve forgotten,”
Little said, and the doorknob turned. “You also went behind my back to get the arrest
warrants and, in the process, you’ve dragged one of your fellow officer’s good name
through the mud. I don’t trust you,” Little said slowly as the door opened. “And
I won’t work with a man I don’t trust.”

“I can’t believe this. My lawy—”

“I look forward to that,” the captain said as his back appeared in the doorway. Nathan
and Hayes rushed to find a place out of sight before they were caught eavesdropping.
“Your pal, the sheriff, will not be able to get you out of this one. I’m afraid he’s
on my side. He’s completely embarrassed by your actions and the shame you’ve brought
on all of us.”

“I was just doing my job,” Bonner snapped as he stepped out of the office.

“Then let me be clear about mine,” Captain Little said. “If I so much
as hear of
a threat against any of the Morgan family or the Harris family, I will bring you
in for questioning, even if I have to hunt you down. My recommendation for you would
be to pack your stuff and move out of the county. You may even want to consider another
state.”

Nathan could see the fire in his captain’s eyes from where he stood against the wall.
He felt a mixture of pride and fear of the man he saw threatening Bonner. Not that
he was complaining; if Bonner left, that was one less thing he’d have to worry about.

“Do I make myself clear?” The captain enunciated each word and glared at Bonner until
he nodded his head. “Good. Go.”

He pointed toward the main part of the station where Bonner’s desk was located. The
former detective turned and followed his final orders, and Nathan was thankful that
Bonner’s direction was away from Nathan’s hiding spot. Slowly, Nathan stepped away
from the wall and toward the captain’s office.

Captain Little turned and looked directly at Nathan. “Good, you’re here. Come in.”

Thirty-Two

“I’m going to assume you heard all of that,” Captain Little said once the door was
closed behind him. He motioned toward the seat in front of his desk, and Nathan sat
down.

“Pretty much,” Nathan confessed.

The captain nodded. “Good. I’m not in the mood to repeat myself.” He sat down in
the large chair behind his desk and laid his forearms in front of him on the desk.
“And it saves me from having to explain everything to you.”

“Of course,” Nathan agreed, hoping less explaining would mean he could return home
to his family sooner.

“First, I’d like to apologize for everything you’ve been through in the past couple
of months. Especially in the last few days since your arrest,” Captain Little began.
“I think we can both agree that shouldn’t have happened.”

Nathan dipped his head.

“After reading the interviews and the reports regarding Mr. Wagoner’s behavior leading
up to his death, I can agree that you keeping watch over the family after the restraining
order was filed was probably a wise course of action,” the captain admitted. “However,
I wish you had gone about it the right way and shared that burden. Perhaps some of
this could have been avoided.”

“I agree,” Nathan said. If someone had been watching Janelle’s house that night,
Richard might never have made it past the front door.

“Given that, and what Bonner has put you through, I’ll see what I can do to have
this IA investigation dropped and consider the time you’ve spent on your suspension
as your punishment. But that’s not really why I called you in.” Captain Little opened
a drawer in his desk and reached down. He set a white plastic basket on the desk
and slid it toward Nathan. “I’m ready to reinstate you.”

Nathan’s brows came together as he sat up and looked into the basket. His badge and
firearm were the only two items in it. He glanced up at his captain.

“Effective immediately,” the captain said with a smile.

Nathan sat back in the chair and held Captain Little’s stare. “That’s a great offer,”
Nathan stated. “But why should I take it?”

The captain’s smile faded. “What do you mean?”

Nathan folded his arms across his chest and stretched his feet out in front of him.
“It’s simple really. I now have to work with people who could possibly always doubt
my innocence. I could have abusive men questioning my motives when I show up to help
the women and children they’re abusing. My reputation is shot, Captain.” Nathan pulled
his feet toward him again. “How did he sell this to the sheriff anyway?”