Out of Eden (4 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

J
ACK STEERED HIS
SUV into the chief of police’s designated parking space. He glanced at the black-and-white parked to his left—one of two department cruisers. Chief Curtis had used his own wheels. Jack opted to do the same. Small towns have small budgets. Police vehicles were costly. Better to allocate funds to staffing, programming and equipment. Besides, driving an unmarked vehicle suited his purpose as did his semicasual uniform.

He cut the engine, looked at Shy over the metal rims of his polarized Oakleys. Instead of the backseat where he’d put her, she now sat on the passenger seat. Slobber streaked the partially open window. Short blond hairs coated his black dashboard. His new car didn’t look so new anymore. Didn’t smell new, either. Was there such a thing as dog Beano?

“So is this because of the canned kibble?” Jack asked, waving off the noxious odor. “Or because you’re nervous?”

Shy barked.

“Uh-huh.”

Maybe a trip to the vet was in order. Not that he planned on keeping her. But as long as Shy was in his care, he didn’t want her stinking up his air.

“Okay. Listen up. The squad’s still mourning Curtis. They’re not sold on me. I have no idea how they feel about dogs.”

Shy angled her head, whimpered.

“Relax. I’m not locking you in the car for eight hours. Just…behave. No chewing. No peeing. No farting.”

Her tail wagged.

“You don’t understand a word I’m saying, do you?”

She barked again.

“Right.” He climbed out and jerked a thumb. “Let’s roll.”

Shy leaped to the sidewalk. He half expected, half hoped she’d run. Run home. Run off. Anything to relieve him of this newfound responsibility.

She sat by his side.

Great.

New job. New life. New, and unwanted, complication.

In an effort to root himself, he scanned Main Street and assessed the area. No skyscrapers. No public transportation. No street vendors or homeless beggers. Just a scenic grid of two-story buildings, antique street lamps, and meter-free curbside parking.

Eden, Indiana.

Smalltown, U.S.A.

Four eateries: Pizza King, The Box Car, Boone’s Bar and Grill and Kerri’s Confections.

One grocery store. One hardware store. One barbershop, beauty salon, car dealership, car wash, Realtor, dollar store, library, shoe store and pharmacy/sundry. One convenience store—Circle K. One department store—Kmart. Two churches—both Protestant. Two gas stations and one bank. Two dentists. Two doctors. Two lawyers—one of those being his brother-in-law, Frank Cortez, or as Jack called him: the Cheating Bastard.

Jack shook off the thought of the man who made him see red. His numbness did not extend to TCB. He breathed in the crisp autumn air and a heady dose of Americana.

Considering where he’d spent the past several years, he felt as if he’d traveled back in time. Kylie was right. Eden hadn’t changed in decades. The storefronts looked exactly as they had when he’d been a kid. J.J.’s place still had a soda fountain. A red-and-white-striped barber pole spun outside Keystone’s and the Bixley still showed feature films at bargain prices.

Unlike Kylie, he found comfort in the familiar. Especially when the familiar included old-fashioned values. His
CSI
cynicism could use a dose of
Leave It to Beaver
innocence. Dog at his side, he strode toward the station house, soaking in the sunshine and breathing smog-free air.

To think he’d blown out of paradise the day after he’d graduated high school. He’d been hungry for purpose and action. Jessie had accused him of having superhero syndrome. She’d said it like it was a bad thing.

Turned out, she was right.

As soon as she stopped giving him the cold shoulder, he’d concede and give her a chance to say I told you so. At least it would mean they were talking.

He shoved aside thoughts of his sister. She wasn’t the only one’s favor he needed to gain. He needed to earn the respect of his new unit. A skeletal crew divided among three shifts for twenty-four-hour coverage. His second in command, Deputy Ed Ziffel, worked 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Officer Andy Anderson covered the 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. The night shift belonged to Officer Bo Hooper. Dorothy Vine, their administrative assistant, pulled nine to five. Jack would float, working longer hours and where needed. He’d get to know the unit, but it would take time.

Prepared for the morning shift, Jack entered the station house along with the perky-eared, stink-ass dog.

Ed Ziffel sat at a dinged metal desk immersed in a book while devouring a powdery pastry. Ziffel had graduated high school two years behind Jack. They’d never been friends, but they weren’t enemies, either. After an hour in the man’s company yesterday, Jack knew why the town council hadn’t promoted from within. Some men are born to lead. Some…aren’t.

Jack cleared his throat.

Ziffel jerked his nose out of the book and brushed crumbs from his dark blue tie. He noted Jack’s attire. “Chief Curtis dressed in the official EPD uniform,” he said by way of a greeting.

“I know.” Part of the reason Jack had deviated. Dark blue Dutymax cargo pants and black LITE
Speed
running boots. He wore a white T-shirt under his tan polo shirt and a lightweight nylon blue jacket with Police embroidered on the right. His gold badge was clipped to his belt. His .40 caliber semiautomatic Glock was holstered at his hip. His headgear of choice—a blue ball cap—was embroidered with stark white letters: EPD.

His goal was to appear official yet approachable. According to the mayor, the former police chief had fallen out of touch with the populace. Burned out? Maybe. Probably. Christ. The man had been on the job thirty-five years. Shit happens.

Jack knew shit. He also knew people. He was an expert at reading personalities. An expert at blending. He could converse and connect with butchers, bakers and cold-blooded killers. His goal to bond with the citizens of Eden was both professional and personal.

“Guess you’re more comfortable in plainclothes seeing as you were a detective.”

Jack didn’t argue. He didn’t want to speak ill of Ben Curtis. He didn’t feel obliged to explain his clothes, though not official EPD attire, were in fact regulation. He took off his Oakleys, slid them into his inner jacket pocket. “Any activity I should know about?”

“Hooper got a call from dispatch at 2:31 a.m. Mrs. Carmichael reporting a possible break-in. Or vandalism. She swore someone was skulking around her house.”

The E911 Dispatch Center also dispatched calls to the Eden fire department, ambulance service, and to the animal control officer. Jack wondered how they kept up. Then again, this was Eden. They probably got four calls a day, total. “And?”

“Hooper drove out even though he knew he wouldn’t find any threat.”

Jack raised a brow.

“We get calls from the old woman at least once a week.”

“Regardless, Hooper investigated.”

“Bo Hooper’s a good man.”

“Didn’t mean to imply otherwise.”

Ziffel pursed his lips, nodded.

Jack bypassed his office—a disorganized nightmare—and drifted toward a pot of freshly brewed coffee. Shy slinked along. “So what did Hooper find?”

Focused on a manila file, Ziffel grunted. “A tree branch scraping against her upstairs pane.”

“I remember Sally Carmichael,” Jack said as he filled a blue ceramic mug to the brim. “Sunday school teacher.”

“Retired now.”

“Married forever.”

“Until Harry died.”

“Now she’s widowed, alone. Skittish.”

“Starved for attention,” Ziffel added.

“Lonely.”

The man nodded. “That’s our take. Especially at night.”

“Anything else?”

“This town doesn’t see much action.” Ziffel cast a subtle line. “At least not the kind you’re used to.”

Jack didn’t take the bait. He sipped coffee.

Ziffel didn’t take the hint. He fished deeper. “Folks are speculating on why a gung-ho cop like you would ditch New York City—maybe the most exciting city in the whole U.S. of A.—for hum-drum Eden.”

In other words, he was the subject of town gossip. He wasn’t surprised. He did, however, want to douse speculation. “I burned out on big crime.”

“Oh.” Ziffel looked disappointed by the straightforward answer. No drama. No scandal. No dancing around the subject. “Burnout is common in high-stress, high-risk professions,” he said. “So instead of melting down, you transferred out of a toxic environment into a wholesome community. Smart.”

Jack saluted the man with his mug. “No place like home.”

Shy whimpered.

The deputy peered over his desk. He noted the mutt leaning against Jack’s leg, frowned. “You brought your dog to work?”

“She’s a stray. I’m her caretaker. Temporary.” Jack gestured from canine to deputy. “Shy, Ziffel. Ziffel, Shy.”

“You named her?”

“Had to call her something.”

Ziffel, a rail-thin man with a face only his mother—and wife—could love, drained his mug, then joined Jack for a refill. “Should’ve stuck with ‘Dog.’ Once you give an animal a name, you’ve made it personal.”

Jack didn’t comment. Ziffel was a pain-in-the-ass know-it-all, but he didn’t care that he hadn’t been promoted, and according to the town council, he was a conscientious lawman. Jack needed a reliable deputy, a man who knew Eden and its citizens like the back of his hand. A man the squad already respected. Ziffel fit the bill.

Jack refilled their mugs.

Shy sat and leaned into Jack’s leg.

“
She
thinks she’s your dog,” Ziffel said, stirring two packets of sugar into his coffee.

“She’s anxious.”

“You mean attached.”

Jack sipped. “Hazelnut?”

Ziffel nodded, then shifted. “Chief Curtis liked Maxwell House Dark Roast. Day in, day out. Don’t seem right, drinking his brew without him. Thought I’d try something different.”

“It’s good.”

“Dorothy won’t like it.”

Jack’s gaze flicked to the assistant’s vacant desk. “Speaking of Ms. Vine…”

“This ain’t typical,” Ziffel said in her defense. “Dorothy’s one of the most punctual people I know.”

“Should I be worried?”

“She’s seeing to Chief Curtis’s…worldly possessions. He was a widower,” Ziffel explained. “No children.”

“I get it, Deputy.” No wife. No kids. No one to see to his affairs after he’d keeled over unexpectedly from a heart attack. Jack was in a similar position. No wife. No kids. Just a sister who resented him and a niece who didn’t know him. “Ms. Vine gets here when she gets here.”

“Right-o, Chief Reynolds.”

“Jack’ll do.

Ziffel smiled and Jack got the feeling he’d just risen a notch in the man’s eyes. “Know what you need with that coffee, Jack? Kerri’s apple strudel. I bought a half dozen. Help yourself.”

According to Ziffel, Kerri’s Confections was famous countywide. The proprietor, Kerri Waldo, a fairly recent addition to Eden, had a gift for creating heavenly desserts. Her recipes were spiked with secret ingredients and the daily special was usually a one-time affair. The freshly baked scents wafting from the box on Ziffel’s desk promised a decadent delight.

Jack wasn’t hungry, but this was a chance to bond with his new right-hand man. If it meant sampling strudel, so be it. He moved to Ziffel’s desk and dipped into the box. Two seconds later, nirvana. “Wow.”

“I’ve asked her to marry me three times,” said Ziffel.

“Aren’t you already married?”

“In this case my wife would consider bigamy a blessing. She’s addicted to Kerri’s sweets.”

Jack cracked a smile, sampled more strudel. Shy licked his fingers. He couldn’t blame the dog. Hard to resist heaven.

“Just so you know,” Ziffel said, narrowing his eyes on Shy. “Dorothy is a neat freak.”

“Really.” Jack’s gaze flicked to his office.

“Chief Curtis’s office was off limits. Said he had his own system. Knew where everything was. If Dorothy shifted so much as a pencil, he had a conniption fit.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know Curtis’s system. Ms. Vine can shift all the pencils she wants, and while she’s at it, I could use help organizing files.”

“That she’ll like.
That
,” he said, pointing to Shy, “she won’t.”

Jack had only met Dorothy Vine briefly, but long enough to know she’d view Shy as a hairy, four-legged disruption. He looked down and met the mutt’s baleful brown eyes. Could she be any more needy? “Ms. Vine will have to deal. Shy’s destructive when I leave her home alone.” He refreshed his coffee and moved into the disaster zone.

Ziffel followed. “Separation anxiety. Saw a special about it on Animal Planet. Stems from fear of abandonment. Especially prevalent in rescued strays.”

Jack sat at his desk and opened that day’s edition of the
Eden Tribune
—the rural voice of Miami County. Although the paper included state news, it typically focused on feel-good articles, local sports and community events. Far and away from the bleak and stark reports of the
New York Times, Daily News
and the
New York Post
. There was something to be said for Americana newspapers, especially by someone suffering big-city burnout. This week the paper brimmed with stories and advertisements for Eden’s upcoming Apple Festival.

Jack skimmed the classifieds while Ziffel spouted the advantages of hiring a dog trainer. “I don’t need a trainer. I’m not keeping her.” No mention of a missing dog in the lost-and-found section. “Figured I’d walk her around town. See if anyone recognizes her.”

“Without a collar and leash?”

Jack glanced up. “We have a leash law I don’t know about?”

Ziffel sniffed. “No law. But what if she attacks someone?”

“Shy’s afraid of her own shadow.”

“Doesn’t mean she won’t attack if provoked. Just because she’s meek… Where is she, anyway?” Ziffel turned, stiffened.

Jack saw what he saw—Shy with her nose in the red-and-white signature box marked Kerri’s Confections.
Shit
. “Don’t—”

“Hey, you thieving mutt!”

“—yell.” Jack was on his deputy’s heels. The sight of Shy crouched and trembling with apple goo and flaky crumbs on her snout made him smile.