Fate and Destiny (23 page)

Being such an oaf, Doug
believed them as they convinced him they were all working to save
Destiny, but the more he thought about it, the stupider he felt.
They would say anything to get him to willingly come to the police
station so they could lock him up. Even when he went outside with
Andrew, he thought about knocking the other man out, taking his
plow, and leaving. The man limped, it wouldn’t have been too hard
to overpower him. Even without the limp, Doug could have smashed
him to pieces. The only thing stopping him was the promise he made
to himself to help Destiny, even if she really didn’t want it. He
frightened her. While he’s sitting in jail, he will have to figure
out a way to help her. Noise from the driver’s seat disturbed his
doomed thoughts. Confused, he turned towards Matt.

“
What?”

“
I said, you don’t seem to
belong with this group that’s doing this to Destiny. You’re a
better person than they are.”

Matt suddenly held Doug’s
attention completely, all thoughts of jail and fear pushed to the
back of his mind.

“
How am I any better than
they are? I’m the one who took her up there and left
her.”

The smile on Matt’s face
confused Doug even more.

“
You want to help her.
That’s very noble of you. I have the feeling you didn’t want to be
involved in any of this to start with. When they arrested Lenny,
they ran both of you through the system and you came up clean
except for a couple of things when you were younger. Besides, I
deal with bad guys all the time and you don’t fit the
bill.”

“
Noble? Me?”

Doug was shaking his head,
caught up in Matt’s words, his mouth moving as if he wanted to say
something, but didn’t know how.

“
Yeah, you.”

Matt laughed softly. This
guy probably never had a compliment in his life. Matt spent a
little time with Lenny, questioning him about what he was doing on
the mountain. Of course, Lenny stuck to his original story. He also
became belligerent and acted superior to Matt as well as the other
officers. Lenny was a slimeball. His rap sheet was clean, but Matt
was positive that was because Lenny simply got others like Doug to
do his dirty work.

“
You could have gotten in
your truck and left when Lenny went to jail. Hightailed it right
out of here. Instead, you went back to that mountain, not knowing
what could happen to you. You made a mistake by getting involved
and bringing her here, but then you tried to make it right. That’s
pretty noble in my eyes.”

Doug’s head switched
directions while Matt was talking. It now went up and down instead
of side to side.

“
I wanted to fix it. I
didn’t want to hurt her.”

“
I know Doug. Now we are
going to work together and help her. This building up here on the
right is the police station.”

Doug looked at the
house-like building Matt pointed to. It didn’t look like the police
stations in Vegas. It reminded him of the old school down the road
from his mom’s house. Pointed roof, windows in the front, painted a
light blue. As the Bronco neared the parking lot, Doug craned his
neck to get a better look at the length of brick extending from the
back of the modified house. That part certainly looked like a
police station. Long, brick, small narrow windows set high in the
walls. Definitely institutional. As Matt parked the Bronco in a
designated space directly in front of the building, Doug turned to
him, holding his arms out in front of him, wrists
together.

“
I’ll let you put the
cuffs on me now. I won’t fight you.”

Raising one eyebrow, Matt
placed his hand on Doug’s shoulder, giving it a reassuring
squeeze.

“
I’m not going to put
cuffs on you at all. You aren’t being arrested. Even if you decide
you don’t want to help after all, you can turn around and walk away
at any time. I’ll even drive you back up to Andrew’s place so you
can get your truck.”

Releasing his grip on Doug,
Matt nonchalantly scooped up what he needed from the truck, donned
his hat, opened the door, and stepped out of the vehicle. Doug sat
stiffly, arms still outstretched while Matt waited patiently on the
sidewalk in front of the station. Finally letting his arms relax,
Doug opened his own door and got out. The parking lot and sidewalks
were clean of snow and ice although the bushes against the building
held mounds of crisp white snow. It was warmer here than on the
mountain despite chilling winds that intermittently sprung
up.

Matt held the door open for
Doug to walk into the police station, quickly entering behind him,
pulling the door shut against the brisk wind. Doug remained
cautiously by the front door as Matt walked around him. The room
was warm and inviting. Comfortable waiting chairs sat unused in the
space closest to the door. Plants in colorful planters adorned the
tables in the corners. Magazines spread across a large coffee table
in the center of the room on a bright carpet. A coffee pot and
water cooler took up another table against the far wall. A pink box
of doughnuts and muffins beckoned to Doug from next to the coffee
pot. His stomach growled, protesting the torture of the heavenly
scents of coffee and doughnuts, and from some unseen source,
curiously, cinnamon.

“
Doug, help yourself to
coffee and doughnuts.”

Matt briskly walked into
the office of the station through a section of the counter that
swung away as he pushed against it. Doug didn’t pay any more
attention to Matt as he focused in on the pink box. After placing
two custard filled long johns on a napkin, and pouring a cup of
dark steamy coffee, Doug went to the swinging half door set into
the counter. 

The office area took up the
rest of the original one room building. Windows were spaced evenly
along both sides. A solid security door in the center of the back
wall marked the entrance to the jail cells. Six desks, three on
each side, occupied the space between the counter and the back
wall. Matt was standing at one of them, talking to the same girl
Doug and Lenny talked to in the diner. She sat in a chair at the
desk, rolling her eyes at Matt. The sheriff stood rigid, surprising
Doug with a rare show of impatience and irritation.

“
It’s one little candle. I
promise I won’t let it burn the building down!”

“
Doreen! How many times do
I have to tell you it’s a fire hazard? You could get up and talk to
someone at the counter and the candle could tip over.”

“
Geez Matt. I would see if
it tipped over. Besides, the only people who come in here are the
ones mooching coffee and doughnuts.” Her cheeks reddened as she
spotted the man who quietly entered with Matt. “Sorry, I didn’t
mean you.”

 “
It’s okay.” Doug
shrugged.

Remembering Doug was there,
Matt gave Doreen one last waggle of his finger and the millionth
warning glance. In return, Doreen stuck her tongue out at Matt as
only a little sister can.

“
Doreen, have you ordered
lunch yet?”

“
Uh no, it’s only eleven.
I’m not hungry yet.”

She was flippant. Not only
to spite Matt’s warning tone, but because of it.

“
Doreen.”

Amused, she suppressed a
giggle as Matt glared at her, smiling, but with all teeth, his lips
barely-there thin strips.

“
This gentleman’s name is
Doug. I am going to be working with him for the next several hours
on an extremely important case. I would like you to order lunch
please.”

The eyes rolled
again.

“
Oh man, did Mrs. Bristol
lose her cat again? Last time, she called us, the fire department,
the paramedics from County, and she made two calls to the National
Guard branch over in Leyton!”

No one got under Matt’s
skin. Ever. No one except Doreen. The girl never stopped talking,
and some of the things that came out of her mouth were so
outrageous Matt thought he would have to peel people off the
ceiling. She also knew everything about everyone and had no qualms
about sharing her knowledge with anyone who would listen. He only
told her what she needed to know, which most of the time, was very
little. The special case in question was no exception. She did seem
to curtail her tongue when police matters fell across her ears,
unless it was bound to be public knowledge soon anyway.

“
No
Doreen, It is not Mrs. Bristol’s cat. Listen up.
 
Serious
 
police
business.”

If he spoke slowly, maybe
it would sink in through her thick skull. If she rolled her eyes at
him one more time, he could not be held responsible for handcuffing
her and locking her in the closet with the mop.

“
Everything with you is
 
serious
.”

Placing his knuckles on her
desk, Matt leaned down, glaring into her laughing eyes as she
muffled her giggles behind her hand.

“
You know you’re adopted,
right?”

The giggles broke forth as
she jumped up from behind the desk.

“
Don’t I wish?”

Gracefully, she swooshed
through the office space, snapping the interior latch on the
swinging door. As Doug cautiously entered the area behind the
counter, Doreen bent at the waist in an exaggerated bow, arm
outstretched, welcoming him in.

“
Please excuse my
brother’s horrible manners. He was raised by chimps you know. My
darling mother took pity on the poor child and tried to make him
human. Too bad she failed.”

Doug stopped in the middle
of the path between the desks, unsure of where to go from there.
She was kidding about the chimp part. At least Doug hoped she was
kidding, but he looked at the sheriff to be sure. One corner of
Matt’s lip curled upward, his brows together, trying to be stern,
but the humor in his eyes gave him away.

“
Doreen, call over to the
diner and order lunch please? Doug, what would you
like?”

Doug shrugged again. He had
some money Lenny left in the truck for gas, and he ate at the diner
the night before, but he couldn’t think of anything on the menu.
The imp of a girl leaning on the counter was distracting him. And
the most interesting thing about her was she didn’t seem to be
frightened of him at all. She actually stood there looking him
straight in the eye. She didn’t avert her gaze or stammer in his
presence. She was even smiling at him. He smiled back.

“
C’mon, big guy. I’m
buying. You can have anything you want. They have great burgers and
fries. The big potato kind, not the skimpy little frozen things. Or
if you feel like breakfast, they serve this omelet thing that will
keep you full for days.”

Nodding, Doug thought it
all sounded good.

“
Burger and fries please.
Can I have cheese on the burger?”

“
Absolutely. Doreen, get
two of the lunch specials loaded with everything. Oh, and order a
couple of slices of Nancy’s pecan pie for dessert.”

Doreen was already on the
phone at the counter placing the order. Matt directed Doug to sit
in a chair at the very last desk opposite from where Doreen sat.
Before taking a seat at his place behind the desk, Matt blew out
the candle, picked the jar up from the bottom, and carried it to
his desk, hiding it on the floor behind the trashcan. Settling into
the leather, Matt noticed Doug had not taken his eyes from Doreen.
Doug didn’t look at her like an animal spotting prey, but more like
a choirboy adoring his Sunday school teacher.

“
Don’t let her spiked
tongue fool you. She’s a good kid and an excellent assistant.
Research, dispatch, counselor. She does a good job around here,
although sometimes I want to gag her.”

Doug quickly tore his gaze
from Doreen and looked at Matt before turning a brilliant shade of
red and dropping his eyes to examine the remaining doughnut in his
hand.

“
I’m sorry. I don’t mean
to stare at her. I just don’t know if I have ever seen anyone like
her.”

Softening his tone, but
still maintaining his humor, Matt didn’t want to frighten Doug. The
big guy was skittish enough.

“
She’s like a lot of
people. What makes you think she’s different? Besides the big
mouth?”

Doug glanced back at
Doreen, who was walking back to her desk and discovering her candle
gone. Without missing a beat, she reached into her desk drawer and
pulled out a white candle. Vanilla wafted through the air. Doug’s
eyes looked to Matt.

“
She doesn’t look
scared.”

“
She must buy those things
in bulk.”

Distracted by his
irritation, it took Matt a few seconds to realize what Doug
said.

“
Of course she’s not
scared. What would she be scared of?”

Shrugging, Doug resumed his
inspection of the doughnut.

“
You think she should be
scared of you? Did you jump out and yell ‘boo’ or something? Why
should she be scared?”

Another shrug. As Matt
watched, he could almost see Doug’s self esteem
dropping.