Heathens & Hold Ups (Book 2 of the Heathens Duet)

Chapter 46- Agent Rivers

The air freshener is trying its hardest, but the overpowering odor of my partner's cheap aftershave and sour cream and onion chips are impossible to overcome. Paired with the fact that the air conditioner still has to be run at all since Texas didn't seem to get the memo that November is a fall season, I am well and truly over this case.

This case has been driving me crazy since the moment it dropped into my lap. It should have been a simple collar; bank heists are pretty straightforward. Most criminals don't go into things trying to reinvent the wheel.

Something is off about all of this. None of the pieces are lining up like they should. The profile we were able to construct before we flew down gave us four suspects, highly trained, close unit. The amounts taken would have suggested they were treating this all as a training exercise for something bigger. All of this rang true until things changed in Gremory. Calista Danvers was unexpected. A wrench in not only their plan, but our profile. I'm just not quite sure she's done.

This whole town feels like it's straight out of some sitcom with the whole everyone knowing each other and smiling for no reason. At least, until I start asking questions. I can't count the number of times I've been served a glass of sweet tea with a smile and my questions kindly avoided until I'm ushered out with the same politeness I was welcomed with.

It's a skill the academy could teach a class on. 'Avoidance by Way of Kindness'. It'd be taught by some wrinkled old southern woman who starts every class with a story about her family or neighbors and a basket filled with freshly baked goods. Asking about the recipe would lead her on a twenty-minute minimum tangent that would end with no recipe and no questions answered.

The leads I've been trying to follow keep dodging my questions left and right. Sheriff Barnes was an initial one, with his son's disappearance happening around the same time as Calista's return. Oh, he was cooperative. Just as much as he was legally required to be. He didn't act anything like a man whose son was missing. He seemed fit to let the case go cold, telling me that Colton would find his way home if that's where he was meant to be. It was in the Lord's hands now.

Alarms were sounding for me, but Vernon kept pushing for me to drop it. Told me there was no way the sheriff wouldn't be doing everything in his power to find his son if there was foul play involved. The kid probably just got burned out and couldn't hack it as a deputy. Took off to save his dad the shame. I understand that Vernon grew up in the south too, a smallish town not too different from Bells. He has a different perspective on all of this that I just can't compete with.

Still, his playbook hasn't been getting us any further ahead than my approach. I'm not blind to the way he's rubbed our key witness the wrong way, but protocol is pretty strict with not wanting us to question a person of interest alone. At this point, I'm not positive that it would make much of a difference if I talked to Danvers alone.

. The Hamiltons themselves have been one hoop after another to even get a direct email to. The few minutes of their time that I've managed to piece together usually involve me and the bureau being insulted for not handling this quicker. Typical rich pricks treating us like we're their local county police, not a national federal agency. Servants ready and willing to do their bidding. The amount of times I have personally been told, 'our tax dollars pay your salary'. The least I could do is be accommodating to their busy schedules. Proof that money and class will never go hand in hand.

That Walker woman though is a lead I want to look more into. Vernon insists she's a dead end, but I don't think so. Kaitlyn Walker is near the top of the list for people who have been hounding the Hamiltons for a laundry list of reasons, most of them valid.

If I thought I could get away with it without being yanked back to the home office for conflict of interest, I'd report some of those reasons. Gross abuses of power like that should be investigated.