Home > Balls to the Wall (Birch Police Department #1)(6)

Balls to the Wall (Birch Police Department #1)(6)
Author: April Canavan

I had to hold Carter back as we watched his brother die. Keegan Malone, one of the officers that started with Birch right out of college while I was in the Marines, was shot in the line of duty. He never made it home.

Our entire county mourned his death, and sliding the black band onto my badge would never be okay. I hadn’t even known Keegan all that well, but losing him still cut deep.

The funeral filled the entire church, with officers from all over Maine and New Hampshire in attendance. I didn’t even make it through the eulogy before I found myself wiping a stray tear from my eye. I wasn’t the only one, either. When Keegan’s brothers spoke, it brought tears to every eye in the crowd. My gut clenched as I listened to his brothers speak about his life, a haunting shadow of the words that were said during Danny’s funeral.

I sat there, wishing more than anything that I wasn’t alone. That I had someone by my side, to hold my hand and reassure me that I would be missed if it were me in the casket. But my hand was empty, the seat next to me filled by another officer in our department.

After the ceremony, every other officer in our department filed out, except for me. I kept my eyes on the Malone family, waiting for a chance to talk to Carter and his remaining brothers.

The haunted look in Carter’s eyes when he saw me could have been mine. It had been mine when I lost Danny. Death fucking sucked.

"A drink right now sounds amazing," one of Carter’s brothers said as I approached their group. "Yeah, I think that’s a great idea."

"Thank you, Remy." Carter’s voice cracked, and the emotion he felt filled the air between the group of men. "For helping."

"We bleed blue." I shrugged. "You’re my brother and I’ll always have your back."

Carter nodded, and I left him with his brothers who had each other to lean on. I hugged my sisters, and I said a prayer for the lost soul of the man I hadn’t yet gotten a chance to make my friend.

In the chaos and aftermath of Keegan's death, I forgot all about Parker. Okay, not really. To be honest, I didn't have time to check on her. I swore that when everything calmed down, I’d take the time to have a conversation with her. To explain why I had to stay away. To tell her what Danny had wanted. Maybe then, we could go back to being friends. At least, that’s the lie I told myself in the aftermath of Keegan’s death.

It all started when my phone went off at three in the morning, on my day off.

"Sorry to wake you," the dispatcher said gleefully as soon as I answered. "But we need you. Actually, we need Daisy."

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and watching the dog in question glare at me from where she was lying at the foot of my bed, with my fucking pillow, I waited for dispatch to relay their reason for calling.

"We've got a missing child. Mother states she saw the boy around nine p.m. when she put him to bed."

My heart dropped into my stomach, and my limbs turned to lead. I was out of the bed, with my phone on speaker, while I got dressed a few seconds later. The scratchy wool pants that I usually complained about didn’t bother me. Nor did sliding into my bulletproof vest and uniform shirt.

"Fuck." I grunted as I stubbed my toe on my dresser. "Come on, Daisy. Time to go to work."

The German shepherd's ears perked up, and she stopped chewing on my pillow, which I hadn't even noticed before. Jumping down from the bed, her claws clacked on the wood floor as she made her way outside to do her business before we had to leave.

"Is there a CAD call up yet?" I yawned, unable to stop myself as I shoved my feet into my boots. Our Computer Aided Dispatch was the only way to get all of the information for a report remotely, with just a few clicks of the keyboard.

"Yep. All the information I've got so far is in there."

I rubbed my eyes after I walked outside into the chilly air and whistled sharply for Daisy to stop whatever nonsense she was up to in the backyard. Her collar jangled, and I heard the crunching of leaves as she took her time walking through the yard to the cruiser. I’d lost my patience though and gave her two short bursts of a whistle, back to back. At her signal to work, Daisy stopped messing around and stood at the ready by the cruiser less than two seconds later.

She jumped into her spot in the back seat of my cruiser as soon as I opened her door. When I climbed into the front seat and readjusted the gun on my hip, I pulled up my CAD, attached to the center console.

"Fuck." I rubbed my face and slammed the car into gear, backing out of my driveway. I peeled down the street and all the way through Birch with my sirens going.

The address on the CAD was familiar. Far too familiar.

I wasn't the only police car to pull into Parker's driveway, either. Her uncle, Sheriff Jake Findlay, was climbing out of his rig as I pulled in. While I was in uniform, or as much uniform as I could grab in the middle of the night, Findlay was in a pair of sweats and a hoodie.

"You brought the dog?" He didn't bother making eye contact.

Instead, he kept his eyes on Daisy who had jumped out of the cruiser. She trotted to my side and sat, ready to get to work. Satisfied, Jake turned his attention to Parker's open front door. I didn't know what to say, and time was of the essence, so I started toward the entrance to her house.

"Find him, Remy." Jake's voice broke slightly on the order, and I nodded even though I wasn't sure he was even looking at me.

Not one for making false promises, I didn't say anything. Honestly, I was afraid to. Parker didn't meet me at the door. I let myself in, with Jake on my heels, and heard something clatter in the distance.

"Parker?" I called her name, only to hear her curse. She practically ran from the upstairs, clutching a jacket like it was her lifeline.

"Here." She gasped, completely out of breath. "I grabbed his jacket from the dirty laundry." Her eyes went from me to Daisy at my side and then back. "You… You have her? You have Daisy working at BPD? I didn’t think she was going to be working.”

For just a second, silence stretched between us. Daisy was the only thing that we ever saw eye to eye on. Danny was assigned Daisy as part of his training. After he died overseas and Daisy was injured, the Marine Corps retired her, and because of Parker, she was able to come home with me. I never found out what Parker did, either. One day, I was being told that I couldn't adopt her, and the next the paperwork was approved and I was picking her up from the kennels on base.

The moment of understanding between us passed almost as quickly as it started, and Parker’s eyes slid to Daisy once more.

“She’s a working dog,” I explained after clearing my throat. “Daisy didn’t want to sit at home retired, not when she could work.”

Her voice broke, but a layer of steel underlined her words. “She'll find Nox." Parker thrust the jacket into my hands and walked directly into her uncle's open arms without looking back. "Uncle Jake," she cried. "I don't know what happened."

"Parker." I coughed. "Mrs. Hayes," I corrected myself, trying to force a professional distance between us.

When I said her married name, Jake snorted and rolled his eyes at me.

"You have to tell me exactly what happened," I continued. Doing my job, which I almost pointed out to Jake, even if he didn't want to listen to it.

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