CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
DAN WOKE TO his phone vibrating on the nightstand. “Five o’clock! Who calls at five o’clock?” He lifted his cell as he rolled back into bed. “This better be important.”
“This is Agent Matthew McMillan with the ATF. We’ll be at your office in less than an hour, Sheriff. We understand you have a search warrant and we’re planning to assist in the raid of the Bar W. We have evidence of a drug operation in progress there.”
“I’ll be waiting for you and you’ll have my full support.” Dan could feel adrenaline popping through his veins. After all the work, the interviews, the worry, what he’d waited for was about to go down. ATF wouldn’t have called if they didn’t have evidence, and apparently they weren’t wasting any time.
He dialed Blade and told him the news. Blade didn’t seem surprised. All he said was, “McMillan doesn’t mess around. I’ll be there in one hour.”
Dan pulled on his trousers before heading to the kitchen to make coffee. By the time he got dressed, the coffee would be ready. Today promised to be the Fourth of July and Christmas all mixed together.
When he flipped on the kitchen light he heard a low groan, like a dying animal was in his study.
Reid! He’d forgotten about the drunk.
“Wake up, Collins. You’re coming with me. We’ve got a date at my office in fifty minutes.”
Reid’s only answer was another groan.
“I’ll uncuff you after I get dressed and the coffee is ready. Don’t worry about cleaning up. I have a feeling I’ll just be moving you to a cell. It’ll be best if you stay out of the way for a while. You can clean up there.”
Ten minutes later, when he returned to the kitchen, Reid was sitting up with the lamp by the couch on. Not surprising, Tim O’Grady was sitting on the other end of the couch, and neither of them looked like they were speaking to the other.
“I got to get that sliding door fixed,” was Dan’s only comment as he got out three cups. “Tim, why are you here?”
“I saw the lights on and Lauren’s car parked out front,” Tim shouted as if Dan were probably hard of hearing by now. “I came over to talk to her.” Tim frowned at Reid. “What’s he doing here? Is he under arrest? Don’t you have a jail you can put drunks in? This is way too much bringing your work home if you ask me, Sheriff.”
“I didn’t bring him home,” Dan said in a low voice. Answering Tim’s questions would be a waste of time; he’d only think of more.
Tim yelled a jumble of cusswords, then shouted, “I think he threw up on the coffee table.”
“Four cups,” Dan said as he reached for another coffee cup. “I’m sure you woke Lauren up, Tim.”
“Five cups.” Lucas stepped from Lauren’s room. He had jeans on but no shirt. “I got to talk to you, Sheriff. You’re not going to believe what we found last night on the Collinses’ back pasture.”
Dan slowly looked around the room. He didn’t know whom to murder first. Part of him simply wanted to go back to bed. The feds were moving in on the Bar W, Tim thought he lived here, Reid was still vomiting, and Lucas may have slept with his daughter.
Dan’s phone rang. He answered in more a growl than a hello. Then hung up without saying a word.
“All of you have to be in my office in fifteen minutes. The highway patrol and the Texas Rangers are showing up at the party early and all hell is about to go knocking on the Bar W door.” He hit 9-1-1. When Pearly answered he said, “Can you be at the office fast? We’ve got company coming in from all over the panhandle.”
Dan didn’t bother to say goodbye.
He looked back at the three men staring at him. Not one moved.
Dan straightened, becoming the general. “Lucas, get dressed and wake Lauren. She’s about to get a big story for her online paper. Tim, uncuff Reid and help him clean up. All of you get to Lauren’s car in five minutes and try to beat me to my office.”
“Me?” Tim shouted. “Why do I have to clean up the drunk? Why do I have to go into the office before dawn? I worked all night on a new story, which by the way isn’t near as strange as whatever’s going on here. I haven’t even been to bed. I’m too sleepy to take orders.”
Before Dan could yell back at Tim, Lauren stepped to her door wearing what looked like Lucas’s Western shirt, and all the snaps were not snapped.
“Morning, Pop,” she said, just as she had every morning since she could talk.
Lucas had the sense to push her gently back into her bedroom. “We’ll be ready in five, Sheriff,” he said as he closed the door.
Maybe he thought Dan was about to say something he’d regret, but in truth, Dan couldn’t think of a single word except maybe how he hated the way the lawyer felt it was his duty to help Lauren with her clothes.
Tim bumped his way around the sheriff as he dragged Reid to the kitchen sink and dunked his head under cold running water. Tim was yelling and Reid was screaming, but Dan simply put on his belt, pulled his service weapon from the safe and looked around for his hat. Maybe when he called Brandi tonight and told her what was going on, she’d make sense of it all.
Ten minutes later they all piled into Lauren’s car and Dan followed them to the station. As they were getting out, Dan put his arm around his daughter and said what he’d said a thousand times over the years, “Are you all right, baby?”
“I’m fine, Pop. I love Lucas. I always have.”
Dan looked at Tim cussing as he tried to unlock the office door and Reid leaning against a pole with his hair still dripping.
Dan whispered low to his only child, “I’m glad, honey. He seems to be the pick of the crop.”