Emergency Reunion by Sandra Orchard Page B

the flick of his gaze betraying his deception “—like, forever.”
    Cole let it slide.
For now.
If he wanted to earn Eddie’s trust, he needed his brother to at least think he believed him. “And where were you when this
guy
told you to raid her ambulance?”
    â€œAround.”
    â€œAround where?”
    â€œI don’t remember. The park maybe.”
    â€œThe park downtown?” Where psycho homeless guy hung out.
    â€œYeah, maybe. I hang there sometimes. It’s not like I go looking for him.” Eddie slurped his soup. “He finds me.”
    Cole didn’t like the sound of that. “He finds
you
?”
    â€œYeah, you know. We just kind of run into each other.”
    Yeah, Cole could imagine the kind of places they ran into each other. If anyone had asked him seven years ago if there was a booming drug culture in Stalwart, he would’ve laughed. Now...he wasn’t so sure. “You hang out together?”
    â€œNo, but he knows what it’s like to, you know, need a fix.”
    Needing to get his own fix on the guy’s whereabouts, Cole resisted the urge to point out that the guys at Teen Challenge knew, too, and cared a whole lot more about helping him. Eddie wasn’t ready to hear it yet.
    â€œHe sometimes gives me tips on where I can get stuff free,” Eddie went on.
    â€œYou mean steal it?”
    Eddie shrugged again.
    â€œWhat’s he drive?”
    â€œNever paid attention.”
    â€œBut he does drive? He’s not some homeless guy living on the street?”
    â€œHe doesn’t look like one.” Eddie pushed away his empty soup bowl. “We done?”
    Cole’s cell phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. Zeke? He’d thought his partner would be happy to have another day off from being saddled with him. Probably calling to rub in that his nephew wouldn’t be taking a sick day if he were on the job. Cole held up a finger to signal Eddie to wait a minute and clicked Talk. “What’s up?”
    â€œYou know where your brother is?” Zeke’s voice grated. Why the sheriff had partnered Cole with the one guy who resented him filling the new opening, he’d never know.
    â€œHere with me. Why?”
    Eddie’s wary gaze snapped to his.
    â€œYou’re lucky. Dispatch just got a call of a savage dog attacking a female paramedic.”
    Cole’s pulse jumped. Sherri was the only female paramedic in Stalwart. “Where? Is she okay?”
    â€œI don’t know what her condition is. I’m on my way. So’s animal control. She’s at Line One near Third.”
    â€œThanks for letting me know.”
    Zeke’s snort punctuated the click of him hanging up. Clearly his intention hadn’t been friendly.
    Cole threw cash on the table and grabbed Eddie’s arm. “We’ve got to go.” Zeke may have taken his word that Eddie was with him, but he wanted Sherri to see it for herself.
    â€œMe?” Eddie looked as if he thought Cole was taking him to a lynching—his.
    Â 

FIVE
    â€œN ice dog,” Sherri repeated to the snarling Rottweiler, her heart jack-hammering her ribs.
    Dan, who’d gotten away by ramming the dog with the gurney, was frantically trying to get dispatch to raise their 9-1-1 caller. “I told you I had a bad feeling about this place.”
    â€œNow? You really want to have this argument now?” His battering-ram routine hadn’t helped the situation. Eyes fixed on the hundred-pound mass of heaving muscle and bared teeth, she continued her slow back pedal. She already had one inquest hanging over her head. Making another patient wait because of a
feeling
hadn’t been an option. One more backward step and the jagged stucco of the L-shaped house dug into her spine.
    Her heart jumped to her throat. The dog had her cornered in the middle of the L, a good hundred feet from the safety of the ambulance. “What do I do now?”