In the background, Tucker heard his sister.
“Who got shot at?”
Tucker winced. “I’ll let you go now.”
“Chicken,” Rodney growled. “You could talk to her and let her know you’re okay.”
“Well, you can tell her that I’m okay,” he said, laughing. And, sure enough, he hung up. He looked at Addie. “See? He’s fine.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she said, shaking her head. “And I don’t blame your sister for having prewedding jitters. It’s a hard decision.”
“I guess it is,” he said comfortably.
“I’ve never been in that position, so I don’t know. Besides, she must have a reason for taking as long as she has,” she said, defending his sister.
He grinned. “Don’t you worry. We both love her, no matter how many prewedding jitters she has.”
She settled back. “I’m being foolish, aren’t I?”
“Nope,” he said. “You’re cute when you’re upset.”
She snorted at that. “That line work for you?”
“Never tried it before,” he said with another big grin on his face.
She sighed. “You haven’t been close to getting married yet?”
“Nope, not at all. Never felt the urge. You?”
“I’ve never had any relationships that got that serious.”
“I think it takes a special relationship to get there,” he said. “You know? You either hit it off earlier or it doesn’t happen.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’d like to think that, for some people, they can grow into a long-term relationship that stands the test of time, but I just haven’t had too much experience with it myself. My parents are very good at enabling each other, but I don’t know that they’re very good together,” she said. “So it’s not exactly been a plus in my book for a prime example of a happy and fulfilling marriage.”
“Understood,” he said. “I kind of want to meet them, out of curiosity, but I don’t really want to meet them.”
“I kind of want to see them and give them hell myself,” she said, “but I don’t want to. Dealing with their own relationship and with their manipulative daughter is something I’ve brought up several times, and I know that no good news comes from that.”
“And it’s not your problem,” he said. “Just make sure your sister doesn’t have any more animals around her, but, beyond that, not a whole lot you can do.”
“She treats people the same way,” she muttered.
“As long as she can control them, she does.”
She smiled. “You do understand, don’t you?”
“I do,” he said. “That doesn’t make it any easier on you.”
“No, but at least you don’t think I’m making it up. And you realize dealing with my sister is out of the question. I’ve had some friends who didn’t understand at all why I wasn’t jumping all over my sister every time she pulled this shit. They just didn’t get how much trouble it was to deal with her.”
“And with somebody who’s so far off that line of normal,” he said, “most people won’t believe you anyway.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of where I’m at now,” she said. “What’s that up ahead?” she said, leaning forward.
“Looks like a roadblock.” He pulled into the long line of vehicles and grabbed his phone, calling the detective. “I see you got a roadblock up?”
“Only at the outskirts of town,” he said, “and several officers were already there at the scene of an accident,” he said. “I wish I knew what I was looking for exactly.”
“I gave you the description of the vehicle and the tags. I don’t think he saw me, so he should be in the same small Honda Accord with the same tags. I don’t know if you talked to my brother-in-law yet or not,” he said, “but he knows the owner of the vehicle is Rural, and he’s a painter who works for him. Just may not be the driver today.”
“And you saw the shooter run into the vehicle?”
“I saw this man run into the driver’s side and take off, and he was carrying a handgun.”
“No sign of the vehicle yet. How would he know you were there in the woods again?”
“He must have had the house under surveillance and followed us to the restaurant,” he said. “We did have an intruder in the backyard last night. But, between the War Dog and security on the property where we stayed at last night, he got run off. It’s possible he was there at the woods for the same reason I was—to make sure no evidence was left behind. It’s also possible that my brother-in-law might have said something to somebody in his crew. We were talking about meeting at the restaurant this morning to look for any other signs from the attack last night.”
“So maybe the shooter was doing the same thing,” he said doubtfully.
“Maybe. I didn’t see anything except for some footprints,” he said.
“And maybe that’s because he already picked up anything else.”
“Well, he should be ahead of us. We’re behind at least fifty cars in the roadblock,” he said.
“I’m here,” the detective said, “walking up the road.”
Tucker opened his truck door and stood on the running board for a better view. “And look at that,” Tucker said. “We have a small Honda Accord up ahead.”
“The car is about seven away from me,” the detective said. “Hang on, while I keep walking.”
“Just take it easy,” Tucker said. “Remember how I said he’s got a handgun.”
“As long as it hasn’t been fired recently and he has a license for it, then he’s okay,” the detective murmured. “If not, that’s a different story.”
“You don’t want him firing at you. I do have the dog though.”
“What do you expect the dog to do?” the detective asked.
“Well, she’ll certainly recognize him because they had quite a scene outside. He managed to get into the vehicle after she chased him.”
“Huh.”
“Not to mention the fact that, if he’s got any accelerant in his vehicle or on his person or used any in the last twenty-four hours or so, I imagine she’ll smell it on him.”
“But we can’t use that in a court of law.”
“No, not yet, because I haven’t been working with her long enough, and I don’t have my registration or training for that kind of thing, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use it to coerce a confession.”
“Well, it all sounds good in theory,” he said, “but I’m looking at the vehicle from where I am.”
“And who’s in it?”
“A single male.”
“Get backup,” Tucker said immediately. “If he feels cornered, he’ll likely shoot you.” The detective hesitated, and Tucker said, “Screw this. I’ll pull off onto the shoulder. I’m coming with the dog. Just hold tight.”
True to his word, Tucker pulled the truck off to the shoulder and stopped and parked it at a spot on the shoulder that was a little wider, looked at Addie, and said, “I need to go.”