LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter Four

      Back in Bent

      Laurel Delaney parked her police cruiser in front of Delaney Bank and glanced at the man in the passenger seat.

      Deputy Hart didn’t know it yet, but she’d asked him to be her second on this call because soon enough she’d have to disclose her pregnancy to her superiors. They might let her continue to do some light detective work but not in the field. Desk duty. Ugh.

      Regardless of how she felt at having to sit things out for months, Hart would be a good replacement for the duration of her desk duty and maternity leave. Yet that didn’t make it easy to accept someone else taking the role she’d worked so hard for. Bent County only had one detective spot, and she loved it.

      Sometimes you sacrificed what you loved for who you loved. She may have only just found out about this baby, but she already loved the child she and Grady had created with everything she was.

      Which was why Hart would take the lead on this case. Probably best regardless of her physical condition, considering the man who’d called it in was her father.

      Dad stood in front of the bank, looking grave and irritated. His patented look.

      He didn’t know about the pregnancy yet—no one but her and Grady did at this point. Dad wouldn’t be happy. But then, nothing about his children’s choices of significant others lately made him happy. Dylan and Jen were his only hopes. Laurel and Cam had been relegated to black sheep at best due to their choice to connect their lives with Carsons.

      It hadn’t been a choice, falling in love with Grady. Though she supposed they’d chosen to center their lives in that love.

      Laurel sighed and gave Deputy Hart a thin smile. “I’d ask you to take the lead, but my dad is only going to want to deal with me.”

      Hart grinned. Laurel knew he cursed his baby face, but she thought it’d often work in his favor as a detective. People underestimated the sharp mind and conscientious attention to detail underneath. “I’m counting on it,” he offered cheerfully.

      Laurel rolled her eyes but got out of her car. Darkness had settled around the bank, but the lights were still on. She took a deep breath of fresh air and shored up her patience to deal with her father.

      “Dad.”

      “Laurel.” He didn’t even give Hart a cursory look. “Took you long enough.”

      “You said it wasn’t an emergency.”

      Dad merely shrugged. “Have you heard from Dylan?”

      “No, but I wasn’t expecting to. Why don’t you tell me what you think happened?”

      “I don’t know what happened,” Dad snapped. He smoothed out his features, clearly remembering that it wasn’t just her in his audience. He had to play the role of upstanding Delaney for Deputy Hart. “I was driving home from the airport after my meeting in Denver. I passed the bank and saw the normal lights on instead of the security lights. So I pulled in, thinking someone had forgotten to switch over to closing lights, but the door was unlocked and no one was inside.”

      “And you suspect foul play?”

      Dad pressed his lips together, a sure sign of irritation. “I don’t know what to suspect. Neither your brother nor Adele will answer their phones. The safes are all closed and locked, and nothing appears out of place, but the evening paperwork wasn’t done, so I can’t be sure if every dollar is accounted for.”

      “So it was just Adele and Dylan working?” She nodded at Hart to start taking notes, pleased to see he already was. He was going to be a good replacement. Just hopefully not so good she couldn’t get her detective spot back when she returned from maternity leave.

      But that was so far away. She didn’t need to think about it now.

      “As far as I know. Adele was scheduled to close. Dylan wasn’t scheduled, but it’s not unheard of for him to be here until close. Still, we didn’t have any meetings, and he tends to check in with the foreman at the ranch before the foreman’s done at five.”

      “Why don’t Hart and I take a look around? Have you been home to see if Dylan’s there?”

      “No, but I called George and he hadn’t seen him.”

      Laurel felt the first little tickle of worry at the base of her spine. “Hart, I’ll take the inside. You take the outside. Dad, do you have security tapes?”

      He puffed out his chest. “Of course. I haven’t had a chance to look at them. I called you once I realized my bank had been abandoned and unlocked for who knows how long.”

      “Pull up the footage,” Laurel instructed, stepping inside. She began to look around the front counter. Though she’d never planned on following her father’s footsteps at the bank, she’d spent some time working as a part-time teller when she’d been in the police academy, since Dad had refused to pay for that.

      She knew her way around, and nothing appeared out of place. It didn’t look like your typical burglary. Surely it had just been someone’s mistake. She couldn’t imagine her brother or Adele Oscar, one of Dad’s higher-up employees, being that careless. But maybe if there’d been an emergency elsewhere?

      Yet there was the gut feeling that had gotten her through her years as a deputy, and now as Bent County Sheriff’s Department’s detective, that told her something was off. That this was more than an oversight.

      Hart appeared at the front doors. “There are two cars in the employee lot out back,” he said. “You want to come see if you recognize them?”

      Laurel nodded and motioned Hart to follow her through the back hall that would cut through the bank to the back lot. She passed Dad’s office and stopped when she saw him scowling and punching at the computer keys.

      He looked up and, though his face was scowling and angry, she saw the hint of worry in his gaze. “I’m not sure what happened, but there’s no footage today. It appears the cameras were turned off last night.”

      “Purposeful?”

      Dad shrugged. “I don’t know. I suppose it could be an accident, but whoever did it had access.”

      “I’ll need a list of anyone who has access and opportunity to turn on or off the cameras. Hart, sit down with him and write down everyone who had access. I’m going to check out the cars.” She moved through the back hallway briskly, that gut feeling diving deeper.

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