Page 1

1

DODGER

I’m going to wring Cynthia Bailey’s neck for giving this woman a mortgage.

It’s every few days that she calls into the non-emergency line for some crazy shenanigans that are nothing but in her mind.

Adeline Kerrigan is quickly becoming the only constant thing I do in this town because, with her new house, she’s the number one caller who has rung the sheriff’s office more times than anyone in this town.

From a “weird” noise, to something running around in her attic. Last week she thought she smelt a gas leak, but it was her paint still drying on her walls.

She’s about to drive me to drink if she doesn’t stop wasting my time with stupid incidents at her house, because I spend more time with her than I do with anyone else as of late.

For the last month, anyway.

I know her daddy did everything for her and her sister, but this woman is paranoid about everything.

And I mean everything.

Tonight’s call consisted of her holding her phone up to a pipe and asking me if the sound was normal.

I couldn’t hear anything.

All I did was sigh and tell her I was going to be there in five minutes.

And here I am.

“Sheriff,” I hear my evening dispatcher, Chloe, say on my walkie. “We just got a call from Adeline Kerrigan statin’ there’s a suspicious man on her property. Can you take that, or should I call in Bowen to handle it?”

Lifting my chin, I look heavenward because I’m the suspicious man on Adeline Kerrigan’s property.

Hitting the button on my walkie to speak, I say, “I’ve got it.”

My walkie beeps, then Chloe’s, “Thanks, Sheriff,” on the other side.

Why go to a big city and get full-blown action when Adeline Kerrigan gives me enough drama and phone calls to keep me occupied?

Beats the shit out of me.

I get asked the question all the time, but Magnolia Ridge keeps me on my toes well enough, and since Adeline moved into her new house, she keeps me tied up for more hours than I’d like.

Stepping onto her small cement porch, I raise my hand and give four hard knocks to her front door with a gritted, “Sheriff’s Department.”

The door whips open within a second, causing me to step back from the velocity of it, and out comes her.

Adeline Kerrigan.

I’m not going to lie, Adeline is one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen. She’s a Southern belle—which would normally bug the crap out of me—but she’s got a knack for being just above the belt with it.

She’s polite, but she can throw shade at anyone with her accent and sweet smile.

She’s hospitable, but she knows how to get you to leave without making you feel like you’re getting kicked out.

Her attire is spot-on with dresses—maybe a little shorter than what some of the middle-aged women might approve of around here—but she’s a woman who looks good, smells amazing, and is independent as all get out.

Except when it comes to noises in her house.

She should’ve been a model. Her body is lean, and she’s tall. She moves with grace and is always perfectly put together with make-up on, like she’s expecting company at all times.