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“Congratulations, Shep.” Marco’s voice was much friendlier than before. “Think you’ve already proven how much we need your help.”
“Thanks.” Prim still didn’t know about his career change, and neither did his uncle. There’d been no opportunity to share the news with them yet.
“Now that the big boys are involved, what’s our role?”
“Business as usual.” Adriel’s voice was firm. “Go through the motions. Act like everything’s normal. Let the Feds do the heavy lifting. They’ve got it from here.”
“Time frame?” Shep glanced at his uncle again, wishing the guy would give him more privacy. There was no way he wasn’t finished ladling stew into bowls.
“Hard to say,” Adriel mused. “In my experience, working with the Feds means we tell them everything we know, while they tell us next to nothing.”
“Easy,” Marco chuckled. “Inmyexperience, it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to get all the personnel and equipment in place for a raid of this magnitude.”
“That’s a little vague,” Shep pointed out testily. “Why such a wide window?”
“It depends on the priority the job is being given. Anything involving national security could get bumped ahead of us.”
Though Shep didn’t like his answer, it made sense. “Maybe I’ll camp out in the clinic parking lot tomorrow,” he growled.
“He said business as usual,” Adriel reminded in a hard voice. “Anything out of the ordinary could jeopardize the raid. So unless you normally breathe down Prim’s neck like that…”
Shep wisely kept silent.
“That’s what I thought.” Adriel’s voice lightened. “How about you and your K-9s camp out at the guard shack instead, and we’ll get started on those random drug checks in the morning? The upside is that no one will be able to enter or leave the rez without you laying eyeballs on ‘em.”
“Deal,” Shep said quickly. Considering his transitional status between the Heart Lake PD and the rez PD, what Adriel was offering him was more than fair.
“Good. Grab a little shut-eye and meet us in the morning. Early.”
Prim must have overslept again, because she shot Shep an apologetic text right before her shift at the clinic was due to begin.
Running late. Mind if Pink starts work on Monday instead of today?
Shep’s heart sank. Yes, he minded. Due to Adriel’s recommendation to keep business as usual, though, he kept his answer neutral.
Forget to set your alarm again?
It was nearly an hour before she responded.
Wardrobe emergency. Hard to explain.
He smirked, wondering if that was code for female monthly issues or something. His biggest comfort was knowing thatGil Remington would have the Heart Lake PD on her six the moment she crossed over the county line again after work.
The only wrinkle in their current business-as-usual status was the fact that it wasn’t safe to send Alina Paddock back to the rez. Not only did she know too much, she was too tearful to play a role.
Which turned out to be not 100% true.
Jace came up with the idea of rushing her to the emergency room at the Heart Lake Medical Center in the middle of the night, where she was more than happy to fake symptoms of pneumonia. Gil Remington pulled a few strings with his contacts there and managed to get her admitted.
All Shep could do now was watch, wait, and hope the Dallas Kings didn’t discover their cover had been blown. He went through the motions of assisting with random vehicle checks, but his heart wasn’t in it.
Marco stayed on his radio equipment, listening for any new chatter from the race car drivers. It was mid morning before he rapped on the window to get Shep’s attention.
Shep led Rook and Bishop on their leashes into the guard shack and instructed them to sit. “Any new developments?” He couldn’t think of any other reason for Marco to call him inside.
“Yeah.” Marco dropped into a chair to pore over a sheet of paper on the clipboard in front of him. “They just called for another drag race. We know it’s not happening. It never happens, so I’m not going to waste time sending a camera drone over there. This time, the announcement was different, which has me concerned.” He waved Shep closer, gesturing at a chart he’d sketched.
“These are the streets they’ve called for drag races on before. It’s always the same six streets. Different order every time. No identifiable schedule. This is the first instance they’ve called for two streets at the same time, though.”
