Reasonable Suspicion

Barbara Butterfield

Description

Officers Dan Temple and Andy Thomson are still busily patrolling the streets of South County. Their first books: Incident Command and Routine Patrol weren’t enough to stop these deputies as they continue to faithfully serve and protect.
Reasonable Suspicion is a patchwork of incidents and life events to which they have been called to rise to the occasion and battle the odds. No matter what life throws their way, Temple and Thomson get the job done. Occasionally, their methods may drive Lt. Ruger crazy, but he knows they can be counted on to save the day. Or can they?

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 17 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669869054
• Langue: English

Extrait

REASONABLE SUSPICION
 
 
 
 
 
Barbara Butterfield
 
 
Copyright © 2023 by Barbara Butterfield.
 

Library of Congress Control Number:
2023904128
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-6907-8

Softcover
978-1-6698-6906-1

eBook
978-1-6698-6905-4
 
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 02/28/2023
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
850925
Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Credits
Dedication
Thanks and appreciation are extende d to
my friend, and consul tant:
Dan Templ eton
Formerly a Deputy with
El Paso County Sheriff’s Of fice
For his willingness to critique chapters and lend his i nput.
His knowledge, borne from years in law enforcemen t as
well as military experience, is valuable and appreci ated.
* * *
My heartfelt gratitude and thanks are also
extended to my be stie:
Sue Gardner, RN (Ret.)
For her tenacious proofreading of this manusc ript
and lending her insight, which definitely impr oved
the final outcome of the s tory.
Blessings al ways!
Chapter 1
It had all happened so quickly, but then bad things usually do. Having been hit, the sudden impact of the bullet sent him reeling. After several seconds, his body rolled to a stop when he bumped up against the 2’ diameter trunk of a large pine tree. Dazed, he lay on his side, where he faced the thorny bark. Initially, he didn’t understand what had just happened. But all too quickly, reality hove into view with startling clarity.
Thirty-eight-year-old Andrew Thomson, a patrol officer with South County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD) had no idea anyone disliked him so vehemently. It was obviously a hatred whose embers burned so hot that someone would attempt to murder him.
When the contract had been fulfilled and yet the victim remained alive, the shooter just flat out didn’t know what to do. Confused by this unexpected turn of events, it had always seemed to his altered frame of mind that shooting someone from a thousand yards might be considered acceptable behavior.
It could only be guessed that was because from such a distance the shooter couldn’t really make out his target’s facial features. Hence, the victim lost a modicum of his humanity, and therefore became more of a character, perhaps from a video game. But when viewed up close, the man just could not bring himself to shoot his victim in cold blood. An act, mind you, that he’d had no trouble performing only minutes before.
Daily, Andy attempted to plan his schedule so that after his shift there would still be plenty of time in which he could go for a jog around the park near his home. Though the day and time could often vary simply by how the events of any one day might have played out. Hence, he didn’t always leave his house at precisely 6:00 in the evening, especially when he was late getting home from work. However, over the last few weeks he had begun to fall into more of a routine. To those who stealthily surveilled him that regular schedule had proven helpful and would also prove to be the officer’s downfall.
Andy lay on the ground in the concealing shadows of nearby evergreen trees. When he had collected himself enough to realize he’d been shot, and was thankfully still alive, he allowed himself to slowly ease onto his back.
Unnervingly, that was the precise moment his hearing detected the unmistakable sound of a round being chambered as the slide of a handgun was pulled back and then released. Stunned, his gaze rose upward to where it met the hooded, dark brown eyes of his would-be assassin.
The man stood just over 6’ tall, and was slender in build, but not scrawny. He held the gun at the ready, pointed downward, and aimed directly at the center of the chest of the jogger he had just tried to kill.
“Don’t move,” the man ordered, demanding obedience.
“I’m not,” Andy confirmed, as his left hand clung fast to his right shoulder doing his best to protect the injured extremity. He held on tightly because to his way of thinking the greater the pressure the less pain he would feel, but his action could also help stop the bleeding. However, it was becoming evident that wasn’t working too well as rivulets of bright red blood could be seen seeping in between his fingers and running down his hand.
“Why couldn’t you be like all the others and just die,” the man petulantly accused. Apparently, having his intended victim survive the attempted murder was a drawback for him.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Andy grumbled, unmoving.
“Well, I can’t just shoot you here like this,” the man stated. Exasperated, he threw his hands up in the air.
“You said something about the others ?” Andy inquired. He figured that by starting a conversation it might help get the man’s train of thought off the fact that his target was still alive and breathing. It might also serve to uncover some potentially interesting information in which SCSD detectives might be very interested.
“Yeah, what about ‘em?”
“You’ve killed before?”
“Ohhh sir, it’s what I do.”
“Couldn’t get regular employment, huh?” Andy chided.
“Shut the…” the man started to shout but decided not to as he saw some joggers approaching up the lakeside path.
“Don’t say one word,” the man ordered, his voice low and menacing.
“Not a problem,” Andy replied, and both men silently watched as two females jogged past their location. Hidden by the dense foliage, and the shadows of early evening, the women never saw or heard anything amiss and kept right on running.
“Damn,” the man swore as he watched them run off, and slowly shook his head.
“There’s a problem?”
“Yeah, there’s a problem. If it wasn’t for you, I could take my time with them and maybe have a little fun,” he explained, and becoming angry his left foot lashed out, kicking Andy in the ribs. He grimaced with the sudden pain but said nothing.
“How…how many people have you murdered?” Andy asked, interested on both a professional level as well as just morbid curiosity.
“Oh, I don’t murder,” the man corrected, shaking his head.
“But you said you killed.”
“Dispatched,” the man corrected. Andy had to think about that for a minute as he pondered what place semantics held in the commission of a murder.
“You dispatch …people?” Andy inquired, his eyes narrowing on the man.
“Yeah, and I get paid well too.”
“You’re a paid killer?” Andy stated, surprised by what he was hearing.
“Is there any other kind?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Then they’re stupid to kill for free. I make good coin doing this. One target every couple of months…shoot, I get paid good enough I work about two hours every other month or so.”
“Sounds lucrative.”
“Ohhh yeah, for sure.”
“Ever give any thought to the fact that what you’re doing is illegal, not to mention immoral?”
“I used to. I mean, it really sorta’ used to bug me, you know?”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, it really did. But then I pushed through and decided it was a pretty easy way to make ends meet.”
“You don’t get caught?”
“Nope. You see, that’s all part of the gig. I do it my way, and for a successful score I get paid very well, but it also ensures that I get away. But the pay is good enough, so all I have to do is lay low for a couple months. Once the heat is off, or you know…things cool down a little, I can emerge from my cave…that’s what I like to call it,” he explained with a chuckle. “And take another job.”
“You advertise?”
“Naw, it’s all word of mouth. That’s how it works best, you know. I do a good job and the guy that hired me is happy with the results. Then, as the need arises, he tells someone, and then they tell someone and generally, it keeps a steady stream of income coming in.”
“But you’re murdering people,” Andy argued.
“The way I look at it i