The Sharps Unleashed Read online

  “I’m not afraid to face the dangers of this world. I don’t want to be used by the people I’m supposed to be able to trust. I don’t want them to turn me into something I’m not.”

  “The ‘official report’ on Walker is that he disappeared while on assignment and is missing in action. They didn’t create a tale of him going rogue.”

  “The report has plenty of insinuations that he might have defected.”

  “What if he did? What if they’re protecting the bureau and its reputation by being generous with his true nature?”

  “Walker wouldn’t…”

  “Babe, stop, you don’t know that. We probably will never know the truth. You have to accept that and move on.”

  Robin tries to break free from Grace, but Grace shoves her back against the wall and presses her body against her.

  “Kiss me.” Robin’s eyes narrow and she presses the back of her head against the wall, putting more distance between her and her wife’s face. “No. You’re not going to bury this moment in sex.”

  “I didn’t say anything about sex. I want you to kiss me.”

  Robin releases a groan of agitation, and roughly breaks free from Grace, spins, and pins Grace against the wall. Grace smiles as Robin darts forward and engages her in a rough fast kiss. Grace slowly glides her hands over Robin’s head, neck, and back. Robin’s mouth slows, and her kiss softens. Their breathing increases to rapid panting, mixed with quiet moans.

  Robin suddenly pulls back and punches a hole in the wall several inches to the side of Grace’s head. Leaving her fist in the wall, she crumbles into Grace’s arms crying .

  Grace pulls Robin’s hand out of the wall and wraps her wife in her arms. She kisses her head and strokes the back of her neck.

  “He did it, didn’t he? He defected.” Grace kisses Robin’s head again and squeezes her closer. “I don’t know, babe. Is that the real reason why you don’t want to go back – you think he did and you might have to face him one day?”

  “Yes.”

  Grace’s eyes tear up and she swallows hard, trying to push her emotions down so she can remain strong for her wife. Robin releases a small sob against her neck, and Grace breaks. Tears freely streak her cheeks and her chest shakes with pain.

  Robin almost never cries, so when she does, Grace knows she’s really hurting, and to see her wife in so much pain causes her pain.

  It takes several minutes for Robin to compose herself, till she’s just lying on Grace’s shoulder with her eyes closed, her lips pressed to Grace’s neck, and taking slow deep breaths through her nose. Grace traces her thumb around Robin’s ear, and gently pinches her earlobe. Robin lifts her head to look in Grace’s eyes, and Grace gives her a loving patient smile.

  “Tell Hodgins to give me a week and we can talk.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will you finish eating with me?”

  “Only if you kiss me first.”

  Grace releases a small laugh and pulls Robin into a kiss. As they pull apart, Grace smooths her thumbs over Robin’s cheeks, and pecks her lips and eyes.

  “Are you upset with me?”

  “No.”

  “Good. I love you and I hate to see you hurting and angry and confused. ”

  “I love you too. I’ll fix the wall this weekend.”

  “We needed to paint in here anyway.” Robin smiles and gives Grace a kiss. “Ok, let’s eat. We’re both going to be late today.”

  “Let me clean your hand first.”

  Grace pulls Robin into the kitchen, and washes her wife’s hand, being gentle around her two scrapped and bleeding knuckles. Using some paper towels, Grace pats her hand dry, and then brushes on a clear liquid bandage onto each knuckle. The flexible rubber like liquid bandage quickly dries and turns an opaque rouge from the blood underneath.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Grace looks up at Robin, who is looking intently in her eyes with a look of regret and embarrassment. Grace glides her hand over Robin’s cheek, brushing the pad of her thumb over her wife’s high cheekbone.

  “You don’t need to be sorry. You’re allowed to be angry about this. Robin, why did you join the bureau?”

  “You know why.” Grace smiles and kisses her lips. “I know, but do you remember? I mean, really remember the depth of passion for the reason?”

  Robin takes a couple steps backwards, pulling Grace with her, to rest her back against the kitchen island, and loosely holds Grace’s hips while she looks over her shoulder out the window in thought. She watches the pine trees sway in the wind for a moment before she meets her wife’s eyes again.

  “I wanted to dismantle the big networks of evil that corrode the lives of the innocent.”

  “If you discover that someone you know and care for is within the network of evil you’re trying to dismantle, can you take them down to protect the lives of the innocent?”

  “You know I can. I’ve had to do it before. ”

  “Then why are you so afraid of facing Walker if it turns out he really did defect?”

  “Next to you, he was supposed to be the one person I could trust above anyone else. As an agent, you know the bond we have to our partners. We trust them with our lives. We’re willing to break laws to protect our partners.”

  “It’s the ultimate betrayal.” Grace inhales deeply with sadness and pain filling her chest at the thought of her own partner turning on her and the nation. “Babe, can you face him, if you have to?”

  “Right after I beat the shit out of him.” Grace releases a small non-humorous laugh and shakes her head. “I’m sorry, babe. I really wish we knew the truth so you can properly heal, or at least knew what emotions you should be feeling.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll probably never know. Come on, let’s eat. I don’t want you rushing to get to work on time.”

  Chapter Four

  “What happened to your hand?”

  Eric leans against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest, as Robin grabs the full coffee pot to fill her mug. She glances at her hand, forgetting for a moment she wounded herself this morning.

  “Punched a wall.” He quirks an eyebrow and his mouth curls into a small grin. “What for?”

  “Giant spider.”

  Eric laughs, and follows her as Robin starts walking back to her desk. He sits down in a chair next to her desk and waits as Robin takes a few sips of coffee and gets her computer turned on. He plays with his tie tac for a moment, and clears his throat, causing Robin to finally award him with her attention.

  “You’re not going to tell me what really happened?”

  Robin shrugs a shoulder as she leans back in her chair and picks up her coffee. She takes a sip, and glances at her knuckles as she swallows.

  “The subject of my old partner came up.”

  Eric’s face immediately shows sympathy and understanding.

  “Still no news?”

  “No. ”

  “They asked you to come back again, didn’t they?”

  “Yes, through Grace this time.” His kind light blue eyes get wide and he sits up straighter. “How did that go? I thought she has never tried to coerce you to go back?”

  “She hasn’t and she didn’t. It was an intense morning, as you can see.”

  “Wait, did you take a swing at her?” He sits forward looking angry. Robin releases a small laugh and shakes her head. “No. You’d know if I had. I’d probably have a blackeye or broken hand, or something worse.”

  Eric smiles and nods in an approving way as he sits back. As Robin lifts her coffee to take another sip, he asks, “What are you going to do?”

  “I haven’t decided, but I agreed to meet with my old superior in a week.”

  “Damn.”

  “Hey, Sharp, the big guy wants to see you. Jones, come help me in evidence overflow. We’re finally getting that shitload of confiscated firearms out of here to be incinerated.”

  While Eric follows Andre, Robin walks back to the c
aptain’s office. She knocks twice on the doorframe, and he waves her in as he quickly jabs his cigarette out in an ash tray and waves his hand around to disperse the smoke.

  “Close the door and take a seat. Forgive the smoke. Every damn time I try to quit, Maggie gets a bug up her butt. Her born-again phase was the worst. Just as that was fizzling out, she started reading this stupid book about ‘saving your marriage’ and she’s driving me insane. She has already called me three times this morning! Silly me, I had no idea our marriage needed saving. But apparently that’s because I’m a workaholic and emotionally detached. Bullshit.”

  He shuffles some papers around on his desk, not even looking at Robin while he complains about his wife. He finds a file under the mess and slaps it on top of the papers, and quickly flips it open.

  “I need you to take a look at this and see if it means anything to you. Homeland Security seems to think it does, and they want us to look into it before they send their agents. I think they’re just paranoid or stupid.”

  He hands her the folder, and she pulls out several black and white traffic camera images, a computer log for three of the nearest toll stations, and a police report listing the big-rigs and their drivers as missing or stolen.

  “These rigs would have had to pass through town after they came through this toll station, but they don’t look familiar. It’s been a month and they never made it back through a toll station, which they would have had to pass through one of them if they left town. This definitely is suspicious.”

  “For fucks sake, Sharp, couldn’t you have just blown smoke up my ass and told me it’s meaningless? We already have too much going on with all of those logging assholes here to cut our forest down. Now, you’re telling me I gotta send my guys our hunting down these rigs?”

  “Well, in my experience, this could point to several different types of major criminal operations. Such as, human or drug trafficking, stolen goods, or terroristic activity.”

  “Terrorism in our tiny town? Sharp, now I’m questioning your paranoia.”

  “Small towns and wooded areas make great bases for a number of criminal operations. They stay out of sight and they’re hard to find, giving them time and privacy to build their plans. Then they strike without warning in an area with a larger population. Catching little details like this helps us to bring them down before a major catastrophe. Sometimes, it leads to nothing, but many times the hunch was a good one. Anything is possible at this point. ”

  “Since you seem to be thinking along the same lines as Homeland Security, this is your case. Get Jones and go find those rigs. I want them impounded immediately. Oh, and keep this hush-hush. I don’t want anyone getting jumpy.”

  “Will do.”

  “Oh, one more thing.” Robin hesitates at the door and waits while he shuffles through the papers again. He holds up a piece of paper as he pulls his cigarettes from the breast pocket of his shirt. “Do me a favor and give this supply order to Judy.”

  Robin takes the order form, and before going back to her desk, she delivers the form to the office administrator.

  “Hey, honey, what can I do for you?”

  “The boss asked me to drop this off to you.” Judy accepts the supply order while staring in Robin’s eyes. “You ok? You look like you have a lot on your mind.”

  “That about sums it up. How you doing? You sound better.” Judy smiles and nods as she sits back and takes her glasses off. “I just have a bit of a sore throat still. That was probably the worst cold I’ve had in years. Anything you want to talk about, or you going to keep deflecting me?”

  Robin gives her an appreciative smile as she takes a step away from the desk.

  “For now, I have to keep deflecting you, but thanks for the concern. The boss gave me a new case, so I better get to work.”

  “Ok, honey, you know where to find me if you want to talk.”

  “Thanks.”

  Judy is a kind woman in her mid-fifties and treats everyone like they’re her children. She’s always there to lend an ear, brings in food and fresh donut shop coffee sometimes, and she’s very helpful .

  Robin pulls up the state database and starts searching the tag numbers on the trucks, gathering as much information as possible about them. They were empty and in route for a food and beverage distribution center, but they never arrived to pick up their load and the radios in the trucks aren’t connecting.

  She pulls up the make, model, year of the rigs registered to the tags, and prints out better pictures of all three, since the traffic camera pictures aren’t that great.

  After learning everything she can about the trucks, she punches in the number for their contact at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

  “DMV, this is Vera.”

  “Hey, It’s Sharp.”

  “Robin! Hey, girl, how you doing?”

  “I need a favor.”

  “Anything for you.” Robin smiles and starts typing on her computer. “I’m emailing you a list of names. I need every vehicle registered under them.”

  “Sure, no problem. How many?”

  “It’s a lot – just under two-hundred.”

  “When do you need it?”

  “As soon as possible.”

  “Ok, I can probably have it for you tomorrow morning or early afternoon. I just got the email. Oh, this is all of those loggers. You working on a doozy?”

  “Possibly. Thanks for your help.”

  “It’s what I’m here for.”

  After Robin hangs up, she gathers her paper work and puts her patrol jacket on. She walks out back to the large cinderblock tin-roofed building behind the station that’s used as evidence overflow and storage for supplies. There are two armored trucks parked outside, and Eric is standing watch while a few officers load a few thousand firearms that have been confiscated over the past several years.

  “Hey, we have a case to work. You almost done here?”

  “Yeah, just about. What we got?” The other officers stall in their progress to listen, which irritates Robin, so she just says, “A scavenger hunt. I’ll meet you upfront.”

  Robin suddenly remembers something, and quickly returns to her desk. She pulls out the police report for the missing trucks and drivers. She types in the name of the first driver in the national database and gets a hit immediately. He has several misdemeanors from age sixteen to nineteen, varying in nature, one count of theft, and two counts of disturbance. Jail time was only three to six months for each. Robin prints the information, including his headshot. Then she searches for the next driver. He has a similar record – some misdemeanors, and two counts of theft, with jail time totaling up to less than two years. The last name returns a much larger and more serious record. The man is in his forties, has been arrested a dozen times, and did seven years in prison for a robbery gone wrong, with many charges, including battery and second-degree murder. He was released six years early for good behavior. That was three years ago, and he hasn’t been arrested or even sited with a traffic violation.

  “Hey, I thought I was meeting you upfront?”

  “Yeah, sorry, I realized I needed more information before we can go out.”

  “He looks like a peach. Are we hunting him?”

  “Him, as well as these two, and three big-rigs.”

  “So, what do we have, some kind of Fast and Furious shit going on?”

  “Well, each of the trucks were empty when they left the warehouse, and they never made it to the distribution center to pick up their loads. The traffic cameras at this toll station put them fifty miles off course. Who knows what, if anything they picked up between there and here. We need to get their credit card records to see if they have any and if they’ve used them since the trucks went missing. That might help us determine if they’re in the area or not.”

  “I’ll call it in.”

  Eric jogs over to his desk with the rap sheets for each of the three men they’re looking for, and while he makes the call, Robin logs into the Department of Transport
ation’s database to do a scan of the traffic cameras in town for the truck tags. There are four smart cameras located at the largest central intersection in town that scans and records every single tag that drives through.

  “Nothing.”

  Robin pulls up a map to see what roads the trucks may have been able to use after coming through the toll station and marks each route with a flagger for them to check.

  “We’ll have the reports by the morning.”

  “Ok, we have a radius to start with. The cameras at the Hollis and Grander Hills intersection didn’t pick up their tag numbers, so either they skirted around the center of town, or they never made it that far.”

  “If they never made it that far, that gives us a much better chance at finding them. What’s our range?”

  “About a hundred square miles.”

  “Damn. Ok, I’m hitting the bathroom before we go.”

  Chapter Five

  “Howdy, Officers!”

  Robin and Eric nod towards the group of loggers hanging out around a picnic table drinking cans of beer. They walk towards the men, and all of them stand up and walk a few paces to stand in a half circle around Eric and Robin.

  “I’m Officer Sharp, and this is Officer Jones. We’re doing a routine check on all of the rigs in town. We’re just going to be running your tags, so no need to be alarmed by us walking around your trucks.”

  “What’s this about?”

  “Like I said, it’s just a routine procedure.”

  “You trying to ticket us or something?” A short man, maybe about five-foot, with a thick brown beard and a large belly stumbles forwards as he slurs his speech. “You damn cops always,” he burps and stumbles slightly, “always stickin’ ya nose in,” he burps and hiccups, “people’s business.”