Highland County Heroes Collection

Chapter 8

Hayley walked back into the station house Saturday morning almost as uptight as when she’d left three days before. Despite her desire to unwind, and an underlying knowledge that getting laid would help, she’d spent too much of her time off listening to her sister complain. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Denni had only one thing to complain about but no, she’d had an entire list. Her job, a client, a judge who wouldn’t allow some ‘key’ piece of evidence that would supposedly prove her client’s innocence, her latest date, the list kept going on and on. By 9 p.m. on Friday night, Hayley had been ready to go back to work just to have an excuse to not listen to Denni.

She felt bad about that. Their parents were gone and Denni and Hayley only had each other left. It wasn’t easy, but she did her best to be there and at least listen to her sister. It was more than either of her parents had bothered to do. Besides, Hayley still felt guilty that she hadn’t been able to protect her sister better from her father and his drunken rages. It didn’t matter than Hayley was barely a year older, she was older and she should have protected her sister. That had been part of why she’d become a police officer. To protect other children as no one had tried to do for them.

Hayley stepped into the squad room and gave her head a slight shake to clear it. She needed her mind on the here and now, not on her bad childhood or sucky ass weekend. She scanned the room, trying to read the attitude of the place before she went in her office to read through a few things so she would be ready for briefing. Something was different. She wasn’t sure what off hand but something in the room had changed, and it wasn’t just the faces of the men in cuffs who sat at a couple of the desks around the room as they waited to be questioned or booked. Not willing to stand there and keep looking until she figured it out, she continued to her office where she left the door open in case anyone needed to speak with her while she logged into her computer and checked her email. There was a lot to do today, and that was before she knew if anything major had happened over her days off, she needed to get started.