51: The Series

51: The Beginning Chapter 6

The home phone rang, jolting Lindsay awake. She could hear Wren answer it, half asleep.

“Hello,” Wren said. “Speaking.” He sat on the side of the bed and listened to what the person on the other end was saying. “I will be there as soon as I can get there.” He hung up the phone and started to say, “Linz, I…,” stopping when her cell phone rang.

“Hello,” Lindsay answered her phone.

“Lindsay, this is Max. I’m sorry to bother you, but we have a little bit of a situation down at the Sycamore River where the training maneuvers are taking place.”

“What is going on?” she asked as she stood up. She looked at Wren, who was already getting dressed.

“Well,” Deputy Cartwright said, hesitating before he continued. “We have a couple of kids detained at the river, and one of them is Dillon.”

“Keep them there. I will be right there. Send me a text message with the exact location,” Lindsay said as she hung up the phone. She threw on her clothes, pulled on her boots, and put her gun on her belt as she turned and looked at Wren, who was dressed in an almost identical way, including a gun and badge.

Wren looked at her and said, “Please don’t tell me this is about the Sycamore River training maneuvers.”

“Oh, it is. Guess who snuck into the restricted area with his friend,” Lindsay said. “Do we need to take two cars, or do you want to ride with me?”

“I can ride with you. I have the feeling you will take the patrol car and run code all the way there,” Wren answered.

“Oh yes, and the boys will be in the back of the car all the way back to the sheriff’s department to wait for the other parents. They are lucky they aren’t going to sit behind bars for a while,” Lindsay said.

“I can’t argue with that,” Wren said. “What time is it anyway?” he looked at his phone. “One thirty in the morning? I may kill both of them myself for this one.”

“Welcome to my world,” Lindsay said as they started toward her patrol car. “I have had these calls before and will have them again, but hopefully, this is the only one I will have involving Dillon.”

Lindsay drove as fast as she could safely. She was so angry with her son that she was almost in tears. Lindsay hated it when that happened. It always made her feel like she was weak, and she hated to show weakness.

“Linz?” Wren said, “Are you alright?”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know right now. I am so mad at Dillon. He knows better than to do something like this. At the same time, I’m worried about him and how much trouble he could be in for sneaking into a restricted area,” Lindsay told him.

He reached over and took her hand, which had been resting on the control box, squeezed it tightly, and said, “Don’t worry about them being in the restricted area. I will take care of that. Just worry about not strangling him after you hug him. Who was he supposed to be staying with tonight anyway?”

“It was supposed to be Cody, but I guess we will find out if he told us the truth about that,” Lindsay said.

As they reached the top of the hill overlooking the river, they could see all the lights from the training and Deputy Max Cartwright’s patrol car. Lindsay turned off her vehicle's light bar and siren and slowed as they went down the hill and approached the roadblock.

Lindsay and Wren had their identifications ready to hand to the MP at the roadblock. He quickly looked at Lindsay’s, which was on top, and returned it to her. He then saw Wren’s ID. The MP looked startled and shined his flashlight into the car to confirm it was Wren. When he saw him, the MP snapped to attention and saluted.

“Sir!” the MP responded, almost frightened by Wren’s presence. “You and Sheriff Gold need to speak with the captain, sir,” the MP quickly said as he handed Wren’s ID to Lindsay. “Sir, would you be willing to allow the sheriff to park over there and allow me to escort both of you to the captain?”

“Of course, corporal,” Wren answered.

Lindsay parked the patrol car next to the other county patrol car assigned to Max Cartwright. As she did, she could not help but wonder why the MP had reacted the way he had. Lindsay had the feeling that it was one of the things that she may never know about because of her husband’s work. As they exited the car, she gave Wren a look that he knew meant they would need to talk later. He just returned her look with a smile that made her know there would not be a lot of answers and maybe even more questions.

The corporal came running up to them. “Sir, ma’am, if you two will come with me. I will take you to the captain,” he said.

As the corporal escorted them to see the captain, Lindsay noticed that soldiers in Wren’s immediate presence were snapping to attention. It was evident to her that he had a much higher rank and more authority than she had ever realized. She had never asked many questions because most of his work was classified or confidential. She understood that he could not discuss most things in any way, but this did cause her to have questions.

“Captain, Agent Gold and Sheriff Gold are here, sir,” the corporal said. His eyes grew wide after those words came from his mouth. He had just realized the connection between Lindsay and Wren and why they had been in the same car.

“Agent Gold!” the captain said, snapping to attention.

“At ease, Captain Lane,” Wren told him.

“Dismissed corporal,” Captain Lane said. As soon as he was dismissed, the corporal ran back to his post. Lindsay felt a little sorry for him.

“Captain Lane, where are the kids and the deputy you requested to assist with detaining them?” Wren asked.

“Sir, they are over here. Let me take you to them,” Captain Lane replied.

The captain walked them a short distance to an out-of-the-way area where Deputy Cartwright was standing. Lindsay’s son Dillon and his friend Cody were sitting on the ground in front of him.

“Lindsay,” Max said when he saw her.

“Yes, Max. I see you have been taking good care of my son and his friend,” Lindsay said.

“Linz, Captain Lane, and I are going to have a chat while you talk to Dillon and Cody,” Wren said, motioning to Captain Lane to follow him as he walked away from everyone.

“Mom, I…,” Dillon started to say before Lindsay cut him off.

“Dillon, right now, I don’t want you to say anything that is not an answer to a question I ask you. Do you understand me?” Lindsay said.

“Yes,” Dillon said. He could tell from the tone of her voice that this was not the time to push her more than he had already done.

“Is there anyone else who came with the two of you?” she asked.

“No,” Dillon answered.

“Did either of you record anything or take any pictures?” Lindsay asked.

“Maybe a little,” Dillon said.

“That is a yes-or-no question. You need to pick the correct one,” Lindsay said.

“Yes, but they took our phones,” Dillon answered.

“Stop. Who took your phones?” Lindsay asked

“I don’t know. It was one of the soldiers. That is all I know,” Dillon said. Lindsay could see that he was distraught and almost in tears.

“All right, just try to calm down. You two have no idea how lucky you are not to be going to jail,” Lindsay said.

“Cody, do your parents know that you are here?”

“No, ma’am,” Cody said, choking back tears.

It almost broke Lindsay’s heart to see her son and one of his best friends so scared and upset they were virtually in tears. Almost. She hoped that this would scare them enough that they would never try anything like this again.

“Cody, when they say you can come with me, we have to go back to the sheriff’s department and call your parents to come and get you,” Lindsay said.

“Can’t you just take me home and tell them tomorrow?” Cody asked.

“I could, but I’m not going to. Your parents need to come and pick you up. That way, I can explain to them how serious this situation could have been. You two have no idea how lucky you are that you were not hurt or even killed. When an area is restricted, it is restricted for a reason,” she told Cody. She realized she was scolding him as if he were also her son.

She heard footsteps behind her coming closer. She turned to see Wren walking toward them alone. He was carrying something in one hand and had his other hand resting on his gun.

“We need to go. I have the boys’ phones. Max, you need to leave now, too,” Wren said.

The boys stood up and walked between Lindsay and Wren. Max walked behind them as they headed back to their cars. The boys and Max watched the soldiers react to Wren’s presence and took note of him being referred to as Agent Gold. The boys were already in shock from whatever they had seen and happened to them in the restricted area, and now seeing his apparent rank and authority scared them even more. Max had also taken note of the soldiers’ reactions to Wren. As they reached the roadblock, he let out a low whistle.

“What’s wrong, Max?” Lindsay asked.

“Nothing, I guess,” Max said. “I have just never seen that kind of reaction to someone that is a civilian.”

Wren turned and looked at him but said nothing.

“I got it. Whatever that was, I will never mention it again,” Max told him.

Lindsay put Dillon in the backseat of her patrol car and Cody in the backseat of Max’s car, and they all began the drive back to the department.

“Mom,” Dillon said in a weak voice from the back.

“What?” Lindsay asked.

“I really am sorry, Mom. We shouldn’t have done this, and I shouldn’t have lied to you. I’m sorry. It was stupid,” Dillon said.

Lindsay was sure that he meant what he said. She was afraid to say very much to him right now because all she wanted to do was yell at him. She wanted him to answer the question of why. Why did he lie to her? Why would they sneak out into the woods in the middle of the night? Why would they go into a restricted area? Why would he not admit that someone else was there at some point because someone had to have driven them to the area?

“It’s good that you’re sorry, Dillon, but we will talk about all this later,” Lindsay told him.

Wren had been sitting in the passenger seat going through both Dillon’s and Cody’s phones, removing anything that they did not need to have. Lindsay was surprised that he was even given their phones. She had expected them to be destroyed and never see them again.

“Wren, will you look up the numbers for Cody’s house and his parents so I can have the dispatcher go ahead and call them? Hopefully, we can speed this up, and we can at least go home and change clothes before going to work,” Lindsay said.

“Of course I will. You want me to call the office for you from your phone so they can do that?” Wren asked.

“Thank you. That would be great, but the dispatcher may want you to hand me the phone to confirm it isn’t a prank call,” she said.

When Wren called the dispatcher, she did not question it. Max had already notified her that they were on their way in, and the parents of one of the boys would need to be called. She just needed the numbers that Wren gave her.

They had just entered the sheriff’s department and sat down when Cody’s parents arrived. They were unhappy about being woken at four o’clock in the morning and made sure everyone knew it.

“Where is that freaking sheriff, and where is our freaking son?” yelled Cody’s father, Kenneth Williams.

“Sir, please calm down,” the night dispatcher, Hanna, said.

“You don’t tell him to calm down,” screamed Barbara Williams, Cody’s mother.

Lindsay got up from her desk and walked to her office door. “Ken, Barbie, he’s in here,” she said.

Cody’s parents stormed into her office, almost pushing her out of the way. Wren stood up to intervene if needed, but thankfully, it was not. Lindsay had seen it coming and quickly stepped back a couple of steps.

“What were you doing? Why were you out there? Are you stupid? Why would you do that?” Cody’s parents yelled at him without allowing him to answer any of the questions.

Lindsay looked at Wren. She felt sorry for this kid. No matter what happened at the river, this would be much worse for him. She almost wished Dillon was in the room to see what was happening to Cody. That way, he might not complain about whatever punishment she gave him.

“Ken, Barbie, can you two have a seat for a minute so we can explain what happened tonight?” Lindsay asked politely.

“Why, it was your kid that caused this! My kid was just dumb enough to go along with the idea,” Kenneth said.

“No matter whose idea it was, the point is that two boys, without driver’s licenses, were miles from home, in a restricted area, where the military was conducting training exercises. Quite frankly, they could have been killed, and I am just happy they weren’t,” Lindsay said, trying not to show her level of frustration and fatigue. “Since neither of them can drive, someone had to have taken them out there, and so far, we don’t know who that is. If that person is still out there, they could be in serious danger, so we need to know.”

“Cody, did someone drive you out there?” Barbara asked him.

“Yes,” Cody answered quietly.

“Who was it, boy? Spit it out!” his dad yelled.

“Mark Collins! It was Mark Collins. He didn’t stay. It was his idea, but when we got there, he chickened out and left us there,” Cody told his father.

Wren stood up and introduced himself. “Mr. and Mrs. Williams, I’m Agent Gold. I am the federal investigator handling this situation. We have all of Cody’s information, as well as your phone numbers. We may need to contact him later if we have any more questions. For now, unless the sheriff has questions for you, you are free to go.”

Cody, Kenneth, and Barbara looked at Lindsay sitting behind her desk.

“I don’t have any questions, and if I do later, I will call you,” Lindsay said.

“Let’s go, Cody,” Kenneth said. Cody stood up, and he and his parents quickly left the building.

“You know, with the names Ken and Barbie, I would have thought they would have been a little nicer and a little more attractive,” Wren said.

Lindsay rolled her eyes at the bad joke. “Sadly, that is pretty much the way they always are. I think one of the reasons I let Dillon hang out with Cody is to let him know that there are people who like him. I’m not sure if his parents like him or not,” she said.

“It looks like we need to track down Mr. Mark Collins. Is there any chance that one of your deputies could help with that?” Wren asked.

“You read my mind. Max, can you come here and bring Dillon with you?” Lindsay called out her open office door.

Within seconds, Dillon came walking into her office with Max right behind.

“Have a seat, guys,” she said. “Max, we will need your help in locating someone by the name of Mark Collins. Dillon, you need to give Max every bit of information you have about Mark. Phone numbers, home address, work address, his vehicle description, even his license plate number if you know it.”

“I have his phone numbers and home address in my phone. He hauls hay and does farm work for some of the farms in the area, but I don’t know which ones. All I know about his truck is that it is an old, beat-up, white, flatbed farm truck,” Dillon said.

Wren was already going through Dillon’s phone before he had even finished giving him the information about Mark. He wrote down Mark’s phone numbers and his home address for Max and handed it to him.

“Max, when you find him, I need to speak with him first. Don’t ask him any questions. Also, do not write a report on this. The military will not be charging anyone, so the less paperwork, the better. I only need to know what this kid saw, if anything,” Wren told him.

Max took the paper from him and looked at Lindsay. She silently nodded her head for him to follow the instructions.

He looked back to Wren. “Sure, no problem. I can do that,” he said. He turned and walked back to his desk and began making phone calls.

Lindsay looked at Dillon, sitting across from her. It was after 7 a.m., and school was in the last weeks of summer break. She was trying to think of what to say to Dillon or what his punishment should be, but she was just too exhausted.

“Linz, can you work from home today or go home, get some sleep, and then come back?” Wren asked. “You look like you are ready to drop, and I know that I am. I can call the office and let them know if they need me. I will be on call but won’t be in.”

“I think I will do the same as you. I am the sheriff, so I’m pretty much on call all the time. I do have some files I want to take home and go through. I can do that at home just the same as if I were here,” Lindsay told him.

Just as she finished saying that, the door chime rang, and Cat walked in. She did not pause. She walked straight to Lindsay’s office door.

“I heard you guys had a long night last night,” Cat said.

“Would you like some coffee before you try to drive home and get some sleep? You both look beat.”

“Thank you, Cat, but no. If we drink coffee now, we won’t be able to sleep when we do finally get home,” Lindsay answered.

“Is there anything I can get you or do for you before you all leave?” Cat asked.

Lindsay smiled, “No, thanks. I think we’re fine. Oh wait, did you get a chance to gather up the files I asked you for a few days ago?”

“I sure did. Let me put on a pot of coffee for everyone else, and I will bring those to you,” Cat said with a big smile as she turned and walked out to her desk and started the coffee.

“Isn’t she like forty-five minutes early?” Wren asked.

“She is, and she will stay late to ensure everything is taken care of. She also fills in for dispatchers who have to leave early or can’t come in if there is no replacement. She knows everything that happens in this department and has things done before I even know they need to be done. That isn’t even counting her multiple degrees and amazing fashion sense,” Lindsay said as she took note that, as always, Cat looked. Her hair and makeup were impeccable, and her clothes were tight and retro. Of course, Cat was wearing her trademark six-inch heels.

“Wow. I am impressed. It is hard to find someone with that training and work ethic,” Wren said.

“Yes, it is. I wish I could take credit for Cat being hired, but I can’t. The former sheriff hired her just a few weeks before resigning. I seriously doubt if he did more than look at her. He probably didn’t even know how good she is at this job or how smart she is,” Lindsay said.

The door chime sounded, and Little Bob came in. He said good morning to Cat, yelled a greeting to Max, and then headed straight for Lindsay’s office.

“Well, sheriff, it sounds like you had a long night last night,” he said to Lindsay. “And you, Wren, I have known you all these years, and I can’t believe that I never put together that you are the Agent Gold we occasionally hear about,” he said to Wren.

Lindsay told Little Bob, “We are going to be heading home in a few minutes. I need to get some sleep. If you need me, I will come back in. If you don’t need me, I will be at home reviewing some files I had Cat pull for me. Is there anything you know that I need to work on and that I can do from home?”

“No. I think we can cover everything. You are on call 24/7 anyway, so it doesn’t matter if you are here or at home today. Anyway, you look like you could use some extra sleep,” Little Bob told her.

“Gee, thanks,” Lindsay said.

Little Bob and Wren both started to laugh. Dillon sat quietly in the chair as if he were afraid to say anything.

Cat walked back in with the files. “Here you go. Is there anything else before you guys head home?” she asked.

“That should be it, Cat, thanks,” she said. Lindsay looked at Wren and Dillon. She could tell they were just as exhausted as she was. “Are you two ready to go home?” she asked them.

Without saying anything, Wren and Dillon stood up. They left the sheriff’s department and got in her patrol car. The ride home was only a few minutes, but Lindsay was so tired that it felt like it took forever.

When they finally got home, Dillon went straight to his room and fell asleep almost instantly. Wren and Lindsay went to their bedroom. When they walked in, they saw that their dog Crook was in bed waiting for them as usual. They both put their phones on their nightstands, hoping they would not ring for a while and crawled into bed. They fell asleep almost as quickly as Dillon did.