Chapter 6

I went right from my office to the pub. I got there in time for a cup of coffee, and some down time before I had dinner. Dinner was also going to be from the pub. Nita agreed to cook me a grilled cheese sandwich. I have no idea why it wasn't on the menu, since she made the best one in the state.

They started to drift in about eight. "Brit put all their drinks on my tab but make absolutely sure none of them drives home tonight."

"Me and Jeremy will take them home. The SUV will hold seven passengers in a pinch. Surely some of these clowns will be sober enough to drive." The Brit commented.

By 10PM there were eleven people drinking on my tab. I wasn't one of them. I determined to stay sober to make sure they all got home safe. Simpson came in alone then a half hour later Osborn entered to join him and the others. She went to speak with Simpson, then went to talk to some of the road deputies. Simpson sat alone. He drank two beers then left.

By eleven o'clock the party was down to the slightly chubby young blond Osborn, the older and less attractive Ruth a female road deputy, Detective Letter the vice officer and me the Sheriff. I put a damper on the party, so I wasn't surprised they wanted to leave early as well.

Osborn left but came back a few minutes later. "I decided I wasn't ready to go home after all." she said ordering coffee. I was glad to see her switch to coffee. I would hate to have to speak to her about drinking too much in public. I could care less what she did at home.

She finished her coffee then came down to the end of the bar where I was talking to Brit and Jeremy. "Sheriff Porter, I just wanted to thank you for allowing me to ride along with you and Detective Simpson."

"Well Osborn you are more than welcome. It should be obvious we are expecting great things of you," I said.

"I hope I can live up to what you expect," she said.

"Well the only way to tell is to keep throwing the load at you. Maybe we will find the point where you buckle, and maybe not," I suggested.

"I hope I can stand up to it," she said with a smile.

"You will do fine," I said sincerely. Then I turned to The Brit and Jeremy. This is Malissa Osborn," then, "Allen and Jeremy, they are the closest thing to family I have in this world."

The all just stood there and nodded. Then The Brit said, "You know there will be talk."

"There will never be any reason for it, or any truth to it," I said.

"Good, you might finish your term," he said.

"Odds are not that good," I said with a smile.

"Probably worse than even we know," The Brit replied. "The church camp will be operational in a week. I think between us all, we can keep the peace."

"What is he talking about?" Osborn asked.

"Nothing at all. Just an old man raving about something that means nothing," I said. "Go home and get some sleep Osborn. We are going to make another arrest tomorrow, or not."

Since I was in town, I ran around the softball field 7 times and walked one. It was all I could do. And yes I puked up the grill cheese in the high weeds behind the field. When I got home I went to work on the bag. I couldn't find my gloves and I was to sleepy to care. I just set the timer and wailed away at the bag.

That next morning my hands hurt a little and were a little swollen, but I paid no attention. I went to the take out window, then into the office to meet with Wilson. He taught me about the new finger print reader and the high speed finger print ID computer, that the labs of both the University and the SBI had.

"Wilson since we don't have access to a million dollar terminal, we won't be seeing those anytime soon," I said.

"But the University lab has a connection service. If we put them on retainer we can email them a finger print sample and they will run the comparison software on it when there is time. Guaranteed within 72hours." He said.

"I know you really want the University to work for us, but that isn't very fast we need it right away now and then." Then I remembered the geek at Swamp Dog. You know we could send the request to the lab for an official match. While that is going on I could get it from a bootleg source. It would only be a working ID not an official one."

"If you feel comfortable with it, you are the boss, we can go with it," Wilson said. "By the way I heard you cracked the Burt Mathews murder. Good on you, that should end some of the questions floating around about you."

"Never happen, they will also say I don't have enough experience to be the Sheriff and they are right." I said.

"No they aren't, you want to learn and you will do a hell of a job," he said. "Plus the word is you got some bad ass friends," Wilson added.

"Speaking of that I have to go out now and interview some guy I hate to interview." With that I went to the box of evidence from the crime scene. Owen had a picture on the table, he was looking at when he was shot. There was no reason for a man with dementia to be interested in a picture he couldn't remember so maybe there was more to it. Hell I was sure that it was a picture of the killer. I didn't call anyone in for the interview I planned. I just wanted it to me and two of the three men.