Chapter Four
Lincoln knew an avoidance tactic when he saw one, but he wasn’t about to give Deputy Dixie Meriwether a piece of his mind in front of one of the biggest gossips in Simple, Texas. The deputy had obviously already given Luanne and Raynelle enough to gossip about. Had she really told the two women that she thought Sam Sweeney had been murdered?
He jerked off his hat and slapped it against his leg in frustration as he strode down the aisles of the pharmacy. And here he thought the ditzy woman wouldn’t make any trouble. She had just unwittingly let loose a whole shit pot full of trouble. By evening, everyone in town would be talking about murder. Since the Double Diamond boys hadn’t exactly been angels the summer they spent in Simple, all fingers would point to them as somehow being involved. Which could cause problems for his friends and their wives.
Lincoln wasn’t about to let Dixie Meriwether get away with stirring up the pot. He’d been willing to overlook her spa day, but not anymore. As soon as he got Chester’s high-blood pressure medicine, he planned to stop by the mayor’s office to see what could be done about the deputy. He wasn’t just recommending she get help. He was recommending she get her butt fired.
He headed to the pharmacy window. While he was waiting for the pharmacist to get Chester’s medication, he glanced up at the security mirror. The wide-angled mirror displayed the aisles behind Lincoln. There was a woman pushing a basket with a toddler, an older man in the next aisle reading the label of a medicine bottle, and a kid in a ball cap on the last aisle who was glancing around like he was up to no good. This was verified when he grabbed a box and stuffed it beneath his jean jacket.
Lincoln blew out his breath. Damn. As if he didn’t have enough to worry about. For a second, he thought about just letting the kid slide. But the lawman in him wouldn’t let him. When the pharmacist walked back over and handed him Chester’s prescription, Lincoln nodded at the mirror.
“That kid in the Texas Longhorns cap and jean jacket just shoplifted.”
The pharmacist glanced at the mirror and then grabbed the phone. Lincoln thought he was going to call the cashier up front and have him stop the kid on his way out. Instead, the pharmacist’s voice rang out over the loudspeaker.
“Emergency alert! Shoplifter on aisle one!” The pharmacist hung up and hurried out from behind the counter toward aisle one.
Lincoln shook his head. Small towns and their security systems. He turned and headed for the door. When he got to the front, he saw that the employees had formed a linked-arm circle around the boy. Or not a boy, but a young girl about twelve or thirteen. She looked terrified and completely embarrassed. Tears glistened in her eyes and her cheeks were bright red.
Lincoln instantly regretted squealing on the poor kid, but breaking the law was breaking the law. And maybe a little humiliation would keep the kid from a life of crime. He started for the door when Deputy Meriwether was herded in by the young man Lincoln had seen working the pharmacy soda fountain.
“I got the deputy,” the young man said.
As much as Lincoln didn’t want to get involved, he couldn’t help waiting to see how Deputy Meriwether was going to deal with the situation. Especially when she looked like she would rather be anywhere else but there. As the young man led her over to the linked group, she looked as scared as the perpetrator.
“Umm . . . hey, y’all. It looks like we have a game of ring around the rosy going on.” When no one smiled or laughed, she sobered. “I guess we have a shoplifter on our hands?”
Two of the employees unlinked arms and let her into the circle with the girl, who was clutching her jacket closed to hide what she’d taken.
Deputy Meriwether looked at the girl and cleared her throat. “So you shoplifted, did you? Well, that is . . . naughty. If my mama were here, she would give you a lecture and a half on how a young lady should act. And young ladies do not take things without paying for them.” Lincoln rolled his eyes. How had the woman become a deputy? “Now I’m sure if you paid for what you stole,” she continued, “these good folks might overlook—”
“I’m not overlooking anything,” an older gentleman said. “I’m not having trailer trash thieves, like Cheyenne Daily here, think they can just waltz into my store and steal and get away with it.” Lincoln suddenly remembered the man. He was the grumpy guy who owned the pharmacy and had caught Cru shoplifting condoms when he was fifteen.
Is that what the girl was shoplifting? She looked a little young to be sexually active. But why else would she look so embarrassed? He moved over to the aisle she had been standing in and looked at the shelf she’d pulled the box from.
Shit.
It looked like he was going to have to get involved after all.
He slipped Chester’s prescription in his front shirt pocket and pulled his badge out of his jeans pocket before flashing it. “Lincoln Hayes, Texas Ranger. What’s going on here?”
All the employees dropped arms and Deputy Meriwether looked thoroughly relieved. “Thank goodness you’re here, Officer Hayes. I’m sure you’re much better at dealing with shoplifters than I am. I’ll just leave this in your capable hands and continue to make my rounds.” She started to leave, but he stepped in front of her.
“No you won’t.
