Inside, he could hear chatter at the back of the house. Jessie and Nina were there, along with Sheriff Johnson, multiple officers, a few strangers he hadn’t seen before and the five council members in charge of the five wards:
Rachel Brohan was currently overseeing ward one.
Ezra Rodriguez, ward two.
Asher Hill, three.
Jules Rivera, four.
And Maxwell Campbell, five.
Eyes glanced at him as he strolled in. No one welcomed him. All the council members and others in attendance had accusing eyes. One of them standing near Asher looked out of place, a tall fella, muscular, sporting a buzz cut. Asian. He couldn’t have been more than a few years younger than Colby. He eyed him carefully while the others looked away. Despite Johnson going to bat for him and his assistance in saving Dan Wilder, there were those among the group that felt having any Riker involved with city matters wasn’t a good idea. He didn’t blame them. His family didn’t have the best reputation. They were known troublemakers, no different than the Stricklands. Outlaws of the hills that were murderers and lawless in the eyes of regular folk.
They were all gathered in the sunroom at the back of the home, seated in wicker chairs. “What I’m trying to say is that had Jessie and Nina done their job, this might not have happened,” Rachel said.
“Job? You are overseeing ward one,” Jessie shot back.
“Yes, but you are managing the day-to-day duties and are accountable to me.”
“Oh, that’s convenient,” Jessie replied. “So if things go right, you claim the glory and when things go wrong, you point the finger at us. Now I can see how this little operation is being run.”
Rachel was quick to snap back. “No. You just don’t understand how government works. There is a hierarchy. There always is and always will be. I have other matters to attend to, I can’t be watching known criminals.”
“Yeah, and would that have anything to do with Johnson?”
Colby squeezed his eyes tight. A pin hitting the floor could have been heard.
“All right, I think that’s enough,” Johnson said, his gaze bouncing between Rachel and Jessie. “Remarks like that don’t have a place here.”
“Nor does blaming us.”
“Well who else do you think we should look at?” Rachel asked. “In fact, where were you both last night?”
Nina got up from a seat and closed the gap between her and Rachel, not liking her accusing tone. “Does it matter? Where were you? Huh?”
Johnson got between them before a fight broke out and it probably would have. Stricklands and Rikers weren’t ones for just exchanging words. They liked a brawl as much as anyone. “I think we are missing the point here,” Johnson said. “The question is, where are the men you brought in?”
“How the hell would I know? Your guys were meant to be watching over them,” Jessie said. Colby leaned up against the doorway, arms folded, listening intently.
“Better question, how did the explosion start?” Maxwell asked.
“Well they obviously had some explosive material on them. C4 probably.”
“Their weapons were taken,” Jessie said.
“But were they patted down?” Johnson asked.
“I don’t know. You’d have to ask your men. We turned them over to you. Listen, pal, you can spin this any way you like and point the finger but the fact is, you all dropped the ball. We were just there to pick up the damn pieces.”
Johnson met Colby’s gaze and sighed. Colby knew it wasn’t easy. He was carrying the weight of the entire city on his shoulders. Expectations. Unrealistic expectations. It was one of the reasons why he’d declined his offer to become a deputy. He figured Johnson just wanted another yes-man, a go-to, someone he didn’t have to babysit. Someone who had years of experience. But, the thing was, experience meant very little right now. No one had experience with this kind of event. And one person couldn’t please everyone. There would always be those in the community that would expect more. And decisions that were deemed absurd by one resident might be praised by another.
“Well can you at least tell me if they told you anything about who they were? What group they were associated with? Where did you bring them in from? And who made the decision to bring them in?”
“I did,” a familiar voice said as someone brushed past Colby. It was his mother. Oh God, if the situation wasn’t bad enough as it was, she was about to throw a ton of salt into the wound. Everyone looked at her in surprise as she wasn’t meant to be here. “Oh, don’t mind me. Someone left the door open. I was looking for my son.” She walked over to the table with all the confidence of a queen and picked up a cup and emptied a spoonful of coffee into it and helped herself to hot water. “They found us while we were in Crescent City,” she said.
“Del Norte County?” Rachel replied. “But that’s out of our jurisdiction. We weren’t sending anyone on supply runs there.”
“That was my decision,” Colby said. “I figured we have exhausted searches within the towns and cities of the county. It was time to go further out.”
“And who approved this?” she asked, folding her arms and tapping a finger against those pouty lips. Colby had only encountered her a few times but that was enough to determine he didn’t like her. She seemed self-entitled, ignorant of the situation and still lost in the world that was now gone.
“I don’t need anyone’s approval.”
“Ah, see that’s where you Rikers would be wrong. Everything that occurs in this city needs approval. Isn’t that right, Johnson?”
Martha spun on a dime. “You Rikers? Would you like to rephrase that?”
Rachel snorted and glanced at Johnson in a way that made it clear that he better back her up or any unsaid benefits he was getting from her would cease immediately. Johnson raised a hand. “Martha. It’s okay.”
“Is it?” she
