Guard Duty. Sharon Dunn

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      ONE

      “K-9 unit 349. Convenience-store robbery, corner of State and Grand. Suspects are on the run.”

      As she pushed the talk button to respond to dispatch, rookie officer Valerie Salgado felt that strange mixture of fear and excitement that came every time she responded to a call on patrol.

      “Copy. I’m about five blocks from that location. Any idea what direction our perps were going?”

      Dispatch responded. “Clerk doesn’t know which way they ran. Three males. Two Caucasian, one African American. All dressed in dark clothing.”

      For the past few months, every call had an extra sense of danger attached to it. A rash of robberies, drugs and murders that had been escalating in Sagebrush for years had recently been linked to a crime syndicate with an unknown leader.

      Valerie hit her siren and sped up.

      Maybe this was just a run-of-the-mill robbery, but maybe it was another symptom of a city under siege.

      In the back of the patrol car, Valerie’s K-9 partner, Lexi, paced from one window to the other, emitting an almost ultrasonic whine. The only one more excited to catch a criminal than Valerie was her two-year-old Rottweiler.

      Dispatch came across the line. “Clerk says that two of the men were armed.”

      Valerie took in a deep breath to calm her nerves. “At least we know what we are dealing with, huh, Lex?”

      The dog whined as though she understood.

      As she neared the convenience store, Valerie scanned the streets and sidewalks for any sign of movement. Now that it was 10 p.m. and dark, it would be easy enough for the robbers to blend into surroundings if they were smart enough to walk instead of run. Traffic was light, and most of the shops were closed. The all-night burger joint up the street had attracted a little bit of a crowd.

      Valerie pulled into the convenience store parking lot. The clerk was easy enough to spot, a distraught fifty-something woman pacing by the store entrance. Valerie got out of her patrol car.

      The woman came toward her, eyes wide with fear. The unnatural hair color and heavy makeup revealed rather than hid the woman’s age.

      The clerk wrapped her arms around herself. Her gaze flitted everywhere. The robbery had shaken the poor woman up. Valerie wanted to hug her and tell her it was going to be all right. But that was not what cops did. Instead, she pulled a notebook out of her utility belt.

      She hoped her voice conveyed the level of compassion she felt for what the clerk had just been through. “Ma’am, I’m Officer Salgado. Can you tell me what happened here?”

      The woman combed her fingers through her hair. “They took over three hundred dollars. My manager is going to fire me.” Her agitated state made her south Texas drawl even more exaggerated.

      “How long has it been since the robbers fled the store?”

      The clerk closed her eyes as though she were struggling to answer the question. “Umm...they made me lay on the floor facedown.” She let out a heavy breath. “I waited until I was sure they weren’t going to come back. I...I...called as quickly as I could.” She put a trembling hand to her chest. “Maybe five minutes.”

      Valerie felt torn between desiring to comfort the clerk and wanting to catch the thugs who had terrorized her. Picturing her own mother having to go through something like this made her resolve even stronger. The best comfort she could give this woman would be to see that these perps went to jail.

      Valerie glanced up the street. Flashing neon signs for budget hotels stood in contrast to the dark Texas sky. In a pursuit, five minutes was a big lead time.

      She cupped the woman’s shoulder with her hand, hoping to provide some reassurance. “You go back inside and wait. My dog and I will get these guys.”

      “Thank you, Officer.”

      Valerie opened the back door of the patrol car, and Lexi jumped out.

      “Get ’em,” Valerie commanded, leading the Rottweiler toward the entrance of the convenience store. It would take only minutes for Lexi to pick up on the fear odor that people in flight emitted the second they took off running. Though people couldn’t smell it, the scent was extremely distinct to a dog trained to detect it.

      Lexi placed her nose to the gravel, trotting in wider and wider circles, returning to the store entrance a couple of times.

      Across the street, a dark car with tinted windows came to a stop.

      As Lexi worked her way toward the edge of the store parking lot, Valerie glanced at the car. No one got out. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as a chill ran over her skin. For weeks now, she had had the sensation of being watched, of eyes pressing on her from dark corners.

      The reality of the long arms of the crime syndicate had come home to roost for Valerie. Though she didn’t know it at the time, while heading in to the pharmacy a few weeks ago, she’d seen the woman who had most likely murdered Andrew Garry—a local real-estate agent and one of the crime syndicates middle managers. She’d glanced at the woman briefly as she passed her on the dimly lit street outside a vacant building by the corner drugstore. Valerie didn’t act on her suspicions that night, but something about the lady in the hooded jacket seemed off. Though she couldn’t ID the woman outright, Valerie had the feeling that she would know her when she saw her and that she’d seen her somewhere before. It was just a matter of time before something in her brain clicked.

      The initial death threat had come the next day only hours after Kip the cadaver dog and his handler had found Garry’s body, confirming her suspicions about the woman she’d seen outside the vacant building. Her police email had been hacked into. The threat flashed on her computer screen... If you testify, you die...maybe even sooner.

      Living with a death threat had become even more complicated. Valerie had recently become guardian to her eighteen-month-old niece, Bethany, after her sister Kathleen’s death over two months ago.

      The department had offered her protection during her off-duty hours. On duty was a little harder, but she noticed that another patrol car always seemed to be close. Sagebrush P.D. looked out for their own. She felt safe while working as long as she had Lexi with her.

      Lexi stopped, lifted her head and barked twice. She’d found the trail. “Good girl. Let’s go.”

      Lexi ran hard, leading Valerie up the street. On the opposite side of the street, the dark car with the tinted windows remained. It was probably nothing. She had to let her unfounded fears go. She couldn’t do her job if she was suspicious of everything.