Blue-Eyed Hero

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The mayor’s office was on the far end of town, away from the tourist areas and by a private beach only accessible by town residents. Reid pulled into the parking lot and killed the engine. He adjusted his silver-blue uniform sleeves and ran a hand down the front buttons. Mayor Joan Sands was always impeccably dressed, and Reid couldn’t help but think she judged people by appearance.

With a deep breath, he headed inside. He stopped at the front desk, manned by Ruby Duran. Her blonde hair was piled on her head, and her black eyeliner curved out a couple of inches past her eye. She gave a dainty wave, and Reid smiled. The youngest of the Duran family at twenty-four, she’d been working as the mayor’s assistant since she graduated high school.

“Hi Reid. She’ll be just a minute. She’s finishing up a call.”

“Great. How’s your parents?” he asked.

“They’re doing good! Dad’s recovering nicely from his surgery but driving my mom crazy. She can’t wait for him to get back to work.” She shook her head and laughed.

Kevin Duran had slipped on a patch of ice outside his office over the winter and shattered his shoulder.

“Once he’s all healed up, he’ll be better than ever and thrilled to get back to work, I’m sure.”

“That’s what he keeps saying. If he’ll just do his physical therapy, but you know him. Stubborn mule.”

Reid chuckled at the accurate description. Reid had known Kevin as long as he’d been in Willow Cove.

The phone rang, and Ruby answered. She nodded and placed the phone on the receiver before folding her hands on the desk and smiling. “She’ll see you now.”

“Thanks, Ruby.” Reid headed toward the mayor’s office, knowing exactly where it was. “Tell your parents hi for me.”

“Will do,” Ruby said.

Reid knocked lightly on the dark mahogany door.

“Come in,” Mayor Sands called.

With one more glance down his shirt and black pants, he pushed the door open and stepped inside. Joan Sands sat behind her oversized desk, her white hair fluffed into a stylish bob without a single hair out of place. Her makeup made her look ten years younger than her fifty-eight years. Her black suit jacket was tailored to her thin frame and sat over a white silk blouse. She took off her rectangle tortoise shell framed glasses that probably cost more than Reid could fathom and placed them on the desk.

“Sheriff Silva,” she said, using the last name he’d gone out of his way to keep under wraps. Near impossible when he was elected sheriff, but he’d managed so far.

“Mayor, as I’ve said time and time again, call me Reid.”

With a nod, she grabbed a stack of papers and pulled them close. “Sheriff Silva,” she started, and he slumped into the leather chair. “I see you’re asking for more money in your budget.”

“I am.”

“And why should I grant you this request when your department was just humiliated on our local news?”

Reid tried not to cringe, but his shoulders tightened. Allison could have made that report any day. Why did it have to be today, of all days? Today, when he needed the mayor’s vote of confidence in his department and his ability to do his job. Why would she throw money at someone she thought was incapable of his position?

“Mayor, with all due respect, you have known me a long time, and you know that my number one priority is the safety of this town and not just the residents, but any person who steps within our town limits. That report was… a headline—a desperate reporter who needed to make something out of nothing.”

“That desperate reporter is a beloved member of this community, a person who is trusted and whose words hold weight.”

His jaw clenched, and his fingers curled into his pants, causing them to wrinkle.

“Understood, but she also will do anything for a story, even if it means exaggerating the circumstances.”

“Did she exaggerate the fact that she was held at gunpoint?”

“That was an isolated incident between family members Allison got involved in. She never should have been there.” He had been working the case, getting to the bottom of who was terrorizing Krissy Turner and her ice cream shop. He would have figured out it was her cousin, but Allison put the pieces together faster than he did, then stupidly took it upon herself to drive the case forward instead of going directly to him. She was lucky she wasn’t dead.

The memory still haunted his dreams.

“Still doesn’t fix the fact that she was and continues to put doubts in people’s minds. You add in that last news story about the online bullying that manifested into property damage in our town and received national coverage, and we have a problem.”

He scratched the back of his neck, trying to control the frustration coursing through him. If he lost this extra funding, Allison would hear about it. Maybe he could find a way to let the people know she was the reason for the lack of patrols. A turn of the tides sounded like a great idea. Give her a piece of her own medicine.

“That incident was also isolated and…” While he hated to admit it, he had no choice. “Allison’s story actually… helped.”

“Agreed, yet it did not help with the doubts of our residents.”

Reid put his hands on the chair, ready to push himself up. There was no way he’d get the funding now.

“However,” the mayor said, and he focused his attention on her. “There was a reason I personally suggested your bid for sheriff, so this is what I’ll do.” She scanned over the paper in her hand, most likely the email he had sent with the amount he requested and how those funds would be allocated. “I’ll increase the budget on one condition.”

“I’m listening.”

“I need you to make a statement, assuring the good people of our town their safety is your number one priority and they have nothing to worry about as tourist season comes upon us.”

“I’ll release a statement as soon as I get back to my office.”

“I need you on TV to deliver the message. You are the face of safety in our community, and the people need to see you.”

“Everyone in this community knows who I am.”

“For those that don’t. This is nonnegotiable. Make the statement on air or you don’t get the money.”

“No disrespect ma’am, but that money is necessary in order to promise the citizens I’ll do what I need to do.”

“Exactly.”

“But how can you—?”

“It’s politics.”

“I f*****g hate politics,” Reid mumbled under his breath.

The mayor’s eyebrow arched upward. “I’m sorry. What was that?”

“Nothing. I’ll make the statement.”

“Thank you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting with the governor, and I don’t want to be late.” Mayor Sands stood and held her hand out to Reid. Forcing a smile, he shook the woman’s hand. “I expect that statement on tomorrow’s news.”

Reid held in his sigh as he walked away from the mayor and out to his cruiser. Now he needed to find Allison so she could help him fix this disaster. And somehow, he needed to go on TV while also hiding his identity.

Great. How the hell was he supposed to do that?