Free P.I. I Love You (Miss Demeanor Suspense Series Book 1) by Joanne Jaytanie Page B

beeped and he glanced at the text displayed.
    “They’re all set at the rest stop. This should go smoothly.”
    “From your mouth,” River said.
    Gage popped on his headlights as the sun set.
    “I’m sure glad we waited until after sunset to run this op. I mean you’re good, but I don’t think you could pull off Mrs. Darnell in the daytime,” Gage said, as he glanced in the rear-view mirror.
    “You’re welcome, numbnuts,” replied the female officer in the backseat.
    “Oh, I see you’ve worked together before.” River giggled.
    “You could say that.” The officer rolled her eyes.
    “Funny,” Gage said. “Let’s get our game faces on. We’re two miles out.”
    They pulled into the rest stop and parked across the lot and a few spaces down from the restrooms. A dark-colored sedan pulled in a few minutes later and parked four spaces away, placing another parked car between them.
    Gage and River got out of the car. Gage headed for the restrooms, while River helped Mrs. Darnell from the vehicle. The two women entered the restroom together. Shortly after, Mrs. Darnell exited the restroom and walked back toward their vehicle. She strolled by their car and walked over to sit at the picnic table directly in front of the dark sedan. Her back was to the sedan.
    The passenger door and one of the back doors of the sedan opened. Two men got out and looked around the rest area. There were two other vehicles in the area, the one between them and Mrs. Darnell’s ride and a pickup truck with a horse trailer attached, half-a-dozen spots away. The two men nodded to each other and headed in the direction of Mrs. Darnell. In less than thirty seconds they taped her mouth, threw a bag over her head and dragged her back to their sedan. One man shoved her into the backseat, and jumped in behind her as the other got into the front.
    “Go, go, go…” Came the voice through the radio Gage held in his hand. The pickup backed into the middle of the parking area, and the doors of the horse trailer sprang open, six officers in complete riot gear jumped out, armed with Remington 870 shotguns aimed at the sedan. The sedan started backing up quickly. Sirens blared and lights flashed as police cruisers blocked all exits in and out of the rest-stop. The sedan stopped, but there was no other movement.
    Gage took the bullhorn handed to him.
    “You’re surrounded. Throw your weapons from the vehicle and come out with your hands up. Any hostile actions will be met with deadly force.”
    Nothing happened. They waited a beat, then two.
    “Okay,” yelled the driver. “We’re tossing our weapons.”
    The weapons were tossed, and the three doors opened. The three men exited the vehicles hands held high in the air. The policewoman came out directly behind them, her gun drawn and pointed at the two men in front of her.

    Two hours later, Gage and River headed for the Baxter residence.
    “It kind of surprised me those imbeciles gave up so easily,” River said.
    “Guess they were smart enough to know they wouldn’t get out of their predicament in one piece,” Gage said. “Actually what surprised me was how fast they flipped on Ellis.”
    “They didn’t want to go down for the murder of the Baxters. Thanks for verifying their stories of being in Hawaii so quickly.”
    “My pleasure,” Gage reached out and covered her hand in his.
    “We work well together. I see a productive future for us.” She smiled at him. “In more ways than one.” She laced her fingers in his, brought them up to her mouth and kissed his hand.
    They arrived at the Baxter residence just as Ellis was being escorted, handcuffed, to the waiting police cruiser. Blake held his sister, Garnet, as she sobbed into his shoulder.
    “I feel sorry for Garnet. Her whole world has crumbled around her,” Gage said.
    “Better now than after she married the bastard and he killed off the rest of her family and then her,” River said.
    An unmarked vehicle pulled up and Mrs.