Page 37 of Warrant (The Berserker’s Rage MC: Wyoming Chapter #1)

Ainsley

T hree days later, I walked into my station and nodded at Owen. He held up a finger silently asking me to wait while he finished up his phone call.

As soon as he hung up, I asked, “How’s Sherwood doing?”

“Good. He’s soaking up all the attention from his Mrs.”

“I bet he is,” I said with a laugh.

“Hey, so a Detective Rosenberg called for you.”

Perking up, I arched a brow. “When?”

“‘Bout twenty minutes ago.”

“Thanks Owen,” I said and made my way back to my office. I dialed the number to Cheyenne PD and waited to be connected with Rosenberg.

“Sheriff Zimmerman. Thanks for calling me back.”

“No problem. What can I help you with Detective.”

“Just giving you a courtesy call. We’re shipping Mike Linstrom back to Sentinel today for a follow up appeal hearing. Which means he’ll be cooling his heels in your cells for the day.”

I had already gotten that notification. “One of your men called last week to notify us. I appreciate you making sure to follow up, though. That’s a tough case for this town.”

“That’s actually why I’m calling…”

Sitting straighter in my chair, I waited for him to finish. He was hesitating.

“I did a cursory search and he’s only got one person listed as his next of kin. She still has an address there in Sentinel, so I thought I should give you a heads up. That way you can keep an eye out in case it comes to cause trouble.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, frowning. “Who is it?”

“Christina Rickels.”

My eyes narrowed as a cold chill swept down my spine. “Christina Rickels.”

“That’s right.”

I was already typing the name into the database on my computer. As soon as her mug shot popped up on my screen, I knew my gut instinct to check her out had been right on. How many Christinas could there be in Sentinel anyway? “Thanks for the head’s up, Detective.”

“Anytime. Talk to you later, Sheriff.”

I disconnected the call and went to my office door. Opening it, I called out Owen’s name. He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Let me know when Mike Linstrom is in our holding cell.”

“Will do,” he said, then he turned back to his paperwork.

It took an hour and a half, but finally the guy who’d killed Brandon Rice was back in my custody. And I had so many more questions for him now.

I shoved his shoulder down, forcing him to sit in the seat in front of the interrogation table. He was handcuffed, and a bit of a yuppie type, so I wasn’t worried about him. Turning my back, I went over to the camera in the top corner of the room and turned it off.

He watched me quietly, worry radiating off him. But he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut for now.

I went and leaned against the table, watching him for any micro expressions that would give him away. “Your cousin is Christina Rickels?”

Surprise flashed over his face. I wasn’t going to need to watch for micro expressions. This guy’s every thought was projected on his face. “Yes.”

“What were you doing in Sentinel the night before you struck Brandon Rice with your car?”

He heaved out a sigh. “I’ve gone over this before-”

“Before I didn’t know you were connected to the woman who was working with the Iron Circle Crew.”

That got him. His jaw dropped. “How do you know-” He caught himself. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Chuckling in a mean way because I had this jerk now, I folded my arms over my chest. “You’re going to tell me what you know.”

“Or what?” he sneered. “I’ve already had my trial.”

“And you’re appealing that ruling,” I countered. “I could make that difficult for you.”

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t have a fucking hope of them accepting an appeal.”

“Then why do it?”

“If it works, it gets me out of prison. If not, well, I have the time to waste.”

“Tell me how you’re connected to the Iron Circle Crew.”

“I’m not.”

“Bullshit.” I grabbed the folder on the table and took a stack of photos out and tossed them in front of him. “That’s you speaking with Jack, the leader of Iron Circle, outside the bar that night. Quit lying to me.”

“You have no leverage here, Sheriff.” He leaned back and grinned. “Really, what crime have they committed? Way I hear it the whole crew is missing. You got nothing.”

“No?” I asked, a cruel smile playing over my lips. I didn’t give a crap about this guy. He not only killed one boy, but somehow was involved in the kidnapping of two other children. Kids I’d grown to love in the short time I knew them.

He shook his head.

“That’s where you’re wrong. I don’t need a confession from you. I don’t really need shit.”

“You do if you want to prove anything in the court hearing.”

“I’m not going to the hearing. I have…friends…

who only need my word. My word that you were involved in the kidnapping of two of their kids.

They already know you killed one of the kids living here in town.

It won’t be hard to convince them to serve out their own justice.

” That was the God's honest truth. No preponderance of evidence.

No probable cause. No fruit of the poisonous tree.

No warrants, ha ha. Just my word that he was guilty. It was almost freeing knowing that.

His mouth was hanging open again. “You can’t do that.”

“Oh, but I can. And I’m going to.” I leaned over, grabbed the photos and took the folder with me as I started for the door.

“Wait!”

I paused and slowly turned to face him.

“Mark Dolan.”

“Go on.”

“If I give you more, you’ll give me assurances?”

“I’ll think about it. Who’s Mark Dolan?” I considered it for two seconds.

Denied. He killed a kid, and tried to run away.

He would have been an accomplice in the kidnapping of Aella and Jared.

He was getting nothing. The fact that I was in here, interrogating him without it being on the record was bad enough.

But worse, I wanted the Berserker’s Rage to mete out punishment.

I’d changed since meeting Warrant and I wasn’t sure if it was in a good or bad way.

“Jack Dolan’s brother.”

He had a brother.

“Mark is in charge of the Iron Circle Crew. He just had Jack working with some of his crew here in Sentinel to grow and ship out his drugs to Cheyenne.”

This was worse than I thought.

“You know where their grow operation is?”

He shook his head. “I was just the middle man for the money.”

“That’s it?” I asked, giving him a dubious look.

He sighed. “Christina called and asked if I could help her with an inheritance. Her father’s mortgage is being handled by my bank.”

That explained why he’d been here. And it was all I needed to hand him over to the Berserker’s Rage. I turned and left the room, ignoring him calling out for me. I had an appointment to keep, then I needed to see Cypher.

“Hey, Darrin,” I said as one of my deputies passed by. “Can you take him back to his cell?”

“Yeah, Sheriff. I’ll take care of it.”

“Thanks.” I went and locked myself in my office. I had some digging to do. And thinking. I’d already formed a plan with how to move forward, but what I’d just done in there, what I planned to do, just reaffirmed that I was making the right decision.

I tapped at my computer, pulling up everything I could find on Mark and Jack Dolan. Bastards managed to keep their noses fairly clean despite being drug dealers. Hell, they were growing, shipping, and dealing if Linstrom was telling the truth.

As much as I wanted to handle all of this through legal channels, I couldn’t.

Not based on anything Lindstrom had just said, certainly not in a timely manner.

They’d just slip through my hands. Well, Mark would.

Jack was already taken care of. The club would have disposed of him and the rest of his men.

We needed more information on Mark. How many men did he have?

How likely was it he was going to come here to Sentinel when his brother didn’t reach out?

Likely, very likely. He’d want payback, and he’d want to restart the operation.

Did he already know Linstrom was out of play?

He had to know, it’d been long enough. This was about to get ugly.

But those weren’t answers I was going to find in the police databases.

Nor would I find the solutions in this building.

I’d find another way. My only requirement to hand this all over to Cypher was going to be that I could help catch this guy.

I needed to see this through. Close this case out, one way or another.

Then I could focus on what was next for me.

Printing everything out, I put it all in the folder and packed up my stuff. I looked around my office then headed out. “Going out for lunch,” I told Owen on my way out the door. “Take care of the place for me.”

“Will do, Boss,” he said with a grin. “Have a good lunch.”

I smiled and walked out of the station. The girls would be waiting for me and I had a lot I needed to do before I brought this all to Cypher.