Tick,Tock,Trouble (A Seagrove Cozy Mystery Book 5) by Leona Fox Read Free Book Online

thing to do in front of two cops. Even if they did both like her and Mr. B.
     
    “I’m going to head home,” Sadie started to say, but then the radio went off.
     
    “Chief are you out there?”
     
    It wasn’t the regular dispatcher, but the voice of one of Zack’s junior officers that came over the air.
     
    Zack moved quickly to the car, sliding into the passenger seat and grabbing the radio’s microphone.
     
    “Chief Woodstone here,” he said in the very official voice that Sadie loved. It made him sound so masculine.
     
    “We’ve got a thing going on in the evidence room, sir,” the voice squeaked. “Someone is trying to break in.”
     
    “On my way,” the Chief said and slotted the microphone back into its cradle.
     
    “Let’s go, Wilson,” he called and buckled himself into the passenger seat.
     
    Sadie jumped into the back with Mr. Bradshaw and Zack sighed but didn’t make her get out.
     
    Wilson drove carefully over the grass, but once they hit the paved road, it was flashers, siren and speeds that Sadie thought were probably ill-advised in such a small town. Someone could get flattened.
     
    Wilson pulled the car up to the rear of the station house and, as he was exiting the car, Zack turned around and said, “Stay here.”
     
    Sadie had no intention of ‘staying here.’ Luckily, Wilson had unlocked the doors when she got out of the car so Sadie wasn’t locked in the back. She grabbed Mr. Bradshaw’s leash and they reached the outer door before it closed and locked behind Zack and Wilson.
     
    This door opened onto the lower level of the stationhouse, the basement that contained holding cells, the records archive, and the evidence room. Sadie could hear shouting and she started down the hall toward the noise. Then she rounded a corner and the whole hot mess came into view.
     
    Franklin Woo was backed against the wall, shielding himself with one of the unarmed clerical workers from upstairs in the office. There were cops backed up the stairway on one side. Sadie could see so many pairs of legs that she thought most of the officers on duty must be on the stairs. She hoped somebody stayed upstairs to keep order in the squad room.
     
    The officer on duty in the evidence room had his gun out and trained on Mr. Woo, as did the officers in the hallway between Sadie and Woo. There were four, including Zack and Wilson. The office clerk was pale, quiet and wide-eyed. Zack holstered his gun and stepped forward.
     
    “Mr. Woo,” he asked. “What is it you are trying to accomplish here?”
     
    “I want the pocket watch,” Woo said.
     
    “The one you have in evidence. It should be mine.” He shot Sadie a look of pure loathing.
     
    Zack looked to see what Woo was looking at and frowned when he saw her. He narrowed his eyes into slits and his expression clearly communicated “I thought I told you to stay put.”
     
    Sadie shrugged at him, and he turned back to Mr. Woo.
     
    “Mr. Woo, Franklin,” Zack said in a firm but quiet tone, “we have known each other for at least twenty years, so I hope you will believe me when I say this situation will have only one conclusion. The only question in my mind is this, ‘Will you let Brown go and come into custody willingly, or will we have to use force?’ Look around you Mr. Woo, there is no way you are going to escape. You’ve backed yourself into a corner here.”
     
    “That’s what you think.” Woo flashed a glimpse of a firearm he’d been holding to Brown’s back.
     
    “I may not be able to get free, but I can take a lot of you with me when I go.”
     
    He pushed Brown forward and started down the hall toward Zack, Wilson and the other officers. Sadie realized if he got past them there would only be her and Mr. Bradshaw between Woo and the door. This was a little worrisome. She picked up Mr. Bradshaw.
     
    But as he moved forward the officers on the stairs started down and Woo, realizing he was leaving his back exposed, moved