Faith's Sheriff (Montgomery Family and Friends) by Iris Abbott Page A

then he gently sat Faith down. 
    “She hit her head on the steering wheel when her car ran down the embankment.  Please check her over and make sure that’s the only injury she sustained.” 
    “Cole I’m fine, really.”  Faith was pretty sure nothing was broken and she didn’t feel like being prodded by two strangers.
    “Well we’re going to make sure of that.”  He turned back to the paramedics.  “This was not an accident.  The sheriff’s department is going to want a very thorough report on her examination and any injuries she might have sustained, no matter how minor.”  He looked straight into the eyes of one paramedic and then the other.  “If she has a scratch so tiny you need a magnifying glass to see it I want it documented.  Do I make myself clear?”
    “Yes sir, we’re on top of things Sheriff Duncan.”  One paramedic took out a blood pressure cuff and wrapped it around Faith’s upper arm while the other began asking her questions.
    Cole saw that Faith was in capable hands.  He pulled his deputy to the side and out of everyone else’s range of hearing.  “She was intentionally run off the road.”  He pointed toward the creek.  “Her car is down there.  Make a report and take plenty of photographs.  Have someone look for specks of paint and any other forensic evidence that might exist and then have the car towed to the parking lot behind the sheriff’s department.”
    Deputy James Palmer scratched his chin and then looked from his boss to the young lady in the back of the ambulance.  “Sheriff, it seems to me things are really starting to heat up in the Tome case.  Calls have been coming in all day long about Richard Tome.  He was spotted near his old house, the elementary school, and Joyce Montgomery’s house.”
    Cole nodded.  Right now everything in his gut was telling him this was the work of a desperate killer not an ex-husband with control issues.  “Richard Tome is at the top of my suspect list.  However law enforcement in Georgia is still trying to track down Ms. Riley’s ex-husband.  I can’t rule out Patrick Riley until I know whether or not he has an alibi.  The fact that he hasn’t been tracked down yet does make me wonder. ”
    “I agree,” the deputy said.  “We can’t rule out any suspects yet, but I got a report of a stolen truck a few minutes ago.  It was taken from Tome’s neighborhood.  And he was spotted there by several people this afternoon.”
    Cole’s frown deepened.  “Faith said she was followed from her house by a white pickup truck.  Tome, Faith, and I all live in the same neighborhood, at least we did before things went crazy.”
    Palmer wasn’t an idiot.  He’d seen the way his boss looked at Faith Riley.  This was more than professional or neighborly concern.  “What is going to happen now?”
    “Faith is staying with Kyle and Caroline Wakefield.  That’s why she was out this way.  They live on this side of the lake.  She can’t stay with them now.  This is too close to their house and Tome might be able to find her there.  I’m going to take Faith to a safe house until we can find Tome and her ex-husband, and the danger has passed.”
    “That’s probably for the best,” the deputy agreed.  “Anything else you need me to do?”
    “Have someone patrol near Joyce Montgomery’s house every hour or so.  She’s fostering Tome’s daughter.”
    The deputy raised a brow.  “Do you think Mrs. Montgomery and the children might be in danger?”
    “I doubt it,” Cole said.  “Joyce has a state of the art security system that only the best of money can buy courtesy of her son-in-law.  Remember her daughter Aubrey is married to rock star Matthew Hampton.  After Abigail’s ex-husband walked in and terrorized Abigail and her two children, Hampton wouldn’t let Aubrey back in that house until a security system was installed.  There’s no way Tome could get inside Mrs. Montgomery’s home without