by Dale Mayer
When they finally pulled into the station, Angela came out and took possession of Henry, while Bonaparte escorted Johnny, and the four of them walked back into the jail cell. While there, she separated the two of them and brought in a nurse to look at Johnny’s shoulder.
The nurse shrugged, then cleaned the wound. “It’ll be fine,” she said, then put a bandage on it and walked out. Johnny never said a word. She put Johnny back in with Henry in the same cell. In the other cell were the two sisters, sitting there, looking morose and lost.
Bonaparte stared at them and shook his head. “Wow,” he said, “you two are a pair, aren’t you?”
“We didn’t have any choice,” Lana said, glaring at him.
“You didn’t have any choice but to let prisoners out of jail?”
She flushed at that. “I didn’t think that one through,” she said.
“You think?” he said. “Aiding and abetting criminals to escape? Does that ring a bell anywhere along the line? Have you heard any news media commentary on that? You know? How cops and sheriff’s clerks go to jail for the same crimes as other people do?”
Lana just stared at him, all the color leaving her face. “I can’t go to jail,” she said. “I just can’t. There’s poor Mama to look after.”
“And yet you didn’t think about her before you walked in here and let criminals go free,” he said in a dry tone. “Not to mention what they were doing to your sister when we arrested them.”
“I can’t go to jail.” Lana hopped up and started shaking the bars. “Don’t you hear me? I can’t go to jail.”
He stepped forward, shoved his face into hers, and, without any sympathy, said, “News flash, you’re already in jail.”
And, with that, he turned and walked out.
Chapter 10
Angela reached up and rubbed her forehead.
“You okay?” Bonaparte asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. My counterpart in a neighboring county is sending over a deputy to give me a hand.”
“Good,” he said. “Are you trying to get rid of me already?”
She shook her head. “No, but obviously we can’t leave here, while that key is still missing.”
“Right, that key,” he said. “I can take care of that if you’ll tell me where it’s likely to be.”
She handed him a piece of paper and said, “That’s Frank’s address.”
He looked at it, nodded, and said, “I can almost walk from here.”
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to walk him back over in handcuffs either,” she said sadly. “It’s too bad. He was a very promising deputy.”
“Well, looks like they got to him one way or another.”
“And Lana now says he doesn’t know she took the keys.”
“Do you believe her?”
“Nope,” she said, “I don’t. Earlier she said he was trying to get copies made. I expect the brothers have something on him too. Whether it was big or not, I don’t know, but he didn’t come to me with it.”
“No,” he said, “they never seem to, do they?”
“Apparently I’m not anywhere near as approachable as I thought I was, and that is something I’ll just have to live with.”
“It takes something like this to figure out what the culture is around you,” he said. “Don’t take it personally.”
She looked up at him in surprise. “How the hell else can I take it?” she cried out. “Look at this place? I mean, it’s like rats deserting a ship.”
“It’s more like rats finding their own level because a bigger rat came into town. They figured that rat would take over, so, instead of standing with you to fight him, they were gutless and bet against you, siding with him.”
“Right. Eight years,” she said. “Eight years I’ve been here in this position.”
“And you’ve done a good job,” he said. “You’ve got very little crime, and everybody has been happy, until the two guys with money moved in. And, by the way, Levi found out there is a move for a major highway to go through here.”
She stared at him in shock. “What? A highway? We haven’t heard anything about it. There’s been no public meetings or announcements. Not even rumors.”
“No, it’s being pushed through at the state level,” he said. “And, yes, it looks like your property is likely to be affected.”
She stood up slowly. “What?”
He nodded. “Which also affects the other properties that you’ve been talking about, which is why the brothers were trying to buy up everything. Because, once that highway goes through, a ton of commercialism is about to happen here, and they want in on the action.”
She just stared at him, her stomach twisting. “And what about my place?”
“Well, that’s part of the question, isn’t it?” he said. “Obviously you didn’t know anything about this.”
“Nope, I didn’t,” she said, reaching for the phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“A council member,” she said. “Let’s see what he has to say for himself.”
“Chances are good he may not even know very much about this.”
“Well, if he doesn’t, it’s high time he does,” she said shortly. “Because somebody needs to put a stop to this.”
“You know it won’t be that easy.”
“No,” she said, “it won’t be. But it doesn’t have to be that hard either. Who the hell is driving this? This is literally the first I’ve heard of it,” she said, sitting back down and staring at him in shock.
“Which is why I’m telling you, and Levi told me, so he knows more about it than I do.”
She nodded and said, “You know what? That’s a good point. I’ll call Levi first.” She disconnected her call.
He smiled. “Good idea. If anybody can give you a hand with this, it’s him.”
She immediately dialed and connected with Ice. As soon as Angela identified herself, Ice’s warm tone broke over her, like the soothing hug of a friend.
“Hey, sweetie. Sounds like you got yourself a spot of trouble up there.”
“I sure do,” she said. “Thanks so much for sending Bonaparte. He’s been a huge help already.”
“Nothing like finding out nobody’s got your back,” Ice said quietly. “Just remember. We always have yours.”
“That’s actually another reason I’m calling,” she said. “I’m wondering if I could ask a favor.”
“Anything,” Ice said. “Ask away.”
Then she brought up what Levi had told Bonaparte. “He mentioned that to me,” Ice said thoughtfully. “I don’t think they can push stuff like that through, but it seems like somebody is trying. Let me think on this for a bit.”
Almost immediately after hanging up from Ice’s call and after getting everybody set up into their jail cells, her new borrowed deputy arrived. With relief, she asked him to watch the cells and warned him about what had happened earlier.
He nodded. “That’s fine. I don’t know any of the people in this town,” he said, checking out the four in the cells, “but, looking at this bunch, apparently I don’t want to either.”
They all just glared back at him.
He shrugged and locked the doors to the basement itself. “I’ve got this. Go pick up your next prisoner.”
Angela and Bonaparte smiled and headed out. As they walked outside, Bonaparte looked at her and said, “This has been one hell of a weekend.”
She nodded. “Yeah, especially if we can pick up Ronnie.” They both climbed in Bonaparte’s truck.
“What will you do to keep them here?”
“That’ll be the trouble.”
“And what about their lawyers?”
“Not my problem,” she said. “The prisoners are here in jail now and hopefully they’ll stay there until Monday morning, when the circuit judge comes.”
“That should be fun.”
“Not so much. The prosecutor is working on it as well. I did update him by a text that we had our prisoners back and that we’re headed to
pick up another couple.”
“I’m sure he loved that too.”
“Everybody loves to get called about work on weekends,” she said, with a smile.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “At least I know that I’m doing what I need to do.”
“Exactly,” she said. “I get that a Monday-through-Friday eight-to-four schedule works for a lot of jobs, but it doesn’t necessarily work for law enforcement. It seems like the criminals have more time for crossing that line on the weekends than any other time.”
“How does that work?” he said. “You’d think they’d want a day off too.”
She burst out laughing. “A lot of times these guys are working Monday to Friday at some low-level day job but also spend their weekends either getting into trouble or trying to make more money on the side. It’s just that they haven’t found a way or don’t have the patience to do it legally.”
“You’re right about the lack of the patience. I think it’s too slow of a process when it’s legal,” he said. “Everybody wants a shortcut.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” she said, with a shake of her head. “I never really found that to work so well for me.”
“Me either,” he said.
She grinned. “But you love working for Levi, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I really do. I like all the guys and the whole camaraderie of a larger pool of people you know you can count on.”
“Do they usually send you guys out alone?”
“Sometimes,” he said, with a shrug. “It depends on what the job is.”
“So this was just a small job then,” she teased. “I mean, he only sent you, after all.”
“Or it’s a big job,” he said, with a cheeky grin, “and he needed a big guy.”
She burst out laughing again, absolutely loving the camaraderie of being around him.
“It’s nice to see somebody with a smiling face,” he commented.
She looked at him in surprise. “Don’t you see very many smiling faces?”
“Not when this kind of stuff comes down.”
“Well, that’s because everybody is worried,” she said.
“Those two women back there,” he said, “have you thought about what’s happening to their mama and grandfather?”
“Well, hopefully we’ll stop by and take a look at that today. If not, there’s already a call out for Mama to get picked up and taken to a home.”
“That would be hard on her,” he said.
“It may be,” she said. “But again, the authorities need to deal with that issue without me. And depending on how their mother’s doing with her treatments and all, she may do fine on her own.”
“Or she could be completely dependent and need a caregiver,” he said quietly.
She sighed. “I know, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it.”
“Nothing you can do.”
“It depends on the prosecutor at this point,” she said, with a shrug. “It would be nice if they could work something out.”
“Maybe at least the sisters could get out on bail, … if they can post bail.”
“I think they probably can,” she said, with a frown, “though I’ve been surprised by those two. So I’m not betting on anything at this point.” She sent the prosecutor another text message about the two of them, reminding him that they had a deadline for help with their mama’s care. She shook her head at the whole mess. “It would sure be nice if we could pick up Ronnie now then go home and have a barbecue.”
“Hell yeah,” he said. “I’m pretty sure you owe me that.”
“Owe you what?” she asked in astonishment.
“Hey, you promised me barbecued ribs.”
“No, you promised me barbecued ribs,” she said, with a laugh.
He shrugged. “Same diff.”
She shook her head. “Not in anybody’s dreams is that the same diff,” she snickered. They went to Frank’s house first, only no one was there. Frowning she said, “We’ll try Ronnie first then come back to Frank’s later.”
They drove up to Ronnie’s place. She looked at the gate and said, “It’s locked of course.”
“Yep, and do you think it was him shooting at the house earlier?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I mean, it should have been Ronnie, since his house is closest to mine, and that’s where we saw him go, but it didn’t really look that much like him.”
“Who did it look like?”
“Neither of the brothers honestly,” she said, with a shrug. “You’ve seen Johnny, and he’s a pretty average height, average build, but Ronnie is taller, as you saw at the restaurant.”
“Okay, well let’s go see what he’s got to say for himself.” They pulled up to the gate, and Bonaparte hit the button to be let through. But, of course, nobody answered. She hopped out, walked around, and hit it again, identifying herself. Again there was no answer. He looked at her and said, “What’s his incentive to actually answer?”
“None I can think of,” she said, “but we don’t have any rights to go on the property either.”
“Hmm, I thought he was involved in this coercion deal. Doesn’t that give us the right to pick him up?”
“Yes, but I’ll have to get a warrant to force our way onto the property, if he’ll play hard to get.” She called the prosecutor and explained the problem.
“Do you even know that he’s home?” he asked.
“No. I can’t confirm it at this time.”
“Can you get confirmation for me?”
“We can just go find out for ourselves.”
“You could,” he said. “I’ll call you back.”
Pocketing the phone, she looked at Bonaparte and said, “He’ll call me back.”
He just rolled his eyes.
“I know,” she said, “bureaucracy at its best.”
“Or its worst. We need access. We need to know if Ronnie’s in there, and we need to know now,” he said.
She thought about it, nodded. “I know. We came here to pick him up, but we have to make sure that everything is locked up and as legal as we can make it, so it doesn’t get thrown out in court.” Just then she got a phone call. It was the prosecutor.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ve got a judge on standby, and we’re working on the warrant right now. Call you back.”
She smiled and gave Bonaparte a thumbs-up. “They’re working on it.”
“Good,” he said, “because it looks like we’re about to get company.”
She looked down the driveway, and a sports car came toward them. “Wow,” she said, “this could be fun.”
“Only if it’s him,” he said.
But, as Angela watched, a young woman was driving.
She came to the gate, opened it, and looked at them. “I can’t even get out with you parked like that,” she said, glaring at Bonaparte. “Really, like if some people would just learn to drive, you know?”
“Who are you?” Angela asked.
The woman tilted her head. “I’m Maisie,” she said. “Why? And who are you anyway?”
“I’m the sheriff,” she said. “Is Ronnie in there?”
“Yeah, and he’s in a hell of a mood too,” she said. “I’m leaving, until he’s not so grumpy.”
“That’s probably wise,” she said. “We need to talk to him.”
“Go on in,” she said. “I don’t have a problem with you talking to him. Who knows? Maybe you’ll get him in a better mood!”
At that, Bonaparte backed up a bit, so she could get by his truck, and Angela hopped up into the front seat and said, “Let’s go.” He drove through the gate as soon as Maisie went through, before the gate could close.
Looking at Angela, he said, “Convenient of her to invite us in.”
“I’m not sure how convenient it’ll be for him, but Maisie definitely invited us in.” And Angela gave him a wolfish smile. “Besides, the warrant just came through as well.” He looked at her in surprise, as she nodded.
“Coercion and blackmail don’t go over well here.”
“So we subdue our prisoner and then get a free-for-all at his place.”
“Well, hardly a free-for-all,” she said. “I haven’t got the warrant in hand, so I don’t know exactly what it covers.”
“Well, it sure as hell better cover his electronics and all the rest of that shit.”
“I would hope so too,” she said, “but I have to wait for that to come in.”
“Well, to do all that, yes, we do,” he said, “but not for picking him up, right?”
“No,” she said, “not for that.”
At the doorway, they knocked, and, at the first clip of knuckles against wood, the door opened, and Ronnie stood there, glaring at them.
“You’re trespassing,” he said, holding up his phone. “I already have my lawyer ready to dial,” he said, sneering and speaking directly to Angela. “Obviously I can’t call law enforcement, when it’s so corrupt.”
“Interesting,” she said. “You see? We have full rights to be here. For one thing, we were actually welcomed onto the property.” She caught the surprise in his eyes, as he looked down the driveway, and then a frown appeared.
She nodded. “Your lovely girlfriend Maisie told us to come on up,” she said. “So here we are.” Smiling, she went on. “However, we do have a warrant, and we’re actually here to take you in for questioning.” He looked at her and moved back several steps.
“Like hell you are,” he said, his fingers pressing Call on the phone.
“Oh, I think it’s more than that,” she said, looking over at Bonaparte. “Do you want the honors?”
Bonaparte smiled and stepped forward, and she knew that anybody with half a brain would have felt some fear or at least respected his obvious physical superiority and complied, but these guys were not very smart. Ronnie was also starting to look a little on the seedy side.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Ronnie said. “You lay your hand on me,” he said, “and I’ll have you arrested.”
“You can try, but, if you’re resisting arrest, it’ll just get much harder.”
Ronnie shook his head. “You’ve got nothing on me. I didn’t do anything.”
“That’s not quite what Johnny and Henry are saying,” she said. “Or the two women.”