Chapter 23
It was just a stupid wallet. They’d gone into Bethune and Clarke so Lily could ogle a shoulder bag she coveted. On the way out they passed a cluttered rack of wallets. She had a new wallet. Why couldn’t she have left that one where it was?
Things were getting better between them. This new job had seemed to get mom back up to speed emotionally. Though she still couldn’t get past doing her rounds through the house every night, her confidence had returned. Her outlook was improving and she wasn’t as short-tempered as she had been after leaving the FBI. This would knock them back into all that. She had screwed up big time.
She needed to pee.
There was little to the room but desolate isolation, though anyone caught and put in here couldn’t ever be certain how much of that sensation was generated internally, albeit encouraged and augmented by the spare surroundings. Little more than a converted storage room, it had one bare light bulb in the ceiling providing dim illumination of the grey walls. The stale smell of body odor, booze and urine helped reinforce that claustrophobic trap atmosphere. It still couldn’t match the one her mind had set for herself, however.
Why’d she do it? She’d been enjoying herself with Donny and Lily. They’d gone through other stores and she hadn’t felt any urge. What went wrong?
The new sheriff’s daughter had been caught shoplifting. The DGN would go into hyper-drive. By the end of the day nearly seven thousand more people would know of Sheriff McGowan’s great shame and burden: Klepto-daughter. She was nothing at all like the heroic Valkyria.
The deadbolt lock on the door slid open. The door opened. The older of the two security guards came in with a glass of water for her.
She kept her gaze on the square table in front of her and only shifted it to the glass after she mumbled, “Thanks.”
He said nothing, which only made her wonder if he was keeping quiet because he was embarrassed for mom. Or was he going through a list in his head of significant people in Dominion, people who might not be happy about her mother becoming the new sheriff? Who would he leak the news to first, one of them, the DGN or the Dominion Times?
What kind of blog would Donny have to write once his employer learned he had spent the morning with Klepto-girl and had actually been there when she did it? Hadn’t he noticed anything, perhaps a subtle, furtive change in her behavior?
What could possibly make a Sheriff’s daughter steal? There would be no shortage of expert common knowledge. There had been plenty of that the other times.
Mom had trusted her. She hadn’t given her any warning or lecture; she’d just let her go to the mall. And this is what she’d done with that trust. Dad would be proud, wouldn’t he?
She took a sip of water but doing so felt like she’d just been injected with a gallon of it. The pressure to pee was becoming painful. She took fifteen minutes to finish the water. She could barely hold it in but her mouth just kept drying up. After another twenty minutes, she began considering possibly using the glass she’d just emptied.
Had the guard intentionally brought in the water to assist her with her self-torture?
Voices approached on the other side of the door. The most agitated one was female.
She squeezed her eyes shut, but the tears still came out. She sniffed and wiped her nose. Her lips and chin trembled when the deadbolt slid aside again and the door opened.
Deputy Kelly Strickland entered alone and sat in the chair across the table from her.
She started crying the moment Strickland held up the wallet.
“I’m not going to ask why? I’m going to take this back to Bethune and Clarke and talk to Heather for as long as it takes. Do you need anything before I do?”
Shana just clenched and shook her head.
“How long have you been in here?”
Barely audible, she replied, “Almost two hours.”
Deputy Strickland got up. “Come with me.” She took out her handcuffs but just held onto them.
Shana went with her to the women’s washroom. Strickland put a closed sign on the door after first confirming no one was inside.
When she entered the cubicle, Strickland said, “Leave the door open.”
Though Strickland remained by the entrance door and the pressure was unbearable, she still had trouble going. After she was finished, Strickland deposited her back into the little room and locked it. The empty glass was gone.
She still felt the need to pee and sat shivering for another hour before Strickland returned.
“Time to go,” she said but didn’t take out her handcuffs.
Shana wiped her eyes and her nose and walked with Strickland to her police car. She got into the back and looked out at where Dean Bilsbarrow had been parked.
Would he wave back now? Would Lily and Donny want anything more to do with her? They had their own problems to deal with. Allison Becker and her group would be rolling on the floor when they heard about this.
Once they were underway, Strickland made eye contact with her in the rear view mirror. “I like your mom very much.” Rather than take her to the Sheriff’s Office, Strickland took her home. Upon arriving, she said, “And I like you, too, Shana.”
She started bawling and got out of the car.
Strickland escorted her to the stairs leading up to the porch.
“I told your mom I’d watch out for you. We tall girls have to stick together, right?” She brushed back Shana’s hair and lifted her head. “There will be no charges and we’ll keep this between ourselves. It’s only your mom’s second day and I don’t think either one of us wants to see her hurt. But this is a one-time-only deal. Do it again and I don’t have to tell you all that shit about pain and guilt and trouble, do I?”
Shana wiped her eyes and shook her head.
Deputy Kelly Strickland took her inside, hugged her, let her cry for a bit in her embrace and then left.
Wear Something Red Page 23