by J. M. Madden
“I know.”
“She had a story to tell. She wants out. She wants help. She decided to snitch out her housemates in order to get into the S.A.F.E program. Claire’s no dummy. She’s knows the system well. Said she wanted to talk to the D.A., but only if she could do it today, and only if he’d give her the deal.”
“It’s Saturday morning. The D.A. isn’t going to come in on a Saturday.” Now I was too tired to stand. I sat next to Harper.
“He’s here right now. He’s been here about an hour.”
I looked at my watch. It was just after eight. “She must have some good shit, huh?”
“You have no idea.” Harper rocked back and forth. “And this is the part you’re going to love…” She hesitated, then just stopped talking.
“What, Harper? What did she say?”
“It’s more about what D.A. Anderson said.” She now picked at the seam of her jeans.
“Officer Leigh, please tell me what’s going on.” I decided Harper wasn’t my friend in this, she was my trainer.
“Well, Officer Briggs.” The disdain in her voice thick. “You’re going to have custody of her until the trial. And she’ll be remanded to you after she sees the judge on Monday.”
Oh, shit, I’d really rolled in it this time. “But I was just giving her a ride home from the jail. She looked lost when she walked out, and I asked her if she needed a ride.”
She looked me in the eyes. “And what the hell were you doing at the jail to begin with? And don’t tell me it was work related. I hate liars.”
I looked at the ground. “I went to see her.”
“You foolish little boy.” She stood. “You’ve stuck your foot in it all the way to your ankle, so now you’re stuck with her for the duration of the S.A.F.E. program or until she’s back in jail.”
“I can’t be responsible for her. I can barely take care of myself.” I ran my fingers through my short hair.
“Now you have the equivalent of a small child. She’ll have to check in with the judge at least once a week, be piss tested on a daily basis, she’s all yours.” She leaned down and grabbed my hand. “Come on, the D.A. will want to have a chat with you.”
SEVEN
Turns out the S.A.F.E program stands for Stop Addiction For Ever, and it was what the D.A. agreed to in lieu of dropping all of the charges. Claire pleaded no contest and gave up the information Burke and the district attorney had been looking for for a very long time.
She knew the who, what, when, and where of a major drug buy going down within the next two weeks. She’d signed the deal and given up names, places, and transaction details. Anderson was grinning so big, I could barely see the rest of his face when he sat down with me.
Harper hadn’t been joking. Claire would be drug tested almost daily, and she’d have to meet with the judge a minimum of once a week in the beginning, and every other week after she graduated to the next steps in the program. If she broke the rules, she’d be remanded to prison to serve out the full sentence of her felony charge. If she stayed clean and graduated out of the program, she’d have the felony removed. But she had to be under a sort of house arrest and needed someone to answer for her. She gave them my name.
Uncle Isaac was going to freak. I knew it. My fingers trembled as I dialed his number.
“Uncle Isaac?” My voice cracked.
“Yes, she can stay with us.” He didn’t even wait for me to ask, or hesitate.
“What? How did…?”
“We had a long talk last night. Then on the way home, she asked me what I’d do if I were her. I told her I’d leave that life behind.” He sighed. “I asked if she wanted me to stay with her, but she declined. So I suspected she wasn’t going to follow through on what she told me she should do. It takes a lot of guts to give up everyone you know and start over. It’s the hardest part of addiction. All of your friends are addicts, and they want you to be the same as them, they pressure you, so you fall back.” A pause. “Maybe together, we can keep her from falling back.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Uncle Isaac was on board, so this would make it easier. Not that I’d ask him for anything, but I wouldn’t have to lie. I hated even lying by omission. “Thanks, Isaac.”
“Don’t thank me. I may have just made your life a living hell. And I have no intentions of throwing you a lifeline when you start drowning. Call this a life lesson.” He hung up the phone.
The paperwork was signed, and I was now the guardian for Claire Hoffman. It would have been nice for her to ask my permission first, but who was I kidding? I’d have agreed to nearly anything if it would get her clean and back to the sweet Claire I remembered from my childhood.
I know they say you can never go back, and as Claire sat beside me in the car, her arms crossed, not saying a word, I realized there was the equivalent of the Berlin Wall between us. She didn’t want help, she just wanted out. She wanted to be free, not in prison or jail. I was her “get out of jail free” card. And in my ignorance, I thought she’d be grateful I’d agreed and happy I’d be helping her get clean.
“Don’t judge me,” were her first words.
I didn’t respond.
“You don’t have any idea what my life has been like since the accident.”
I looked at her, and a tear rolled down her cheek. I was afraid to let my guard down, not knowing what was real and what was a lie.
“What accident?”
“The accident that killed my family. I wish I’d been killed that day with them.” The tears came faster, dripping onto her crossed arms.
I wanted to slam on the brakes, and pull off to the side of the road, and just sit and listen. It was the first time she’d offered to share anything about her life or her past. I didn’t know if I should ask for details. “Is that what you and Uncle Isaac were talking about last night?”
“Yeah. He was the one who called 911 that day. It happened in front of his restaurant.” She dropped her arms to her sides.
“I’d never heard about this.”
“I don’t think we’d been to the lake house for a few years when it happened. A drunk driver came flying around the curve. You know that one north of Ruby’s?”
I knew it. I also knew of one other accident when a car lost control on the wet road and slammed into my uncle’s restaurant sign. The guy had been drunk and got out of the car and walked about half a mile away. They found him dead on someone’s front lawn. Sad part was that if he’d have stayed at the car, the paramedics could have saved his life. “I know which curve you’re talking about.”
“It was raining hard. This was obviously before the drought. Anyway, he lost control of the car in the turn, and it started spinning. The cops called it hydroplaning. His car slammed into the driver’s side of my parent’s car, then flipped over the top of it and crushed my mom and dad. My sister died a week later. I survived with a minor fracture of the vertebrae in my back. Lots of pain, but I didn’t have any spinal damage. Just lots of pain, both physical and mental.”
“Back pain is debilitating enough without the pain of losing your family.” I’d had no idea about the accident. And I wondered why Uncle Isaac never told me.
“I went to live with my grandmother. She didn’t want a teenage girl in her house. She blamed me for the accident because I’d been the one who wanted to go to Lake Tahoe for the weekend. She had a few bad habits she wanted to share with me. We went from prescription pain meds to illegal meds, and then I went hard after she died. I’ve been an addict since I was fourteen.” She turned and looked at me. “Not how I thought my life would go.”
I could feel her looking at me, but I stared straight ahead at the road, as we were on the narrow streets near the lake house. “I’m so sorry we lost touch.”
“Me too. Somehow, I think things may have been different if we still had the lake house. Still had the old friends. My grandma’s neighborhood, the trailer park, didn’t have the greatest influences. And I was weak.”
“We’re all weak in some way.” I
realized in that statement, she was my weakness. “I’ll do my best to be strong for you, Claire, but I don’t know if I’m up to the task. And I can’t let this interfere with my uncle’s life either. We’ll have to work out some rules.”
She reached across and grabbed my hand. She laced her fingers in mine and said, “Thank you. If you hadn’t come to get me yesterday, I don’t think I’d have come to this decision. It’s been so long since I’ve seen how the better half lives. I’d forgotten. Being with you and talking to your uncle, I know I want more.” She gripped my hand hard. “I don’t want to die in prison.”
I squeezed back. I had no words.
“I know everyone is expecting me to fail, but I’m telling you, I won’t. Officer Leigh hates me, I can see it in her eyes. She thinks I’m going to bring you down.” She tried to let go of my hand.
I held fast. “Harper just knows how real life works. She’s been a cop for a long time. She’s a good lady, and when you prove you're serious about changing, she’ll come around.”
Oh, God, Harper was never going to let me live this down if Claire reoffended. I didn’t think I could handle the disappointment in her eyes when Claire got carted back to jail. Yes, she was my senior officer, and no I didn’t have a thing for her, but I did want her to be proud of my decision to intervene.
Isaac had put on a fresh pot of coffee and left a note beside it.
Had to go to the restaurant. Claire, you’ll need a job, so I expect to see you at Ruby’s at 4:30pm sharp, so we can do the paperwork, and you can start training. Clean the coffee pot when you’re finished and load the dishwasher. We’ll discuss more chores tomorrow.
Love,
Uncle Isaac
“He’s a good man, you’re lucky to have him.” Claire opened the cabinet and pulled down two cups. “This is about as much of a drug as I’ll be able to have from now on.” She grinned.
I held up my hand. “I’m good for now. I need to go take a shower and think.”
She stepped in close and stood on her tiptoes, then she kissed me on the cheek.
I didn’t know what to say, or how I felt, so I turned around and walked out of the room.
The hot shower should have been a cold shower, because all I could think of was a future with Claire. How we’d get her clean, and live happily ever after. I wondered if she’d want kids, and how great she’d be in bed. I ran the water until it was cold, then I stepped out into my bedroom, naked and wiping myself dry with a towel. I looked up to see her lying in my bed.
“I know you didn’t want to do anything last night, but today is a new day. You didn’t pick me up from the cop shop so you could get laid. But I see you,” she looked my naked body up and down, “and I know you want me.”
So the practical me won out. I went to her and climbed on top of her, kissing her like I’d wanted to since we were kids. “You taste like coffee.”
She pulled back. “You taste like toothpaste.” Then she pushed hard against me and the kisses were bruising in their need.
My erection throbbed. It actually hurt. I didn’t think I’d be able to hold out much longer as we explored each other with our hands and licked and kissed trails along each other’s torsos. I wanted to push into her and feel her body wrapped around me.
Her hands were expert, experienced in ways I’d never expected. She ran them over my body and pinched my nipples just hard enough to make them pucker. I returned the favor, then sucked at hers while I explored her breast with my hands. They were perfect handfuls, maybe more than a handful, and I wanted to push them together and put my dick between them. Nothing about this was loving and caring, it was about passion and lust.
I moved my way down her body, kissing every inch of flesh on my way down to the V of her legs. She eagerly parted them, and I moved over the full mound of hair to the wet flesh. She wanted me as much as I wanted her.
She pulled my head back up to her mouth and kissed me hard.
“I want to go back down and make you come.”
She shook her head and whispered in my ear, “Baby, you have a condom?”
And if that didn’t ruin the mood.
EIGHT
Claire offered to relieve me by giving me a blow job, but I didn’t want our first time to be so crude. I put my blue balls into a pair of boxer briefs and pulled on some sweatpants. She was going to be the death of me. I smiled at that thought. When we finally did make love, it would be lustful and wonderful, and we’d both want it.
We agreed that while she was working at the diner, I’d stop by Walgreens and get some protection. Then we curled up, our bodies entwined, and fell asleep.
It had been a long night for Claire and very little sleep. I awoke about an hour later, waited for her to roll over, and then I got out of bed. I needed to do my share of the household chores and fix the steps leading to the dock. At Uncle Isaac’s house, there was always a “honey do” list.
I kept checking my watch, making sure Claire didn’t oversleep, because there were never second chances as far a work was concerned. I got her out of bed, a cranky, drug deprived woman, with just barely my skin to show for it. Oh, God, was I going to survive this?
By the time she got to the car, she was more human than animal, and she even smiled before she walked through the doors of Ruby’s to start a new job and hopefully a new life.
I smiled as I drove back home, knowing my handyman work and chores were done, and I could just lay back in my chair on the deck and read a book. There wouldn’t be too many more days this nice, this season.
I drove across the canal and my phone vibrated. Holy shit, wasn’t this my day off? It was Sergeant Burke.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“I’m headed home. Isaac gave Claire a job at the restaurant, and I just dropped her off.”
“Good, we’ll know where to find her.” There was a pregnant pause. “I need you to come to the house on M Street.”
“You know I’m off duty, right?” That was the exact wrong thing to say.
“Now!” And he hung up the phone.
So, in police work, there wasn’t such a thing as a day off.
I flipped a U-turn in the middle of the street and headed back into town.
When I arrived at the house where I’d seen Claire, I was surprised to see the crime scene tape up and several police cars parked around the perimeter and in the driveway.
My heart flipped in my chest. What the hell? Then the ambulance drove up behind me.
I parked behind one of the cars in the driveway and got out, dreading what Burke was going to tell me when he saw I’d arrived.
“Briggs, here. Now,” Burke yelled from the side door of the house.
The front door had two-by-fours nailed over several pieces of plywood. We’d busted that door up pretty good. When I looked into the side door, I knew shit had hit the fan. The man Claire had ratted out was dead. And from the looks of things, he’d been dead for a while.
“Holy shit,” was all I could say. “Holy shit.”
“I’d like you to meet Claire’s boyfriend, fiancé, whatever you want to call him, Andre Poss. He was alive and well last evening. That’s when he posted bail and was released from the jail. Don’t be bothered by the fact that he doesn’t stand up and shake hands. He’s dead.”
That much was obvious. He’d been shot through the back of the head at close range. Or so it seemed. CSI was already on the scene and processing evidence.
“When did you get the call?”
“About an hour ago.” He looked around the room. “Apparently a friend had come to visit, and when he saw Andre on the floor, he went next door and had the neighbor call the police.”
Burke pointed to his car.
“What?” I was actually thinking what now?
“Let’s get some booties on, and I’ll show you the rest of the crime scene. And I’d like to know where exactly your girlfriend was last night.”
The side door led into the kitchen, which was where Andre Poss
, aka Boxer Boy, lay quietly as the CSI techs placed evidence numbers and took photographs. I’d only known it was Boxer Boy because of the snake tattoo coiled around his right forearm.
“Whoever it was, Andre knew the killer. No forced entry, other than ours from the other night. And you can see that was nicely fixed up.” Burke stepped aside, so the CSI team member taking the photos could get a different angle.
A million things ran through my head, but I asked, “Did the neighbors hear anything?”
“Dornan is chatting with them now. He should be back soon.” Burke rested the heel of his hand on his firearm. “There’s another one upstairs.”
I closed my eyes for a second, then followed Burke up the stairs I’d climbed so many hours ago.
In the same bedroom where we’d found Boxer Boy, okay, Andre Poss, a Hispanic looking guy I’d have guessed to be in his twenties, lay flat on his back in the bed. The bed that had been light gray or dirty white was now crimson red across the middle. Brown where the blood had already dried.
“Who’s this guy?” I really didn’t want to know.
“Leon Chaparro. Ring a bell?”
I needed to sit down. The spinning in my head was making me nauseous. “Oh, shit.”
“No shit. This is all wrapping up in a nice bundle now, isn’t it?” The sarcasm was heavy in Burke’s voice.
“Time of death hasn’t been established yet, right? I mean, we don’t know for sure.”
Burke grabbed my shoulder and turned me around, then nearly shoved me out the door. “That junkie has some explaining to do.”
“We don’t know that for sure until we have a time of death established.” Why the hell was I defending her?
“You’re going to go pick her up and bring her to the station.”
“She’s at work. It’s part of her S.A.F.E. program rules. She needs to have a job.”
“Good for her, and we need some answers.” He quickened his pace as we descended the stairs.
“Can we see what other answers we get from the neighbors first? Isaac isn’t into second chances, and if we snatch her away from work on her first night and she turns out to be innocent, well…”