Chapter 8 Fight, No Flight
Chapter eight
Fight, No Flight
Lynnette had driven out to meet up with Jenna at the Leeland County Sheriff’s Department as requested, layers of frustration probably weighing her foot more heavily than necessary on the gas pedal.
Being alone to think inevitably let her mind wander back to Bishop and that bullshit stunt he’d pulled.
She hadn’t had a moment to check her email, let alone the opportunity to move the video to a safe location.
Which she probably wouldn’t get to do until she was home and had access to her laptop, anyway.
Then her mind wandered to Lance and their admittedly questionably professional lunch … thing. It felt like it had been a thing.
It should definitely not have been a thing.
Her heart still beat faster, just reflecting on the way he looked at her. He wasn’t the only one to ever shorten her name—Jenna tended to, in fact. But the way he said it made it sound like a sweet, tender endearment.
She snorted at herself. What would I even know about those? She’d always had terrible taste in men. It was one of the reasons she’d just sworn them off altogether. What did a woman need with a man when there were so many toys on the market?
That was a dangerous series of thoughts, because then her mind started blending memories of lonely nights with a vibrator and visions of the way Lance Blackburn’s eyes burned into her.
The way he grinned at her. The warmth and strength of his fingers curling around hers when she’d impulsively taken his hand before she’d left his room.
She’d hoped catching up with Jenna and focusing on Jenna’s crisis would be a good distraction. The joke was on her.
In a karmic twist of fate that had Lynnette feeling more than a little stupid, Jenna revealed that her high school sweetheart everyone had long believed died in a heroic tragedy while on deployment with the Marines was in fact not dead.
That was a rumor that would be leading to some intense family drama Lynnette was glad to stay out of.
But Jenna’s Jon was, obviously, also Lance’s local buddy and Lynnette could have kicked herself.
Which had her thinking about Lance again.
Until the Sheriff’s Department pissed her off.
Jenna had gone in seeking to file a missing person’s report for a young employee of hers, and inquire about her bakery, which the department still had on lockdown.
They’d been summarily thrown out with the threat of a harassment charge and arrest if they should ever “bother” the department again. For anything.
Lynnette was still fuming about it when the women met up at their agreed upon regrouping destination of the crumbling parking lot behind the old, abandoned theater.
She hopped out of her truck, slammed the door harder than necessary, and let the tailgate fall just hard enough to shake the whole truck bed.
Which she really shouldn’t do, and she knew it.
Jenna shuffled up looking more like a dejected puppy. Tears dotted her lashes, assuring she’d cried at least part of the short drive over, and she didn’t say a word before hoisting herself up to sit beside Lynnette on the tailgate. “Drew Parker is a dickwad.”
Lynnette scoffed. “He’s way worse than that, but that’s a start.” She raised a leg to rest the heel of her boot on the tailgate and propped her elbow on her knee. “We need to find some other way to get that girl’s information out there. Whatever the hell is wrong with them, this is not okay.”
Jenna slumped to the side. “I have no idea how,” she admitted. “We can’t prove all these disappearances are connected, so we can’t get the FBI involved.” She looked toward Lynnette. “Does the hospital have some kind reporting influence?”
Lynnette frowned. “In a manner of speaking,” she said carefully, “but we’re in a different jurisdiction. I work in Klamath County, remember? My connections there can’t do more than give advice.”
“What about that lawyer you mentioned? Was that just a bluff?”
Lynnette sucked in a breath. Lilia! She’d let herself get so upset, she’d already forgotten her flash of brilliance. “Hell no, that wasn’t a bluff. You’re okay with me calling her?”
“I don’t see what other choice we have,” Jenna replied.
Worry creased her brow. “Jon is sure she’s been taken, the same as those other women we’ve heard about lately.
Her mother’s even accepted that this isn’t like any of the times she’s ever gotten upset and ghosted them before, which she hasn’t done in years.
Steph’s been nothing but responsible and reliable since I’ve known her.
” Her voice grew strained. “And our law enforcement won’t even listen to the report, much less write it down. ”
“Hey, I hear you,” Lynnette said, laying a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I don’t know what Lilia can do about a report, but she’s got to have better resources than we do.” She gave Jenna’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll call her right now.”
As Lynnette hopped to her feet, too wound up to sit still, Jenna asked, “How much … do you think she’ll charge? I don’t think Martha has much, and I … well, I wasn’t exactly flush before my business got shot up and shut down.”
Lynnette offered the best sympathetic look she could. “I wasn’t kidding when I said Lilia loves me, and that she’s thirsty. I’ll talk her down as best I can and we’ll make sure we all agree before moving forward, okay?”
Emotions clashed in Jenna’s eyes for a second, but Jenna bobbed her head.
She was an open-hearted person, but not so much that her brain turned all the way off on the important stuff.
Lynnette was well aware that her friend had been through her share of shit and been forced to learn how to draw the hard lines.
Acknowledging that there even might be a financial limit to their help was a line Jenna would struggle to forgive herself for, Lynnette was sure.
She only hoped Lilia came through.
Lilia answered on the third ring, and was audibly surprised to hear Lynnette was calling with the hopes of hiring her. “Tell me everything,” she said.
Lynnette paced back toward Jenna and the truck and put her phone on speaker.
She didn’t know ‘everything,’ so to accomplish that request, Jenna had to pitch in.
“Lilia, this is Jenna, she’s going to help me explain because she’s deeper in this bullcrap than I am.
Jen’s one of my best friends, if you could keep those lawyer claws to a minimum. ”
Lilia chuckled. “I only scratch my clients when they give me a hard time. And right now, we’re only chatting.”
Jenna leaned forward as if it would help her be heard and carefully walked Lilia—and indirectly Lynnette—through the details.
Because it was necessary and not so disputably relevant, she started with the botched burglary and the arrival of two Marine Corps veterans at her bakery on Monday.
The deputies who badgered her after taking too long to show up, instead of cuffing and stuffing the crooks the Marines had caught.
And the shoot-out that had followed, leaving the thieves dead, her store in shambles, and one Marine in the hospital.
Lynnette volunteered confirmation of that and boldly declared she was pretty sure she could get him to provide a statement, too, if it was needed. It was mild consolation that only Jenna could see the flush burning her face as she said the words.
Thankfully, Jenna carried the story forward and explained how that tied in with the missing girl—her nineteen-year-old employee, Steph, who hadn’t been seen since Monday night.
And how the Leeland County Sheriff’s Office had refused, multiple times to multiple sources, to take a report.
Which wound them around to their recent trip to the department itself, and Deputy Parker’s threat of arrest.
When Jenna was done, Lynnette said, “I managed not to throat punch the asshole, but if he so much as reaches for a pair of handcuffs in my presence I will personally assure he never has children. And we all know that’d be doing the world a favor.”
Jenna had her lips pinched tight, laughter dancing in her eyes.
On the line, Lilia blew out an aggravated breath. “Professionally, I never heard that. As your friend, more power to you. From that story the entire building could use a damn cleansing. And I’m atheist.”
Lynnette tipped her head. “I feel like that says it all.”
Jenna opened her mouth. “So, um … we would love help, if it’s even something you can offer, but …
could we talk quotes or prices or something first?
I don’t personally know Martha’s budget, but I’ve enough from Steph to have a sense of the family’s finances and I’m worried we’ve already used more of your time than they can afford. ”
“No, we cannot talk quotes or prices,” Lilia replied without missing a beat. “I’ve been telling Lynnette for years that if she needs a good Civil Rights lawyer, to come to me.”
“Yeah,” Lynnette said, “that’s not the same thing. I called. And I was definitely going to try to schmooze a deal out of you. Why won’t you let me?”
Lilia scoffed. “You want better than pro bono?”
Lynnette blinked.
Jenna gasped and ripped her gaze up to Lynnette. The disbelief was probably only marginally more obvious than her own.
Lynnette cleared her throat and swiftly took the call off speaker so she could spin away to resume pacing.
It was a nervous tick of hers. “Okay, no, that would obviously be amazing and I don’t want to screw over the family or the girl who needs the help, but are you serious?
Can you do that? Don’t you have bosses?”