24. Hunter
Hunter
H unter was pacing anxiously back and forth between the kitchen and the living room. The boys were in school and Piper would be back from a morning shift at The Magic Bean any minute.
Hunter wasn’t sure she was ready for this.
“Incoming,” came a man’s voice from the entryway.
Hunter joined him and looked through the peep hole in the front door. Piper was walking up the sidewalk, sipping an iced coffee with lots of whipped cream and chocolate syrup. She looked completely absorbed in her thoughts and unprepared for what was waiting for her.
“That’s her,” Hunter confirmed.
“You ready?” the man asked. He was wearing a policeman’s uniform, with a shiny badge on his chest and a duty belt poking out from beneath his winter jacket.
Hunter nodded and he escorted her over to the couch, where a second officer waited. She stood on the other side of the coffee table, her hands on her hips and her blonde hair meticulously parted over her shoulders. Hunter met her eyes with nervousness, then they all heard Piper’s key in the lock.
Hunter sat down and put her head in her hands.
The door opened behind her and Piper paused in the entryway for a minute to take off her coat, oblivious. She came into the living room and Hunter heard her footsteps stop dead in their tracks as she saw the two officers, and then Hunter sitting on the couch.
“What’s going on?” Piper asked.
Hunter lifted her head, turning around to look at her.
“Are you Piper Wolfe?” the man asked.
“Who’s asking?” Piper shot back, becoming combative. Hunter reached over the back of the sofa, taking Piper’s free hand and trying to calm her.
“Officer Brooks from the Grimm Falls Police Department,” the man said. “And this is my partner, Officer Hill. We have some questions we’d like to ask you about Abigail Walsh. Please take a seat.”
“Kiera and Abby called the cops,” Hunter said. “They have a list of everything that’s missing from their house.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Piper said, eyeing the officers.
Hunter sighed. Even with two cops staring her down, Piper wasn’t going to give up the con.
“We don’t have to talk to you,” Piper said. She took a step backward, angling for the door, but Hunter held her hand. “Hunter, don’t tell them anything.”
“Sit down, Pipes,” Hunter said gently. “They just want to talk.”
“We have reason to believe some of the stolen goods are currently in your possession,” Officer Hill said. She took a small notebook from her pocket and flipped it open, then said, “A silver tray, does that sound familiar?”
Officer Brooks went over to a small table near the door and picked up a dish that actually belonged to Piper, but which fit the description, saying, “Like this one?”
“You’re crazy,” Piper said. “That’s melamine!”
“Please cooperate,” Hunter said, as quietly as she could so that the officers wouldn’t hear.
“It would be enough to provide probable cause to search the rest of the residence,” Officer Hill said curtly. “Have a seat, Ms. Wolfe.”
Piper came around the end of the couch and sat reluctantly next to Hunter. She put her coffee on the table and crossed her arms in front of her chest, then asked, “What do you want to know?”
“Where are the items you removed from Ms. Walsh’s home?” Officer Brooks asked.
“I didn’t take anything,” Piper said.
“Then it must have been your sister,” Officer Hill cut in. “You both had access to the home over the last couple of months and a substantial number of valuable items have been reported stolen. If you didn’t take them, then Hunter must have.”
“She’s innocent,” Piper said. “She didn’t take anything, and neither did I.”
“I told you not to do this,” Hunter said, turning to her sister and letting her emotions get the best of her. “I begged you to stop.”
“Shut up,” Piper said through her teeth.
“I kept telling you that this is exactly what would happen if you pulled cons and stole from people,” Hunter said.
Suddenly, all of her anger and disappointment – in herself as much as in Piper – came out in a very real way and she was saying everything that she hadn’t had the courage to say to Piper the other night.
“This is your fault. I did everything I could to get you out of this life and you just kept taking the easy way out. I can’t keep being your moral compass, bailing you out and trying to fix things if you just keep letting Jed swallow you up. ”
“Enough,” Officer Brooks snapped.
“Don’t listen to her,” Piper said. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“I do,” Hunter said. “And I think the only thing I can do now is protect you from yourself. I’m sorry, Pipes.”
She looked down at her lap, big tears falling and staining her jeans.
Then she said, “Officer, check her bedroom. It’s upstairs, the first door on the right. She keeps things that are important to her in her top dresser drawer, so if there’s anything in the house, it’ll probably be there.”
“What the hell-” Piper yelled, starting to get up, but Officer Hill barked at her to sit down.
“Sit or we’ll arrest you right now,” she said. Then she nodded to Officer Brooks, who went upstairs. Hunter could feel her heart pounding in her ears while they listened to his footsteps creaking on the stairs.
He came back quickly, holding two small ceramic figurines and a stack of paper. He set it all down on the coffee table and Hunter saw that they were letters, all addressed from the state correctional facility.
Hunter knew they would find something of Abby’s up there, but that stack of letters from Jed was like an icicle driven into her chest. She sifted through them, looking at the postmarks. There were a couple of recent ones in the pile, dated only weeks ago.
“Piper, how could you?” she asked.
“Piper Wolfe, you’re under arrest,” Officer Brooks said, gesturing for her to stand. He took a pair of handcuffs from his belt and Hunter felt numb as she watched him snap the cuffs onto her sister’s wrists.
Then Officer Hill stepped forward and said, “Hunter Roth, you are also under arrest for aiding and abetting. Please stand.”
“What?” Piper cried. “No! She didn’t do anything.”
“She clearly knew about the items stolen from your employer, and your past crimes as well,” Officer Brooks said, snapping the second cuff behind Piper’s back. “She’s an accessory.”
“You can’t arrest us both,” Piper begged. “I’ve got two kids. They’re in school right now. Who’s going to be here for them when they get off the bus?”
“They’ll be placed into the foster system for the time being,” Officer Hill said. “We’ll dispatch an officer to the school to pick them up.”
“No!” Piper yelled, losing it as tears fell in torrents down her cheeks.
This was her worst nightmare, her failures as a parent putting her boys into the same broken system that she and Hunter had struggled to survive. Hunter looked at her – forced herself to keep looking into Piper’s face even though it was difficult to watch.
“You can’t,” Piper sobbed. “Please don’t do this. It was me, only me. Hunter didn’t know about it. I’m so sorry.”
Her words were drowned by her tears and when her legs gave out, Officer Brooks guided her down to the couch to let her catch her breath.
Hunter just stood there. Officer Hill held her hands behind her back, on the verge of putting on the handcuffs, and she watched her sister fold over and sob into the couch cushion.
Hunter was shaking by the time she found her words again. She motioned the officers to take a step back, then she knelt in front of Piper and asked, “Do you understand now how dangerous what you’re doing is?”
Piper looked up, her whole face wet with tears and agony etched in every line.
“I could never get through to you,” Hunter said.
“I know you want to protect Andrew and Josh from the life we had, and that you do everything you can to provide for them. You’re a devoted mother and I admire that about you.
But you’re putting them in jeopardy every time you let Jed manipulate you into running another stupid con. It’s not worth it. He’s not worth it.”
“Why aren’t you handcuffed?” Piper asked after a minute, her voice watery.
Hunter was rubbing her back, trying to soothe her tears because even though she desperately needed Piper to learn this lesson, she hated seeing her in so much emotional anguish.
“Listen to me, Pipes,” Hunter said. “I will always do whatever I can to be there for you and the boys, but I need to know that you’re not going to do something stupid and end up in prison next to that psychopath that you married.
The boys deserve to live in a house where they don’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, or whether their mom has enough money to pay the mortgage, but they also deserve to grow up with their mother.
Don’t make them live in a world where both of their parents are in prison. ”
“I don’t want that,” Piper agreed tearfully. “That’s the last thing I want.”
“You can’t ever contact him again,” Hunter said. “You can’t con people, or put your family in danger, and you can’t hurt other people just because you think you need their money more than they do.”
She hooked her finger under Piper’s chin and turned her head so that Piper was looking her in the eyes. She needed to see sincerity there or else she wouldn’t believe that this Hail Mary plan of Kiera’s had worked.
“Promise me, Pipes,” Hunter said.
“I promise,” she said, and then she collapsed against Hunter’s shoulder and started crying again. Hunter could feel the tears dampening her shirt as Piper said, her voice muffled, “But it’s too late. We’re going to jail. The boys are going into foster care.”
Hunter nodded to Officer Hill over the top of Piper’s head and she went into the kitchen, then after a minute, a new voice said, “Piper.”
She looked up.
Kiera was standing in the doorway, studying Piper – probably looking for the same sincerity that Hunter needed to see. Then she came into the room and said, “Uncuff her.”