Passing Through #2
Baker waved her deputies toward the station, and they led the big man inside, but not before Crevice called back to her.
“You really should let me go.”
Baker finished the call with her husband and rushed inside.
The office immediately opened into desks, no reception area to speak of.
There were five total. An admin, off for the weekend, and four officer desks.
Off to one side was a solo cramped office, hers, and then straight ahead and toward the back was a short hallway followed by four holding cells, two on either side.
The sheriff spoke to her deputies, forging a game plan. She eyed the hallway in the distance, unsettled by the mysterious prisoner. The deputies grilled their boss on one point.
“Any reason you did not cuff the man when you brought him in?” Higgins asked.
“Figured they would not fit, and if they did, he might break them and use them to knock me senseless,” she said.
The deputies nodded, good point. She eyed the men.
“Look, I’ve got shit to hold him on, but he gives me that bad feeling.
Nolan, get him water, then run prints off the bottle, ASAP.
Higgins, you get on the horn and find out what our friend may have left in his wake.
We should have heard by now if he did anything in our county, so start beyond our borders. ”
“Think he walked over from Canada?” Nolan asked.
“Worth a check.”
The men split off while she walked to the holding cells. Crevice sat on his cot, looking straight ahead with the same disinterest he showed toward the scenery earlier.
“Walking on the interstate is a crime. While I am not formally placing you under arrest, I need to reach a judge to set a date for you to appear for the ticket.”
“I’m disappointed. I was just passing through and took you at your word for a ride,” the man said.
“And I will honor it once I figure out what is going on. If I need to hold you for the road violation in the meantime, I will,” she said.
“At least you are honest,” he said. “But please finish what you must before sundown. Though I fear it’s already too late in the day.”
“Why sundown? What is so important about that time frame?”
“Just best for you all. Best to let me…”
“Pass through. Got that. Don’t tell me you turn into a werewolf or vampire or something after sundown?”
He smiled for once. It was not an unpleasant look. A hint of kindness behind the teeth. “Nothing so mundane,” he said.
Baker eyed the man once more, deeming him as dangerous as he appeared kind. A walking contradiction, and one who liked to walk on interstate roadsides at that. She stepped away as her deputy arrived with the water bottle.
***
The sheriff stood by her cruiser at the front of the station.
She watched the sun setting. The orange glow neared its last gasps as the horizon sought gray.
She squinted after inadvertently looking directly at the last of the sun’s rays.
It would not be long now, whatever concerned the man. Her deputies walked out of the station.
“Dude knows we’re printing him,” Nolan said, flashing the empty water bottle.
“Why do you say that?” Baker asked.
“Because he said so. Offered to give prints straight up. Asked if he did so, would it expedite us letting him go.”
“Thinks we will immediately let him go? Are we sitting on a spook? Is he going to come up as a government stooge?” Higgins asked.
“He’s a spook alright. Got me worried. Something is off, and I can’t put a finger on it,” the sheriff said.
“It gets better. Guy says if he has prints on file…” Nolan started.
“If?” Higgins asked for both him and his boss.
Nolan nodded and continued. “Would not cop to having any on file. But, get this, said if they were, they would be the prints of a much thinner man.”
“What? Thinner?” Higgins guffawed.
“Once upon a time before steroids? I don’t think our guy understands how prints work. Lucky for us.” Waylon crooned again. She answered. “Honey, can you hold? Have and to hold? Don’t be so dramatic, hon. It’s a marriage, we work things out. Listen, never mind holding, I need to call you back.”
“Troubles at home again?” Nolan asked.
“You sound like my backseat passenger. I need to pick up some dinner for Glenn. It’s getting late and I’m missing something here.
Take Crevice up on his offer for prints.
Ask one more time about his evening concern.
It’s officially sundown. That time frame seems important to him.
No audible explosions, and no immediate emergency calls coming in.
Maybe the guy is just off. Keep digging while I deliver some ribs to a hungry man who can’t seem to order takeout on his own.
Hoping the drive allows me to refocus, figure out what’s wrong with this entire picture. ”
Higgins chimed in. “Still waiting to hear from Canadian Mounties. I also checked the local tow-yards. If this guy was walking because he broke down, maybe we can find something off a vehicle.”
“Great idea. Hadn’t thought of that,” Baker said. “Nell is off for the weekend for her baby shower, so don’t bother her, but Sandy is in the field. I will update her on the situation. Broad strokes at least. Call her if you need an extra set of eyes or ears.”
“What?” Higgins asked, cupping his ear as if unable to hear. “What did you say?”
“Knock it off,” Baker said.
“She’s on lunch anyway, visiting her mom at the retirement home,” Nolan said. “Won’t hesitate to call if we need the help, but for now might as well let her be.”
Nell was their admin. Sandy was a deputy, long in years (the oldest in the squad) but passionate and smart. Baker often straddled the line over how much to defend the older woman and how hard to suggest the woman push back against the testosterone in the office on her own.
Two family dramas to deal with. Work family and her husband.
She left the deputies to work and headed for her cruiser.
She needed to attend to her husband. As usual, Glenn had bad timing.
By the time Baker reached her cruiser, the sun had already set.
Something big could go down soon, but she had a family issue to address.
Her husband, Glenn, was so whiny. It was a wonder she never jumped in bed with one of her coworkers the way her husband cried about such a scenario all the time.
He was so jealous that she often considered giving him something to be jealous about by sleeping with someone for real.
She loved Glenn, though. That was the thing.
She didn’t know how to get it through his thick head that she would remain monogamous for the right man.
There was one way to convince him. She would show him how much she loved him after picking up some ribs. Baker was glad she never used her cuffs on the stranger because she was sure going to use them on her husband. Suddenly she could not get home quick enough.
Damn, I’m horny, she thought, and hit the gas.
***
“Drop your weapons!” Sandy Walker shouted at the two men.
Unlike her fellow deputies, Sandy belonged to another generation.
Petite and sixty, she was the oldest in their office by far.
Normally Monmouth was a quiet town, but as Sandy finished visiting her mother, two of the nursing home’s residents squared off.
Sandy noticed the darkness outside the window, which meant sundown had passed and her dinner hour was up.
She worked the night shift and considered herself back on the clock.
Mookie and Bitters were octogenarians who were formerly best friends. Now the two battled with canes, slashing at one another in a slow-motion sword fight.
“Take that, you son of a bitch!” Mookie yelled at Bitters.
“Stand down, Mooks and Bitts!” Sandy yelled, shortening the men’s longer nicknames.
The two were beyond listening. Whatever started the fight, the pair were interested in finishing it with bloodshed.
A crowd of wheelchairs had gathered to watch, but the lone staffer was nowhere in sight. The two men ignored Sandy.
“Screw you and the horse you rode in on!” Bitters yelled.
“That horse was your mother!” Mookie yelled back.
The canes clacked with kinetic violence.
What started as a slow-motion dance had escalated.
The thick wooden sticks moved faster and harder than Sandy thought possible from the two white hairs.
Like herself. White hair. That was what they called her around the office when they thought she wasn’t listening. Thought she couldn’t listen.
Sandy did not wish to work but had to. She never got the pay raises and promotions others got in previous workplaces.
She came to the job later in life after a divorce that left her broken financially and mentally.
So what that she was forty when she started on the job?
She hit her twenty-year mark recently, but the retirement benefits were for shit.
Now she was a white hair. Called that by her coworkers and the snot-nosed criminals around town. Every youth was a criminal; some just hid their deeds better than others. The odor of pot lingered around that entire generation. There was no stopping them, even though she was the law.
Sandy felt her blood pressure rise. Even the old farts in the home refused to listen to her. No one gave her any damn respect. A loud crack drew gasps from the crowd. Bitters screamed.
One of Bitters’ arms went dead at his side; Mookie had broken it with an epic swing. Bitters wore a short-sleeved shirt which gave a clear view of the swelling arm. It filled with blood at the point of an obvious break.
Finally, the fight was over, Sandy thought.
Except it was not. Bitters raised his cane with his good arm and smacked Mookie in the face.
Mookie’s nose exploded with a loud pop and splattered blood over the pristine white floor tiles.
The two men shook off the injuries and clashed with the canes once again.
“Stop now!” Sandy yelled.