Chapter 10 Colton
Colton
Entering the station put a zip in Colton’s step. Unless he was called to see the sheriff. Then it sucked.
Today sucked.
He reminded himself his big sins were impure thoughts, and not leaving his body camera on when they were eating. Uncle Ted had already dealt with the second, and he wouldn’t comment on the first. So why did Colton stew over it?
Zach was only four years younger than him. He wasn’t a baby or a kid. Christ on a skateboard, the guy probably had more years under his belt than Colton. Not much happened in his county.
Colton opened the door, and the familiar smells calmed his nerves a bit.
“Morning, Ms. Angie.” He nodded at the older woman who buzzed him through with a smile.
“You and that cousin of yours must’ve done something last night.” She raised a brow over her tortoiseshell half-glasses. “Been a month of Sundays since the boss beat me to the office.”
Usually, the cause of trouble was Greg—him being the sheriff’s son and all. This time, it was arguably Colton’s doing. “Not sure we did something so much as uncovered something.”
“Same thing,” she said, returning to her computer. “He coming today?”
Wasn’t that something. His and Greg’s reputation was more myth and less factual. “He stopped at the Cenex to get gas and a box of bear claws.”
“Like I said, you two must’ve done something,” she smiled without looking up. “Wouldn’t need to butter up the boss if you hadn’t.”
This was why Colton usually brought things in for no reason—do it only when there’s trouble and people talk. “Man knows his audience.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “Sheriff left instructions for you two. Wait in roll call, and he’ll let you know when he’s ready for you,” she said it with a touch of sympathy. Thirty years working for Uncle Ted and Grandpa Jerry before him gave her plenty of insight on how things worked.
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”
He grabbed coffee on the way to the small room. There were only four of them full-time, so it was rare they had a real roll call. Mostly the office used it when they deputized locals to help with searches or do traffic control at big events.
After setting his coffee on a table, he pulled out his laptop and opened the draft report Greg had sent him first thing.
He knew he owed his cousin big now. Lost his paycheck and had to spend half the night writing the report.
Colton would have done it, but the sheriff assigned it to Greg.
Man had his reasons for sure. He always did. No way either of them would defy him.
He spent the next ten minutes cleaning up and adding to the report. Maybe that was why Greg got the job; he needed the practice.
“Colton.”
He jumped and turned toward his uncle. “Sheriff. Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. I was working on the report.”
An eyebrow went up. “You were?” Ted spun the screen around.
“Yes, sir. I mean, sort of. Greg asked me to review it to make sure the bits he hadn’t seen were accurate.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Ted’s deep laugh filled the small room. “You’re making his report read proper. Lord love you, boy. Since you were kids, you’ve had each other’s backs. Make sure you explain what you changed and why.”
Heat crept up his neck. Shee-it you couldn’t pull anything over on Uncle Ted. “Yes, sir.”
“Speaking of my illiterate son, when he arrives with the bear claws, tell him to leave them here and wait while I speak to Stephen Ulmstead and Frank Jenkins. Seems they want to file a formal complaint against you.” His eyes twinkled.
“Follow my lead and remind your cousin to stay quiet and let you do the talking.”
Now he understood Ms. Angie’s reaction. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry for causing trouble, Uncle Ted. I swear I didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”
“Nothing to be sorry about.” Ted stepped closer and clamped thick fingers on Colton’s shoulder. “I reviewed your body camera. You acted properly. Like I said, answer when I ask something, but otherwise let me deal with them.” He winked and let go of Colton. “That way you can enjoy the show.”
“‘Show’?”
“Their complaint is quite entertaining. Clearly these two dumbasses don’t know we all wear body cameras.” He turned the laptop back toward Colton. “Finish that up, and have Greg submit it before I call you. Bring five copies with you.”
Colton stared as his uncle walked out of the room. He quietly finished reviewing the report, double-checked his work, and saved the document.
Greg strolled in, a box of pastries in his hand and wearing a confused expression, just as Colton was emailing his cousin the report.
“What’s going on?” Greg plunked the box on the table, turned the seat across from Colton around, and sat. “Why are we waiting here?”
Greg was a fine deputy, as well as Colton’s best friend, but his tendency to challenge his dad at work got them both in trouble.
“Jenkins and that Ulmstead guy filed a complaint. Your dad wants this submitted asap, and we’re supposed to bring five copies.
” He turned the screen toward Greg. “And I was told to tell you to keep your trap shut.”
“What is it with that man?” Greg rolled his eyes. “Does he really think I’m going to blurt out something I shouldn’t?”
He said it like it hadn’t happened a hundred times. “If it makes you feel better, I was told to say something only when I got a direct question.”
“Nope. No better.” Greg made a few keystrokes, scanned the screen again, and tapped the enter key. “Let me run off the copies the sheriff wants so we can sit here awaiting his summons.”
Colton got how Greg felt, but wished his cousin would be a bit more self-reflective.
Uncle Ted treated them as if they were fourteen and not twenty-four because Greg still acted like a teenager around his father.
It didn’t matter they carried firearms and Tasers, and had a license to arrest folk.
Until Greg grew up a little, his uncle would continue to see them as those idiot boys who’d damn near started a stampede when their Mentos and Diet Coke experiment had sent the bottle into the pasture.
Still, the old man had their backs. That counted for way more than the few times he treated them like kids.
Greg had just made it back when they were called to the big office. Colton’s stomach flipped like a cheese omelet twice on the short walk.
He knocked and opened the side door that led behind Uncle Ted’s desk. Greg went in first, and Colton shut the door behind him.
Ulmstead and Jenkins glared at them when they walked in. Well, really him, and didn’t that light a fire in his happy ass? After what these fuckers tried to do to Zach, they had the balls to file a complaint. These two were dumb enough to drown themselves staring up into a storm.
Greg handed his dad the reports, and he and Colton stood at parade rest to the right of the sheriff.
“Thank you.” Ted set the reports next to a pair of PD-675s - witness complaints. He slowly read the report, carefully turning the pages. When he finished, he grabbed the PD-675s and glanced up.
“You two want to explain again what my deputies did last night?”
“They facilitated the theft of property by one of my employees,” Ulmstead said, the bastard not even able to hold Colton’s gaze. Pansy. “And then they threatened to shoot me, my sons, Maddie Brown, and an associate of mine when we tried to stop them.”
“By an employee, you mean Zachariah Baxter, and the property was the violin he used in performances. Is that correct?”
Ulmstead nodded. “That’s right.”
Ted stared at his desktop for several seconds. The silence worked Colton’s nerves. From their body language, Jenkins and Ulmstead weren’t having a shit-ton of fun either, which suited Colton to the ground.
Ted spun the PD-675s around. “These are the complaints you swore out today. Correct?”
They both nodded. “They are,” Ulmstead said.
The sheriff pulled the papers back and planted his ham hands as he stood at his full height. Towering over the desk, he cast a shadow like goddamn Goliath, the dark covering both assholes who shrank in those uncomfortable goddamn chairs.
“Frank, I’m not sure what mess you got all caught up in, but tell me why I shouldn’t arrest you both for filing a false report?”
“Now hold on, Ted. You’ve got no business calling me a liar.
Them two boys of yours have always been trouble.
” He glanced at Greg and Colton but immediately looked away.
“You protected them for too long. Whatever was going on between Colton and that fiddle player, it disrupted the show. There wasn’t a late show, and people were not happy. ”
Ted breathed in and out. Colton was glad it wasn’t him sitting across the desk.
“I’m not sure what he’s got on you, but I take exception to your comments.
I’ve never treated Colt and Greg any different from anyone else.
How many times did I not lock up your boy over the years?
If anything, I’m harder on them than others.
Second, you ought to know everyone wears a body camera in my department.
Every interaction we have with the public is recorded. Every. Single. One.”
“And third,” he reached down and tapped a key, “Mr. Ulmstead sitting next to you, knows what’s in these reports is a pile of pig turds.”
The recording from Colton's body cam popped up on the screen. It had been cued up to when Colton was waiting for Zach.
They all watched as the events played out. The video had captured Ulmstead and his guest making threats to Colton. At least Frank had the decency to look embarrassed.
“That proves my complaint,’ Ulmstead said when the video ended. “Your nephew helped Zachariah leave with the violin that was bought with company money. He’s also illegally withheld all receivables in an account only he has access to.”