Jake
The phone on my desk let out a sharp ring and I stared at it for a moment. I had a land line in the office I used at school, but I could only remember a handful of times someone called me on it. Usually it was some kid with an anonymous tip about a party who wanted to get back at his friends for some unseen slight. Instead, I relied on my radio to communicate with the police department or my cell phone.
It rang once more, and I lifted the handset from the cradle. “Officer Leighton?”
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
“Hello, Louise.” I was almost frightened to ask my next question. It was Friday, and we hadn’t heard or seen any retaliation from Samuel Fontaine after his threat to Kera. “Why are you calling me?”
“You need to get to Gibb’s.”
“Okaaay, but why are you calling me?” Now I was nervous. Louise wouldn’t use the phone unless there was something more going on that she didn’t want sent across the radio.
“I went to your voice mail when I tried your cell.”
“What?” I pulled my cell phone off the hook on my belt and looked down at the screen. Shit. I forgot to turn the ringer back on from when I silenced it the night before when Kera and I watched an old black and white movie Kirstin insisted we watch. It ended up being a better movie than I expected. But then seeing an exasperated reporter put up with the antics of a frustrating, but smart, heiress intent on making the worst decision of her life didn’t seem exciting at first glance. I was wrong.
Five missed calls. One from Gibb and four from Louise. “What’s the matter?”
“Get to Gibb’s. Mike is meeting you there.”
“Louise. What is going on?” I was already up from my desk and grabbing my keys. For Louise to be calling me and Mike it had to be about Kirstin or Kera or both. Maybe their father skipped over his plans to destroy the town and came to Copperwood to take his wayward daughters home.
“Just get to Gibb’s and turn your cell phone on.” Louise hung up before I asked any more questions.
I ran out my office, locking the door behind me, and headed out to the faculty parking lot. Gibb’s was across the street from the high school, but it was a county highway and it would take as long for me to walk across the street as it would be to get in my car and drive. I settled on taking my squad car. It would give me authority if either Fontaine or one of his thugs was causing problems.
My worst fears didn’t prepare me for the reality that awaited me at Gibb’s.
Mike greeted me at the front doors, arms crossed over his chest, and leaning back against one of the support beams that held the ceiling up over our heads.
“Leighton.” Mike lifted his chin in greeting.
“Bishoff.” I stepped closer to him and lowered my voice. “What’s going on?”
“Well first, I think we’re going to be happy that Kirstin and Kera are independently wealthy. Second, we’re either going to have to arrange their schedules so they are never in the same place together at the same time without supervision or hire a babysitter. And third, wait for it…”
I didn’t have to wait long. A loud crash of metal banging hard against metal came from the other side of the grocery store. Gibb’s wasn’t one of the small local shops found on main street. Until the Mega-Mart arrived, Gibb’s was the largest store in town.
“Is that…?”
“Two shopping carts crashing into on-” Glass shattering, I assumed because it hit the ground, cut Mike off. “And that would be-”
“Mayonnaise.” Gibb Browning approached us, brushing his thumb and forefinger down over his salt and pepper mustache. “They already got the salad dressing and other condiments.”
“Ninnyhammer!” Kirstin’s voice carried across the store.
Kera’s immediately followed. “Mumpsimus!”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How long has this been going on?”
“Since I called you, but you didn’t answer. Thirty minutes ago.”
This had been going on for over a half hour? How had the rest of the police department not been called in already? I looked over at Mike and noticed the mustard stain on his jeans for the first time. “I take it you tried to break it up already?”
“On the brighter side, at least they aren’t drag racing on the street.” Mike tilted his head toward the sound of the shouting sisters. “And they aren’t swearing.”
“I’m not sure drag racing with shopping carts has a bright side, Mike.”
“Hey, Jake, Mike?” Gibb looked at both of us with the same serious expression I used on the wayward teenagers intent on hanging out where they shouldn’t. “Once you get them out of here, do me a favor and don’t let them visit at the same time again. From what Mrs. Bouffer said, it started in the parking lot when they argued over who got to choose the shopping cart.”
Well, that explained how Kera got to the grocery store without a car. Kirstin must have picked her up.
“Snollygoster!”
“Pillock!”
“Come on, let’s go get the speed demons before they hit the liquor department.” I headed in the direction of the shouts. “Should we come up with a plan of attack?”
“Jake. We’re twice their size. If we have to come up with a plan to separate them, our future doesn’t have a bright outlook.”
Mike wasn’t wrong, but his words jinxed us. We found the girls facing one another in the aisle slamming their carts together. I assumed in an attempt to get the other to move out of the way. I stepped over the cans rolling around the floor and wrapped my arm around Kera’s waist. As I picked her up, I thought she would let go of the cart. It was the wrong assumption.
Kera’s grip on the cart handle tightened, and she dragged it back with her, the wheels clanging against the fallen cans. Kirstin took the opening and rammed her cart against Kera’s pushing us both backwards.
“Mike.”
“On it.” Mike swept in and came at Kirstin from the side, but she danced away before he could grab her. She had the cart between them. Between bashing the cart into Kera’s cart and Mike, Kirstin wasn’t at risk of Mike swooping in and extracting her from the carnage spreading across the aisle.
What should have been an easy operation turned into a scene from a Saturday morning cartoon. Pulling the two women apart took much longer than it should have. By the time we walked out of the store with our respective woman under our arm, fifteen minutes had passed and three shelves of canned goods had been cleared.
“Send her the bill, Gibb!” Mike shouted over his shoulder before the automatic doors slid closed behind us.
I had to uncover Kera’s mouth to unlock my squad car, and the string of curse words that flew out of her mouth and aimed at her sister would have put a merchant marine to shame. I glared across the hood of my SUV at Mike and shouted over her cursing. “We should keep them apart. Maybe postpone the game night.”
Mike nodded. “You think?” He rolled his eyes and covered Kirstin’s mouth, stopping the litany of insults aimed at Kera.
“I’ll keep her distracted for the next few days.” Kera licked my palm. At least she didn’t bite me, but no way was I going to let her sit in the front seat with me. I dumped her in the backseat and slammed the door closed. There was no way to open the back door of a squad car from the inside, so I didn’t have to worry about her wiggling free. As I wiped my hand dry on the side of my pants, Kera glared at me before scrambling across the backseat to the other door. When she found that one also locked, she stuck her tongue out at her sister, or at least I think it was at her sister.
Mike didn’t have the luxury of locked doors, or even a child lock, and had to stand in the middle of the parking lot hanging on to Kirstin with one arm while using his free hand to keep her shouts and screams muffled. “I’m not playing at Pick’s tonight, but I Kirstin and I planned on stopping by to visit with Shane and Mya. Maybe you should avoid picks.”
“Agreed.” Kirstin and Kera in the same location so soon after the disaster at Gibb’s wouldn’t end well for anyone. “Let me know your plans are for the weekend and we can avoid each other.”
Mike tossed Kirstin into his truck and climbed in after her, grabbing hold of the back of her shirt before she could scramble out the passenger door. I slid into the car, just in time to hear the tail end of Kera’s insult that would have made Shakespeare proud. Though I couldn’t say whether it was meant for me or her sister. My car starting distracted her enough to turn her attention to me. With a loud sigh I hoped she’d interpret as disappointment, I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. We weren’t going home, but Kera didn’t know that. I still had a few hours left before school released for the day and there wasn’t anything she could say to convince me I could leave her unsupervised.
Kera slid her fingers through the slots in the polycarbonate panel that protected officers from involuntary passengers. “When was the last time you cleaned back here?”
“What?” I almost drove off the side of the road, but regained control as I turned into the school parking lot.
“Do you clean the back seat regularly? I’ve seen TV. I know what people do back here.”
“Kere-bear, I’m the school resource officer and Copperwood is a small town. Students are the only ones I’ve transported in this vehicle and now you. It’s clean.”
“You’re sure? Teenagers do stupid things.”
“Tell me about it.”
She sat back in the seat and crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at me through the barrier. It was going to be a long afternoon and night. Maybe Pick’s wasn’t such a bad idea.
“Why aren’t we going home?” It took Kera longer than I expected to realize I had parked at the school.
“Because I have a job and that job doesn’t end for the day because I got called in stop World War III from breaking out in the middle of the grocery store.” I got out of the car and opened the door for her. Although I considered letting her stew in the back seat for a brief moment. “Come on, Kere-bear, you can commiserate with the delinquents about the condition of the back seat.”
Kera scampered after me, her anger at me forgotten for the moment. “You call them delinquents? Wait, you have delinquents?”
“No. They’re just the kids who find trouble. Or trouble has a way of finding them. Pretty sure Mike, Shane, and I got into more trouble when we were their age. Teenagers now are just as stupid as teenagers ten years ago.”
She didn’t say anything in response, but followed me into the school and to my office without protest. I half expected an argument. Instead, Kera remained quiet and sat in one of the chairs in my small office while I sat behind my desk and finished my paperwork.
Twenty minutes passed with Kera looking around my office, which resembled a therapist’s office more than the school’s guidance counselor’s office did. The point of a resource officer was to be available for the students. The less my office looked like an office, the more likely students would be to visit.
“Is there a reason you have a giant bowl in the corner?” Kera broke the silence with a question.
“Condoms. A lot of pregnancies happen in the last semester of high school. We figured out it’s because even if they bought condoms at the Mega-Mart, chances are they know the cashier.”
“Who’s we?”
“Some of the coaches and me. Some good kids have their plans changed because they think it will never happen to them. You’d be surprised by the number of students who believe the pull-out method is an effective form of birth control.”
Kera leaned back in the chair and tucked her legs under her while she considered my answer. “You don’t answer to the school board, do you?”
“Not really. I’m employed by the town of Copperwood’s police department and my placement here is at the chief’s discretion. The board could request another officer, but Chief Ellis would give them some excuse and put their request at the bottom of the pile. Why?”
“Because the bowl of condoms isn’t sitting on a coach’s desk.” She grinned, apparently forgiving me for putting her in the back of my patrol car earlier. “Does Kirstin keep a bowl like that at the community center?”
“In the teen lounge, yeah. She also has a PA come in once a month for sex talks with the kids.”
“Personal assistant? Why would a personal assistant give sex talks?”
“Physician assistant. The PA who comes in can diagnose, treat, and prescribe medication for patients. Kirstin used to have a doctor come, but he’s been in Copperwood long enough for the kids to worry what he’ll tell their parents. His PA is part of a traveling program and doesn’t have a tie to their parents, so the kids trust her.”
“But they know doctors can’t reveal information patients share with them?”
“There aren’t many secrets in small towns. Dr. George wouldn’t share information, but the kids don’t understand that. Sending his PA is easier than convincing them Dr. George won’t say anything.
“Why a PA? Is sex-ed that bad here?”
“Nope, it’s decent. But a lot of the teachers here are friends with the students’ parents. They went to school together or are neighbors. The students aren’t going to ask the questions they need to and the teachers can’t read their minds.”
“Yo, Leighton, coming to the game tonight?” One of the senior boys walked into my office followed by a small group of his friends.
“Can we?” Kera knelt up in the chair and perched on the edge. “Baseball?”
Five teenagers swiveled their heads and stared at the woman sitting in my office. They hadn’t noticed her sitting in the chair when they walked in. If they all weren’t seventeen and barely eighteen years old, I wouldn’t have tolerated their stares.
“Do you know Kirstin?”
“You look just like Kirstin.”
“Who are you?”
They all spoke at once and Kera bobbed her head up and down. “Yes, I know Kirstin, she’s my sister. I’m Kera. And you didn’t answer my question. Baseball?”
The boys nodded in unison. It would have been funny if I hadn’t been a teenager at one point and knew where their thoughts had gone. Hell, I was a grown man and my thoughts still went there.
“Sure, we’ll come to the game.” The boys gave me a perfect way to distract Kera and keep her away from Kirstin. At least for the night.
The boys shifted the conversation to the game and the team they were playing. Something or other about what one of the players said about someone’s sister. While they kept me busy talking about nothing, one of their friends slipped to the back of the group and gathered condoms from the bowl. It was as though they thought I wouldn’t notice their modus operandi. They hadn’t yet figured out that I wouldn’t say anything. As soon as the condom gatherer moved back into the group, the boys wrapped up the conversation.
The boys chorused their goodbyes to the both of us as they left my office.
“See you later, Leighton.”
“Later, Kera.”
Kera leaned to the side and watched them walk down the hallway. Once she was satisfied they had moved far enough away, she turned to me. “You’re going to need to refill that bowl…”
“Yeah. My guess is he grabbed enough for the team and some friends.”
“So. We’re going?”
“Home?” I wasn’t sure of the direction her mind went.
“Nooo. The baseball game.”
“I told them we would.”
“What time does the game start?”
“6:00. The field has lights, so we have some time.” I emailed my reports to Louise, who would print them up and deliver them to the chief, and shut down my computer. “Come on speed racer, let’s go home.”
“Do I have to sit in the back again?” She walked with me out of the office and bounced on the balls of her feet while I locked my office door.
“No. But I have some equipment in the front, it might be a tight fit.”
“Where’s your truck?”
We walked through school and more than the usual number of students loitered in the hallways. Word must have gotten around that Kera was in my office. The students pretended not to watch Kera as we navigated the hallways to the exit. “At the station.”
“Why don’t you keep your squad car at home if you have to drive it to school.”
“Not enough vehicles in the fleet. Only the chief and Dean have their own vehicles.”
Kera squished into the front seat, careful of my equipment. “Why do they get their own?”
“Because the chief is always the chief and Dean is a K9 officer.”
“But I’ve never seen him with a dog.”
I pulled out of the parking lot and drove toward the station. “She’s in training right now. He’s supposed to pick her up at the end of the month and do some partner exercises. But his vehicle is decked out with so much special equipment for the dog, it’s impossible for another officer to use it.”
“Oh.” Kera looked down at her phone.
“What is it?”
“We haven’t heard anything yet. I thought we’d have an answer by now.”
So did I, but I didn’t voice my thoughts. The silence scared me. After the threat her father made to the town, I didn’t know what to expect from Samuel Fontaine.