“Ms. Tulley? Ms. Tulley?” A hand pressed her shoulder gently. “JJ?”
JJ sat up, inhaling deeply through her nose to cover a yawn. “Am I on?” she asked, the yawn escaping anyway as soon as she spoke. She rubbed her eyes and realized she wasn’t in the break room at work. Beth stood over her, with a backdrop of bars. She was in jail. “Shit.”
“That’s a gift, being able to sleep like that,” Beth said, sitting next to her.
“Hazard of the job. I can sleep anywhere, any time.” Except at home, thanks to ass-wipe Marcus. JJ stretched her arms over her head and let out one last, jaw-popping yawn.
Beth handed JJ a paper sack. “Thought you might be hungry.”
“Thanks.” JJ pulled a thick sandwich free, then spread the bag on her lap for a table. “Oh, I live for the diner’s egg salad.”
“I spoke with Sheriff Mason,” Beth said, handing JJ a can of iced tea. The deputy leaned against the cinderblock wall, raising one knee and folding her hands over her nonexistent belly.
“Oh, yeah,” JJ said awkwardly, trying to neither spit egg salad on her lap nor look too hopeful.
Beth’s smile was dark as the dirt under a mechanic’s fingernails. “Pissed doesn’t begin to cover it. And not at you. But he needs you to stick around until he gets back to straighten things out. Do you need to make any arrangements in the meantime?”
“What time is it?” JJ asked.
“Just after ten p.m.”
JJ slugged some tea, then wiped her mouth. “I’m past due at the hospital, so if I could just call in and let them know someone needs to cover me…”
“No problem. We can do it as soon as you finish your sandwich.”
The deputy was quiet while JJ ate, but it was a comfortable silence. It helped that JJ had no hang-ups about people watching her snarf down food—another hazard of the job. When she was done, she crumpled the bag around her soiled napkin and said, “Ready whenever you are.”
Beth led JJ out of the cell to the nearest desk and punched a few buttons on the phone while JJ dropped into a chair. The desk was an old metal model, and someone—the child of a staff person?—had written initials on its edge with magic marker. Initials… JJ’s mind went back to Adam’s initials scratched out on the poplar tree. Marcus wouldn’t have done that, not if he didn’t know whose car was parked in her yard.
Beth stared at her, waiting for JJ’s response to something she hadn’t heard.
“I’m sorry—what did you say?”
“Just dial the number. But since it’s Plattsville, you’ll need the area code, too.”
JJ got through quickly and explained the situation as best she could, promising to give her co-worker all the gory details later. As soon as she hung up, she asked, “Any word on the man I shot?”
“Why, you didn’t want to out yourself to your colleagues on the phone?” Beth smiled. “The hospital already released him.”
“Thank God.” JJ sighed and slid lower in the chair. Maybe this will work out after all. She leaned the chair back. “I never shot anybody before.”
“Me, neither,” Beth admitted.
JJ nearly fell off the chair when a man’s voice yelled, “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Sorely as I’ve been tempted,” Beth muttered. She slid off the desk and straightened her frame to its full five feet of height. “I might ask you the same thing.”
“Why is she out of her cell?” Deputy Kilbourne demanded.
“And why aren’t you manning the front desk?” Beth asked, advancing on him. “How are we supposed to know who’s coming and going?”
“I’d be more worried about who’s already in here,” Kilbourne said, staring pointedly at JJ.
“That’s funny, because you weren’t worried about it before,” Beth said, arms folded.
JJ was surprised—Beth didn’t strike her as the confrontational type, so she and Kilbourne must have been bumping heads for a while. Personally, JJ was content to avoid unnecessary drama for now. Her child was safe with the Nicholsons, she wasn’t expected at work, and that bench hadn’t been so uncomfortable after all. She stood and said, “No big deal, Deputy Marshall. Now that I’ve given the hospital a heads-up, I don’t mind waiting in the cell until the Sheriff gets here.”
Kilbourne stalked across the room after JJ as she went back to the cell, as if he didn’t trust her not to climb the walls to escape, or maybe step through them. Beth intercepted him, widening her stance. She said in a low voice, “Deputy, this whole situation is bad enough already. Let’s not go making it worse.”
Suddenly something slammed from the direction of the unmanned reception desk. Kilbourne jogged toward the sound, just in time to walk into Luther as he entered.
“Who the hell’s supposed to be out front?” Luther asked.
Kilbourne backpedaled, bumping against a filing cabinet and setting it to rock. Luther shook his head. He wasn’t wearing his coat or hat, and his uniform shirt was rumpled. But the state of his clothes was nothing compared to his countenance. Eyes red and mouth tight, he looked ready to explode.
“Where’s Sheriff Mason?” Kilbourne asked.
Luther aimed a look at him that could have melted steel. “He’s still doing real lawman work, but he sent me to deal with this bullshit.” JJ flinched as he turned his gaze to her. “JJ, how you doing back there?”
She tried to keep her voice light as she approached the front of the cell. “I’m alright, Luther. You?”
“Don’t ask,” he replied. “Come on—I’ll take you home.”
“What do you mean, take her home?” Kilbourne asked.
Luther didn’t bother looking at the other man. No one had closed the cell yet, and he motioned for JJ to exit the cramped area. “She’s been here long enough, but you need to wait for the Sheriff.”
“She shot a law enforcement officer,” Kilbourne protested.
Luther turned to the deputy. “And that’ll be investigated. As will the fact that you failed to report the escape of a suspect who posed a danger to the public, failed to follow pretty much any proper procedure—hell, I’d be surprised if you drove on the right side of the road—and that you attempted an illegal search without a warrant while pursuing an investigation without any kind of departmental authorization.”
“She goes home and I have to wait, as if I did something wrong?” Kilbourne made a guttural sound of disbelief.
“She is a known quantity; you are anything but.”
“Does that mean she’s sleeping with you, too?” Kilbourne smirked.
JJ froze where she stood and watched Beth take a step to the side, so the desk was between the female deputy and the two men.
Luther blinked slowly and sighed. “We’ve all been under a lot of stress lately, so I’m gonna pretend like you didn’t say that. So long as you don’t open your goddamned fool mouth again.”
JJ lingered, hesitant, and Luther put a hand on her arm to escort her out of the cell. She winced involuntarily, and Luther turned sharp eyes on her. “What was that about?” he asked.
She opened her mouth but nothing came out because—and this surprised JJ—Luther frightened her. She glanced over at Beth, unsure what she wanted the woman to say, but wishing she’d say something. And Beth did.
“That’s probably where he tased her,” Beth volunteered.
That was not what JJ had wanted her to say.
Luther swung toward Kilbourne. “You tased her?”
“She was resisting arrest,” the man said.
That made JJ angry enough to forget she’d been trying to de-escalate the situation. “I was trying to administer aid to the other officer—”
“Bullshit!” Kilbourne interrupted as he moved toward her, losing sight of the fact that Luther stood between them. “You were—”
Luther decked him. Laid the man out flat with one right hook to the jaw. JJ’s mouth fell open. Gathering flies, Mom, Evie would have said. JJ closed her mouth, but it just wouldn’t stay that way, as though the sight of Luther striking another officer had rendered the hinge in her jaw defective. It hadn’t done a lot for Beth’s either, JJ noticed.
Kilbourne groaned and began to move, arms beneath his chest, pushing off the floor until he was hunched on all fours.
Luther’s expression hadn’t changed, except maybe to relax a tiny bit. He shook his hand as he turned to JJ, ignoring Kilbourne on the floor. “Do you have any property here you need to take with you? Wallet or cell phone?”
“I, uh,” JJ stammered. No wallet, but where was her cell phone? No pockets… she’d left it on the porch. “No. Nothing,” she said.
Luther nodded. “Okay, then.”
The only sign Luther knew Kilbourne still existed was a slight tensing in his shoulders, but JJ continued to watch the injured deputy as she stepped away from the cell. The man grabbed the corner of the desk and pulled himself to a standing position. He put his other hand to the red mark on the left side of his face and wiggled his jaw back and forth.
“You fucking coward,” Kilbourne said.
Luther shook his head briefly before turning to face the other deputy. JJ raised questioning eyebrows at Beth, but the other woman simply shrugged. Deputy Kilbourne definitely was not popular among the Beecham County employees.
Kilbourne’s eyes had filled with tears, but his mouth at least was still defiant. “You sneaky, sucker-punching fucking coward. I’d like to see you—”
Luther’s left fist flashed forward in a short, explosive jab to Kilbourne’s midsection. Kilbourne doubled over, face purple, then dropped to his knees as he gasped for breath. Luther bent over him, gently placing a hand on his back. “You got three choices moving forward: learn how to fight; learn how to keep your mouth shut; or learn how to stay down. If I were you, I’d focus on the last one.”
Luther’s face had pinkened, almost deeply enough to match his bloodshot eyes, and he was a little short of breath. Still, his voice was calm as he turned to JJ and motioned her around the heaving officer on the floor. “Shall we go?”