Don't Catch Me

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  At least she wasn’t hungry.

  He had provided a pretty damn good pizza, and she’d stuffed herself until she almost puked. Every bite of that cheesy, meaty pizza had been pure heaven, so she’d sat with the flashy lawyer and let him have one moment to believe he’d done some good, and she’d gotten dinner out of it. Then lawyer man had left, most likely fucked right off out of town as soon as he walked out the door, because that was what people did; they ran when things got too hard, too much, and too personal. She wasn’t worth the trouble. That was what people thought, what they believed, what they said.

  It had been easy. She hadn’t trusted him with her secrets or what she knew, as that would have been suicide. Considering she’d heard the Humboldts on the other side of the door and knew it was the only thing that kept them from her, she pleaded—not praying because praying was for fools—for that door to stay closed. She hoped they’d leave just like the lawyer, because she wasn’t worth the trouble. She knew that as she moved farther to the back of her tiny cell with its stiff cot and stared at the tiny opening in the door.

  She heard footsteps, then one of the cops saying something rude to someone in one of the cells. Then she heard the key, the clang of the lock as it opened. It was the lanky deputy she’d seen the day before.

  “It seems your folks are here,” he said. “Do I need to cuff you, or are you going to come peacefully and all?”

  Asshole! Her hands went to her wrists, which were bruised with traces of red from where the cuffs had pinched, and she squeezed, digging her nails into her palms to still the shaking and feel something other than the fear that was pumping through her. “No cuffs,” she said, and he took her arm and led her to the door at the end, past the other dozen cells that were filled with men, women, and whoever else was down on their luck.

  He led her into the same interrogation room she had been in the day before. The sheriff was there, looking freshly shaven, with that godawful thick mustache over his lip that resembled a caterpillar. And there were the mister and missus. Yup, Marty did resemble the sheriff in some ways, as in his height, build, and mustache, but that was it. The missus was plain, with the same look of misery she always had on her face. Both wore faded jeans, him a jean jacket over a dark shirt, her a gray hoodie over a white T-shirt. They were frowning, but that was all they ever did. Happiness had never been a part of these people.

  “Well, what in all hell did you get yourself into now, Billy Jo?” Marty said. “I swear when we get home there’ll be some serious consequences for your actions. Sheriff, I demand you release her to us at once, and we’ll settle the damages.”

  “Well, that there is the problem. I can’t release her to you, and I told you that already. Not to anyone. She has to go before a judge…”

  She heard voices before the door opened and Chase, the lawyer guy she was sure she’d never see again, walked in. She couldn’t explain why her throat tightened and her chest ached. His eyes went to her first.

  “You okay?” he asked, sounding as if he cared, and that made her mad. She couldn’t speak as a lump formed and her eyes burned. Of course that made her even more angry, as she did everything she could to tamp down all these feelings she didn’t have, feelings that made her weak. She couldn’t afford to show this weakness, not to anyone. She nodded.

  He didn’t touch her as he stepped into the room, and she could hear him talking. So were the Humboldts, but she stopped listening, as she was doing everything to stuff away the feelings that had exploded because of this asshole lawyer who was here for her. She had to keep it together.

  “Sheriff, I need you to please step out with Mister and Missus Humboldt. I need to have a word with my client,” Chase said.

  “Anything you need to say to the girl, we stay. We’re fostering the girl. She’s in our care…”

  Billy Jo stopped listening again, stuck on the mister’s lips moving. It was his voice, the way he talked. She couldn’t look at him.

  “Yeah, sorry, that isn’t going to happen,” Chase said. “Sheriff, seriously, do I need to make it any clearer to you about the rights of my client? Do not speak with her again without the presence of counsel, and that includes the Humboldts. They want to see her, speak with her, it comes through me, and that also goes for anyone else who would like to speak with Billy Jo,” he snapped. No one had ever demanded anything for her.

  She couldn’t believe it, and she couldn’t believe how Chase was basically tossing them all out, even though the mister appeared ready to argue the point. She waited for Chase to back down, because that was what everyone did, but instead he was between her and everyone in this concrete room and seemed to be standing his ground. Somehow the sheriff managed to move Marty and Elma Mae to the door, but not before the mister fixed her with a heavy look that she knew well was a warning. She swallowed and jumped when the door closed.

  “Want to tell me what that was that passed between you and Marty Humboldt?” Chase asked. He was at the table, on the other side, and this time she realized he had a briefcase in hand. He rested it on the table and pulled out a pad of paper, a pen, and a file, of what she had no idea.

  She shrugged.

  “Oh, I think you do,” he said. “Do I have to remind you every time I come in here that I’m here for you, to protect you, to look after your interests and take care of whatever fucked-up shit walks through this door? Whatever you tell me goes nowhere. I’ve told you that how many times, and I’m starting to wonder when you’ll get it. I can’t help if you don’t talk to me. This is bullshit, me trying to figure out what it is you’re hiding…” He was ranting. She noticed he had cleaned up, and she didn’t miss the large white bandage on his arm where she’d bitten him.

  “You swear a lot,” she said. The truth was she liked it, as it made her feel he had come down to her level.

  His blue eyes weren’t laughing at her. He was pissed and gestured at her. “So out of all this bullshit, you’re stuck on how many times I say ‘fuck’ or ‘shit’ or any other trash talk?”

  She shrugged again. How could she explain that she wouldn’t have believed that anyone who appeared as refined as he did, some fancy lawyer, would get anywhere down to her level, speak to her in a way she could relate to, understand? “I figured you’d be long gone by now. Why did you come back?” She was still standing, and instead of taking a chair, she moved to the wall and leaned against it.

  “You’re kidding, right? I told you I would. I’m your lawyer.”

  “But you also said you’d get me out yesterday,” she said. It had scared the shit out of her, making her fear the Humboldts would find her, but at the same time she’d counted the seconds and planned to be gone the moment she was out the door.

  “You’re right, Billy Jo, about last night, but there was little I could do with the time. Court appears to only happen at certain times of the day in these parts. My mistake.” He jabbed a pen in her direction. “But it won’t happen again. It’s just a learning curve for me. Besides…” He tossed the pen down on the table and stretched his arms behind his head. He looked tired. “I’m starting to figure it may have been a good thing you stayed here for the night.”

  She couldn’t believe he’d said that. “Seriously, you think jail is where I belong?”

  He was shaking his head. “No, what I think is you’d never have been given a chance outside, and with your age, Child Services would have been sitting in that court room with a petition of their own to put you somewhere. I’m surprised I haven’t heard from them yet. The Humboldts, though, from what I just saw, would have been out there waiting. Last night I may have not believed it, but I do now. For some reason, they want you, and don’t take that the wrong way, but it’s an unusual interest they have that isn’t sitting quite right with me, so until we get into court, you and I are going to get a lot of things sorted. For one, you’re going to figure out you can trust me, that I’m here to see you get a fair shake. So what do you say, Billy Jo? Before the hearing with the judge in about two
hours”—he looked at his watch—“you talk to me, and I help you figure out how to get a lot of things sorted for you.”

  She didn’t know what to make of him. “Are you going to send me back to them?” she asked, and she wondered what he’d say.

  He didn’t say anything. Then he did something she hated in adults. He looked away as if thinking. Maybe he had to come up with some bullshit lie adults spun, thinking kids would lap it up. What would it be? “I’m afraid that’s exactly what the judge will do. Is that what you want to hear?”

  It was his eyes, the blue, so light. She’d never seen that color before, and she hadn’t expected him to be so honest with her. “No, but I don’t want you to lie to me.”

  He nodded and then extended the flat of his hand to the empty chair on the other side of the table. “Then I won’t. Sit down, and let’s get to work.”

  Chapter 10

  Billy Jo sat down. Chase wanted to say something encouraging to her, but he clamped his jaw shut and wiped off the smile that had tried to pop up. If he did, she’d bolt, and this progress—and, damn, this was progress—he was making would all be undone. She wasn’t in a place right now where she could hear anything nice about herself, any of the praise that was so important for children and teens to hear to thrive, to build self-confidence. Having anyone say something good about her would have the opposite effect, and she’d see him as an enemy wanting to take something vital from her. That made him angry and sad at the same time. Baby steps.

  Her hands were clasped in front of her on the table, her grip hard, her knuckles white. She was now sitting ramrod straight. Great posture, but why?

  “So…the Humboldts,” Chase said. “The look he gave you, I saw how pale you went. I know you were scared shitless, and it wasn’t the normal petrified look kids get when they’re being grounded for a year.” He held his pen, writing a big question mark on his pad of paper.

  She wasn’t looking at him, holding herself so tight that he wondered whether that was how she held everything in, her thoughts, her feelings, her secrets.

  “In two hours you and I are going into that court room, so the tight-lipped thing you’ve got going on isn’t going to work with me. You don’t want to go back to the Humboldts. I don’t want you there, either, but it won’t matter what you and I want to the judge unless you can tell me what the hell is going on in that house.”

  There was a knock on the door, and it opened. It was the sheriff, and Chase wanted to yell at him to get the fuck out. Taking a breath, he also realized he’d never sworn so much as of late.

  “Mr. McCabe, I need a word with you regarding some evidence,” the sheriff said.

  Billy Jo didn’t look to the door. In fact, she stared straight ahead. Chase pushed his chair back, making a godawful noise as it scraped on the concrete. “I’ll be right back,” he said to her, and he stepped out of the room.

  When the sheriff pulled the door closed, Chase could see the deputy at the end of the hall, talking to someone, and the older lady out front on the phone. “What is this evidence?” he said.

  “Just thought you’d want to know the serial number’s been filed off the gun the girl was carrying.”

  Of course it had been. Chase had a lot of suspicions about where she’d gotten the gun from.

  “So we’re going to need to know where she got it, and this kind of changes things, bumping it up to a federal crime,” the sheriff added.

  “Well, let’s work with this, shall we? My client will provide you information on the gun and where it came from, and let’s say all the charges against her go away.” This could be her ticket out of here if he played it right, if he could get Billy Jo to work with him, considering Oregon had pretty loose regulations on guns to begin with. Maybe the Feds would be more willing to sweeten the pot.

  The sheriff was shaking his head. “Not going to happen,” he said. He was the kind of man Chase couldn’t figure out. On the phone he’d seemed concerned for the girl when the Humboldts had shown up. He’d even acted as if he was helping him out, and now he didn’t want to lift a finger to save this girl’s future? What the fuck!

  “Well, as you said, the gun has a defaced serial number, which now makes it a federal crime,” Chase said. “Maybe the Feds would be interested in a lead to something bigger. They could take this over from you. Wonder what people will say if they hear the local sheriff would rather take down some kid when men who’ve done the same thing have walked away with a slap on the wrist. Yeah, and don’t forget deciding to ignore the potential to put a stop to illegal arms. Great news story.”

  Chase wondered for a second whether he’d pushed too hard. What exactly was this sheriff’s angle? He didn’t like unknowns, and he didn’t have staff at his disposal anymore to check into every corner of the sheriff’s life.

  The sheriff actually laughed, but it was one of those ‘don’t fuck with me’ laughs, the kind that said, Remember where you are, boy. “You like to push, I see. You get me the details and we’ll discuss a deal, but don’t threaten me, ever.” He leaned in and then started to walk away.

  “Sheriff, the Humboldts still here?”

  Sheriff Tyler Moss didn’t turn around, just tilted his head to the side. “No, cleared on out, but then a call came in from Child Services, from a social worker who was handling the girl’s case. They’ll be in court for the bail hearing.”

  Then Moss walked away, leaving Chase to wonder a whole bunch of things as he went back into the room, closed the door behind him, and took in Billy Jo, who was pacing along the back wall. She didn’t look up, but he knew she was waiting for him to say something.

  “That gun you had, they just learned the serial number was filed off. It was probably stolen. It kind of changes things with the gun charge. Can mean a bunch of things, including that the gun could have been used in some felony, a murder. If so, it really adds another spotlight. The thing is, Billy Jo, this could work in our favor.”

  Of course she stopped pacing and looked up at him, really looked, even narrowed her eyes. “How so, lawyer man?” She didn’t believe him. He could hear it in her voice.

  “Hear me out. Stolen gun, most likely, and you got it from…let’s say someone you know, and let’s say there were a lot of guns from this someone you know, and you figured you’d just help yourself to one and they’d never know it was missing, right?”

  She wasn’t answering as she held her arms crossed under her small breasts in the same dingy gray T-shirt and jeans she’d had on since yesterday. Her clothes had seen better days.

  “Right. Okay then,” he said, more to himself than to her, realizing she could give any congressman or even senator a run for his money. Hell, she’d most likely turn Washington upside down with her smart mouth, refusal to answer, bad attitude, and flipping all and everyone the bird. Why had his head gone there? “So stay with me, because I know you’re dying to hear. You see, the Feds have jurisdiction here over the sheriff. We give them the name of where you got the gun, but only after they agree to let you go, drop all charges.” She’d be free, but then what? He’d done his job, he could walk away, and she’d be put where?

  She was staring at him, not talking. Then she shook her head. “I found the gun,” she said.

  “You’re a damn liar. You didn’t find the gun, you took it. Why don’t we talk about the real reason you walked into that gas station and shoved the gun in the face of that scumbag? Exactly what was it the guy owed you? Exactly what were you running from? The fact was that you planned on being gone, but I stopped you, and now you’re stuck here. Maybe you can tell me why the Humboldts want you back. Ten kids and they suddenly have that loving feeling for you?”

  She was looking anywhere but at him, and when he stopped talking he could see the madness that was taking hold. He also saw the moment she started pulling into herself. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

  “You fuck the attendant or you sell him something. Guns, maybe. You stole some from the stash the Humboldts have, and he fu
cked you around because he knows what you did and knows you’ll never tell because it would be worse for you if you did.”

  “Fuck you!” she shouted at him.

  “That’s good, but I’m sure you can do better.”

  “You’re a motherfucker, a cocksucker! You think you know me or what it’s like? You don’t know anything about me! You know nothing of what I’ve had to do.”

  “No, I don’t, but you need to tell me. You need to trust me,” he said, and he saw the instant her expression changed. Every time he spoke of trust, she shut down, and she was going there now. “Ah, trust no one. Got it. Don’t trust me, but you can tell me. Someone take advantage of you?”

  She rolled her eyes, and it nearly broke his heart, because he could see that a lot of someones had taken something from this girl.

  “Which time?” she said, and he shut his eyes for a second as the full scope of what had happened to this girl sunk in.

  Chapter 11

  The parking lot for the county courthouse was nearly full. People were milling about out front, family members most likely gathered to support whatever loved one was going in front of the judge for whatever crime he or she had committed.

  Rose parked her pickup and stepped out, wearing two-inch wedge heels, tan flared dress pants, a simple white blouse that was tapered at the waist, and a charcoal cardigan overtop. She’d pulled her hair back in a simple chignon and applied a hint of makeup. She walked with purpose as she tucked her keys into her purse, looped it over her shoulder, and strode up the steps, knowing a few people had given her a second look. She didn’t acknowledge anyone, though.