Picking Up The Pieces

by Brenda Adcock

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Duvalle, Texas October 2012

  LAUREN FLIPPED ON the blinker and waited for an opening in the traffic. She tapped her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel. Two patrol cars blocked the ravaged drive as she slowly approached them. She lowered the window of her car and smiled at the officer as he approached her vehicle.

  “This site is closed, ma’am,” the young man said courteously.

  “I’m supposed to meet Sheriff Cosper here. My name is Lauren Shelton.”

  The officer stood and brought a hand up to the small radio attached to the shoulder of his uniform. Lauren heard a response, but couldn’t understand a word of the garbled-sounding reply.

  “Back your car up!” he shouted to the second officer before he leaned down again. “Sheriff Cosper said to veer left at the fork and you can’t miss them.”

  “Thank you, Deputy,” Lauren said as she began to pull forward.

  She was excited and nervous about what was happening, but knew Athon needed it. It had been two long, busy years since Athon’s breakdown. When she finally came home Lauren had worried she would have a relapse. There had been arguments, but Lauren stopped analyzing everything she did, fearing Athon’s reaction. She became herself gradually as the months passed. Now she was confident she and Athon had surmounted ninety-nine percent of their problems. She was proud of how much her partner had overcome.

  What a difference twenty-two months had made. Lauren smiled, remembering how she’d thought Athon was crazy when she purchased Tiny’s business. Things hadn’t gotten much better for about a month, until the day Athon found her future.

  Lauren was tired after what seemed like an endless day. She hadn’t even had time to change from her work clothes when the back door opened and Athon entered, dragging a bleeding teenaged girl behind her. The girl’s sandy brown hair fell over her eyes as she tried to get away from Athon’s grip. “Lauren!” Athon called out.

  Lauren walked into the kitchen in time to see Athon, who was also bleeding from a cut under her left eye, shove a filthy girl into a chair at their small table. Every time Athon shoved her down, the girl jumped back up and tried to make a break for the back door. “Don’t make me tie your ass down, kid,” Athon hissed.

  “Better people than you have tried,” the girl snapped back.

  “Do we have a first aid kit?” Athon asked.

  “Under the sink,” Lauren answered, taking a glass from the cabinet and filling it with tea. She leaned against the counter. “What’s with her?” she asked before she took a sip.

  “Caught her stealing from the shop,” Athon said, flipping open the red plastic box.

  “I told you I wasn’t stealin’. What are you, deaf or somethin’?” the girl snapped.

  “I’m guessing you’re responsible for the blood,” Lauren observed, shifting her gaze to Athon.

  With a half-grin, Athon answered. “I chased her, but a tree behind the shop did most of the damage.” Athon grabbed the girl’s chin and turned it toward her to use a wet cloth to wipe away a trail of dried blood.

  The girl jerked her head away. “I can give you a matching black eye on the other side,” she threatened as she grabbed the cloth. She ran it over her face, looking at Lauren with each wipe. She nodded toward Lauren and grinned, waggling her eyebrows and revealing deep green eyes. “Who’s the smokin’ bitch? She yours?”

  Athon tapped the girl on the forehead to get her attention. She smiled at Lauren and winked. “I’m hers and she’s not a bitch. She’s very special.” She pushed the girl’s head back and placed a butterfly bandage over a cut.

  The girl ducked around Athon’s hand to look at Lauren again. “You get tired of grandma here, I’ll be around,” she said.

  Lauren chuckled. “Looks like you have competition, baby.”

  “Damn straight.” The girl licked her lips. “You wouldn’t believe the things I could do to that bitchin’ fine body.”

  “Hey! Watch your damn mouth!” Athon ordered loudly.

  Lauren set her glass down and moved behind Athon, running her hands around her waist. When Athon turned to face her, Lauren took her lower lip between her teeth and brought her into a sizzling kiss. When they separated, Lauren glanced down at the staring girl and licked Athon’s taste from her lips. “I’ve got what I want, honey, and nothing you’ve got can come close. What’s your name?”

  The girl seemed mesmerized. “S-Shelby. Da-a-a-amn.”

  Lauren held out a hand. “Semi-nice to meet you.” While she shook hands with Shelby, she looked over her shoulder at Athon.

  “She staying for dinner?”

  Athon looked down at the teenager and shrugged. “I dunno, are you?”

  Shelby became the first in a long line of abused and abandoned teenaged girls Athon brought home. Aside from the original camper, she added six additional camper shells, which stayed occupied most of the time. Pudge’s Place, as it became known, was a safe place where young girls could remain if they attended school and obeyed Athon’s rules.

  Lauren followed the old road to the left and around a curve. She saw Sheriff Cosper talking to a group of men and honked her horn before pulling to the side of the road and parking behind Raynelle’s patrol car. Various pieces of heavy equipment idled in the area as Lauren picked her way carefully toward the sheriff.

  “Am I late?” she asked.

  “We were waiting for y’all to get here,” Raynelle answered. “Hey, Shelby,” she said to acknowledge the tall girl climbing out of the passenger door. Shelby smiled and threw a hand up.

  “Game tonight?” Raynelle asked.

  “Senior night,” Shelby said as she meandered around until she stood next to Raynelle.

  “Sorry. I couldn’t get away from school any sooner,” Lauren apologized. “Shelby wanted a haircut before tonight’s game.”

  Raynelle reached up and ruffled the short-cropped hair. “Adoptin’ Athon’s style, huh. Looks good on ya.”

  Shelby blushed and pushed dirt around with the toe of her sneaker. “Thanks, Sheriff.”

  Raynelle hooked her thumbs in her equipment belt, looking at Lauren. “So how you like bein’ back at Carver, Principal Shelton?” she asked with a grin.

  “I love not driving an hour to get to work,” Lauren said with a laugh. “I miss the people I worked with at the middle school, but there’s a lot I think I can contribute at Carver. It’s so different from when Athon and I were there. Speaking of, where is Athon anyway?”

  Raynelle squinted and pointed toward a bulldozer idling down the road. “Couldn’t let her drive the damn thing, but she finally agreed to just ride along. Stubborn ass,” Raynelle muttered.

  “How come you never found yourself a good woman, Raynelle?” Lauren asked as she leaned closer to the sheriff.

  “Ain’t many around. Besides, I don’t want to be responsible for anyone but myself. Too set in my ways,” Raynelle said with a shrug.

  “It’s never too late, you know.”

  “Pushy broad, ain’t ya? Well, let’s get this show on the road,” Raynelle said, letting out an ear-piercing whistle to get everyone’s attention. She raised her arm and moved it in a circle over her head.

  Lauren saw Athon, wearing a bright yellow hard hat, jump onto the track of the bulldozer and stand behind the driver as he revved the engine and shifted gears, lowering the steel blade almost to the ground. He shifted gears again and looked over his shoulder at Athon as the machine lumbered forward toward a derelict old mobile home whose roof had caved in years earlier. Lauren watched Athon’s face as the blade bit into the old wreck and pushed through it steadily. In less than thirty minutes the mobile home had been reduced to a pile of rubble. The bulldozer backed away to make room for a front loader to begin scooping the remains away, including Athon’s ghosts. Nothing there would hurt her again unless she let it in.

  AS THE BULLDOZER backed away and prepared to demolish the next abandoned mobile home, Athon patted the driver on the back, shook his ha
nd, and jumped to the ground. She began to walk away when she shielded her eyes with her hand and saw Lauren and Shelby standing next to Sheriff Cosper. A smile cut across her face and she jogged toward them.

  “Wasn’t that great!” Athon said loudly over the noise of the machinery. She reached out and hugged Lauren. “I’ve never felt so free,” she whispered. “Thank you for being here.”

  Athon released Lauren and looked at Shelby. “Great haircut,” she said with a grin.

  “Cool, too,” Shelby said, bumping Athon’s shoulder and running her hand through her hair.

  “You’ll like it when a hot chick feels the need to run her fingers through it,” Athon kidded.

  Raynelle interrupted the moment. “The sign out on the highway’s coming down in a day or so,” she said.

  “What’s going in here now?” Athon asked, looking back at Lauren.

  “A moving and storage company of some kind,” Raynelle answered. “Well, I guess I should get back on patrol.”

  “Sheriff Cosper, can you give me a lift back to school? I have an exam this afternoon,” Shelby asked.

  “I’ll drive you back, sweetie,” Lauren said.

  “Nah. I need to talk to Sheriff Cosper anyway,” Shelby said. She winked at Athon. “Besides, you got other things to do. See you at tonight’s game!”

  “Walk me to my car?” Lauren asked, sliding a hand around Athon’s waist as the sheriff and Shelby walked away.

  “I suppose you have to get back to school pretty quick,” Athon said.

  “I didn’t tell my secretary how long I’d be gone. Why?” Lauren asked with a coy smile.

  Athon pulled Lauren behind a tree near her car. “Oh, I don’t know. I was just thinking, with the kid gone and all, this would be a really good day to lounge in bed all afternoon,” she said as she lowered her head to kiss Lauren’s neck.

  “All afternoon, huh?” Lauren asked, tilting her head to expose more of her neck for Athon.

  “I think I could handle that,” Athon said as she slid her hands slowly up Lauren’s sides. Her thumbs stroked the sides of Lauren’s breasts causing a hitch in her breathing.

  “You can handle anything you want, baby,” Lauren breathed as she found Athon’s lips and kissed her greedily.

  They broke apart reluctantly at the sound of approaching voices, still grinning at one another. Lauren ran a finger down the middle of Athon’s chest. “Welcome home, soldier. Can I give you a lift?”

  About the Author

  Originally from the Appalachian region of Eastern Tennessee, Brenda now lives in Central Texas, near Austin. She began writing in junior high school where she wrote an admittedly hokey western serial to entertain her friends. Completing her graduate studies in Eastern European history in 1971, she worked as a graphic artist, a public relations specialist for the military and a display advertising specialist until she finally had to admit that her mother might have been right and earned her teaching certification. For the last almost thirty years she has taught world history and political science. Brenda and her partner of sixteen years, Cheryl, are the parents of four occasionally grown children, as well as five grandchildren. Rounding out their home are three temperamental cats, a Poodle mix, and a Puggle puppy who snores like a freight train. She is looking forward to retirement sometime in the future. She may be contacted at adcockb10@yahoo.com and welcomes all comments.

  More Brenda Adcock Titles:

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  Consumed by the excavation of the mysterious ship, Julia’s relationship with her partner, Amy, has deteriorated. When she forgets Amy’s birthday and finds her celebrating in the arms of another woman, Julia returns alone to the Peach site. Caught in a violent storm, she finds herself separated from her boat and adrift on the vast Atlantic Ocean.

  Her rescue at sea leads her on an unexpected journey into the true identity of the Peach and the captain and crew who called it their home. Her travels take her to the island of Martinique, the eastern Caribbean islands, the Louisiana German Coast and New Orleans at the close of the War of 1812.

  How had the Peach come to rest in the waters off the Georgia coast? What had become of her alluring and enigmatic captain, Simone Moreau? Can love conquer everything, even time? On a voyage that lifts her spirits and eventually breaks her heart, Julia discovers the identity of the ship she had been excavating and the fate of its crew. Along the way she also discovers the true meaning of love which can be as boundless and unpredictable as the ocean itself.

  Pipeline

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  Joanna is a woman who has always lived life her way and on her own terms, enjoying a career that had given her everything she thought she ever wanted or needed. An unexpected visit by her former lover, Cate Hammond, and the attempted murder of their son, forces Jo to finally face what she had given up. Although she hasn't seen Cate or their son for fifteen years, she finds that the feelings she had for Cate had only been dormant, but had never died. No matter how much she fights her attraction to Cate, Jo cannot help but wonder whether she had made the right decision when she chose career and independence over love.

  Jo comes to understand the true meaning of friendship and love only when her investigation endangers not only her life, but also the lives of the people around her.

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  Hatred…like love…knows no boundaries.

  How much impact can one person have on a life?

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  In 1949, Japanese war bride Reiko Sanders came to Frost Valley, Tennessee with her soldier husband and infant son. Callie Owen was an inquisitive ten-year-old whose curiosity about the stranger drove her to disobey her father for just one peek at the woman who had become the subject of so much speculation. Despite Callie’s fears, she soon finds that the exotic-looking woman is kind and caring, and the two forge a tentative, but secret friendship.

  When Callie and her five brothers and sisters were left orphaned, Reiko provided emotional support to Callie. The bond between them continued to grow stronger until Callie left Frost Valley as a teenager, emotionally and physically scarred, vowing never to return and never to forgive.

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  Redress of Grievances

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  Despite lingeri
ng feelings for Alexis, Harriet becomes involved with a sex-offense investigator, Jessie Rains, a woman struggling with secrets of her own. Harriet thinks she might finally be happy, but then Alexis re-enters her life. She refers a case of multiple homicide allegedly committed by Sharon Taggart, a woman with no motive for the crimes. Harriett is creeped out by the brutal murders, but reluctantly agrees to handle the defense.

  As Harriett's team prepares for trial, disturbing information comes to light. Sharon denies any involvement in the crimes, but the evidence against her seems overwhelming. Harriett is plunged into a case rife with twisty psychological motives, questionable sanity, and a client with a complex and disturbing life. Is she guilty or not? And will Harriet's legal defense bring about justice—or another Wilkes case?

  **Recipient of a 2008 award from the Golden Crown Literary Society, the premiere organization for the support and nourishment of quality lesbian literature. Redress of Grievances won in the category of Lesbian Mystery.**

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  As Brodie and her partner, Curtis Nicholls, begin their investigation, the assignment of a new trainee disrupts Brodie's life. Not only is Maggie Weston Brodie's former lover, but her father had been Brodie's commander at the Austin Police Department and nearly destroyed her career.