Longhorn Law 2: A Legal Thriller

by Dave Daren

  His short-cropped brown hair glistened under the early afternoon sun with a thin sheen of sweat, and the workout shirt he wore seemed a bit damp. I assumed that he’d already run without me and was now gearing up for round two as he stretched his heels against the trunk of the oak tree.

  He had one palm flat against the bark of the tree, and the other curled around the ball cap I rarely saw him without. The hat was a military-style camouflage in variegated shades of dull-green with an embroidered patch that read U.S. Army on the front.

  He looked every inch the poster child for a soldier. Or a Sheriff, and I hoped that the people of Crowley would see that as well.

  I waved when I saw him glance in my direction, and I saw him grin for a moment before he straightened up and turned toward me.

  The wide, toothy grin returned as he reached up with one hand to pluck one of his white headphones from his ear. He let the earbud drop down and drape around his neck as he situated his hat back on his head.

  “About time you got here,” David called out with a jovial slant to his tone.

  I held my hands up in surrender and offered him a laugh of my own before I turned down the music pouring out of my earbud.

  “It’s a long story,” I assured him as I made my way over to the tree. “And, in a way, part of what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  I propped my own foot against the trunk and started to stretch the muscle in my left calf as I pressed my scarred hand into the bark for balance. I turned my head to get a good look at David as he quirked an eyebrow.

  “I’ve got time?” he said it like a question as if he was asking me to tell him the story.

  I exhaled a slow sigh and glanced around us, just to make sure no one was loitering too close by. It was better to be safe than sorry, especially now that I was on Thompson’s hit list.

  Once I was certain that the coast was clear, I turned back to David and lowered my voice.

  “I recently had a client come to me about some corruption she encountered at the sheriff’s department,” I began. “She claimed they’d wrongfully taken some of her personal belongings in a raid that didn’t even make sense. Well, when my team and I started looking into things, we discovered that she was right.”

  David’s face had gone stoic.

  I had noticed that quirk of his when we first became friends. Whenever I told him something that required him to think long and hard, his face went blank, like he was used to hiding his emotions and personal feelings away.

  I’d once said to him that he’d make a spectacular lawyer, and I remember he’d promised me he’d consider it if he ever felt like selling his soul.

  “What sort of things did you discover?” David asked after a long, stressful pause. He seemed both curious and wary.

  I sighed and reached up with my free hand to scratch my face as I switched my feet against the tree trunk to stretch out my other calf. It had been a few days since I’d had the chance to go for a good run, and I was finding that my body didn’t want to cooperate with me that morning.

  “Well,” I began. “We talked to seven people who claimed that the sheriff’s department had taken their items through civil asset forfeiture. But in each case, the claims made by the department in support of the forfeiture were faulty.”

  But as problematic as that act was, it was still the least of the numerous evils we had uncovered about Thompson’s crooked reign. David still looked stoic, but I wondered how long that would last.

  I shifted away from the tree trunk to stretch my arms with one cocked up over my head as I used my free hand to grab my elbow and bracket my head.

  “Evelyn, one of my colleagues, and I went to one of the monthly police auctions and realized then that the sheriff’s department was auctioning off some of these ill-gotten items for a profit.”

  David’s impenetrable mask broke for a split second, and I could have sworn I saw the flash of a frown.

  “Mary above,” he said with a shake of his head and a furrow of his strong brow. “What else?”

  I liked the fact that he could tell there was more without me having to spoon-feed him the details.

  “Brody, my other colleague, went with me to Thompson’s home to try and have a discussion with him away from his deputies,” I continued on since he’d asked.

  I saw David glance toward my scar, and I fought the urge to tuck it out of sight. I had told David months before about what had happened to my hand, and I hadn’t glossed over Thompson’s behavior in that situation, either, so he knew Thompson wasn’t my biggest fan or that the Sheriff wasn’t above making my life miserable whenever he could.

  “And that’s when we found out that he has inmates from the Tarrant County Jail working as his personal gardeners to get time knocked off their sentences,” I said with a thin pull of my lips.

  I dropped my arms down to my waist and rolled my neck from side to side to try and loosen the tension from my spine. While I finished my warm-up routine, David seemed to cycle through an entire carousel of emotions in a short period of time.

  In the end, it appeared that he settled on righteous indignation at what I’d said.

  “He what?” David asked with a heavy emphasis on the word ‘what’ as if he couldn’t quite wrap his head around what I’d said.

  I gave a slow nod as I let him process everything.

  “It gets worse from there,” I said with faux-cheerfulness infecting my tone.

  David’s eyes widened as he looked at me in what I could only call abject horror.

  “Last night, I was on my way to a date--” I started before David held his hand up to cut me off.

  “The nurse?” he asked with a faint trace of a smile on his knowing face.

  Sure, David and I might not have worn best friend bracelets, but we were still close enough that I had confided in him once or twice about my romantic life, or, more aptly, lack thereof.

  “Yes, with Clara,” I conceded with a wave of my hands. “But, the date never happened because I was detained by the sheriff’s department for a good part of the night without any real charges. And this morning, I found out that the department has been after my team as well.”

  I shifted to face him as I kicked one of my legs up behind my back and caught my toe in the crook of my arm to stretch another muscle in my leg.

  “They pulled a gun on my paralegal while she was on her way to work, David,” I said without any of the joviality that had briefly flitted through my tone. “They tried to intimidate my co-counsel’s wife at her job. They know what we’ve found, and they’re circling the wagons, closing rank. The election is coming up in less than a month, and Thompson is running unopposed.”

  David’s face darkened as he listened to what I said. The brim of his baseball cap cast shadows across his angular face that only made his expression that much more fearsome.

  He looked at me with a hard glint in his eyes as he seemed to realize that I wouldn't have told him all of this without a reason, but before he asked, he nodded over his shoulder toward the sidewalk.

  I didn’t have a chance to say another word before he’d started to jog at a comfortable pace. I dropped my leg down and took a minute to adjust my phone and my earbuds before I started off after him.

  Even at our slow pace, it still felt good to move and get the blood pumping through my veins.

  “So what do you need from me, Archer?” David asked after I had caught up with him and fallen in line with his pace.

  His breathing remained completely collected, and his words were steady. I was a good runner, but David was a different breed.

  “I need you to run against Thompson,” I said without attempting to dance around my request.

  David was too smart for me to try and overwhelm him with legalese, and I thought it was much better to simply be frank with him.

  His brow furrowed, and he picked up the pace, but he hadn’t told me to fuck off yet, which seemed like a good sign.

  I ducked my head to kick up my speed to
match him as we ran through the park along the winding sidewalk. We both kept to one side of the path to leave room for anyone else that might need to pass by us, which on the narrower stretches could make conversation difficult. We made our way single file around a bit of crumbling concrete, and then I pulled even with him again.

  “Why?” he asked simply, even though I could see the wheels turning in his mind.

  “Because someone has to,” I said with a shrug before I decided to elaborate. “Because you’re a good person, the sort of good person that Thompson isn’t. If you go up against him, you’d have to debate him. You could use the platform to expose everything he’s been doing.”

  I watched the muscle in David’s jaw work as he seemed to mull over the suggestion. While I waited for him to ask another question or tell me to go fly a kite, I realized that the music on my phone had segued into the more dramatic songs I preferred for the heart of my run. It gave the entire situation a high-energy, action movie feel, which, well, I supposed wasn’t that far off from the truth.

  “And what if I win?” he asked, and it pained me to admit that I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

  I waffled my head from side to side as we continued to run.

  “Then, well, you’re the sheriff for the next four years,” I said with a small laugh as it inched its way into my throat. “You can say no if you don’t want to do this.”

  I knew that David was smart enough to know that he could say no, but I still felt better saying it aloud rather than not. I didn’t want him to feel like he was being forced into something he didn’t want to do simply because I’d looked pitiful enough when I asked him.

  Instead of giving me a direct answer, David kicked into another gear, and I found myself left in his dust. I gave a surprised laugh as I picked up the pace behind him to try and catch up with his new breakneck pace. But I was a little out of practice after my week or so out of the game, and I found myself trying to catch my breath a little more than I wanted to admit.

  “Are you trying to run away so you don’t have to answer me?” I threw the question out as a joke, but couldn’t pretend I wasn’t afraid there was some truth to the statement.

  David glanced over at me, and I saw the outline of a smile on his face despite the shadows his baseball cap had cast over his profile.

  “I’m seeing how bad you want it,” he called over to me, and the trace of a smile became a grin. “I don’t like men like Thompson.”

  His sentence packed more meaning than it seemed, and I knew I might have had him then.

  David and I were similar in that regard. We had both stuck our necks out for the people that needed us, and sometimes it got us both in trouble.

  We ran in companionable silence for a few more minutes until we had completely lapped the park. I hadn’t wanted to intrude on his thought process, and if I was being honest, I had just been enjoying the run. I liked the way my muscles burned and my lungs expanded with each step on the sidewalk.

  When we started to approach our tree once again, David’s steps began to slow, and I kept my pace with him and slowed in time.

  Soon, we stood back under the shade of the oak. I felt the adrenaline as it pumped through me, and for the first time since we’d started the investigation into Thompson, I felt a small glimmer of hope on the horizon.

  David reached up to knock his hat off his head to ruffle a callused hand through his short hair. He looked at me, and in that moment, I knew we had him. He used his hat to gesture toward me.

  “You’re signing up for my next marathon, then we’ll call it square,” he said with a wide grin as he extended his free hand toward me to shake.

  “Gladly,” I assured him as we shook on the agreement.

  And just like that, we had a champion of our own.

  Chapter 16

  I stopped by my apartment yet another time that morning to change out of my running clothes and into something slightly more respectable before I made my way back to Landon Legal. Despite the hard run through the park, I felt like each step I took lifted me higher.

  David had promised me that he’d be in contact again soon after he filed the appropriate paperwork to get his name on the ballot. It was a bit of a longshot that he’d even get his name approved given how close the election was, but there was always a chance, and that was all we needed.

  I knew that I shouldn’t underestimate the lengths Thomspon would go to hold his position, but I had a good feeling about David. And I refused to let Thompson ruin my day again, so I kept positive thoughts about David’s run and ignored the little things like whether my running partner would even be on the ballot.

  I shouldered my way into Landon Legal and paused for a second in the foyer to listen for any potential conversations that might have been happening in Brody and Evelyn’s offices. I never wanted to interrupt a client or disrupt any important phone calls, which is why I developed the habit of stopping and listening before I shouted any greetings. But, when I didn’t hear the familiar sounds of conversations, I called out to the pair.

  “He agreed!” I announced with all the triumph of having just completed a marathon.

  I had, conveniently, tried to banish my end of David and I’s deal from my mind. I was a strong runner, sure, but I’d never signed up for a damn marathon before. Besides, It felt like a problem to deal with later, after we had handled Thompson and all of his crooked politics.

  Brody poked his head out into the hallway with an almost insultingly surprised look on his face.

  “You’re pulling my leg,” he said with wide eyes.

  I couldn’t help the grin on my face as I shook my head and spread my arms wide.

  “He agreed,” I repeated, and it really did feel like I was walking on air.

  Brody’s face cracked into a grin that matched mine, and he let out a loud whoop of his own.

  I hadn’t realized how downtrodden all of us had felt until I was able to see the glimmer of hope rocking through the office.

  “He’s working to get his name on the ballot now, and if he succeeds, he’ll be announcing his campaign come morning,” I explained as I saw Evelyn poke her head into the hallway as well.

  I started down the hall so that the three of us could speak at a normal volume.

  “Why did he agree?” Evelyn asked suspiciously with her thin lips twisted into a questioning little line.

  I wished I could have given her a better answer, but I simply gave a baffled shake of my head.

  “He’s a good man,” I said. “And he wanted to help.”

  I paused to scratch my head as I considered what else he’d said.

  “And I had to agree to run in his next marathon, but that’s not going to be for at least another two months or so,” I added with a sheepish smile on my face.

  Evelyn gave an amused snort, and I was glad to see that she had fully returned to her old self, at least on the outside. Her color was normal, and the steel in her spine was clearly back.

  It was enough to make me overlook the sniff she gave when she got a hair too close to me.

  “I’ll be damned,” Brody said with a low whistle.

  Clearly, none of us had expected the plan to actually work, and I felt a bit drunk off our unexpected success.

  “Anything eventful happen here while I was gone?” I asked with a quirked eyebrow of my own.

  I hoped that we’d been able to keep our good luck rolling, but with an enemy like Thompson, I could never be certain.

  “Now that you mention it,” Evelyn replied casually as if she hadn’t planned on filling me in on anything at all before I asked. “I finally managed to get in contact with the court and set a date for Natalie’s injunction.”

  She practically preened as she told me, and I couldn’t blame her. It took me a minute to even process her words, since I’d nearly forgotten that we still had to set up the injunction. I’d been so busy celebrating David’s commitment that I’d forgotten that we still had other work.

  “When?”
I asked.

  Evelyn still seemed far too pleased with herself, but she had earned it that morning.

  “Tomorrow, nine a.m. on the dot,” she said with a nod of her head to punctuate her sentence.

  I committed the date and time to memory and reached up to tousle my fingers through my still run-damp hair.

  I glanced down at the watch on my wrist and felt a surge of comfort at its presence as I checked the time. The afternoon had gotten away from me faster than I’d realized, and it was close to evening already. I supposed that was what happened when you were forced to walk everywhere, time just slipped away without you noticing.

  “I’m going to be in the office late tonight to get things set up for David in the morning,” I began as I cut my eyes between the two of them. “You two don’t have to stay, though. It’s not really a three person job, and I hate to keep you two later than I have already.”

  Evelyn pursed her lips and looked between Brody and I. I could tell that she wanted to leave but didn’t intend on saying it first.

  Brody seemed to pick up on the same thing that I had, and he straightened up in the doorway.

  “Leslie was wanting me home early tonight anyway,” he said, and I think all three of us knew it was a lie. “Want me to drive you home, Evelyn?”

  I turned my head ever so slightly to hide the small smile on my face. I knew that Brody and Evelyn were both good people, but sometimes it was nice to see that I really had surrounded myself with the right sort of people.

  Like Brody.

  He might have dressed like a cowboy lawyer for show, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t ready to swoop in and save the day like a cowboy, too. And if that meant offering a ride to the little old lady, then that’s what he would do.

  The relief that radiated off of Evelyn was all but palpable.

  “I was low on gas anyway,” she said with a polite little nod.

  It wasn’t a thank you, and it wasn’t an acknowledgement of what he was doing for her, but it was obvious that she was grateful. And it was the closest thing Brody would ever get to an acknowledgement of her gratitude.