by Mia Archer
“Like hell asshole!” I shouted back. “I saw what you did to Robin!”
The crashing from behind me changed direction. Oops. It didn’t occur to me until after I shouted out that I was pretty much giving up my position to the guy. Which is probably exactly what he was hoping for.
What my dad always told me really was true. Never talk to the cops. It never results in anything good for you.
A beam of light went slicing through the woods behind me. Damn. He had lights he could use. It wasn’t fair.
Of course that also gave up some of his advantage. That beam of light meant he was giving up his position out here in the forest. I figured if he was going to be nice enough to give away where he was then I was going to be smart enough to take advantage of it.
It looked like he was going off to the left of where I was. Crashing through the woods was only giving away my position. Maybe it would be a better idea to stop.
So I did just that. I found a nice big tree to hide behind and stopped moving. Meanwhile the cop went right on crashing through the woods about fifteen feet away from me and he went right past where I was.
I breathed a sigh of relief even though I knew I wasn’t out of the woods yet. Literally. But at least it looked like they weren’t going to track me down right away. So I settled in next to the tree prepared to wait the cop out.
Meanwhile I had to turn the vibrate function on my phone off because otherwise that was going to give me away. I didn’t like not answering their calls, so instead I shot off a quick text telling them I was okay but I couldn’t answer my phone.
It was sort of close to the truth. That only resulted in a string of worried texts in addition to them trying to call. I frowned.
This had already been a long fucking night, and it looked like it was only going to get longer.
15
Robin
I hated the back of squad cars. They always smelled around here. I didn’t know if it was because the kind of criminal they caught in this town didn’t have the best hygiene or if it was because the number one cause of crime around here was meth heads who probably reeked.
I couldn’t believe they were actually taking me in.
“Don’t you guys have better things to do?” I asked, finally breaking my silence. I figured it was safe enough since there was a cage between me and officer bitchface in the front.
She slammed her hand against that cage. “You can shut the fuck up back there. I’ve been waiting a long time for this and you’re going to get it.”
“Waiting a long time for what?” I asked. “Finding me at a party? Good job there Danno.”
She turned and glared at me and I decided it was time to exercise my right to remain silent even if they hadn’t told me that anything I could say can and would be used against me in a court of law. If there was one rule I lived by it was that you shouldn’t talk to the cops.
I just hoped John knew enough to keep his fucking mouth shut. I’d seen him being rounded up with everyone else and he didn’t have the backpack on him. I really hoped he had some sort of emergency plan on the off chance one of the factory parties got raided.
“Yeah, been waiting for this one for a long fucking time,” she said. “You’re going away for a long time, y’know that?”
I glared at the back of officer Jenkins’ head. She had it done up in a short pony tail. Odd that she would go for that choice. Wouldn’t want to give the perps anything to grab at in a fight, after all.
Even if the only perp they were likely to run into around here were drunk drivers and the occasional meth head.
Okay, so maybe the meth heads were something to worry about. I wouldn’t want to get involved with those assholes. I’d always steered clear of them.
“Y’know it doesn’t have to go hard on you when we get back to the station,” the other guy said.
He looked like he was young enough that we could’ve gone to school together. Probably came right back home after he did the police academy. Didn’t even bother to go off to college or anything. He smiled at me now, his face illuminated by the streetlights passing by outside.
It wouldn’t be long now until we were at the police station. I wasn’t looking forward to that. I’d been there once way back in middle school when I’d been tossed to juvie for a few months.
Now I was old enough that juvie was out of the question. I shivered.
“So do you want to tell us what you were doing out there tonight? Come on, we both know what you’ve been up to,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “Are you guys really trying this on me? You know the whole world knows about bad cop good cop, right?”
The guy frowned and faced forward. I saw him shrug.
“Fine. You want to deal with Jenkins you can deal with Jenkins.”
Oh yeah, I’d dealt with Jenkins before. She was the one who brought me in the last time around. I’d heard stories of cops taking young juvenile delinquents under their wings and trying to make sure they shaped up, but she was the opposite of that.
Jenkins was the opposite. She’d made it her mission in life to make me miserable and I’d made it my mission in life to avoid her whenever possible. That was part of the reason I liked to be out on a Sunday. She was a devout churchgoer at one of the more conservative places in town which meant Sundays and a couple of weeknights were safe because I knew she’d have her ass in a pew rather than being out causing me trouble.
Yeah, I guess it was my mistake going out on a night when she could potentially be out there roaming the streets.
I felt a shooting pain at my side and tried to ignore it. I was going to be a little scuffed after this one. I’d never been stupid enough to actually get caught by the cops before so I’d never been in a situation where Jenkins could rough me up.
It seems that there were years of pent up frustration there that she’d taken out tonight. I just wished it was more than my word against hers, because of course the assholes in blue in this town were going to back each other up.
Even if newbie here in front of me seemed a little nervous about the way she’d been acting around me tonight.
“Something wrong back there?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I muttered.
I must’ve made some noise when that pain hit me. Damn. I needed to clam the fuck up. I needed to stop talking to them period. If I started talking then I might say something stupid.
“Yeah, well you make sure to be careful when we get back to the station,” she said. “I’d hate it if you fell down a couple more times when we got there.”
Fell down a couple of times. Yeah. I’m sure that’s what it would say on her official report for the evening even if it was a load of bullshit.
Not that I thought she was likely to pull anything like that when we got back to the station. They had cameras there. Sure they were the ones who controlled the cameras, but just because she was a bitch didn’t mean every other cop in this town was like her.
There might be someone out there who’d see something like that and decide she was taking things a little too far. I wasn’t going to hold my breath waiting for that, but it was possible.
I could certainly poke the bear a little bit though. Even if it was probably a bad idea. I was pissed off and I was in pain and I was angry that my fun evening with Mari had turned to this.
“Yeah, why don’t you go ahead and make me have a couple of accidental falls on the camera over there,” I said. “I’m sure your boss would really like that.”
Jenkins slammed her fist against the cage separating us. “You shut up now you little bitch.”
“Ooh, could you go ahead and say that in front of the chief of police?” I asked. “I’m sure he’d love that.”
“I said shut up!”
I sat back in the car, my point made. I didn’t think she was going to try anything when we got to the station. Hey, I might be stupid enough to bend the law from time to time, but that didn’t mean I was stupid enough to not know the law.
Now if only I had a lawyer or something to come save my ass. As it was I had a feeling I was going to be in big trouble and spending a little bit of time in the slammer. Even if they couldn’t pin anything on me.
More than anything I needed to get in there and have a conversation with John. Assuming he was in there. If they were taking me in then chances are they were taking him in too.
“So are you guys going to turn the lights or the siren on or something?” I asked. “I figure if you’re taking me for a ride you should at least make it fun or something!”
Jenkins sighed and the other guy laughed. For a wonder she didn’t slam her fist against the cage or anything though. Maybe she’d decided it was too painful to dick around with that.
“Come on Jenkins,” the guy said. “That one was pretty funny.”
“Shut up Reg,” she replied through gritted teeth.
“You’re being a wet blanket,” the guy, Reg, said. “Come on. Let’s have a good time. You know how fun it is.”
Jenkins growled and then sighed. “Fine. Go ahead. But this isn’t for you!”
I figured that last one was directed at me but didn’t say anything. This seemed like a good time to exercise my right to remain silent even if they hadn’t told me I had that right. Not that I was under any illusion that it would be a magical get out of jail free card like they sometimes depicted it in the movies.
Reg reached down and flipped a couple of switches and the lights went on outside illuminating the town as we went through. I’m sure there were a couple of old bluehairs who tuned into the police scanner to figure out what was going on when they saw the lights going by.
Well then. At least I could be the entertainment for some people tonight. Someone ought to get something out of this evening.
I kept quiet until we reached the station. I kept quiet as they pulled me out. Jenkins was a little rough getting me out of the car, but I didn’t have any trouble keeping my balance this time around. I guess I should be happy for small blessings.
Sure enough there was a nice big camera right over the intake area. Yeah, probably didn’t want any evidence of roughing me up out there where someone could use it against them.
They pulled me in and I went through all the same old intake stuff. The process hadn’t changed since the last time I was here as a kid, though the end result was a little different.
The last time after they finished taking my finger prints and pictures and everything so I was officially in the system now and forever they took me to a special holding area that was apparently the junior jail cell or something.
This time around though? They took me right back to the cells. I walked past a few that had a couple of people from the party, but not that many.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.
“Oh didn’t you know? You’re the one who was running from us, so we figured you deserved a little extra scrutiny,” Jenkins said. “So whaddya say. Want to tell us what you were doing out there? I promise we’ll go easy on you.”
Mama might’ve been a fool herself who ended up overdosing on some of the really nasty stuff that got sold around this town, but that didn’t mean she’d raised no fools. I kept my mouth shut and looked into each of the cells hoping to see John. Hoping they’d toss me in with him for the night.
If I was in a cell with John then I could tell him to keep his fucking mouth shut while also having a bit of protection for the evening.
There was a reason he was the muscle and I was the brains of the operation, after all.
“Well? Got anything to say?” Jenkins asked when we reached a cell that had a couple of women in it, but still no sign of John.
I actually felt a small flutter of hope that I hadn’t seen him. We were near the end of the long hall of cells and if I hadn’t seen him so far then maybe that meant they hadn’t decided to haul him in. If they hadn’t decided to haul him in then maybe they didn’t have the backpack full of material that was legal in some states but definitely not legal around these here parts.
All I could hope was that he really did get let go and he kept his fucking mouth shut. There was a reason I was the brains and he was the muscle, after all.
“Yeah, I do have something to say,” I said.
Jenkins paused for a moment and actually looked surprised. I guess she didn’t think her whole good cop/bad cop routine was going to do anything.
“Yeah? Well let’s hear it,” she said, leaning forward.
“Did you ever wonder why a town this small needs such a big jail? Are you guys really doing that piss poor a job of dealing with the meth heads?”
Jenkins’ face soured and she shoved me through the door and slammed it shut. I turned around and stuck my tongue out at her. Sure it probably wasn’t the most mature thing I could’ve done under the circumstances, but I didn’t give a fuck. It’s not like she could do anything to me now. The ancient camera in the corner of the cell was proof of that.
Now if only there’d been a camera like that recording everything when she was giving me a bit of the old unnecessary roughness at the factory.
The factory. Shit. I’d nearly had a heart attack when that other guy, Reg, went running into the forest. I figured Mari would’ve been smart enough to run from the cops when she got away, then I heard that ringer going off and realized that poor naive Mari was exactly the sort of person who wouldn’t do the sensible thing and run when the cops were after her.
I’d never been happier than the moment when Reg came out of the woods with nothing.
“You enjoy sitting in here all night and thinking about things,” Jenkins said. “Maybe in the morning you can tell us a little more about what you were doing at that party.”
I flipped her the bird. Well, I waited for her to turn around and leave and then I flipped her the bird. Why couldn’t I get one of those warm and fuzzy cops who wanted to help someone out when they realized a kid was on the wrong path?
No, I’d had to have a bitch like Jenkins take an interest in my life. A woman who was convinced I was still up to no good.
I mean she was absolutely right. If you thought selling a little pot was a bad thing then I was absolutely still up to no good, but hey. What else was I supposed to do? Rely on my dad to keep things together after everything he’d been through?
Not likely.
I looked around the cell. There was one older lady with scraggly hair rocking back and forth in the corner. She had all the looks of a meth head who was having some trouble dealing with her medicine.
I moved and sat on the other side of the cell from her. Damn it. I wasn’t going to get a wink of sleep tonight. There wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to sleep around someone who was detoxing from who knew what.
This was going to be a long night. At least I didn’t have to worry about some oversized girl named Bertha trying to have her way with me or something.
Though looking at the tweaker rocking back and forth I thought it almost might be worth it to spend the evening around Bertha rather than waiting to see if this one would go crazy.
Yeah, a long fucking night indeed. I wondered what Mari was up to. If she’d taken advantage of the hard bought freedom I earned her tonight.
I wondered if she even cared.
16
Mari
I moved through the woods with tears streaming down my face. It had been at least a half hour since that cop stopped chasing after me. I thought it was safe to move after five minutes sitting behind that tree, but I’d quickly learned how wrong I was when he came crashing through the woods behind me.
Now here I was all alone with no idea where the hell I was. It was dark all around me and I’d been turned around and my phone was still ringing with my parents trying to get ahold of me and I felt terrible about everything that had happened tonight.
Though oddly enough I didn’t feel terrible that my parents were worried about me. I mean it sucked that they were worried about me and I’m sure they hated every minute of
this as much as I did, but I felt a little annoyed that they would even act like that.
I was eighteen. I was an adult, damn it. I shouldn’t have even had to sneak out of their house in the first place. I shouldn’t have to feel bad about doing whatever the hell I wanted.
I looked down at my phone. The battery was getting close to dead. Then it hit me.
Idiot. I wasn’t thinking at all tonight. Everything that had happened, having my world shattered, had left me thinking like a damn idiot.
I had a smartphone. In my hands. Which meant there was a GPS and a map. I let out a half laugh and half sob as I pulled it up and looked at the map.
Sure enough it showed exactly where I was after a moment of searching the skies to get a lock on the satellites overhead. I could see that in my wanderings I’d moved from the factory over to the back side of a neighborhood that used to be full of people working for the factory.
Now it was considered to be the “bad” part of town. Though I chided myself even as I thought about it. I was pretty sure this was the part of town Robin lived in. Was it really that bad if it produced her?
The streets were blessedly quiet as I moved through them. Most everyone seemed to be in bed. There were a few lights on here and there, but not many. Once I got to the main road that ran outside the small neighborhood I knew exactly where I was.
And not a moment too soon. My phone blinked once and went dead when I hit that road. I shook my head and hoped I didn’t need to make an emergency call or anything in the next five minutes.
I reached the end of my street and stopped for a moment. Every light in my house was on, and it was a stark counterpoint to the dark houses everywhere else on the street. I saw someone pacing back and forth on the front porch.
I recognized that pacing. That would be mother out there. No doubt worried sick about me. I wondered how she’d even realized that I wasn’t where I said I was.
