Angry Betty

by Jamie Lee Scott

  He wasn't sure where the bathroom was, but he bet more than one person ran that direction. No one bothered with the guys headed out the back door; they wouldn’t get far. Their concern was with the interior of the home. Secure the evidence and make sure it didn’t get flushed or washed down a drain and detain the occupants. That was their job.

  “I’m going upstairs,” Kate said as she flew by him. “Get the kitchen. Hanson and Bugger won’t be able to stop all of them.”

  Jake ran into the kitchen where he grabbed a skinny white dude in dirty boxer shorts by the hair of his mullet. He yanked him back from the kitchen sink where the guy was opening Ziploc baggies, washing the contents, which looked like weed, down the drain. He hadn’t even gotten a good head start before Jake shut him down. He fought like a mad dog, flailing his arms and kicking out with his legs. The front flap of his boxers parted and now his pecker joined his arms in the flailing.

  “That’s enough, dirt bag,” Jake said, catching him with his own leg and taking him to the floor.

  A moment of shock came over Jake as he realized the moves he’d learned at the academy worked. Dirt Bag lay flat on the floor, squirming like a ladybug on its back. Jake had to make himself breathe through his mouth (the guy stunk like rotten meat) as he rolled the guy over and put a knee in his back, fighting to get his arms in a position to get the cuffs on. “Give me your arm, asshole.”

  Geez, this guy could fight, still kicking as if it would help him. Jake thought he heard a muffled “Screw you.”

  Fighting for his own breath, Jake said, “Stop fighting, you’re not gonna win this one.” He struggled to get Dirt Bag’s arms behind his back. At least he knew the guy didn’t have a weapon on him, unless his boxers had a secret compartment. What he wouldn’t have given for some assistance, he thought, as he finally got the guy in cuffs. He remained with his knee on Dirt Bag’s back while he took a few deep breaths and prepared to stand. He waited an extra minute before he finally stood, thinking he should have wrestled in high school, not played baseball.

  Jake lifted him from the ground to stand him up, but Dirt Bag went limp. Why make it easy? “Either put your feet on the ground, or I’ll do it for you. I guarantee you won’t like my method.”

  “Fuck you. Police brutality, man. You have no right to be here. I know my rights.” Breathing hard between words, he wanted to have his say.

  “Put your fucking feet on the ground, or I will drag your ass out of this house by your hair.” He wouldn’t, but it sounded good.

  “Do it, asshole, I don’t give a fuck.” He dropped like dead weight.

  Jake let the scrawny guy fall to the floor. Where the hell was he going to go in boxers and handcuffs?

  Looking up, he saw Gwilly had two men in cuffs on the living room floor and his hand on his shoulder radio, calling for more officers. “We’ll need three more cars for transport.”

  Jake marveled at how quickly it all went down. Gwilly’s team worked well together. He really wanted to be a part of this kind of family. It wasn’t his bust, but he did get the door opened and cuffed the guy in the kitchen, so now he stood with his guy and waited for directions. As a rookie, he wanted to be an asset, not a liability.

  Looking through the doorway, Jake saw Kate bringing a woman down the stairs. The chick wore floral stretch pants with a navy, green, and white color palette, and a spaghetti strap tee that was probably white at one time. He looked to her bare feet and noticed her painted toenails. He found it strange that she looked like she hadn’t washed or cleaned her clothes in weeks, yet her toenails were painted perfectly in a bright pink.

  When he looked up, he saw the grimace on her face. Did he also see a flicker of recognition? There was no doubt, they recognized one another immediately. Jake continued to stare at her, but she immediately dropped her gaze to the ground.

  “Kim?” Jake couldn’t believe it was the same Kim Vega he’d known as a kid.

  She nodded almost imperceptibly, but didn’t look up.

  As Kate walked by, she said, “Friends?” Then she said something he didn’t understand. Something about her name being Betty?

  Jake shrugged, letting them pass without saying another word.

  Kim’s blonde hair hung down to her shoulders like spaghetti stuck to a wall. It looked like it hadn’t been washed in days or trimmed professionally in years. Ragged ends that had likely broken off from lack of nutrition. From the looks of her dark roots, she’d been lightening it somehow. No way she was going to a salon. She didn’t look like she’d waste good drug money on professional hair color.

  Kim’s parents had a small cabin on Caddo Lake. They’d met there as kids. It was only two houses down from Uncle Tucker’s place. Kim and Jake laughed away the summers, riding the inner tube behind his uncle’s boat or early morning fishing. They shared secrets, dreams, and even suntan lotion. He had a huge crush on her, and went into depression every August when his parents came to get him. He hated going back home.

  One summer, Jake remembered, he begged them to let him live with his uncle year-round so he could go to school in Peculiar. His parents refused, not wanting to hear another word about it. That was his last summer at the lake. Once he started high school, his schedule was too busy to spend the summers in Peculiar.

  Every fall, the crush he had on Kim faded in the months after school started, then started again the first time he saw her in June. He never had the nerve to tell her how he felt. How he’d longed to touch her sun-bleached hair, hold her hand, and maybe even steal a kiss. He was too young and shy to do or say anything. Maybe that was for the best.

  Over the years, he thought about her periodically, especially when they visited Uncle Tucker. But her parents sold the cabin, and Jake never saw her again. A few times, he tried looking her up on Facebook, but her name didn’t come up. He’d catch himself wondering what had happened to her, who she’d married (if she had married at all), or if she stayed in Peculiar. He never guessed she’d be a junkie, or that he’d be arresting her in a drug raid.

  Jake wanted her to look at him. Wanted to see if there was any hope left in her blue eyes, or if all hope had faded years ago. But she refused to look in his direction.

  A cop came in from the backyard, picking Dirt Bag up off the floor, and dragging him outside. As Jake bent over to pick up the battering ram, the yelling started again. He flipped the snap on his holster and put his right hand on his gun. When he got to the top of the stairs, he saw Officer Dornan in a tug of war with a tall, skinny guy wearing a grey wife beater tee and baggy jeans. In the wrestling, the guy’s jeans slid down his legs, revealing his lack of underwear. Jake glimpsed the guy’s privates a few times as he flipped over during the confrontation. He’d seen enough shriveled penises for one night. He dropped the battering ram, moving his hand from his gun to his Taser.

  Dornan wasn’t able to get to his Taser, as he was trying to keep Numb Nuts from getting his gun. Jake aimed and tagged Numb Nuts dead center between his shoulder blades. For one, maybe two, seconds, he froze. It was enough time for Dornan to free himself, but then Numb Nuts blew through the jolt of electricity like a man possessed.

  What the hell kind of drugs was this guy on? Numb Nuts wasn’t about to let fifty thousand volts of electricity ruin his high. Jake sent another jolt that dropped him to the floor. Dornan pounced, and had Numb Nuts’ hands behind his back and the cuffs wrapped around his wrists before Jake could blink. Damn, his technique was good, once he had the guy in the right position. He’d have to ask him about that. Numb Nuts didn’t even realize he’d been cuffed until it was too late to fight it.

  Jake stepped forward and grabbed the guy by one arm, as Dornan grabbed the other, and they lifted him off the floor. Jake saw him look up with disdain, then roll his eyes and go limp. He wasn’t going to make it easy on them. Jake maneuvered to keep from moving the prongs in the guy’s back as they assisted him toward the stairs.

  Numb Nuts would be assessed by EMS before they took him to the jail.
/>   “Go ahead, douche bag, I’m adding resisting arrest to your list of charges.”

  As if he wasn’t adding it already.

  Numb Nuts decided to come to just long enough to look up and spit at Dornan. Yeah, that went over well. Dornan dropped his side of the guy and pulled a handkerchief from his front pocket. “Add assault on a police officer.” Dornan wiped the spit off, then tied the handkerchief around the guy’s face. “Oh, wait, you already have the assault charge. I’ll add more.”

  Jake noticed some saliva had landed on Dornan’s chest camera and looked down to be sure he had turned his on. He had. Kate had made sure it was so routine he didn’t even remember turning it on. It’s just what he did every time he exited the car, like locking the door. Kate had trained him well on this point.

  What she hadn’t talked to him about was what happens when you know the subject you’re arresting and at one time in your life, you thought you were going to marry her.

  Chapter 6

  Kate watched the front door split open like balsa wood, as if it were hollow. Who knew, maybe they had used an interior door for the exterior. It sure seemed that way, but Kate didn’t have time to slow down and inspect it. Jake hit the door hard once, and they were in.

  People scattered like cockroaches when the lights turned on, only these cockroaches had no place to hide. The officers had their orders, and while Zane and Jake handled the first floor, she and Dornan ran up the stairs to catch whoever was on the second floor. At the top of the stairs, a skinny chick slammed directly into her. Thank goodness the girl was a waif, or the impact would have knocked Kate off her feet. As it was, she had to grab the railing to keep from falling back onto Dornan.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Fine. I’ve got her, you check the other rooms,” Kate said, her voice a little unsteady.

  She hated that she sounded scared. She wasn’t. This was the type of night she lived for. Sometimes she thought about applying to the U.S. Marshals, so she could track fugitives and knock down doors on a regular basis. Alas, she couldn’t leave Peculiar, as much as she wanted to; the place held her like an industrial magnet. She tried to leave three times in her life. The longest she stayed gone was three months.

  Kate repositioned herself and had cuffs on before Raggedy Ann knew it. Kate shoved her up against the wall. “If you move, I’ll shoot you.”

  “Fuck you,” she said.

  Kate pulled her Taser. “Fine, I’ll give you a good zap instead.”

  That shut her up. That scenario had real possibilities of actually happening, and the girl knew it.

  While watching her detainee, Kate kept an eye on Dornan, who’d done a good job of entering the rooms safely. These druggies came armed and dangerous when they were dealers. It wasn’t unheard of for a guy to come out of a closet, guns blazing.

  Dornan came back out into the hallway. “I’ve got one who might need medical assistance. He’s out cold, but still breathing.”

  “Radio for medical and keep an eye on him. I’m taking this one downstairs.”

  Kate pulled the girl away from the wall, standing behind her as she escorted her to the stairs. She finally had a chance to look around, and she looked down to see the girl wore no shoes, then she looked at the carpet. She was pretty sure a kid could grow science experiments in the stains. No way would she walk barefooted in this house, she thought as she walked by a syringe with a bent needle stuck in the loop of the brown Berber.

  Slowly making their way down the stairs, Kate looked at the greasy stringy hair matted at the back of the murmuring girl’s neck. She concentrated on the words, barely making them out.

  “Cunt. Motherfucking cunt. Stupid, stinking…” she kept repeating it on a loop.

  As they came down the stairs, Kate saw Jake standing in the doorway of the kitchen. The look on his face reflected confusion. What could he be confused about? Then he opened his mouth. He knew the girl. Or at least he thought he did, apparently, and called her Kim.

  “Friends?” she asked as she walked by, then added, “She’s one angry Betty.”

  Jake moved to the interior of the house as Kate walked out the kitchen door.

  “You’re hurting me,” Kim’s words clear as can be.

  “You’ll be fine, Kim,” Kate said. “Maybe I can get your boyfriend to come check on you in a few minutes.”

  “You probably got him in cuffs, too,” she mumbled.

  “I was talking about Jake.” Kate opened the back door of her Expedition and helped Kim inside.

  Fully expecting Kim to start kicking or banging her head, Kate stood outside the door for a moment before heading over to Zane and the others.

  The murmuring died to almost nothing as Kate joined them. This made her suspicious. It wasn’t like the other officers to stop talking just because she walked in the room. She could swear more creatively than they could, and vulgar stories didn’t bother her. They knew that. But the silence was followed by stares.

  “What, do I have a bugger hanging out of my nose?” She rubbed the back of her hand across her nose, just in case.

  Johnson was the first to step back from the group, revealing a man standing with his hands on his head.

  “Fuck me,” Kate said aloud. “Danny Boyd.”

  “This will save us some time. But I’m still using that warrant to go through his house,” Zane said.

  “Who caught him?” she asked.

  “Hiding in the bushes on the side of the house,” Deputy Hensley said as he continued to pat him down.

  “Just like a snake,” Kate said. “That raid was a kill two birds kinda job.”

  Hensley nodded. “I heard about the car accident this morning. Guy with half a head.”

  “It was more than half,” Zane said. “But not by much.”

  “Any leads?”

  Kate pointed to Boyd. “He’s our one and only suspect. Does it get any easier?”

  Kate saw something small and white drop to the ground next to Boyd’s foot. She walked over to get a better look.

  “Leave it,” Hensley said.

  “I’ve got gloves on still,” Kate said and picked up the tiny white plastic wrap, tossing it onto the hood of the deputy’s car.

  “There’s more where that came from,” Hensley said. “Spread your feet.”

  Boyd didn’t move.

  “I said, spread your feet. And I mean wide.”

  When Boyd still didn’t comply, Hensley used his own foot to assist, kicking between Boyd’s feet until he moved them apart. Bringing Boyd’s hands down from his head, he cuffed him.

  “You want me to shake him, or hold him while you do?” Zane asked.

  “I can do both.”

  Hensley proceeded to hold Boyd by the cuffs with one hand and grab his butt cheeks with the other and shake. Then he grabbed him by the too large cutoff jean shorts and gave him a wedgie, then pulled the shorts back down. Along with the shorts came four more baggies of meth.

  “Dude, were you going to sell those straight out of your asshole? That’s disgusting,” Kate said.

  “That ain’t mine. Don’t know where that shit came from.” He looked over his shoulder. “You put that there to frame me!”

  Hensley laughed. “Yeah, I’ve never heard that one before.”

  “If you got more up there, you’d better shake it out. The jail isn’t as nice about it as we are. You’ll just rack up more felony charges.”

  Zane grabbed him by the elbow. “I’ll transport him, if it’s all the same to you.”

  “Did you read him his rights?” Kate asked.

  Hensley nodded.

  “Daniel Boyd, you’re under arrest for the murder of Marco Lopez…” Just to make sure, Zane read him his rights again.

  Kate only heard the murder because Zane started walking away, but knew he had a laundry list on him at this point.

  Kate didn’t think the man could get any paler under the mercury vapor lights, but he did.

  “What the fuck? What you ta
lkin’ ‘bout? I ain’t never killed nobody!” He wrenched his arm away from Zane.

  Kate jogged to catch up.

  “Does this mean you want to talk to us?” Zane said.

  “Talk to you about what? Somebody dead and you pinnin’ it on me because you can’t make any other charges stick?”

  The Peculiar cops and the county had made plenty of charges stick when it came to Boyd. He even had an active warrant. Not the one for murder, but another one for failure to appear.

  “Want me to read you the charges that have stuck over the years? Hell, I even remember arresting you as a juvenile,” Zane said.

  Kate turned away with a smile on her face. They had this guy dead to rights. Then she turned back. “I already have you for fleeing, Danny boy.”

  “Don’t call me that. I fucking hate that.”

  “What? Danny boy?” she said it again just to irritate him.

  “I wanna talk to my lawyer,” Boyd said.

  Zane shot Kate an exasperated look. “See what you did? Now he’s not going to tell us about the guy in the trunk.”

  Boyd tried to spin around and look at Zane. “What guy in the trunk?”

  “Nope, never mind, you need to have your lawyer present,” Kate said.

  “That’s bullshit, I can answer whatever I want. Then I can stop answering if I want my lawyer.” He’d been read his rights enough, he could probably recite his Miranda rights word for word.

  “You’ve already asked for a lawyer, Danny. You can’t take it back now. Besides, I never thought I’d say this, but it might be best you have someone present.” Zane steered Boyd to his car.

  Hensley shook his head. “The guy you found in the trunk, you think Boyd killed him?”

  Kate shrugged. “His prints are the only ones in the car.”

  “Seems a little too convenient,” Hensley said and walked back to his vehicle.

  Kate stared after him. “You wish.”

  But as she turned to watch Dornan and Underwood dragging an almost lifeless body out of the house, she chewed on what Hensley said.

  “This is the last one,” Dornan said.