Angry Betty

by Jamie Lee Scott

  Kate pulled her taser. “Stop right now. Roll that back down, or I’ll tase you. RIGHT NOW!”

  Kate nearly screamed the last two words, which stunned the girl more than looking at the prongs of the taser. She rolled the window back down.

  Zane unlocked and opened the door, and Kate reached in, grabbed the girl by the arm and pulled her from the car.

  “Ouch! Get your hands off me. You can’t…”

  Kate said, “You tell me one more time how to do my job, and I’ll demonstrate exactly all the things I can do. You’ve refused to provide identification, you’ve disobeyed a lawful order, and you’re being disruptive. This could have been a simple traffic stop, for which you’d have gotten a ticket for speeding, running a red light, and using your phone while driving, but now it’s much, much more.”

  Kate had the girl’s hands cuffed behind her back before the girl realized it. Once she realized her position, she fought the cuffs.

  “You’re gonna have some nasty bruises if you don’t cut that out. They aren’t made of fur.”

  The girl stopped fighting the cuffs and slammed herself against her car. “Aren’t you going to search me?”

  Kate turned the girl to face her. “You’re full of attitude, aren’t you? You do realize you’re making this worse by the second.”

  “I’m going to reach into your handbag and look for a wallet or your driver’s license,” Zane said as soon as the girl stood still.

  “No, you’re not! You don’t have permission to enter my car and get my purse.”

  “Then tell me your name, Social Security number, and birthdate.”

  Fifteen minutes later, they had the information they needed. Ellie Otterman had a long list of traffic violations, which now included driving on a suspended license.

  “You realize you have a warrant?” Zane asked after running her information through their system.

  “Whatever,” was all she said.

  Kate read Ellie her rights, then patted her down. “You’re not hiding anything on your person, are you? Like drugs in your butt crack? Because if they find drugs on you at the jail, you’re also going to have a felony charge.”

  Ellie looked over her shoulder. “Why don’t you just check for yourself?”

  “Well then, let’s get you in the car. We were headed to the jail, anyway.”

  Zane said, “Save the jailer a trip to pick you up from our holding cell.”

  Once in the car, Ellie cried and cried, apologizing for being a bitch, making promises in return for them dropping the charges.

  Zane and Kate didn’t speak to her or each other. Then they transferred her to the custody of Holt County Jail.

  “That was fun,” Zane said.

  “You call that fun? I get so sick of the disregard for authority. I always start off giving them the benefit of the doubt, but it seems the person behind the wheel doesn’t feel the same.”

  “No weapons in the car. We’re alive and well to complain about it. I call that fun.”

  Kate laughed.

  * * *

  After jumping through hoops as if they were just your average everyday visitors to the jail, which included turning in their weapons to the front desk, Kate and Zane were escorted to a private room in the jail.

  “I feel like we should be able to keep our weapons,” Kate said.

  “We aren’t the authority here; the sheriff’s department is. And it’s safer to not have a weapon handy. Too easy to pull it and shoot the asshole in the head.” Zane wasn’t kidding. At least, his tone sounded dead serious.

  “Sorry about the liar thing in the car.” Kate hated to succumb to Zane’s attitude. But she had told him to fuck off, and she felt bad about that. Sort of.

  “It’s always the same old thing with you, over and over, Kate. Nothing changes. I’m not sure you understand that at work I’m your boss. And you don’t tell your boss to fuck off. If I wasn’t in love with you, you’d have been written up enough times to have lost your job. You need to figure out the boundaries. I let it go when we were married. But we aren’t married anymore.”

  She wanted to take back her apology, but she literally bit her tongue to keep from saying anything. If she’d had her phone on her, she’d have pulled it from her pocket and pointedly ignored him. The words stung, because he spoke the truth. She’d become so accustomed to being married to him and fighting, that she no longer distinguished between married fighting and being insubordinate with her boss. She’d never talk back to the captain or chief like she did to Zane. But she’d never had killer sex with either of those men, either. She threw up a little in her mouth at the thought of having sex with Chief Rambone.

  A jailer led Danny Boyd into the room and adjusted his cuffs so he could be shackled to the table, which had been bolted to the floor. Kate thought Boyd looked cute in his pink pants and yellow and white striped “Property of Holt County Jail” top. Boyd didn’t look up until the jailer had him secured.

  “Oh, shit. What do you want?” He leaned back, scooting his chair as far back as he could.

  “We’re here to talk to you about the murder of Marco Lopez.” Zane leaned forward, resting both elbows on the table, his forearms crossed.

  Kate had no desire to lean forward. Her skin already crawled from being in Boyd’s presence. She’d play good cop if Zane let her.

  “Ya’ll don’t listen. I got nothing to do with no Meskins. Ain’t my scene.”

  “You may not have killed Marco, but you’re not innocent by any means,” Kate said.

  Boyd lowered his head and swayed it back and forth, as if listening to a song only he heard. “No, no, no. You don’t get it. I din’t kill that dude. Marco is into some scary shit, and I ain’t into that. I don’t want to die or nothin’.”

  “Look, Danny, cut the shit. We have video of you jacking the car from the Kroger parking lot. You’re not innocent on many counts, but you’re sure as shit guilty of grand theft auto.”

  He shook his head again. Kate wondered if he might have a slight mental disability. It looked like he tried to process what was being said, but it got jumbled.

  “It’s not stealing when someone tells you to pick up the car, is it?” He looked at Kate, his eyes pleading.

  Just as they’d suspected. Boyd knew that car was there. Kate tapped her toes a little, doing a “we were right” happy dance in private.

  Zane cleared his throat. “So, you’re saying Marco told you to come get his car from the Kroger parking lot at five in the morning?”

  Boyd grimaced. “Well, not exactly. Like I said, I ain’t in business with that Meskin. But it don’t matter, cuz Marco’s dead. He can’t press charges. You got the car back. And I ain’t gotta prove I was told to pick the car up. Popo gots to do their job.”

  “Popo?” Kate nearly choked on the word.

  “Y’all know, the po-lice. Popo,” Danny said, as if schooling a two-year old.

  Zane rolled his eyes.

  “Who told you the car would be in the parking lot, Danny?” Kate did lean forward now, wanting to grab Boyd by the throat.

  “I didn’t say no one told me the car’d be there,” Danny whined.

  “You just said exactly that,” Kate said.

  “No I din’t. I just saw the car. Maybe I recognized it. Was gonna move it closer to the front door and all.”

  Kate couldn’t even muster a chuckle at Boyd’s stupidity.

  “Let’s start from the beginning, Danny. Why were you walking around the Kroger parking lot at five in the morning?” Zane said.

  Danny scooted his chair forward a little. His arms getting tired, Kate was sure of it. Then he shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep, so I went for a walk.”

  Zane looked down at his notepad and flipped through a few pages. “You live on the other side of town. Why wouldn’t you go for a walk closer to home?”

  Danny stammered, then started again. “I was hangin’ with friends, you know? They passed out and I was wide awake, so I went for a walk.”

&
nbsp; “Okay, what’s the address of your friend’s house?” Zane asked.

  Danny said, “What’s the address?”

  A typical stalling technique when someone doesn’t have an answer, they repeat the question.

  “That’s what I asked. What’s the address of the house where you were hanging out with friends?” Zane said the words slowly.

  “Well, it wasn’t a house. Was an apartment, you know?”

  “And the address?” Zane asked patiently.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t drive there. Marc…Manny did.”

  Kate caught the slip up. So blatant.

  Zane pretended not to hear it. Because there’s no way he missed it, Kate thought.

  “Okay, your friend Manny drove you there. What’s the name of the apartments?”

  Danny shrugged, having no idea he’d messed up. He truly thought they didn’t catch his mistake.

  “Okay, let me ask you this, who came by to talk to Marco?”

  “What you talkin’ crazy for? Marco wasn’t there. Sheeit, that’s crazy talk.” Danny looked down at his fingers, which he drummed on the table.

  “Danny, you said his name, now just fess up, or you’ll be an accessory after the fact, and you’re going to prison for murder,” Kate said.

  “Murder? No, man, I thought we were past that. I ain’t murdered no one.” Danny stopped drumming his fingers and tried to reach up and move the hair from his forehead. He winced when his bony wrists met the resistance of the metal cuffs. “Fuck.”

  “So, once again, from the beginning. You were at some apartments near Kroger. You couldn’t sleep, so you went for a walk. You saw Marco’s car. How long before that did Marco leave the apartment you were at?”

  Chapter 22

  Jake knocked on the open door to Chief Rambone’s office. “Sir, the captain said you wanted to talk to me?”

  Rambone looked up from the paperwork on his desk. He pushed it aside and said, “Yes, please have a seat.” He flicked his hand indicating the seat next to his desk.

  Jake looked at the seat across from his desk and really wanted to sit there. Sitting next to the desk at the side made Jake feel like he’d gotten in trouble in elementary school. But he sat there, because who was he to argue? “Is everything okay?”

  “As far as I know it is,” Rambone said. “I wanted to talk to you about Kim Vega.”

  Jake felt the heat rise from his core and flush his neck and face. “Oh, Kim, what about her?” He almost choked on the words.

  The very mention of her name made his insides squirm. He’d made so many mistakes the week he rode with Corporal Darby. He thought it was all behind him, especially since Kim remained in jail, but now this.

  “I hear you two had a past.”

  Jake nodded.

  “She stayed at your house for a few days?”

  The office smelled like stale tobacco, and Jake wondered if the chief had a nasty habit. Not that he had anything against chewing tobacco. Heck, they were in East Texas after all. He figured more people chewed than smoked tobacco. Or maybe not. But the smell wasn’t smoking tobacco. He knew that smell. With his dad being a jockey, he swore every other jockey, along with his dad, smoked. Something to keep them occupied so they didn’t eat. And in that profession, they obsessed about weight as much as any supermodel. He knew he was deflecting by thinking of other things. Thank goodness he heard the chief’s question before he had to ask it again.

  “No, sir, she just stayed the one night. The first night was when she went back home, then arrived here at the station the next morning.”

  “Okay, I see. You two still close?” Rambone picked up a pen and wiggled it between his middle and forefinger.

  “We were friends when I was like twelve or so. I hadn’t seen her in years. I guess I felt bad things had gone so wrong for her since I saw her last. But goodness, she’s changed. And she prefers lies to the truth.”

  “Bless her heart,” Rambone drew out the words.

  “Anyway, she won’t be an issue for me. I learned my lesson. From here out, I’m steering clear of that girl. And I’m going to remind myself, using Kim as an example, not to let it get personal.”

  “Well, that’s harder than you’d think. But I’m not worried about it. You’ll make plenty of mistakes in this job. As long as you’re doing your best and don’t get anyone fired, hurt, or killed, it’s usually something we can move on from.” Rambone took a deep breath. “I’m wondering what Kim may have told you.”

  “Told me? Like what?” Jake leaned forward, now curious as to what Chief Rambone wanted.

  “Did she say anything about the night of the raid? Like if they knew the cops were coming? Anything about being tipped off?” He’d gone from wiggling the pen to tapping it on the desk, sliding it through his fingers, then flipping to the other end, tapping and repeating the movement.

  Trying to stay focused on the conversation, and not the pen, Jake said, “I don’t recall anything significant.”

  Rambone slapped the pen down on the desk. “Think, son. Did she mention any names? We’re just wondering why almost no drugs were found at the house, when we know they were dealing large quantities from that location.”

  “She didn’t mention anything about the raid directly, or that she knew about it. And almost everything she said, she’d turn it around and have another story two hours later. I didn’t know what to believe.” He wasn’t sure what else to tell the chief to make him happy. He didn’t know anything else. “Like I said, I learned my lesson. I’ve wiped my hands clean of that girl.”

  Rambone frowned, then picked at something in his teeth. “Don’t walk away just yet. We may need you to get close to her. I need you to get her to trust you, in case we need more information.”

  “Honestly, I don’t know what is the truth and what’s not with Kim. So I’m not sure what good I’d be.” This wasn’t what Jake expected at all when Rambone brought up Kim’s name. And he wasn’t sure he liked where this was heading.

  “She knows something she’s not saying. For right now, don’t ask any questions, just go visit her when you have time off. Let her know you’re on her side, even if you are a cop.”

  Jake cringed. He wanted nothing to do with Kim, and now he was being told to visit her in jail. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, sir.”

  Rambone slammed his hand down on the desk, and the pen he’d been playing with bounced off the edge, falling on the floor. “I’m the one who decides what is and what isn’t a good idea. And I think Kim needs to think she has a friend. Obviously, no one has come to bail her out this time, so she’s been abandoned for the moment. You can be her savior.”

  Jake opened his mouth to speak, but Rambone held his hand up.

  “Be gone. I’ve got a lot on my plate today. Just make the time to visit that girl.”

  As Jake walked down the hall to find the captain, he wondered what had happened to the person who bailed Kim out the first time. And was even more curious as to who it was.

  Chapter 23

  Boyd used the too long fingernails on his right hand to dig under the too long fingernails of his left hand, removing the dirt and grease, then he wiped the grime on the sleeve of his shirt. Kate half expected him to lean down and remove it from his finger with his mouth.

  “What time did Lopez leave the apartment, Boyd?” Zane asked again.

  Switching to clean the fingernails on his right hand, Boyd said, “I didn’t say that Meskin was at the apartment, man.”

  “You didn’t have to. Just tell us what happened. Like Sergeant Gwilly said, start at the beginning. Like when you arrived at the apartment, who was there?” Kate worked hard to keep the edge out of her voice.

  Boyd concentrated on his fingernails for a full minute before responding. “What am I gettin’ for talking to you?”

  “I haven’t talked to the D.A. yet, but I’ll see what I can do,” Zane said.

  “I ain’t talkin’ till I have a deal, you know? I need a good deal,” Boyd
whined.

  Zane stood. “Fine, I’ll go see what I can do, but by the time I do that and come back, I won’t need your information anymore. Good luck in here.”

  Kate followed Zane’s lead, put her pad of paper in her pocket and stood. She didn’t bother to address Boyd, just followed Zane to the door.

  Boyd tried to stand, but got caught up by his handcuffs. “What do you mean, too late? You ain’t got nothin’ or you wouldn’t be here talking to me.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. We have someone in the other room, who also has a story to tell. The first one to talk will likely get the deal from the D.A. Not that I can promise what the deal will be, but maybe they’ll drop the grand larceny charges.”

  “I didn’t larceny anything. Fuck. I got that shitty fucking lawyer. I shouldn’t even be in here.” Boyd sat back down and dropped his head down to his hands.

  Kate wasn’t sure, but she thought Boyd might be crying. She looked at Zane, waiting him out to see what happened next. This was her case, but he was her boss, so she bit her lip and waited.

  Zane turned around. “You crying, Boyd?”

  Boyd wiped his face on his sleeve, in the same place he wiped the dirt from his fingernails, then looked up. “No, I ain’t a crybaby. But you gotta help me. I don’t belong in here.”

  “You talk, and if I think you have anything to offer, I’ll talk to the D.A. and maybe see about getting you another attorney.” Zane walked back to the table, pulled out the chair and sat.

  Kate hesitated, not sure if Zane meant to stay and listen, or if it was a gesture. When he didn’t make a move to get right back up, she pulled out the chair next to him and sat.

  “Start talking,” Zane said.

  Boyd wiped his eyes one more time. “Okay, Marco was there. But he got a call and left. I don’t wear a watch, but it was at least a few hours before I went for my walk. I might have heard him say both Newton’s name and Payaso’s.”