Chapter 87

TUESDAY NIGHT — SEPTEMBER 24

Joyce and Diana stood just inside the mudroom as Sheriff Tate, his wife, Virginia, and her sister, Elizabeth, came in.

Joyce stepped forward but spoke to Virginia instead of Sheriff Tate. "Ma'am, I hope you don't hate me forever for this, but I'm going to kiss your husband."

Before Virginia could respond, Joyce grabbed her Sheriff around the neck, pulled his face down to hers and kissed him. Although the kiss didn't last long, Quinton Tate knew what Joyce's tongue tasted like afterward.

"Thank you," Joyce said when she broke the kiss as she wrapped herself around him squeezing as hard as she could. Tate, reflexively put his arms around her and hugged her back, feeling her breasts push hard against his chest.

"Thank you," she went on, her voice muffled against him. "You said I had nothing to worry about, that you would see to it ... and you did. I'll never doubt you again. I work for the greatest Sheriff in the whole country."

When she finally let him go, Tate put his hands on her shoulders, looking her in the eyes. "Well, I always wanted to be the best Sheriff there was. I guess I finally made it," he kidded while he desperately willed his dick to stop swelling. Virginia is almost insanely jealous. If my dick gets hard, she'll make a scene and embarrass me to death. But this woman is gorgeous, and her breasts against my chest ... Don't go there. Don't go there, he admonished himself.

Diana, sensing Tate's stress and guessing the reason, hugged Virginia. "Oh, it's good to see you again. We're so terribly proud of what Quinton did today. This has been very stressful for all of us, particularly Joyce, after that nasty assistant DA made those threats and left."

Turning to Elizabeth, Diana hugged her, too. "Come on. We have a nice meal ready."

"Mrs..." Virginia began.

"Diana, remember?"

"Elizabeth and I had a snack, but we were going to wait for Quinton to call before we began dinner for him. When he called, he said that he had agreed for us to eat with you. We feel like we're imposing..."

"Nonsense. We've already eaten, but most of us will probably have something while you guys eat, and my husband never misses a chance at another meal. He certainly will eat with you, and probably Dave will, as well. His appetite has been increasing lately, too. Everybody is waiting in the kitchen. The way the snow is starting to come down and as late as it is, you should just spend the night. It's not as if we would run out of rooms or anything," she said, distracting Virginia and beginning to lead everyone toward the kitchen.

I could see that instant of horror start to form on Quinton's face as he realized that Joyce was going to kiss him. He has to be worried about his wife being jealous. That's the only thing I can think of that would fit. But anyone can see that Joyce is just overwhelmed with what has happened. She's an affectionate person, and we've certainly encouraged it around here. Anyone would know that she isn't trying to make a move on the Sheriff, but he's obviously worried about his wife's reaction.

The frown starting on Virginia's face was obvious just before I intervened. Why is she so jealous? I didn't get any vibes from Quinton when he's been here before, and I'm not now. He talks to my face, not my tits. All my sisters like him, so they didn't get anything, either. So why would she be jealous of an innocent kiss from a young lady whose career Quinton has just saved? Strange.

"We don't know you well enough to spend the night," Virginia said. "Oh, don't misunderstand, we certainly appreciate the offer, but Quinton is accustomed to driving in the snow."

Elizabeth broke in with, "If it continues to snow, we might have problems leaving here later. We're in the car and there are a lot of curves going down the mountain before the snow will end," she finished, obviously not anxious to go back down the drive in the Crown Vic if the snow continued.

The Sheriff spoke up as they walked toward the kitchen. "I had my mind on other things when I left the DA's office. Mainly all that has been going on today and the things I still need to do. I never thought about checking the mountain weather. I just stopped and picked up the two of them. It never crossed my mind to change to the Explorer. It started snowing about a mile down the mountain."

"They say we're only supposed to get four inches or so. Oh, don't worry about being in the car. Jeff will be glad to run the plow in front of you if you insist on leaving tonight, but please think about staying. We really like you guys and we'll put you in a very nice two-bedroom suite. We eat early anyway. So you can be out of here in plenty of time in the morning to go back by your house for a fresh uniform, Sheriff."

As they reached the kitchen door, "We'll see," Tate replied looking at his wife.

The Sheriff asked that everyone wait until after the meal for the replay of his day. Famished, he ate a lot, taking second helpings even as he apologized. "Nonsense," Laura interjected. "We love to see a man eat."

The girls took off to play video games and let the adults eat in peace, after receiving a promise to call them before Sheriff Tate told about his day.

Deputy Goodman, who had arrived shortly before the Sheriff, glanced at the two women. "So now we have two people with the same name at the table," he said.

Evie looked up from her pie. "Well, maybe not. Evie isn't short for Elizabeth. Mom liked Evie, so that's what is on my birth certificate. I don't know whether you're called Evie or not?" she finished while looking at Elizabeth.

The Sheriff's sister-in-law smiled back. "No. The family always called me by my full name. I can't remember anyone ever calling me by Evie, and I definitely don't like Liz."

"Well, shoot," Jesse laughed. "I thought I was being smart. So much for that idea."

"How do you stay in such good shape, Jeff?" Virginia asked as she realized that he was now working on his second rounded-up plate of food, even though Diana had told them that he had already eaten supper several hours prior.

"Well, I run some," Jeff offered after taking a big drink of tea.

"Quinton eats a lot, too, but I think you have him beaten. He never gains weight, though. Of course, he's always on the go."

"You and Elizabeth are both thin. Do you work out?" Diana asked to get the subject away from Jeff who was starting to get a little uncomfortable with the attention.

Elizabeth spoke up, "Yeah, Virginia and I work out almost every day, either at my house or hers. We live just a few hundred yards apart. I home-schooled Rachel, and Cindy. Cindy finished high school a few months ago and Rachel is in the eleventh. But I've been hanging around Virginia and Quinton for the last few days while the girls visit relatives."

"And they manage to keep up with their school work?" Helen asked. She assumed that the answer was yes, but was just fishing for more information.

Elisabeth chuckled. "Oh, Rachel usually stays ahead, just as Cindy did. Cindy is taking college courses on line, but hasn't fully decided what her major is going to be, yet. She's going to get the first two years out of the way before she has to start taking any of her courses on campus. At least that is the plan as of now."

"Laura and I are thinking about doing the same thing," Diana said. "But there have been so many things happening lately that we haven't gotten around to enrolling."

"What are you going to take?" Virginia asked.

Diana and Laura glanced at each other for a second. "Probably some type of engineering, possibly electrical, since our husband is an electrical engineer — when he isn't inventing things," Diana threw in. I know that we touched on Jeff having more than one woman, but let's see how you react, Diana thought.

Although she fought it, a blush crept up Virginia's face at the mention of "our" husband.

Diana was watching closely. Yeah, she caught it all right.

Before the pause became uncomfortable, Virginia glanced around her at Jeff's wives. "Well, we obviously knew, and you have all been so nice to us ... I just don't know how you do it, though. I mean ... it makes me furious to see any woman come on to Quinton — even a little bit."

Sheriff Tate cleared his throat. "They aren't breaking any laws as long as there is only one legitimate marriage. Any number of people can cohabitate without violating any laws, and more do so than most people realize. I suspect that a lot of it is to pool resources — incomes, a house or apartment, vehicles and other things. Most don't advertise it, but I've been in many homes over the years where I was almost certain it was going on, or had to deliver a message that someone had been injured, only to have two women have a come-apart. Whatever works. Obviously it does for our friends here."

"Well, don't even think about it, Quinton," Virginia said with a laugh, but there was an underlying hardness to her voice.

Jesse and Alesha looked at each other.

Everyone was gathered in the living room. "All right, Quinton," Diana teased. "You've kept us in suspense long enough. Time to spill it."

Tate glanced over at Diana as she slid a comfortable chair closer to him. He seated himself and waited for everyone to be settled. "Oh, well," he sighed. "It's not as if I'm trying to keep anything from you. Heck, I think the whole county should know, at least as far as we can go without jeopardizing the prosecution of the case against these people. I can't see where telling you would hurt anything.

"There is still a lot of work to do at the DA's office. It seems that the more we dig, the worse the stink becomes. I left people guarding the place, and there are two people from the Attorney General's office there doing the same thing.

"We got the FBI into it, and they have interviewed the DA and Randolph. Since they didn't realize that there was another tape, both have insisted that their tape is true and original. In other words, they have lied to the FBI, which will unfurl yet another ball of fur, to mix metaphors a little. I suspect that the FBI, as is usual for them, will try to take over the investigation and prosecution of the DA and his assistants, but the Attorney General says it isn't going to happen.

"Let the big boys butt heads, or learn to get along like adults. I don't really care. The DA is done. There is no way in hell he can make all this go away. With a felony conviction looming, he's out of office, and with all he's facing, disbarment probably isn't very high on his list of worries right now.

"One of the assistants is just about doing handstands to get our attention so he can testify against the DA and Randolph, in order to get his part in this reduced."

Tate took a sip of his coffee and paused, gathering his thoughts.

Jesse snuck an arm around Alesha, then when she smiled at him, pulled her against him as Tate continued.

"This started almost a year ago when the Lieutenant in charge of my vice unit came to me. He's a smart guy, and he had his ducks in a row before we even sat down together. Names, dates, all the paperwork from our end, and as much as he could glean from the court end. The DA's office suddenly didn't need testimony from any of the arresting officers if it were a drug case. Pretty soon, the vice officers weren't receiving any subpoenas at all. If they questioned when a case was coming up, an assistant DA would tell them that the case had been plea bargained and the guy got, say, five years or something like that.

"Of course, drug dealers do the same thing over and over again, and eventually an officer would arrest someone who he had been told had already gotten jail time for another recent case. A few remarks like, 'Nah, I got off on that, ' got the vice unit incensed. But like I said, the Lieutenant in charge is smart. Instead of complaining, he started compiling information.

"Now, we all expect most cases involving drugs to be plea bargained. It's just a fact of life. Dockets are full, for years in the future sometimes, and judges, DAs and defense attorneys make deals on cases where they and the person arrested know that a conviction is going to happen. Well, sometimes even on cases that are not so cut and dried.

"Anyway, after awhile, it became clear to this Lieutenant that all the cases from his unit were plea bargained. And it must have been one hell of a plea bargain, because no one was doing any jail time. When he came to me, he had thirty ironclad cases that had been bargained and the person arrested was still out selling. Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, I took the paperwork and the Lieutenant to see the Attorney General.

"The Attorney General wanted to be subtle with our investigation so we didn't tip the DA off. Eventually, the Attorney General got personally involved behind the scenes with several big busts. Secretly, he double-checked the amounts and signed off on them. We were able to mark the drugs and recovered two of the shipments after the DA supposedly destroyed them after court.

"The DA would sign for, say, two kilos that vice confiscated, then he or his assistants would carry two ounces to court on the, then, misdemeanor, then sign off on two ounces as being destroyed. He would then sell the two kilos. We managed to have an undercover cop buy one of the shipments, and another shipment was confiscated on a drug bust by another department — one of our marked shipments of dope that the Attorney General had inventoried.