Chapter 17

"I looked, but I couldn't find the interview with her lawyer anywhere," I admitted.

"She says we offered to forget her attempted escape, if she had sex with us." Simpson said.

"It's not believable that we conspired to have sex with her," I said. "I wouldn't worry about it. I'm going to tell the truth which should remove any suspicion of criminal activity. I hadn't planned to mention the escape attempt at all, but appears I'm going to have to do it."

"Yeah, I agree. Just try to put it in the best light you can," Simpson said.

"Simpson, there is no way to spin this that makes it sound like anything, but her running and you running her down. She obviously had it planned, so you did the best you could, not to lose her." I smiled at him to let him know that I was going to stand in the line like any other cop. I didn't have to like him, to do the right thing.

"Sergeant Michaels, what do you want me to do?" I asked it as a generic question once I made it to his desk.

"So you are back?' he asked.

"Yes Sir," was my only reply.

"Our Deputy Chief is going to conduct an official inquiry into the incident on the road back. I sure as hell am glad we had a female officer with her. Of course how she ran is a mystery," he said.

"Even I have to pee now and then," I said.

"Ah okay," he said shaking his head. "Don't say any more until Chief Deputy Webster calls for you. Do write your report and have it ready but do not turn it in until after the interview." It sounded like they might want a rewrite, but if they did there was going to be a problem.

"Go on down to the garage and draw a car for tonight," he suggested.

The rule in the Warren County Sheriff's office was first in, first out if possible. I was waiting for the first car to come in from patrol. My pay started when I checked in on the radio. I could not do any work until then. One of the early people from the morning tour came in and I took his car and checked on duty.

I pulled the car into the park and removed my metal briefcase from the trunk. I used a picnic table to write my report on the prisoner escort detail. It was a simple account of the facts as we experienced them. I downplayed the DA coercion and the conversation we had with Gypsy except to repeat that it was her who offered sex to forget about the incident. It was before 4PM when I checked 10-8 and began to ride around looking over the roads in the south part of Warren County.

We might not have been the highway patrol, but we did write tickets now and then. It was however the bane of my existence which got me moving first. "302 I have a Domestic Dispute at 5510 Claymore Dairy Road," the dispatcher advised me.

"10-4," I replied and entered the address into the GPS system. GPS gave me the turn by turn directions to the address but couldn't give me the history of Claymore Dairy Road. Since I had no idea what it was, I guessed there either was or had once been a dairy farm there.

Before I could decide which I arrived at the double wide trailer. I heard the man and women shouting when I pulled up. "Dispatch, you might want to head backup this way, it's pretty loud."

"10-4," the radio said. Then dispatch sent Letter my way. He obviously had been headed my way already, since he advised his ETA was three minutes.

"Hello in the house Warren County Sheriff's deputy here. Come on out and lets talk about this." Even as a rookie I had known not to go into the house alone. It was a standard law enforcement policy I think. Anyway it sure as hell made sense. "If I come in, someone is going to jail," I added.

The man who came out had to be 6'4" and about fifty pounds over weight. He was a fucking mountain of a man. I put my hand on the stun stick just in case we went 'hands on' before Letter arrived.

"What's the problem Deputy?" he asked in a loud almost commanding voice.

"First of all, what's your name?" I asked.

"Ed. My name is Ed Claymore," he said.

"Oh, you one of the Claymore's this road is named for?" I asked. I was stalling waiting for Letter.

"My great granddaddy I'm told had a dairy farm here once," he replied.

"Cool, the only thing named for me was the man who carried people's bags in the fancy hotels," I said with a laugh. During that conversation Letter drove up in his SUV. Our patrol SUV were small Fords not the big Caddy I had driven to Florida.

Once letter was outside the car, he was my bitch. First officer on the scene had the responsibility, but I could always surrender it to Letter should it get too complicated. Since I was still a rookie he could take over for me. If he did that, he better have a damn good reason. I planned to fight anyone who tried make me appear less than competent.

"There was a lot of noise when I got here, but nothing else yet. I had him come out, so I didn't get trapped inside between the two of them," I explained.

"Excellent thinking," Letter said. "Do you want to go inside and talk to the wife?" he asked. It was my decision but he had just made his preference known.

"Sounds fair," I said and it did. "Watch daddy here, he was a little aggressive when I showed up."

"Can do," Letter said. He didn't give me any of the instructions I had heard a hundred times. He simply added, "Be careful, we might be taking her rice bowl to jail. Some of these women tend to not take kindly to that."