Chapter 3

Our wife beater decided that he would rather do a few weeks on the county farm than a few years in the state pen. I personally thought that it was a good choice. He came quietly once he made the decision to come along. He was cuffed and leaning against the car before my backup arrived. Webster had not been kidding when he said back up was a long way off.

Most of my time was spent just riding down country roads looking for things that were out of place. With all that land mass, the bad guys could have hidden a small town, let alone a trailer selling Oxycodone. Still we had to look, either that or take up a hobby.

I had been on the job about a month and was breaking in pretty well, when I found the kid shoplifting. I had gone into a convenience store in one of the smaller communities to get a cup of bad coffee when I saw him blatantly pick up a bottle of bleach and just walk out the door with it.

Of course I put the coffee down and retrieved him and the bleach. "Okay kid what's your name?" I asked.

"Tommy Simmons," he said, but he did not elaborate.

"So Tommy Simmons what were you doing stealing bleach. It hardly seems like something you would steel." I suggested.

"My mom sent me down to get it," he said.

"Did she give you money, or tell you to steel it?" I asked.

"She gave me the money. I planned to keep the money," he said.

"Oh course you did," I said in agreement. "So what did you want the money for?"

"Just for sodas, that kind of thing," he said.

"Kid you commit a crime to get money, then want to tell me it's for soft drinks, I know I am a blond, but I ain't buying that one. Kid you are going to the station and your mom is going to have to come for you. That is not going to be good thing.

"What can I do?" he asked.

"Man up kid, tell me why you need money," I demanded.

"I take Oxy. Most of my time is spent scrambling for money." he said.

"Where do you buy it?" I asked.

"There a camper on a back road. The man who owns the campers sells it." The kid went on to give me detailed directions to the camper.

"Kid, if you warn these mooches, you are going back into the system with no way out. So go home and forget about this. Also clean yourself up, you just had maybe your only wake up call."

I drove to the parking lot outside courthouse where I requested a meeting with Sergeant Michaels. "Sarge I caught a teenager shoplifting. He told me he was shoplifting for money to buy Oxy. Then he told me where the camper, who was selling it, is parked. I think we need to go down there and buy some oxy." I said with a grin.

"I don't know," Michaels said. "You stand out like the only woman in a room full of men." He was at least smiling.

"Duh," I said. "Well you tell me what we are going to do?"

"Send in your informant he is known to them." Michaels suggested.

"The kid is about fifteen. He would be too scared I think." Truth is I didn't want to risk his life. I would bet my ass the guys in the camper were armed and likely had no problem using their weapons. The were most likely from Detroit or somewhere like it.

"Alright put on your housewife clothes and we will buy some Oxy. We will need to get you wired." Michaels said.

I dressed just a little on the slutty side for my big acting debut. I also wore a microphone which would keep me from saying too much I didn't want in court. Then me, Michaels and two other deputies went to the camper. If there was a real emergency, dispatch had been told to call the highway patrol.

In the meantime I drove the Toyota to the camper. It looked deserted except for the fact that the front door was open. "Hello in the camper," I shouted from the yard. "Anybody home in there?"

"Yeah what you want lady," one of the two men asked.

"Friend tells me you got Oxy," I said slurring my words a little.

"How much you want?" the older one asked.

"I got a hundred bucks what can I get?" I asked.

"Ten 15Mg tabs is the best I can do," he said.

"Okay, it is what it is," I said that handing over the marked money. His younger friend went inside and brought me an envelop with the pills.

When I had the pills in my hand I said, "Nice doing business with you." It was the signal for the calvary and they came running. When the two drug dealers noticed what was happening they tried to react, but I had my S&W under my sweat shirt. That arrest was a big deal in the area. Every rural county was having a problem with drugs and drug dealers invading their areas.

Even though our operation was blind luck, it became text book. I was thrilled even if they didn't mention my name. The joy lasted about two weeks until the druggies lawyer got around to me. The DA let him interview me in advance. He brought out some things I would just have soon be left alone. He had not done a lot of research, but he knew the most common problems of returning vets.

In his pretrial interview he asked how I slept. If I had a boyfriend. If I woke in the night with cold sweats and shaking. He was pushing for a PTSD diagnosis. I felt like I dodged most of his questions. He might have scored with one or two but he would have a hard time building a defense on that I felt sure.

I was scheduled to be off the day the Alcoholic Beverage Control board investigator came to lecture us. He came every year but it was my first one. The lecture took all morning, but I learned a lot about moonshining.