Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 73192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Beverly moved forward and the little old lady went a little wild, screaming and carrying on.
What she also did was loosen the stranglehold that she had on the items she’d stolen and the stashed items started falling out. I stood there observing this with my mouth hanging open.
I’d seen her steal the small fitness band and the computer cable. What I had not seen was the three toasters, two egg cookers, a box of pens, letter opener, two shirts or the value-sized bag of M&Ms.
I had to swallow my laughter, as did Beverly.
“Anything else?” I asked, trying to find any more suspicious bulges.
I had to give the woman credit.
The way that she packed all that shit into her jacket, it made her look like she was just fat, not stealing something.
Now she was significantly smaller but still had some bulges.
Beverly sighed and started to reach for the bulge that was around the woman’s back, only for the woman to cry out in anger the moment that Beverly tried to remove it without actually lifting her shirt.
That was when that particular bulge fell into place beside another very similar bulge at about diaphragm level, indicating that those bulges actually belonged to the woman and were actually breasts.
I had to grit my teeth to keep the laughter from pouring out of me.
Beverly’s eyes met mine over the top of the old woman’s head and what I saw had my belly clenching in laughter.
Son of a bitch.
Nothing would surprise me anymore.
Nothing.
***
It took me more than three hours to get all my paperwork done and to delegate some of my responsibilities to other officers before I could finally make my way out to the man’s house who had pressed charges against Reagan for trespassing.
When I arrived, it was to find him standing on his porch, glaring at me.
“Mr. Stoll,” I said carefully as I closed the door to my cruiser. Not just because it was starting to rain lightly, but because Groot had proved quite the escape artist since this day had begun.
I would not be bringing him on any more police encounters until I had proof that I could contain him.
Not only had he gotten out during the first two traffic stops I’d made, but he’d also gotten out while at the station and had waltzed his happy ass straight inside, delighting almost every single one of my officers and staff. All of them but one, the older man who had been there since I first started there.
He was the man in control of the booking process and the only man who had been there before me that had actually kept his job.
I fired every single other person but him.
No, ol’ Rubio Huss hadn’t liked Groot and Groot hadn’t liked him.
Neither one of them hid that fact, either.
“Can I help you, officer?” Arden Stoll asked.
I took a few careful steps away from where I’d been leaning against the cruiser and allowed Arden to see me fully.
“I wanted to play something back for you,” I said softly. Menacingly. “Let you listen to it before I get your final answer.”
Arden narrowed his eyes.
I pulled out my phone and then hit play on the recording that I had saved.
I’d listened to it seventy or eighty times now, maybe even more if you counted all the rewinding I’d done to see if I could hear anything name-wise in what Reagan screamed.
But, this time wasn’t any easier than the first time.
Her words, her pleas, still got to me.
Anger boiled up in my body, threatening to choke off my ability to think. But I shoved it down.
I needed to be able to think rationally and not kill anybody if I could manage it.
Watching Arden listen to the words, I studied his every move.
Each word that came out of Reagan’s mouth, he became stiffer and stiffer until finally, the recording ended.
“I’m not a bad person,” he whispered.
I put my phone back into my pocket.
“You’re not?” I asked.
But what I thought was, could’ve fooled me.
The screen door of the small trailer Arden had previously been standing by banged open then and I turned to find a little girl about the age of Autumn standing there.
She was a cutie.
Dressed in nothing but a white diaper and a t-shirt that came just low enough to cover half her little booty, she stared at me.
Her thumb went to her mouth and the little teddy bear she’d been holding by one ear got tucked in close to her chest as she peered at me through baby blue eyes.
Soft ringlets fell around her face and they reminded me of Reagan’s hair, making a pang of wanting shiver through me so fast and hard that I barely had any time to process it.
I wanted children with Reagan.
I wanted a baby to come outside to meet me after a long day at work, with Reagan hot on her heels.