Chapter 3
THE SHERIFF
Evening Day 1
The plastic chair wobbled slightly under my weight as I sat across the messy desk of a woman. Her yellow hair pulled back in a severe bun, except for the curls that framed her cheerful face. "Name?" Her ringed fingers poised over her keyboard.
I rubbed my wrists, having been released from the plastic banding, and looked over at Jonny leaning over the counter that separated the waiting room from the officers' desks. His neck and hand tattoos, the only ones visible under his black jacket, made him look formidable and I sat up a little straighter, trying to draw from his strength and don't-give-a-fuck attitude. If the rumors from Jess were true, this wasn't Jonny's first time in a place like this. Something about that comforted me in this moment.
The police station wasn't very large but Moonlit Mountain wasn't either. Well known to tourists and Olympic hopefuls who trained on the snow-covered mountains but still a small mountain town.
I cleared my throat, still sore from the hours of vomiting. "Jane Doe."
The woman swung her gaze in my direction. "Lying to me will not make this any easier on you." She sighed.
"Come on Officer Cathy, we know we can't get one over on you." Jonny grinned and winked at her smoothly.
She raised her eyebrow in his direction, pretending not to fall for his charm. She shook her head, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly, she was charmed, and typed. "Ahhh, I see. You're the Miss Nobody that's been plastered all over the news?" Her long purple nails clacked on the keyboard.
I reddened and nodded, my fingers nervously twisting the hem of my dress.
"Haven't found a new name yet?" She spun in her chair to grab the papers from the printer behind her. "I've always liked the name Tatiana." She spun back. "I was almost named that but my dear mother, rest her soul, changed her mind after I was born." She tapped the papers on her desk, straightening them. "It's pretty easy to do name changes nowadays, they do them across the hall when you're ready." She slid a small black box across her desk. "Put your right thumb on the glass, hun."
I did as she instructed and she gently rolled my thumb across the small glass window, my fingerprint showing up on her computer screen.
"Yup, it's you." She smiled at me sadly. "You have a sweet face, the Sheriff will go easy on you." She leaned forward and whispered loudly, "All bark and no bite." She screwed up her face. "Maybe I shouldn't be telling you that."
We finished taking all of my fingerprints, redoing a couple when they showed up blurry. I glanced over to Jonny, I meant to look away just as quickly but his grin as he stared at me made me pause. I squinted. Nothing happening right now was anything to be happy about. But his smile was quickly becoming my favorite thing about him and it made me flush slightly, adding to my nervousness.
The Sheriff shouted from his office, "I don't give a flying fuck, fix it!" The overhead fluorescent lights flickered rapidly. They buzzed and sputtered, and underneath all the electricity, a faint tone, almost like singing.
The woman raised her groomed but thickly made-up eyebrows and smirked, she caught the eye of her colleague at the desk across from her. "I love it when he uses his big boy voice, maybe we'll finally get these electrical problems taken care of." She spun in her chair back to me. "If you're innocent the Sheriff will know, he has a good sense for these things."
"Cathy!" the Sheriff yelled from his office. The lights sputtered and sizzled oddly. A small shower of sparks sprayed from an electrical outlet near a filing cabinet. The Officers didn't seem alarmed.
"Suspect is ready for you, Sir," Cathy the officer shouted back to him.
The Sheriff stepped out of his office, his frame almost filled the doorway. He scanned the waiting room quickly and spotted Jonny. "What the fuck are you doing back here?"
Jonny, still grinning, held out his hand over the half-wall that separated the three waiting chairs from the desks of the two officers. "Thought I'd stop by and congratulate the new Sheriff, 'bout time this town got some juevos."
They both laughed and the Sheriff grabbed Jonny's hand and pulled him in for one of those half-man hug things that men did. Patting each other on the back.
They spoke quietly to each other.
"Mr. Zantana is one of the finest-looking men I've ever seen," Cathy the Officer said loud enough for her desk neighbor to hear. "I don't usually go for guys with all the tattoos. I like a man in a suit, one that I can mess up." She laughed.
"If only he were available. They do say opposites attract." The other officer teased her. "The cop and the gangster. I'm sure I've read that romance novel."
She swiveled her chair to face him. "Lots of spice? You know I can only read the ones that have lots of..."
"Both of you come on back." The Sheriff opened the little half door to let Jonny through and grabbed the manila folder from Cathy.
I followed the Sheriff to his office, focusing on Jonny's wa rm hand on my lower back, the chills cascaded up my spine from his palm, and not the fact that I wanted to curl into a ball and sob and beg for Chef to forgive me. I should have never run away from him. I should have helped him. When he needed me the most, I failed him. I held the tears back. Not yet.
"Have a seat." The Sheriff pointed to two chairs across his desk. He tossed the manila folder on top of the other papers strewn all over the surface.
Jonny pulled my chair back and waited for me to sit before he sat in the chair next to me.
"My deputy can be a little overzealous but he has an eye for detail." The Sheriff sat down in his well-worn desk chair and opened the folder. "Hopefully he didn't put those things on too tight?" He glanced at my bruised wrists.
"It's fine." Not really, but I wasn't sure what you're supposed to say to a Sheriff. I noticed the clock behind him on the wall. The hands spun swiftly around in a circle. The lights above his desk flickered, red, blue...purple.
