Passion In James County X: Badge of Dishonor
Chapter fourteen
Lise Billingham sat at her desk, opening the bag that held her lunch, when Luke Thomas, a young deputy she'd gone to high school with, walked into the office holding a coffee cup in his hand.
"Hi, Lise," Luke said. "I heard you were working here now. How are you doing?"
"I'm fine," Lise replied. "I didn't realize you were a deputy."
"I've been one for two years," Luke said. "Ever since I got out of college. I usually work night shift, so I haven't had a chance to stop in and say Hello before this." He walked into the office and sat down in a chair in front of Lise's desk.
"I thought you were going to be a lawyer," Lise said.
"I was," Luke said. "But when the drunk who killed my folks got off because of some sleazy lawyer, I decided I didn't want to be one any more. I wanted to be able to catch bad guys and lock them up, maybe keep what happened to my folks from happening to anybody else."
"I was really sorry to hear about your folks being killed," Lise said. "That had to be awful."
Luke nodded. "It was," he said. "But I managed to get over it OK. My uncle and aunt took me in and being with them helped a lot."
"Where are you living now?" Lise asked.
"I...ah...I rent a little apartment over on Thomas Street," Luke replied. He tried not to think about what had happened between his landlady and him the night before, but couldn't help himself. And, as he thought about what he and his Lorrie had done, he felt his face getting hot. "You married Rod Billingham, huh?" he said, hoping to get his mind on something else.
"Yes," Lise said.
"How's he like being on the patrol?" Luke asked. "I thought about applying for the Patrol, but they had a hiring freeze on, so I came on with the sheriff instead."
"Rod really likes it," Lise said. "He loves the job."
"You have any kids?" Luke asked.
"Three," Lise said. "I kind of hated to come to work because I do like being a stay-at-home mom, but you know how it is these days, we need the money."
Deputy Jonas Briggs stuck his head in the door. "Hey, Luke, come on, we got to roll on a domestic complaint out at Mason Estates."
"Oh, shit," Luke said. "You mean the Drews are at it again?"
"Yep," Briggs said. "Martha claims Irving's threatening to stab her."
Luke smiled at Lise. "Got to go," he said. "See you around sometime."
"Take care, Luke," Lise said. She watched the two deputies leave with a bit of worry in her eyes. She was a police wife and knew domestic complaints were the most dangerous calls officers had to handle. She hoped neither Luke nor his partner would wind up getting hurt handling this one.
"How do you like this new shift schedule?" Jonas Briggs asked as he and Luke headed toward the scene of their call.
One of the first things the new patrol commander did when he took charge was change the schedule for the patrol division. The new schedule allowed officers more choice of shifts they worked, and even provided for two-officer cars part of the time.
"I think it makes sense," Luke replied as he guided the cruiser through traffic. "With this schedule, it should be a lot easier to get backup when things get busy. And it's kind of nice working with a partner, too."
Luke and his partner were assigned to one of the "mid-watch" units, two-officer cars whose tour of duty overlapped the normal shifts and kept officers on the street during shift changes. He and Jonas were assigned to the James County Nine car, and were working the afternoon watch, which ran from eleven in the morning until six in the afternoon.
The domestic dispute, which was at a location only too familiar to the deputies, didn't turn out to be much. Both the husband and wife were drunk, so Luke and Jonas settled things down for the day by taking the husband into protective custody and transporting him to a local de-tox center.
"Well, that was easy," Jonas said as they drove away from the detox center.
