Lights out was at ten, and when they were plunged into darkness at that time, he knew that he was safe for one more night.There had been a total of fifteen officers of his who had been arrested; five of them had been brought in from their homes.
No one was fighting the arrests, for which he was nervous, and he thought that if they only kept their mouth shut until it was his turn to talk, he could get himself out of this thing.Just tell them that they’d done it all wouldn’t look good, it meant that he couldn’t control his men, but he’d be off the hook.Or at least he hoped so.He just didn’t want to be in jail with all this time on his hands.It was making him think of things that he’d done wrong, and there were just too many to count at the moment.Christ, he was going to prison for sure if things turned out the way his mind was working on them to be.
Not sleeping well, he didn’t know how they expected him to sleep with all this on his mind; he was up long before the meals were brought to him.The man in the cell next to him was taken away again, and he thought of all the things that he could be saying about what had happened out at the restaurant.
If any of this got out to the residents of the town, he’d be fired for sure.And if he was actually held over to be in court, he’d never work as a cop again.And he liked being a cop.
It was just too much fun to be able to rule over people who were beneath him.Not to mention being the chief of police.That job was so nice, and the pay was wonderful, that he thought he could have retired from it and been a happy man.Even his wife had liked him being something like the chief.She would lord it over her friends like she was in his position rather than he was.
When the lunch trays were brought to him, he decided that he wasn’t hungry.He was just too stressed out to eat anything that was on the tray.The officer still hadn’t come back yet, and that worried him even more.Whatever he was telling them wasn’t going to bode well for him.He just knew it.
It was late afternoon when the officer was brought back.He had on a jumpsuit that he required all the inmates to wear, and that looked like he was next.Instead of him being called, he heard him call for someone else, and he had to lie there waiting for his turn.He wasn’t going to wear that jumpsuit even if they threatened him with a gun.He was the chief of police by God, and he wasn’t going to wear something that was used on convicts.He wasn’t one, and they’d better be figuring it out soon.
“All brave words.”He looked around the cell and decided that he was going to change things around when he was in charge again.He had to keep telling himself that, or he was going to go insane.“There will be no more pampering of people when they were arrested.”
Not that he’d arrested anyone as yet.He didn’t even know what his officers did all day when he’d been out at the crime scene.Surely they were keeping busy or doing something productive.He’d heard about the crosswalk and decided that it was beneath him to be looking out for kids when he had more important things to do.
Sitting up on the side of his cot, he decided that he was going to make sure he filled out a work schedule so that they were busy when he was gone.The place would go to shit if he weren’t around to make sure that his men were working.Not that he’d done anything to make sure that he knew what they were doing all day long.For all he knew, they were sitting around with their thumbs up their asses and not doing shit.
When the dinner trays were brought, he realized that he was hungry.He didn’t want to eat; he was afraid that he’d throw up, but he knew that if he ever got his turn with the agents, he wasn’t going to have his belly growling all the time and make a fool of himself.He’d done enough of that already.Christ, he just wanted this over with so that he could get on with his life.He thought of his wife.
Margaret was going to be so pissed if he lost his job.She would more than likely leave him withthe kids, too.Not that he’d know what to do with them, but he’d make sure that she knew that when he got his job back, she’d be shit out of luck in getting back with him.He didn’t even know why he married her in the first place.People had babies all the time without getting married.
But she’d forced his hand, and he married her.Six weeks later, his first child was born, and he was stuck.Since she had all the money, there was no way that he’d be able to leave her without a dime to his name.Signing the pre-nup was the worst mistake he’d ever made when she’d told him that she’d take care of him when he was old and gray.He was barely thirty, and the thought of getting old and gray with her made his toes curl.He should have known better than to marry her in the first place.
Lights out again had him sitting on the side of his cot.There was nothing to occupy his mind but the restaurant, and he wasn’t happy with all the other mistakes that he’d known he’d made.If he had to do it over, he didn’t know that he would have done anything different.He’d been an arrogant ass his entire life, and just because he might have a do-over didn’t mean that he’d be any less of an ass.
Every time he thought about theSheep, he realized even more mistakes that he’d made.The one thing that kept running through his mind was the fact that Candy had gotten away from him.He was going to blame it all on her, but he had a feeling that she was talking to the feds, and that was what was going to end him.There was no way that she’d be able to tell them everything, but the little that she did know would hang him.He was fucked, no matter if he found her or not.
His plan had been to kill her.Put her in one of his cells and have her commit suicide by hanging from her sheets.She’d be so overwhelmed with guilt that she’d just kill herself rather than face prison time.But if she got to the feds first, then he knew that wasn’t going to work.Just the little bit that she knew was going to be bad for him.And that little bit was enough to get him in prison for the rest of his life.
“Why didn’t I just have her be a part of the killings?”The man in the next cell told him to shut up.“I’m still your boss, ass hole.You’d better be paying me respect, or I’ll see to it that you’re going to prison.”
“Ha!”He laughed a little more.“You have no idea what’s going to happen to you soon.I’m just glad that I’ve been taking notes and pictures with my phone.Yeah, I did that, and I don’t regret it at all.”
“Pictures?Of what?”He told him that he’d taken pictures of everything that he was told to do, like moving the bodies.“You didn’t.That’s against the law.”
“Like you know anything about the law.How did you even get out of the police academy in the first place?You don’t seem to know shit about the laws.Not to mention how you bullied that poor girl.Everyone knows that you put an ad in the local paper threatening her.She was just doing her job, and you can’t stand that she got away from you.Admit it.You wanted her dead so that she’d not be able to testify against you.I got her covered, too.The poor girl isn’t going to get any jail time because of what I was able to do for her.”He said that he lied.“Do I?No.I’m not the one who is in trouble with the feds.That would be you.”
He was still laughing when they were told to be quiet.Now he had another stressor to worry about.If he’d taken pictures, and he had no doubt that he had, then he really was going to prison and soon.Christ, why did he ever apply for this job in the first place?
Chapter 6
Hailey made two pizzas and put them in the oven.She thought that she was getting pretty good at working here and was having fun.Most of the things from the other restaurant had been taken off her plate, and she was happy for the less stressor, but this work was fun, and she liked being around the others that she worked with.
“Rosie is still working for the police department.Can you pick up her shift tomorrow night?”She told her boss that she could.“You don’t have to say yes every time I ask you to work, you know.I won’t be mad if you were to tell me no.”
“I was just thinking about how much I liked working here.And the pay is great.”She asked her if she’d picked up her envelope of tips.“Yes, that was quite a surprise too.I had no idea that was going to be part of my pay each week.”
“Well, people are happy to come in and get their pies and have them right for a change.The person that you’ve taken over for was forever messing them up.And the subs were never right either.How hard can it be when we have instructions right there in front of you to make them, I ask you?”They both laughed.“But seriously, I appreciate you working the extra hours.It’s nice to know that when you’re working, things are done correctly.”She didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.
By lunch, she’d made twenty-five subs to go out.They were a big hit for the teachers at the schools, and when they were delivered, she supposed they left good tips.There were a few pizzas made, too, but mostly the school had the subs delivered.She was just cleaning up her area when another order came in from the high school.
“I didn’t know that the kids could order their own lunches from here.”Mabel said so long as they paid for them when they were delivered and didn’t cause us any trouble, they could.“What kind of trouble do we get from them?They seem to be polite when they order.”
“Once we start having trouble with them not picking up or something, the principal cuts them off for a month, and we miss the work.”She said she could see that.“We’ve not had any trouble this year with them.They usually try to get a bunch of orders all together before they order.Like the one you have now.”
“I wondered about that.”It was five subs and one small pizza.“I can have it ready by the time they want it, no problem.It’s the delivery that I worry about.There isn’t anyone free in the next ten minutes.”
