Page 88 of Demo
He regains his composure and pivots to look at me straight-on, and settles the hand not holding his coffee into a pocket. “Lyzbeth, I’m going to give you a little rope here, and I truly hope you don’t hang yourself with it.” He gives me a stern stare before continuing, “What’s going on?”
“Like you don’t know.”
“Actually, I don’t. I have no idea what your problem is, or why you are approaching me, rather aggressively, in the parking lot. But I’ve also always known you to be professional, so I’m willing to hear you out.”
“Call off your muscle.”
“What muscle?”
“The ones you sent to my apartment last night! And to my office right before that.”
I see his head pull back a bit and his eyebrows pull together. His hand comes out of his pocket, and he puts it up toward me. “Wait. Hold up a second. What happened to your apartment?”
I cock my head to the side. No, he had to know. I’m done being blindsided. I’m done not listening to my gut.
“Are you gonna stand there and tell me you didn’t send your guys to the office to intimidate me, and then to my apartment to break in and scare me?”
“Whoa, hang on a second, Lyzbeth. That is quite the accusation.”
“Who else would have broken into my apartment?”
“I don’t know.” Again, his hand is up. “But it certainly wasn’t one of my deputies. Jesus, did you call 9-1-1?”
I give him an“are you serious?”look and he sighs and rubs his temple. “Wait. Who came to the office last night?”
Now I sigh. “Clark and Henderson. And you’re really good at playing dumb.”
“Come into my office. We have to straighten this out.”
Just as he finishes his sentence, the door to headquarters swings open and Clark comes out, taking quick steps. “Ms. Mitchell, fancy seeing you here.”
“Go fuck yourself.” And there goes my mouth again.
“Lyzbeth,” I hear the chief start in warning, but it sounds as if he’s off far away in the distance somewhere. A sure sign I’m just too far gone at this point.
I approach Officer Tough Stuff, ignoring the sirens in my head telling me to back off, and the look on his face that tells me he knows he’s winning. “You are a sad excuse for an officer of the law, you know that? What are you overcompensating for, huh?”
I get closer to him, and I see a grin spread across his face, telling me he truly is an asshole. He is enjoying this little game he’s playing with me. And I’ll be damned if I let him think he scares me. I feel the last piece of lunacy I was holding onto shatter.
I walk right up to him, practically nose-to-nose, and grab his groin. “Is this weapon not capable enough for the ladies, so you have to try to intimidate them?”
I hear the chief curse behind me and, in a fraction of a second, I see Clark’s eyes widen before he grabs my shoulders and whips me around to face away from him, pulling my hands to my side and then behind my back.
“I believe you just put your hands on a law enforcement officer, and that would be grounds for arrest,” he says coyly as he slaps cuffs on my wrists.
“God-fucking-damnit!” Chief Scott shouts as he flings his coffee to the ground.
And I laugh. Because, well, what the hell else should I do?
Clark starts to steer me toward the building but the chief grabs me by my right arm and tells his subordinate, “I’ll take her in. You go to my office. And grab Henderson. I want you both in my office. NOW!”
The chief gently drags me into the building, down the hall and toward a room where they apparently keep all the delinquents.
“Now it’s my turn to ask, Lyzbeth: What the hell is wrong with you?” he grits through his teeth.
“Apparently, a lot,” is all I can think to say.
“Look, I’m going to get to the bottom of whatever the hell is going on here. But for now, you have to stay put. You put your hands on an officer, and I can’t ignore that. But let me just figure out what the fuck is going on. Can you stay out of trouble while you’re in here? Can I take the cuffs off you while you sit in there? Or are you going to be a problem?”
