WALT
He picked up the phone and made several calls, to Ruby, the Mayor, Sheriff Wilson over at Campbell County, Henry and finally the last call clicked and began to ring. Just as he was about to give up it was picked up and a pleasant tenor voice answered
"Dr John Miller speaking"
"John... its Walt Longmire here, and I need your help."
There was a pause and the sound of paper rustling, Johns voice was wary but also slightly amused and he sighed
"Walt please don't tell me you have shot and killed someone...again"
He rubbed a hand over his tired eyes and sat down, making sure to avoid the corpse on the floor and the slowly spreading pool of blood, and the angry blond woman tied up and gagged on his bed (probably not exactly how she intended *that* part of the evening to go).
"Well John, its a long story and I really want to tell it to you, but not right now, can I come see you, tomorrow, if they don't lock me up for murder that is"
There was a hiss of indrawn breath "Holy Shit Walt, I was joking!"
"Yeah, well as I said its a long story involving a woman and a lot of bad choices, not necessarily in that order." He sighed and massaged that spot between his eyes that was threatening to become a really nasty headache "So I will see you tomorrow? No idea what time I will be free... if I am free" Even tired, he managed a tone of wry amusement.
"Sure Walt, I will clear my schedule for you, anytime after lunch."
"Thanks John."
Of course it was a bloody shit storm, the Sheriff of Durant County shooting dead the jealous lover of his shrink blonde lady doctor, right there on his lounge floor! It was fit to be the scandal of the season, of the whole state once the media got hold of it, and the Mayor's Office was in full spin mode.
The Mayor was fit to be tied, Sheriff Wilson though vastly amused at what he saw as the comeuppance of his long time friend (and sometime rival), agreed to lend the county some deputies to fill the gap. Walt knew he would owe some big favours after this all blew over, thought it remained to be seen if it would.
The fact that Donna had conducted a relationship with a patient meant she was liable for medical misconduct, but Walt suspected that it went further than that, but without evidence it was difficult to prove anything, and he was in no position to do any investigating. That would be handled by the authorities, same as had happened after Barlow's death on his porch steps.
He had preempted the requirement for a psychiatric assessment by calling Dr Miller already. An assessment had been necessary after Barlow, and he had insisted on talking to someone who had law enforcement experience. His argument that if he was going to be judged on his decisions, it had be by someone who understood the reasoning behind them had been begrudgingly accepted. Shrinks with real life enforcement experience were fairly uncommon but one had been found surprisingly locally, a new employ at the local VA had done 2 years in Military Police before his career had been cut short by some Afghan guerillas which had left him in a wheel chair. Miller had seen the effect severe trauma had had on its victims, his fellow soldiers, and decided he would do something about it.
Walt had been impressed by the man and his handling of the Barlow case. He had pressed Walt to stick around and continue their 'discussions' but Walt shut him down, instead choosing to isolate himself at his cabin, reading Thoreau, Steinbeck and Capote as his preferred form of therapy.
Now it seemed that no matter how hard he tried, he made bad choices, wrong decisions, judgement calls that left a dead body in their wake, and he had finally realised that this might be his last chance, that this was his wakeup call.
It remained to be seen if he was going to be allowed the freedom to pursue it.
Delicious Readers! Turns out another story popped into my head recently - well the SECOND half of it did, and I waited for the first half to appear, but I am having to write that one out the hard way - it is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you LOL Lets see where this journey takes us!