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~Chapter 4~
~~Bella~~
I still couldn't believe, as I walked into my office, that I was a parole officer. I even had a sweet name plate on my door that said, Officer Swan. How frigging cool. I was used to hearing people address my father that way and now it was me. I knew when I went away to college that I wanted to do something in the law enforcement area. I'm a nosey little bitch, and now I get paid to be all up in peoples' business.
The biggest complaint from my co-workers was the amount of report writing there was. Seeing as my minor was in English, I was all about it. The job was Mon-Fri and the pay was pretty good. The greatest part of it was that I got to carry a gun and pepper spray, along with a wicked set of handcuffs.
The State of Washington was all about bending over backwards to help people, so the trend has shifted to less prison time and more counseling and rehab. It helps to be new at the job because the "old timers" are constantly pissy and always complaining. They love to talk about how things used to be and reminisce about the days when they could send these guys back to prison for jaywalking.
"Here you go Officer Swan," said my secretary Mandi. She was my godsend. I loved her and we became fast friends since I had started working here. She was my age and married to her high school sweetheart. She had a two year old daughter and a baby on the way. Yikes. I couldn't even take care of myself!
"Oh shitballs! Are you serious? It must have been a lame as hell weekend in Seattle. They had nothing to do but get into trouble. This many pages of arrests?" I looked at the seven pages that she handed me.
Usually there were about three pages full of names, not seven. We had to run every name through the computer and see if they were on parole. If they were, I had to find out who their officer was, and then notify them of the arrest. We rotated this duty throughout the office and this was my week. Monday was the worst day to have to do this because it included arrests from the entire weekend.
I got through the first three pages rather quickly. There were no parole arrests so far. Page four was a book and release, meaning they were already out of jail. I was through pages five and six with no problems until I got to page seven. Three parolees were arrested and two of them were still in the county jail. Thankfully none of them were under my supervision. That would have opened up a whole new can of pain in the ass.
The two offenders in jail belonged to Officer Uley. His office was only a couple down from mine and he was a really cool guy. I got up and walked down to his office, but he wasn't in there. I walked up to Irina, the receptionist, and asked her if she knew where he was. She said that he had court this morning. Shit. Even more work. Not that I minded working, but I preferred to do my own stuff. I dialed Sam Uley's number hoping he was able to answer.
"What's up Bella?" He answered his cell on the first ring in a sort of hushed, frantic whisper.
"Hey Sam. I know you're in court, but you have two arrests. James Gigandet was arrested Saturday for criminal damaging and Jane Fanning for Solicitation. What do you want me to do with them?" Hoping for nothing. Hoping for nothing.
"Fanning can be released, but Gigandet needs a written sanction and then released. Make up some stuff, but I've gotta go before Judge Aro comes back and catches me on the phone in his courtroom. Thanks. I'll see you later." He basically hung up on me, but I wouldn't want to be caught on the phone in Aro's courtroom either. That man was a crotchety prick.
Mondays sucked in general and now I had to make a trip to the jail. I usually had about a zillion voice-mails from angry girlfriends to crying mothers, with the occasional attorney thrown in for good measure. I would sometimes get someone saying, "It's me Ms. Swan, call me back." I had about 102 possible me's on my caseload at the moment, and these fuckers changed phone numbers like they changed baby's mamas.
I checked my email for anything pressing and then had to figure out what the hell to write on the sanction. A sanction was nothing more than a demerit for adults. If they got enough of them, then they got a detention in the jail. It took a few of those detentions to actually send the bastards back to the hokey.
I threw on the sweater that was always hanging in my office and headed across the street to the jail. I learned the hard way that the jail was kept pretty cold. I would never walk in there again only wearing a blouse, shirt, or any other article of clothing that would show exactly how cold it was in there.
I walked in, locked up my gun, and headed up to the 6th floor to see Gigandet. I had seen him before and he was one creepy guy. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but I know I was glad I didn't have to deal with him on a regular basis. There were tables set up in rows and it sort of looked like a school cafeteria. He walked up to the table I was sitting at and immediately got a smirk on his creepy face.
"To what do I owe this honor?"
"I'm Officer Swan. Officer Uley sent me here to give you this." I pushed the sanction over to him and asked if he had any questions. He read it over, signed it, and pushed it back to me. I put it back into the envelope and was getting ready to leave.
"I do have a question. Can you be my P.O.? You are mouthwatering, delicious looking," he said, and then winked at me.
Yuk! "Uum no, but you can report to Officer Uley tomorrow morning at 9am." I got up to leave and bumped smack dab into something behind me.
I turned around and was face to face with the green-eyed God. Thank the Lord I was wearing my sweater. I felt a strange surge of electricity when our bodies met, and I'm sure the whole jail would have noticed my nipples cutting through my shirt.
"Hey Officer. Fancy meeting you here," he said, with his velvety, sweet voice.
"Hi Agent. Likewise," I muttered back. Oh my. He had on a navy blue suit with a green and blue tie that made his eyes stand out like crazy. He must have a personal shopper who picks shit out just for that reason.
"I'm headed downstairs. Are you done up here?" he asked.
"Yep. I was just giving the creepy guy a demerit," I said, with a smirk.
He chuckled and it was an amazing sound. We headed downstairs together. We both walked to the rows of lock boxes and retrieved our weapons. I couldn't help but notice how hot he looked holding his gun. My mind started to wander about another gun of his that I would like to hold...sigh. He pulled up his pants leg and secured his in an ankle holster. I secured mine at my hip. We stood there in an awkward silence and then he made small talk.
"Is Emmett in the office today?" he asked.
Who cares about Emmett, you hot piece of Federal Agent ass. "I'm not sure. I haven't seen him today."
"Well, tell him to give me a call if you do. It was good to see you again. Sorry I had to leave the other night. There was a bank robbery downtown, and I had to respond."
"Thanks for the drink. Hopefully next time the bank robbers can hold off at least long enough for you to have one with me." Whoa. Where did I just get the set of balls?
"Sounds like a plan to me." He smiled at me with the most uniquely crooked smile I had ever seen.
Just then my phone rang. It was Irina telling me that there was an offender waiting for me in the office. They always just randomly showed up. I hung up the phone and looked over to Edward. He was still smiling and staring at me.
"I have to go. One of them is waiting for me at the office. See you later Edward."
I turned and walked across the street to my office and I could feel the burn of his stare the entire way.
I got back to the office and called the parolee into my office. He just stopped by to tell me he got a job at the local outdoor market. He starts tomorrow and wouldn't be able to report on his normal day. I logged it in my notes, wished him good luck, and sent him on his way.
I looked on my desk and saw a huge list of reports due for the week and learned that I had fourteen new voicemails and twenty-three emails. This day was starting to slip away from me. I started to dig through my case files and my stomach started to growl. I looked at the Mariners clock that I had in my office and was shocked to see that it was after one o'clock already.
"Hey, Bella. Thank you so much for helping me out today," Sam said, leaning against my office door.
"No problem. You owe me."
"Anything interesting happen in the jail?" he asked, while raising his eyebrow. He realized that James was creepy.
"James wants me to be his P.O. and told me I looked delicious," I giggled at how it sounded out loud.
"Do you want to trade me so he can be on your caseload?" Now he was cracking up.
"Hell to the no! That shithead is creepy and gets arrested like once a week. The reports you are writing because of him are causing a small forest to be demolished!" Those offenders were the worst, and I did not want him on my caseload.
"Can I have the sanction he signed so I can put it in his file?" he asked.
I looked around my desk and couldn't find it anywhere. Shit. Where in the sans hell did that go? I could not remember for the life of me if I even had it with me when I came up here from the jail. Damn green eyes had gotten me all flustered.
"Shit Sam. I left it downstairs. I'm about to go to lunch, so I'll bring it to you afterward. Do you want anything from Quil's deli?" I asked, while trying to rack my brain for where to even begin to look for the sanction.
"No thanks, Bella. Emily packed my lunch today." Emily was Sam's fiance for the past few years. I had never met her, but she seemed nice enough over the phone. He talked about her constantly and was obviously head over heels. She's a dog trainer for the K-9 officers of the Seattle Police Department.
I signed out with Irina and made my way through the lobby to the elevators. Our offices were located on the 10th floor of the state building. Some of my co-workers would take the stairs for exercise or even work out during their lunch hour. More like lunch 45 minutes. Even if we weren't keeping track, Irina would be. She was the eyes and ears of our office. Sometimes it was good, but other times it was not. She had been there longer than the office building, so basically no one fucked with her.
The elevator dinged and opened, and there standing in front of me, was Agent Cullen holding the sanction.
"I believe this belongs to you Officer."
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