Zach was sitting at home in his living room. It was late, and he couldn't sleep.
He was slouching on his couch in his boxers with a bowl of cereal sitting on his belly. Slowly crunching on his cereal, Zach aimlessly flipped through channels on the TV. Every once in a while, he would shift his eyes over to his laptop. It was propped on his coffee table with the security camera streaming the office property.
This was generally Zach's nightly routine. Monitor the footage when possible, try to sleep, fail, monitor the footage again.
Zach had never really slept well. It was part of what drove him to alcoholism in the first place. If anything could make him fall asleep, it was blacking out from a bottle of Jack. Nights like tonight didn't test his strength like they used to. He was stronger now.
Flipping the channel again, some movement flashed out of the corner of his eye. He looked back to the laptop on the coffee table and shoved another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. He squinted and sat forward to get closer to the monitor. He made out the shape of a person skirting around the side of Cady's office.
"Shit!" Flecks of cereal flew out of his mouth. He put his cereal on the coffee table and jumped up. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…"
He sprinted to his bedroom and tried to put on a pair of jeans. One of his feet got caught and he toppled over onto the floor.
"Seriously?!" he yelled to himself, scrambling back to stand up and get his pants on. He threw a plain white t-shirt over his head and shoved his feet into boots sans socks. He clipped his gun to his hip, shoved his badge in his pocket, and ran to his truck.
He pushed his truck as fast as it could go, making 90 mph on most roads. This could be his only chance to get the guy who had broken into Cady's office.
His phone was in his free hand, the other on the steering wheel, as he dialed Mathias's phone number.
He heard a groggy, "Mathias," through the speaker.
"You need to get to Cady's office now. Someone is breaking in again and I can't be the one to arrest him, it has to be you."
"Fuck," Mathias said. "I'm on my way."
Zach pulled into the road Cady's office was on. The gun on his hip was now in his hands as he got ready to enter the office.
Approaching the window, he crouched down. As slowly as possible, he tried to peer in without being seen. The intruder seemed to be distracted, like he was looking for something.
Zach lowered himself back down, heart pounding. He saw headlights of what he was certain was Mathias's SUV. Zach made his way to Mathias who had jumped out of his truck and was cocking his gun.
"What's the plan?"
Quickly thinking, Zach responded, "I'll go in through the back to drive him forward. Wait at the front of the building. It's your jurisdiction so you have to be the one to cuff him and read him his rights. You ready?"
Mathias gave a curt nod.
Zach circled around the building and stood in front of the back door. He took a deep breath to try to steady himself before going in. With one hard kick, the door was busted open and Zach was entering the office. He had his gun raised and ready to fire.
"Police! Get on the ground and put your hands on your head!" he yelled.
He heard a muffled curse and shuffling of footsteps. A light switch was to his right and he quickly flipped it on. The intruder was trying to flee through the front door, not knowing what would be waiting for him on the other side.
Trusting that Mathias would have his back, he holstered his gun and sprinted as fast as he could to tackle the man. His body slammed into him and the both hit the ground with an 'oof.' Zach mounted the intruder with his knees on either side of his body, pinning him to the ground.
Mathias put his knee on the intruder's back to keep him down while he put the handcuffs on him. They stood him up and Mathias nodded to Zach that he had it from here. The rights were read to the intruder and he was placed in Mathias's truck.
"Everything okay?" Zach asked.
"Yeah. I just… this wasn't a guy I ever wanted to arrest."
Zach raised his eyebrows curiously and peered at the man in the back of the vehicle.
"Sorry to hear that. I'll give Cady a call, I'm sure she'll be relieved."
[L] [L] [L] [L]
Cady was woken up from a phone call from Zach in the middle of the night.
"Hello?" she said groggily, not fully awake.
"Cady? It's Zach."
She sat up straight in her bed and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"Zach. Is everything okay? Is my dad-?"
Her heart pounded in her ears. She was praying she wasn't about to hear that her dad had been shot or worse. Getting a phone call in the middle of the night as the sheriff's daughter was terrifying.
"Everything is okay. More than okay, actually. We arrested the guy who broke into your office. He's in Walt's custody now. We got his fingerprints and they matched the prints lifted from your office the first time it was broken to, so we know it was the same guy."
Cady's heart calmed down. "Wow, that's, wow…" Her sentence made no sense as her sleepy brain tried to catch up to the new information. "Um, how is he in my dad's custody? My office is res jurisdiction."
"Yeah, but he had an outstanding bench warrant in Wyoming for an old skipped court appearance. So, we were able to transfer him over to Walt. It was better this way. Walt can charge him on federal charges where Mathias can only hold someone on misdemeanors. It's a good thing, Cady."
"I don't know what to say. Just… thank you."
"No problem," he said. "Good night."
A thought struck Cady. "Wait – are you still there?"
"I'm still here."
"I just have to ask, who broke in?"
"Oh," he said. "Just some guy named Joe Black Hawk. Never heard of him before this, but Mathias seemed to know him."
Cady was in shock. Joe? This had to be a mistake. Joe was happy when Cady helped Clara. He called Cady 'sister.' Even bought her expensive whiskey to say thank you. This didn't make any sense.
"Thank you. Good night, Zach."
She hung up and breathed a sigh. Part of her was relieved but at the same time, she was confused. Why would Joe of all people do this?
Getting out of bed, she pulled her briefcase up and snapped it open. It took some rummaging around, but she finally found what she was looking for: Jacob's list of workers who shared Johnny White Deer's shifts. When she first received this list, she only paid attention to the table workers. But Joe Black Hawk's name was on this list too.
She remembered what Jacob said to her the night they opened the bottle of whiskey Joe had given her. "I've known Joe a long time. He's a good guy. He works maintenance for me at the casino."
She laid back down in her giant king-sized bed with a huff. The alarm clock on her night stand read 3:30am. There was nothing more she could now except go back to sleep and wait to figure this out tomorrow.
[L] [L] [L] [L]
The next day she drove to her dad's office as soon as she woke up. Ferg and Ruby were the only ones there.
"Where is everybody?" Cady asked.
"Good morning to you, too, Cady!" Ruby said with a chuckled.
Cady shook her head at herself. "Sorry, Ruby, good morning. I didn't mean to be so short. I just have a lot on my mind." She smiled at Ruby apologetically.
"It's okay sweetie, I was only teasing. Your dad and Vic are searching a house, and Zach is out on a call," Ruby said.
"Whose house are they searching – do you know?" she asked.
Cady jumped as a voice piped up behind her.
"Mine."
She turned around to see Joe Black Hawk sitting on the bunk of the cell.
"Joe – I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."
"It's alright, sister. I think I'm the one who should be apologizing to you," he said solemnly.
She stepped closer to the cell. He was peering up at her with sad eyes.
Ferg started, "Cady, I don't think you should-" but she cut him off.
"It's okay, Ferg." She pulled the chair from Zach's desk and sat down in front of the bars, now eye-level with Joe. She put her elbows on her knees and looked back to Joe.
"They're searching my home right now. They're going to find surveillance video of Johnny at the casino. They'll probably find some of your files and the red spray paint I used."
She sighed. "Joe, can I just ask why? I don't understand what you have to do with Johnny."
He stuttered emotionally, unable to keep his voice steady. "M-my sister… she was a-able to leave her husband because of your help." He breath was shaky. "But she couldn't afford to start her life over. He took all she had. And Johnny told me he'd hire me to hold onto some things for him and send a message. I didn't want to, especially not to you, but I needed the money," Joe said silently.
"And the gift? You gave it because you felt guilty and had just come into some cash?"
He nodded.
Cady's heartstrings were being tugged on. "I'm so sorry, Joe."
She knew she should be upset with him. But all she saw was a product of the broken lives on the reservation. A tear dropped from her eye.
"You know, Cady, we really are lucky to have you."
She nodded, unable to speak. Reaching out, she rested her hand on the bars before standing up and leaving.