Prologue
Sheriff Piper Mclean
Sheriff Piper Mclean sat in her office. The young native American woman was sitting in her small office. There were three of her deputies on patrol that night along with two cruisers from the state troopers. She knew it should be twice that, but there was simply nothing she could do. Too few job applicants, too little funding. Few young aspiring officers wished to spend half their shifts babysitting drunk natives and rednecks. Combined with the every lasting alcohol problem a meth epidemic was hitting the communities under her care like a Sledgehammer to their guts.
The young Cherokee woman listened to her radio with one, keeping a tab on how her people's shift was going. She might be able to give her people the greatest wage, or the shiny new equipment. The only thing she hoped she could give them was a boss that looked out for them. And so she always had a police radio on her, and it was always on.
Suddenly she found her attention being drawn to her radio as something registered with her subconscious.
"County one - zero two four. Repeat that last part," she ordered automatically, cutting in before dispatch could answer to whatever her deputy had said.
"Ahm, okay Ma'am. I need a check on the license plate for a possible DUI. New York niner two dash Zulu foxtrot tango. The owner should be an Annabeth Chase," the Deputy replied.
"Does she look like some Scandinavian model?" Piper Mclean asked sharply.
"Ahm yes, five-nine, blond curls, gray eyes? Talks really fast? You know her, over?"
"I do, stand by, on my way;" she announced. "Where are you, over?"
"On the westbound interstate Ma'am, behind the gas station!"
"Wait there. Dispatch, sorry for interrupting."
"Ten-four;" the young female dispatcher replied tiredly.
Sighing deeply the sheriff got to her feet, holstered her Glock, and looked at the clock hanging on the wall. It was three o'clock in the morning. After rubbing the fatigue from her eyes pulled on her plate carrier, and hurried out of her office.
"I'm heading out," she told Drew, her secretary and precincts front desk. She waved but barely looked up from her Instagram videos.
Piper hurried out of the building, climbed into her Jeep Cherokee,flicked on the thick red and blue lightbar, and sped off into the night.
Twenty minutes later she pulled up at the traffic stop behind her deputy who had pulled over an expensive-looking black Chrysler. Their light bars created a ghostly light show in the forests surrounding the interstate.
When she walked up her deputy climbed out and saluted smartly. "What do you have for me, Culstee?" she asked. He was a tall native man from the local Cheyenne tribe. They didn't talk much, but still Piper felt a certain kinship with him, despite the deputy coming from another tribe. The two of them were the only reason why law enforcement and the natives had a reasonably healthy working relationship.
"Saw this Chrysler parked on the side of the rode with this blond passed out. You know the rest?"
"Have you done any sobriety tests?"
"No, Ma'am," he replied. "You know, in case you wanted to..."
Piper smiled at him patiently and patted his arm. "We don't do those things here, even for our friends. If she's drunk, I'll book her myself. Will you cover me?" she asked, trying to ignore the cars speeding by her.
The deputy nodded and as she approached the window, her hand resting on her holstered weapon. Her moving forward on the car's other side a few steps behind her .
Finally Annabeth looked down into the car and spotted the familiar mane of golden blond curls.
Piper sighed and knocked on the window, which was expediently rolled down before both of Annabeth's hands went straight back to the wheel.
"Good morning, Ms Chase. I am the Sheriff Piper Mclean," she introduced herself.
Annabeth looked up and her eyes widened in surprise. "Piper? What the fuck are you doing here?"
"I am the country sheriff!" Piper explained, as if it were obvious with a grin.
"I had no clue," Annabeth admitted, and Piper shrugged.
"Are you drinking while under the influence?" Piper asked with a note of accusation seeping into her voice. "Because according to my deputy, you were all over the rode."
"No," Annabeth complained indignantly. "I'd never!"
Piper looked around the back of her car with the her flashlight before her car but could not spot any incriminating bottles. There was a paper bag from Mac Donalds, maps,...it just looked like typical road trip trash.
"Any medications you are on that might impair you?"
"Nope," Annabeth replied-
"Okay then, Ms Chase. Would you please step out of the vehicle? I would like to administer a field sobriety test."
"Ahm okay," Annabeth said, a rare hint of nervousness seeping into her voice, but she did as she was told. On her feet Annabeth swayed slightly.
Piper had Annabeth run the ten steps back and forth and she followed Piper's orders just fine, except for almost stumbling across her feet a few times. Finally Piper pulled out a small Iris lamp from her button down shirts's pocket. "So, I am going to point-."
"Nystagmus test, I know." Annabeth snapped.
"Temper," Piper warned.
"So you know what to do?"
"Follow the light," Annabeth replied and yawned.
The test wasn't conclusive. "How long have you been driving?"
"Ever since NYC," Annabeth admitted.
"Damn girl, that's what? Twenty five hours?"
"Thirty?" Annabeth corrected.
"And you have been driving all that way none stop?" Piper asked.
"I stopped at a MacD about three hours ago...got a coffee," Annabeth admitted.
"That's really stupid," Piper mused. "Might as well be drunk, explains you being passed out though."
Piper forced herself to relax a bit, "May I search your vehicle, Ma'am?" Deputy Culstee suddenly asked.
Piper was about to interrupt but as she had so often during her college days, Annabeth beat her to it. "Sure," Annabeth agreed, and Annabeth bit back a silent curse. Why people would agree to let their cars be searched was beyond her. Nothing good could ever come of that.
"Anything illegal in the car, Ma'am?" the deputy asked. "Cokain? Hash? Crack? Gummy Bears? Bazookas?"
Annabeth cracked a smile, "No sir!"
"Wait here with me," Piper ordered and led Piper back to her own cruiser.
"If the search turns up nothing I will insist you crash in my office's couch. Not letting you hit the rode like this. I'll take you out for breakfast in the morning."
"That would probably be for the best," Annabeth agreed and grinned at Piper sheepishly.
So? What's up with you? We kinda lost touch?" Piper greeted her. "Still with Luke?"
Annabeth's exhausted smile froze. "Nah, that ended seven months ago...," she admitted. "Also I am now stuck with this,..." Annabeth admitted and tapped her stomach.
She hadn't noticed it earlier but with the cars interior lights she could just make out the gentle but characteristic bump in Annabeth's abdomen. "It isn't Luke's, is it," Piper asked.
Annabeth laughed mirthlessly. "No, its from my former neighbours son."
"Annabeth was stupid and forgot the Pill on a one night stand?" Piper asked lightly.
"Started off like that, you know. I don't think his mother ever knew. He went to her's for dinner and instead of heading to his flat I invited him over a few times a week for some after shift fun and kicked him out afterwards. You know the type, really good in shape. Deep chest, wide back, swimmer's body, the works. It started off as just a rebound. He was annoying at times, but you know, I kind of grew used to having him around... Sorry for unloading, I just realized I havn't actually told anyone about all this... "
Piper dutifully giggled to keep her talking.
"What happened?" Piper asked.
Piper might be a rural Sheriff now. But she had grown up as a Hollywood girl and the daughter of an a-list actor. She wasn't proud of it but she thrived on gossip, though these days she had the excuse that she was only an Officer of the Law with an open ear.
"I got pregnant, I told him when I found out and he told me that he wanted to be part of the baby's life. He announced two days later that his unit needed him back oversees for something. I warned him that if I couldn't trust him to be a stable presence I wasn't doing this at all and probably abort."
"And now three months later here you are, still pregnant," Piper concluded. "And he doesn't know!"
"Yeah, couldn't bring myself to do it. I thought it would be easier," Annabeth admitted. "Now here I am, single, and pregnant. I am trying to shift back to San Fransico," she summerized.
"It's never simple for you, is it," Piper mused.
Annabeth laughed weekly. "In my defence, he was really good looking."
"Sheriff, be advised. We've got a snowball. Dispatch, requesting aditional units!" Deputy Culstee announced on the radio and Piper instinctively stiffed, her hand slowly drifting to her service pistol after casually turning on her bodycam. Most departments used the classic codes, unfortunately the more crafty criminals knew the codes just as much as the police did so they had gone over to using constantly changing code words.
Annabeth didn't notice though, too lost in the clusterfuck that had always been her life.
Her deputy approached Piper's cruiser and pulled the door open.
"Ms Chase, please step out," he ordered sternly, his hand now very much resting on his holster.
"Ahm sure," Annabeth stuttered, glancing over at Piper for reassurance.
"Do it," Piper confirmed calmly.
The moment Annabeth set foot outside she too got out of her squad car just in time to see Deputy pushing the doctor up against the side of the cruiser as he was placing cuffs on Annabeth's wrist. "Ms Chase, I am placing you under arrest for possession with intent to distribute."
"What?" Annabeth asked, her voice rising with panic. "What did I do?" she asked in confusion. "Do you have anything sharp that can hurt me on you?" the deputy asked.
Piper hung back, keeping her hand in her firearm.
"Piper?" Annabeth asked, tears were welling up in her eyes. "What is going on?"
Piper kept her face even though her heart broke. Before everyone had found out she was the daughter of a billionaire she had faced a considerable amount of bullying at collage and back then Annabeth had simply adopted her as a younger sister and given anyone who dared snipe at her a few shots into the bow.
Seeing this same formidable woman who had been so indefatigable in looking after her as her life was very possibly falling apart around her broke her heart. But she stayed stoic and silent. She didn't even know what was going on.
"I will get to you in a moment, Annabeth," Piper announced and opened her squadcar's back door.
"Put her in," she ordered.
Again Piper forced herself to stay stoic and indifferent as Annabeth was put in the backseat with tears of exhaustion, confusion, gather in her eyes. To her shame, she felt relieved when the door slammed shut.
"What was all that about, James?" Piper asked, cutting straight to the point.
"This, Piper," he announced and led her over to the trunk of Annabeth's rental. In the pursuit of his search he had uncovered the storage space for the spare tire. Sure enough there was no spare tire to be seen, only packages filled with what looked like white powder.
"Already field tested it, it's Cocaine," James warned.
"Fuck," Piper said. "Now I wish this was a DUI."
James gave a long look and she glowered at him. "Ms Chase was a good and loyal friend to me in the past when I really needed one, don't judge me for not taking any pleasure in seeing her life being destroyed," Piper snapped.
"Okay Piper," he said doubtfully.
"Start taking pictures and call a tow-truck. The State Troopers will need to take custody of it for us," she replied.
"I will handle Ms Chase," she replied. "As you wish, Ma'am."
Leaving her deputy to his own devices Piper walked back to her own police cruiser and opened the door to find Annabeth with tears running her down cheeks. She had never seen Annabeth cry, so for some reason this surprised her.
"What's going on, Piper?" she pleaded.
"You have like twenty pounds of cocaine in your trunk. What the fuck is going on?"
"What?" Annabeth burst out. "You are joking, right? This is a joke!"
"Come here," Piper said and half led, half dragged Annabeth back to her car. "Does this look like a fucking joke to you?"
Annabeth stood frozen still, staring at the trunk in shock.
In her four years of law enforcement she had learned to read people quite well and could usually pick out a lie the moment it cross someone's lips. What she saw in Annabeth only made her sad. Genuine surprise and fear.
"I swear, I didn't-" "Shut up!" Piper cut her off and looked at her as if she had been slapped. Annabeth was one of the brightest women Piper had ever crossed paths with and she could see that formidable brain of hers in overdrive behind her eyes.
Was this just a cruel joke? Was Piper somehow setting her up? Had she ever done anything to piss Piper off enough to set her up? The sad thing was it would likely not make a difference. The drugs were in Piper's car and no jury would ever believe that it wasn't hers.
When Piper guided her back to the car she was a lot more gentle.
"Piper," Annabeth started again. "Be quiet Annabeth," she warned and sat her down sideways in the back seat.
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?" she asked pointedly.
"Yes, but Piper- I-"
"Annabeth, for a smart person you are being really stupid! For gods sake, shut up! I mean it, stop talking." Piper spelled it out. "You used to be good to me, and this is the best advice anyone will ever give you. Do you understand what I am trying to tell you. You are in deep shit, don't make worse."
Finally Annabeth closed her mouth and nodded.
"So, I ask you a second time. Bearing in mind the rights as I have read them to you, do you have anything to tell me?" she asked.
"No Ma'am," Annabeth replied dutifully. She still looked scared, but it seemed as if her panic started subsiding. Piper had discovered a while ago that when a people were panicking, giving them simple instructions helped ground them again. "Good girl!"
After giving Annabeth a pat on the arm, she slammed the door shut.
Here we go. This it it or now. Do leave a review.
With regards Henry Locker over and out.