I'm so sorry about the formatting again! I checked it too after posting the chapter and it was fine for me. Thank you for alerting me though. I hope everyone is practicing social distancing by reading this story... Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to put a joke in here.
The sun shone high in the sky, turning the outside air to be fifty-three degrees in the spring. Summer is coming up and everyone will be on their boats, having fun in the heat. Me though, I will be melting from the 'extreme' heat of ninety to hundred degrees while patrolling on a boat, making sure the laws are being followed by everyone.
My patrol truck's A/C was on half the power and the temperature read sixty, the lowest it would go. It was the perfect temperature to be sitting inside the cool truck and while watching people fish the nearby lake. Well, that was until my eyes caught sight of a navy blue and white Mustang Saleen S281E.
A smirk grew on my lips as I put my truck into drive, giving chase after the runaway police car. I pulled behind it like any normal person would do and hoped whoever was inside didn't recognize me from before.
In the few seconds given to me for a look over the mustang, it was in poor shape compared to the last time I saw it. The paint was shredded and the words on the side were slightly hard to read. The lights on top were almost all busted out while a few spots on the paint had the same blue substance from the weird sight when Will told me not to follow through with the case. I felt slightly bad for the vehicle but quickly shook the feeling off, why would I feel sorry for the inanimate object?
My wish wasn't fulfilled as the lights and sirens were activated on the fake cop car. They zoomed forward with its tires squealing at the sudden speed from the wheels.
Turning on the lights and sirens that my truck is equipped with, I follow behind and while having trouble keeping up with the cop car. Mustangs are meant to go and my poor patrol vehicle could never reach the speed of a mustang, even in its dream. I called off the one man chase and let them go while giving them a glare.
Out of nowhere while sitting at a red light, my radio goes off and dispatch gives me this: "Wildlife 104 11-60 and 11-71, assistances is needed." An 11-60 means hazard area attack and 11-71 means fire, which most likely means the nearest fire department has been called to the scene.
She also gave me the coordinates for wherever the attack happened. I don't know why she only called me out if it sounded as dangerous as it did.
Once again, I turn on my lights and sirens to alert everyone there is an emergence for me needed to be there and checked the opposite lane for anyone coming. There were three cars coming but they were slowing down in confusion of where the sirens were coming from. I took the given opportunity and crossed the lane of traffic carefully just in case there was a speeding car I didn't see.
It took about ten minutes to arrive at the sight that looked close to the one from before. My eyes caught sight of a familiar black GMC Topkick truck and red and blue flamed semi-truck and they widened in surprise and confusion. What are they doing here? We are way too far from the Lennox's house for a good reason. There's nothing out here in the first place, just hills and mountains of forestry.
Though the two vehicles here did have some damage to them it didn't seem like it was from another car or even a tree. There were scratch marks along the frames of both of the vehicles, as if a huge bear decided to attack them. That was the slimmest chance possible of that happening.
What surprised me and made me more suspicious of them was a couple of spots on the ground around them and on themselves was the same blue substance from the sight and the cop car. Nothing was adding up at the moment and my brain was starting to hurt from the over thinking of the situation.
Will, Ian, and Orion were standing off to the side with their shoulders sagging. Orion tired to act like he wasn't tired or anything on the lines of that but sadly failing. Will had a couple cuts on his face with dirt and sweat covering his body. He was still in his uniform which had a couple of holes and cuts in it with dirt and grime sprinkled over his body.
Ian was in the same condition as Will; ripped clothing, cuts littering his body, and dirt covering almost every square inch of his body.
Stepping out of my patrol truck and making my way towards the group of three, I greet them once I reached them. "Hey Will, Ian, Orion. What are you guys doing here? And what's with the body harm to all of you?" I questioned, really wanting him to answer with the truth. Yet lately, I don't know whether or not to trust my family friend of years.
Will jumps from the sound of my voice and spins around with a worried and shocked expression on his face. He must've not known I was coming, not surprising as he and his buddies were facing the wrecked area. "O-oh he-hey Brey, I didn't know they were sending you here." He was acting nervous about something and I didn't like one bit of it.
"Yep, this is part of my area in the first place and I must have been the closest one to the scene. What are you guys doing here? And what did you guys go through, both you and your vehicles?" I inquired, acting like an innocent puppy.
Orion was the first one to respond and beat Will from answering. "That is none of your busin-," he was interrupted by Tipps.
"Warden Lambert, get your ass over here before I drag it over here!" Tipps ordered with her voice sounding firm with no room for argument. Slightly dipping my head from embarrassment and avoid the gazes from the three men in front of me, I turned around and made my way over to her.
"That wasn't that hard, was it? Just like last time, this will be your case and if you need to take tomorrow off, you can," she offered before snapping her head over to the three I was just talking to. "Do be careful around them, something about them has me on edge. Also get their statement; they know something that we don't know." With that said, she leaves me to go talk with Decker who just arrived. This is southeast from his district and about three miles from the border between us.
Heading back to my truck while having the feeling of being watched grow every second (specially being around the vehicles), I grab my notepad and made my way over to the group of three. "So I need to take your guys statement as my sergeant ordered for it to happen," I explain my reasoning for coming back over.
"But we weren't here when whatever happened here happened," Will argued with an innocent look growing on his face. He was playing a game well known to us officers of the law: possum. It took all my willpower to stop myself from rolling my eyes.
"Then do explain why your clothes are in the condition they are in and why you are in your uniform?" I pointed out and flipping to an empty page in my notepad, ready to take the important details of their story. That's what happens at things like these, they tell a story with it benefitting themselves and placing them as the hero or victim.
"I-I was training with Ian nearby when we felt the ground shook and we found this. The cops were already here so we decided to check it out." He stumbled on his first word, meaning he is nervous about something and he's lying about what he said. The story is too short and straight to the point and like I said before, we are too far out for them to have a good reason on being here. This area is near whereabouts of the rumored secret military base.
Even though he was lying about the story, I write down most of the details of the two sentenced explanation of what he gave me. "Is there anything else you would like to add?" I was being hard on him for a reason; whatever is going on is threatening his and the general public's life.
He shook his head, avoiding eye contact with me and making the ground seem more interesting then looking at me. "Okay, thank you for your time. If you have anything more to add, you know where you can find me." I leave the three to go to where the scene is.
Just like the last time: the ground was disturbed terribly, the trees were pushed down by some great force or pulled out of the ground like toothpicks, and a couple of small fires that the fire department was taking care of. This time though, it was a much bigger piece of land destroyed. What in the hell is going on around here? That was the all-time question and I wanted it to be answered yet a bit scared of what I might be getting myself in to.
The fires were gladly being put out and the firefighters making sure they can't start back up on their own. The original area was already disturbed by the firefighters and wasn't in its freshest state, giving me a harder time to decide on what happened here.
After taking pictures of the area, sitting in my truck, and thinking over everything that just happened, I packed the notes into a new folder and put them in the center console for when I get home. I continue on with my shift after everyone left while having my processing side of my head go over what evidence there is.
Later in the day, when the clock struck five, I called into dispatch for the end of my shift and headed towards home. Hopefully Will has come to his senses and wants to tell me what really happened or this case could never be solved.
The same cars sat in the driveway of the Lennox's house: Pontiac (still suspicious on why it was at the sight from before), Semi, Topkick, Camaro, two Lamborghinis, police car, and an ambulance. Sadly, the Topkick wasn't at my house meaning my friend didn't think to tell me the truth about the situation at hand.
My thoughts were changed when the Topkick started up on its own and Will comes out on his own. He hops into his truck and drives down the road connecting our houses together. I was already out of my truck and digging in the back passenger side of truck for the papers of the case by the time he pulled out. Will and Ian (I have no idea where he came from) jumped out of the tall truck and strolled over to me.
I stood there with my arms crossed, waiting for one of them to start speaking first. "Brey, you need to lay off searching and turn over the case. Just stop letting your curiosity take over, 'curiosity killed the cat-." I interrupted Will.
"'But satisfaction brought it back.' No one knows the ending of that statement. Anyway, it's my job to do figure out who is destroying private property and breaking laws. Will, stop trying to tell me stop doing my job because you're wasting your breath." I was making sure to act like the boss here before turning my back on them and walking up the front stairs. Yes, I knew my words were a bit rude but he needed to know I wasn't backing down; I'm too stubborn and ornery to let him push me around.
Will stood there with his mouth dropped slightly and his eyes held shock within them. "Wait! Aubrey, please listen to me. I don't want you to get in the mix, just please take my advice and turn over the case or something like that."
The only thing that came to mind was: "What is this 'mix' you talk about?" Will got this look on his face and I knew what it meant, he couldn't tell me. I glared at him quickly before turning around and heading inside of my house without saying another word to him or Ian. I was getting fed up with them telling me to stop doing my job and act like there's nothing wrong going around here.
Both of the dogs jumped happily in their kennels, waiting for me to let them out, which I did. They raced around the house, chasing each other and wasting some of their energy before having their dinner. Vivian woofed hers down in matter of a couple of minutes while Kodiak took his time. She has always done this yet she isn't food aggressive and doesn't care if I touch or take it away when she is still eating.
Once they were done eating, I let them outside for their potty break and sat on one of the older chairs on the front porch. It creaked in protest of the added weight but was able to hold all one-hundred and eighty pounds of my fat. I relaxed against the wooden chair with a content sigh leaving my mouth. To be honest with myself, I was getting too fed up in everyone's lies and sadly enough: it hurt, by them not trusting me or lying to me, I was hurt by their actions.
Kodiak must have sensed the sadness coming off of me in waves and decided to intervene. He nudged his head against my hand resting on the arm rest and gazed up at me with worry in his eyes.
Some people say dogs can't feel or tell emotions humans are feeling, this would prove them wrong.
I smile with a pained expression on my face and notice tears were threatening to fall from my eyes. Using the back of my hand to wipe away the tears as if they never existed, I pet the top of Kodiak's head for comfort and gaze mindlessly out at the trees a thousand feet in front of me.
Vivian decided to join the party by jumping up on my lap with her claws digging into my thighs and attempted to lick my face. I intercepted the lick by pushing her face away; that was a bit hard for me as she somehow gains fifty pounds of muscle to stop me from pushing her away.
After getting up to be out of the way of Vivi's licking, both of the dogs followed me back into my house and lay down on the couches. I, on the other hand, went up the stairs with the notes and new case given to me in hand and set everything down on my desk.
The notes gave me nothing on who has destroyed to parts of private property. Right of the bat, I knew this was going to be a hard case.
It was the next day when another call came in: 11-60 and 11-71. It was the same two codes as the one yesterday and that worried me. I hoped for Will or any of his buddies to not be there or my trust for Will will continue to be stripped away, slowly and painfully.
Arriving at the scene and clenching my teeth in seething anger at the sight in front of me, I erase any sign of anger from my body posture and face expression. Will, Orion, and Ian are standing near their vehicles, having a conversation between the three of them; that was until Ian noticed my truck pulling up and alerted the other two of my presences.
Will showed a bit of disappointment, a hint of pain, and confusion in a matter of seconds before making it disappear. Even from the distance between us, I observed his demeanor: the debilitated manner he held his body at, something is off about him and I didn't like it one bit yet couldn't say anything because he would blow me off.
I step out of my patrol truck and trudged past them to the scene behind the three of them. Once more for the people in the back: it looked almost exactly like the other two sights from before. A sigh escaped my mouth and I rubbed the bridge of my nose in irritation of the situation at hand. What am I getting myself into?
A calloused hand rested on my right shoulder and spun me around to face who it was attached to: Ian. "You should probably call in sick and go home Aubrey. Will doesn't want you out here and get yourself hurt." Is that all Ian wanted to say to me?
In retaliation of his words, I rolled my eyes and shrugged my shoulder to rid it of Ian's hand. I point my pointer finger at his chest with my eyebrows furrowed and my lips drawn together in attempts to hold my anger in; believe me, it was getting hard to keep my mouth shut. "Now you listen here punk, you don't have any rule over me and cannot and will not tell me not to do my job."
"I swore an oath to protect the public from danger and whoever is destroying private property while being able to get away before anyone can see who the criminal is, I must serve out that oath and protect said public from the criminal." Every few seconds of my speech, I would poke his chest to help get my point across.
Ian must have not liked me touching him and grabbed my wrist on the last poke of said speech. "Don't talk to me like that, I can-." Sadly he was interrupted by Orion putting his hand Ian's shoulder and pulling him away from me. Orion shook his head as a silent 'it's not worth it' telling.
"If you will excuse me, I'm going to do my job whether you like it or not. You cannot tell me not to." With that said and done for, I saunter away from the group of three like I won the argument; well I technically won that argument in the first place.
Surveying the scene once more and not taking any picture as the sight was too disturb by the firefighters to give me a good sight of the area, I hop back in my truck and call my only two trusty friends for a lunch break at Sunshine Hill's. I need to talk to them and see if they seen anything weird going on their district, except taking out the rumored secret military base in Zeke's area.
"What do I owe the pleasure of having the thunder thighs calling me? Damn those sexy legs!" Dom was the first to speak from the conjoined called. A blush lightly grows on my face in embarrassment of his bring up my watermelon sized thighs and calling my legs sexy.
"Shut up you overgrown weed. I was wondering if the both of you would like to have a lunch break at Sunshine's. I need to have a warden talk with you guys." By mentioning 'warden talk', they'll know this is very important and needed to have a debate about it.
"I'm not an overgrown weed! But yeah, what time?"
"Hey! I'm here to. I would also like to join on our warden talk," Zeke finally came from the shadows and announce his presences to us
"What about 12? Does that work you guys?" The time on the dash board read: 11:07 am, giving me enough time to reach Sunshine's from my position, if I don't get interrupted by a call or seeing a familiar Mustang.
"Yeah."
"Yep." Both of them answered a mil-a-second apart from each other.
"'Kay, see you in a bit." I ended the call and focused more on the road in front of me. I continue to drive for about thirty minutes until reaching my destination and sitting in my truck, waiting for the two other game wardens to arrive. It might take awhile for them to get here from wherever they are.
Finally, right before the clock struck twelve, a familiar forest green pickup truck pulled into the parking lot of Sunshine's. By the looks of the inside, it was Dom's patrol truck and he perfectly backed up next to mine and rolled down his driver side window. I also roll down my passenger window to be able to have a conversation with one of my friends.
"Hey beautiful, need a man by your side?" he joked and gave me finger guns and a wink. I chuckle quietly to myself and raised an eyebrow in his direction.
"Beautiful, where in the world did you think any of this," I point to myself," is this word beautiful? And men suck their own nonexistent dick, including yourself." Fake confusion is written all over Dom's face as he looked at me.
"How in the hell does a man suck his own dick? That's impossible! Well, I think it is. Even with my seven incher, I can't do that. And yes, I have tried before, there's no shame in that. But I do know someone who would like a taste of mine: you." He was giving me a kinky expression with a smirk playing his lips. Why did I even bring up dick sucking? I regret it.
"Yours is not seven inches, it's more like two honey. Never mind, forgot I ever brought up dick sucking." I rubbed my eyes with my pointer finger and thumb in irritation before perking up at the sight of another familiar forest green pickup truck pulling into the parking lot and pulling into the parking spot next to Dom.
I didn't give Dom another chance to continue speaking about the prior subject by rolling up the window and hopping out of the truck. Making sure anyone dumb enough who would steal a cop car, I press the lock button on my keys and sauntered over to the front of the three trucks. I wait patiently for my two friends with my arms crossed over my chest.
Zeke is the first to join me and stand next to me with his foot tapping on the group, showing his impatience of having to wait on Dom. Said person is taking all the time in the world inside of truck before exiting his patrol vehicle and joining the group.
We strolled into Sunshine's and each take a seat close by the door. One of other waitresses, Kathrin, places menus in front of us and leaves us, going to take an order from someone else.
"So what's the talk you wanted to talk about?" Zeke spoke up after a couple of seconds of silence between us. Inside of the restaurant wasn't quiet at all; it was almost full with people getting lunch.
"The weird things going on around Maine. Ever since Lennox had gotten back, everything has gotten out of control. Our job has become two times harder or that's what it feels like to me," I started.
"Over an hour ago, I was called to the same thing that happened yesterday. I went there on both occasions and Will with a couple of his buddies were there. I'm getting a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever I'm near Will's friends cars, as if they are watching me."
"I don't know how to feel about this entire situation. Worst part of it all, Will and his buddies keep telling me to stop investigating; they don't want me to figure out what they are hiding. They are very persistent on getting me to turn a blind eye on whatever they are doing. What about you guys? Have you been told by Tipps to not look into this?"
Zeke is the one to nod his head confidently while Dom slightly nodded his head as if he wasn't sure. "Yeah, on multiple occasions. Like yesterday, she told me you had the case and not to go any further on the case or she would ruin my career. I was too afraid of her fulfilling her promise and dropped the entire thing until you brought it up," Zeke answered.
"Boys, it seems like we have something bigger on our hands." We ordered our food and continued to talk about whatever is going on right under our noses.
At the end of my shift, I headed home and was greeted once more by two Lamborghini's parked next to Powerstroke and in front of the Ford only parking sign; they really need to learn their lesson and they soon will, my free day is coming up.
"Shawn, Scott, what do you guys want?" I questioned while hopping out of my patrol vehicle with my hands holding some of the paper work, I was going to add it to my collect of the tantrum case (that's what I'm calling it).
"Do you want to go for a ride?" Was the first things that came from Shawn's mouth and, of course, I was surprised by his upfront question yet slightly sexual question; I knew what he want.
Squealing like pig being manhandled with an excited 'yes' leaving my lips, I shut my mouth realizing they were watching me acting weird. I cleared my throat and looked away. "Um, I mean yes, please."
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Shawn break out with a huge smile on his face while Scott smirks slightly. I straighten my body posture and gazed at the two handsome men in front of me. "Let me go put these away and change into some normal clothes." I rush into my house like a chicken with its head cut off. You would be excited too if you got to ride in a half a million dollar too.
I put the papers on desk, not caring whether or not they were neat, and rushed to put on a pair of shorts (it was about fifty outside) and a sleeveless shirt on. Then sprinting down the flight of stairs and out the door I went.
The passenger side door for Shawn's Lambo was already opened for me and I easy slipped inside the amazing smelling interior. The door itself closed on me all by itself and nearly scared the shit out of me but I blew off like it was nothing from enthusiasm taking over my mind. I was literally jumping in my seat, I was that happy.
"Wow, you seem very excited," Shawn commented as he pulled out of my driveway and drove down the private driveway.
"Who wouldn't be? I'm riding inside of a half a million dollar car. I don't get to ride in one of these everyday unlike you," I responded. He only chuckled at my antics and continued on driving to the main road.
Once making to the pavement and straightening himself out on the road, he spins his tires in a burnout and takes off with a great amount of speed. All you could hear from me was happiness of either laughter or the wide smile on my face.
My happy moment was soon ruined by Shawn bringing up a something I didn't want him to bring up. "Brey, the entire reason I brought you out here was to talk about a case of yours. You heard it from Will, Ir-Ian, and Orion; you need to stop getting into our word. It won't be pretty."
I didn't want to deal with this at the moment of having slightly a rough day. "Shawn, pull over, now." I kept my voice firm, no room for argument.
"What, wh-," I interrupted him.
"Pull over, now." He does what he is told and the moment the wheels on the vehicle stopped moving, I was out of the supercar and walking in the direction of my house. I didn't even spare Scott a glance as I passed him on the side of the road.
Shawn and Scott both back up to catch up to me and the red supercar follows me backwards with his window down. "Brey, I'm sorry. I won't bring it up again, just get back in," he begged while not paying any attention to his surroundings except me.
Narrowing my eyes at him and huffing out like a mad two year old, I stop in my tracks and face him with my hand on my hip. "You better not or red will soon become pink," I growled before hopping back inside of the vehicle and putting my seat belt on.
It stays pretty quiet between us, the only sound being the roar of the engine and the tires gripping the pavement. He begins small talk between us after awhile and we get into a comfortable conversation as he gives me a ride around town.