Busted

Busted

Brandi stood still as Mary gaped at her. She should have known her sister would freak out. But she hadn't expected Mary to come home so early. It wasn't even noon yet. Mary took a step closer to Brandi, her eyes urging her to explain why the cops had just left her house.

"I…it's kind of complicated."

"Well I'd love to hear it. Because I can not deal with you getting arrested right now." Mary ran a hand through her hair, looking stressed.

"It's not like I wanted to get arrested, ok. I…" She struggled against the handcuffs binding her hands behind her back. Bobby stepped between the two women, taking Mary by the arm.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" He dragged Mary a good distance from Brandi and the other officers.

"You know this young woman? Mind explaining how?" Even though he knew the answer, he wanted to hear here admit it. It wasn't often he got a straight answer out of Mary.

"She's my sister. God what the hell did she do?"

"We found a suitcase with a large quantity of crystal meth."

"Where's your warrant?" Her hand was outstretched.

"Didn't need one. We had probable cause to believe the drugs were in the house and your sister let us in." Mary shook her head in disbelief and walked away from him. She pushed past the officers barring the door.

"Get out of my way." She walked in to find the first floor relatively intact. As she moved upstairs, her eyes widened at the mess Dershowitz and his people had made. She had to wade through drawers and clothes to even get into her own room. She managed to sit down on her bed before her phone began ringing. She looked at the number.

"What's up, Stan?"

"Are you planning on coming back from lunch?"

"Uh actually I can't. I can't get into details but I've got a big family emergency at home."

"Emergency?" Mary didn't have family emergencies. Most of the time she acted as though her family didn't even exist.

"Yeah, look Stan I have to go." Before Stan could inquire further, Mary snapped her phone shut and walked back down to the first floor. She could see Bobby talking to a couple of the other uniformed officers standing outside. She was going to rip him a new one if she got the chance. By the time Mary got back outside they were putting Brandi in the police cruiser to take her back to the station.

"Whoah hold on a minute. You aren't taking her anywhere."

"This isn't your jurisdiction, Mary."

"You know what, screw jurisdiction." She turned to look at Brandi.

"Get out of the car."

"Uh…hello handcuffed. Can't open the door." Mary pulled the back door open and Brandi stumbled out, trying to catch herself before she fell to the ground. Mary led Brandi around the back of the car so the officers couldn't hear their conversation.

"Ok, listen to me. I'm still really mad at you for…whatever the hell is was you did. But you need to get yourself a lawyer."

"Ok…but aren't those kind of expensive."

"I'll see if I can pull a few strings. You don't say anything to them you understand. Not a word until you have representation."

"Yeah, I get it." Brandi looked uncomfortable leaning against the car. Mary couldn't tell if it was the topic of the conversation or the handcuffs and she didn't really care.

"Look…I'm sorry about the house. I…I didn't know they would trash everything. I told them where it was. I even unlocked the door for them." Mary let out a breath, resting her hands on her hips.

"Just tell me one thing…did you lose your mind?" Brandi averted her gaze.

"No…look shouldn't you be happy that I turned the stupid thing in?"

"Right now, I'm about ready to kill you. I didn't think you could be so stupid. Keeping drugs in my house! Did you even think about how that would affect Mom and I?" Brandi's eyes widened.

"Mom…oh crap. She thinks I'm going to meet her later at the restaurant. Can you tell her I'll have to cancel?" Mary glared at her younger sister but nodded anyways. She reached around Brandi to pull the car door open.

"Get in." Brandi sunk into the seat and Mary slammed the door shut. She started to walk away when Brandi stuck her head out of the open window.

"And you might want to check on Chico…he had to catch a cab back from physical therapy." Mary just waved a hand at her sister. She couldn't deal with her anymore. Once Mary was clear of the car, it backed out of the driveway and sped off down the road.

"You feed her lines?" Mary spun around, glaring at Bobby.

"You know, I'm really close to kicking you off my property. You and your smart ass."

"Hey, I just want a clean investigation." Mary rolled her eyes.

"I told her to keep her mouth shut until I can get a lawyer down to the station, ok. I didn't feed her lines. I didn't tell her an alibi. This is her mess." Bobby nodded, a small smile creeping onto his face.

"Now, get off my property." He held his hands up defensively and waved his people to head out. Mary watched them go and sunk down on the front step of the porch. She sat there in the New Mexico mid-day heat for a good five minutes before she pulled out her phone and hit number one on speed dial. It rang twice before the person on the other end picked up.

"Hello?"

"Do you know any good lawyers?" There was a pause on the other end.

"Why? You need one."

"Not exactly. So…do you know any or not?"

"Let me think for a minute." Mary was on her feet again, pacing in the grass, waiting for Marshall to do something.

"I know a few. I'll text them to you."

"Great…thanks." She ended the call and waited for him to send her the information. It took under a minute. She smiled in spite of herself. Marshall's useless knowledge was useful after all.

At the police station, Brandi sat in an interrogation room, staring at the drab walls. She sat hunched over, her hands still cuffed together. Bobby sat across from her but neither spoke.

"You sure I can't get you anything, something to drink?" Brandi shook her head.

"You know, you can answer that sort of question." Brandi let out a small laugh.

"I guess I've seen too many bad cop movies or something…" Bobby laughed as well, tapping his hands on the table. Brandi tried to scratch her cheek but found it nearly impossible. Bobby stood and brandished a set of keys.

"You don't need these anymore. You aren't going anywhere."

"Yeah…right." A knock came on the door and both looked up as a woman stuck her head in.

"Phone call for you, Detective." Bobby nodded and the woman walked into the room to watch over Brandi while he took the call. Brandi gave the officer a small smile before turning to look out the barred window. She just wanted to get this over with. Even though she knew what she had done was the right thing, it still meant ruining her own life in the process. It was a lose-lose situation for her.

A short time later, Mary pulled up to Raphael's house. She felt guilty about the way she'd been treating him lately but she had her reasons. He'd cheated on her after all. She shook her head and walked up to the front door. Her hand hesitated for a moment before knocking. The door was pulled open almost instantly.

"Mary. What are you doing here?"

"Just wanted to make sure you got home….Brandi called me and told me she couldn't take you home so…"

"Yeah…she's busy today. You want to come in?"

"Oh…I can't. I have to get back to work. I guess I just wanted to check up on you…" Raph nodded.

"Right." She turned and headed back to her car. He watched her go and let out a sigh. Why did she have to make everything so complicated? Just as she climbed into the car, Mary's phone began to ring.

"Hello?"

"Mary Shannon?" It was the lawyer Mary had called.

"Hi…yes."

"I just wanted to let you know I'm on my way to the police station now to meet with your sister."

"Great. Thank you so much for helping her." Mary hung up and let out a small sigh of relief. At least something was going right today, even for Brandi's screwed up situation.

Ten minutes later, the door to the interrogation room opened and a young woman with light brown hair walked in and extended a hand to Brandi. Brandi looked at the cop who didn't move. Brandi slowly stood up and shook the woman's hand.

"Ms. Shannon, I'm going to be your attorney."