VIC
Her hands were firmer on the steering wheel as she headed back to Durant. The crying jag had been embarrassing but cathartic and Henry had offered an understanding and non-judgemental ear for her to confess her sins. Only they weren't *her* sins at all really.
She sighed, a wistful expression of the desire for everything to not be as shitty as it was right now. Some decent food and the new meds seemed to help her headache a dawning realisation that hardly any food had passed her lips the last few days and not really enough the past weeks, woman can not live on coffee alone, no matter how much sugar you put in it.
Her radio crackled to life with Ruby's voice "Base to Unit 1, are you there Sheriff?"
She would never get used to hearing her voice answer to that title, ever
Keying the mic on with one hand "Go ahead Ruby"
There was a pause and Ferg's voice came over the air "Umm Vic, sorry Sheriff, the guys from Campbell County are here. Well most of em anyway."
Puzzled as to the emphasis on the last line but not clear what it mean she replied "Ok find out what they know and don't know and start them on the paperwork with Ruby" her mouth quirked for a moment "I'm sure there is LOADS of paperwork to do. I'm about 15 min away."
The smile was evident in Ferg's voice "Roger that Sheriff, see you soon."
Well her new recruits were here, time to see what she had to work with. The truck hummed down the blacktop in the afternoon sun, alight with anticipation.
She caught herself at the top of the stairs and deliberately went in via the side door into …. her office, pausing by the desk to pickup the pile of paperwork and postits – this weeks colour pink and green. Idly flicking thru the documents but not really reading them, she walked slowly into the main office, and waited, still not reading the paperwork for a moment longer, before facing the room and the several people standing there, awaiting her attention.
Ferg hovered off to the side and three other men stood front and center, at the usual rather relaxed cowboy version of attention ie they were vertical and sober. Two were similar enough to be brothers or cousins, and both bore a startling resemblance to The Ferg but were taller with slightly darker hair. The third man was tall and lean with it, so he appeared even taller, but Vic could tell in the way he held himself that he had seen action and was comfortable with his ability to respond physically should need demand it. He reminded her a lot of Henry with a quiet watchfulness but also a sense of calm about him.
Vic crossed her arms, cocked a hip and raised an eyebrow at Ferg, so he bustled to make the introductions
"Guys this is Sheriff Vic Moretti, she is running the place while we ahh ….. get things sorted out …." He trailed off and rallied, pointing to the slightly taller and darker one of the cousins/brothers
"This is Harvey, he is my cousin on my Dad's side, and this is Davey, my cousin on my Mom's side" he paused and swung back to Vic "We spent summers together at my Uncles place up by Lake De Smet, these guys know Absaroka County pretty well" both cousins smiled casually at her and nodded, and Davey tipped his cowboy hat with a quiet "Ma'am".
Well, she could get used to that and turned to the third unidentified man, who with a shared glance at Ferg stepped forward and offered her his hand to shake
"Leon Davies ma'am" he said in a quiet deep voice that seemed a little incongruous from a slender man, she couldn't place the noticeable accent from so few words so firmly shook his hand and nodded as he stepped back in line.
Pursing her lips she turned and strode a few steps one way and a few steps back the other way and planted, hands on hips
"OK team, you know we are short handed here cos all kinds of shit has gone down and your boss kindly loaned you lads here to help out. Huey and Duey can team up with Ferg, I need you boys out on the road dealing with all the local calls, picking up the slack there. You good with that?"
She paused and the three men smiled and nodded to a chorus of "Yes Ma'am" and she smiled and nodded back "Ferg you are Deputy in Charge, can you make sure these guys know the Durant way of doing things and stuff?" The Ferg's smile was ear to ear and he nodded happily "Sheriff, all taken care of."
"OK good, see Ruby to get the keys for Branch's truck" when a quiet voice interrupted her
"Excuse me Sheriff, but wasn't Deputy Connally the man who was shot?" he paused for a moment in recognition of the seriousness of what he was saying "Then has his vehicle been properly assessed and all evidence collected? That should be done before the vehicle goes back into circulation"
Impressed at his chutzpah in calling her out she nodded slowly "Yes it has had an initial assessment" her brain whizzed for a moment and she remembered "You are the forensics specialist at Campbell! I didn't expect Sheriff Wilson to send you."
He nodded "Given the circumstances, it seemed like you could do with some specialist help, so I volunteered". Thoughtfully she nodded and said seriously
"Yes an independent viewpoint could well be useful, and if you are as good as I hear, we need your help. OK sweep the truck first" She pulled the spare set out of the drawer on Branch's desk how long would it take her to stop thinking of it being his desk and threw the keys to Leon
"Ferg will show you where its parked and where we keep our gear" she paused for a minute pondering "I thought there was going to be four of you?"
Huey Duey and Leon shared a meaningful glance before Leon carefully replied "Kyle has a rather flexible approach to keeping appointments but I am sure he's on his way". They eyed her nervously but before any response could be made the private entrance door slammed open in the back office, footsteps jauntily echoing through the building and they all turned in surprise to see a monumentally handsome man in tight faded jeans, a short sleeved plaid shirt and cowboy boots and a bright white hat saunter in and grin with good humour into the room. He turned his eyes to Vic and very slowly and obviously gave her the once over while he hung his hat off the stand and leaned aggressively against the door frame.
"Hey ya'll, sorry I'm late" not sounding sorry at all "Someone introduce me to the Big Bad Sheriff" and he winked at Vic "Hey darling".
Turning her head in Ferg's direction she caught his eye and winked and nodded a fraction towards Kyle, and Ferg nodded back a tiny amount. Pasting on a wide bright and entirely fake smile she sashayed over to Kyle til she was in touching distance and murmured low and throaty "Well hey there cowboy, aren't you just the prettiest thing I've seen all day" she laid on her best southern accent and it was a pretty good one.
Kyle straightened and smiled down at her as she trailed fingertips up his bicep, up across his shoulder until she was behind him and with some gentle pressure she forced him forwards into the room, continuing to trail her fingers down his right arm and leading him into the open space a bit further. Peripherally she noticed the deputies had moved back towards Ruby's desk so she had an open space.
Quietly and firmly, before Kyle could protest she grabbed his right arm in a reverse wristlock, adding pressure to the triceps with her left hand, the sudden pain startling Kyle off balance, and within an eyeblink he was on the ground face down and gasping in pain. She looked up at the startled faces of their audience and nodded to Ferg who stepped forward and cuffed the groaning man, and when she let go hauled him to his feet, his face shocked with pain and surprise
He was opening his mouth to complain and she cut him off, her native Philly accent a harsh contrast to the soft buttery Southern tones from a moment before "You just got introduced to the Sheriff, asshole. No Big Bad here, its Sheriff Bitch to you and you can piss off back to Campbell County, I have no time for pretty boy assholes who can't turn up to a new job on time!"
"Excuse me Sheriff Moretti" Leon's quiet voice from behind her stopped any further tirade, and she turned, still on the edge of temper but stopped, confused he was holding out a cellphone to her, and from the screen she could see it was connected in all call and he spoke again, the phone obviously on speakerphone "Sheriff Wilson go ahead"
The other Sheriffs voice sounded the usual tinny over the iPhone speakers, she was even more confused when he started talking and not to her "Kyle, talk to me". All eyes in the room talked to Kyle and he shuffled over closer to the phone, Ferg following close by
"All good sir" and his voice was crisp and alert, not the idle cowboy drawl it had been earlier "She took me down with a nice reverse wrist move I haven't seen before and was about to send me home, tail tucked between my legs, I repeat, we are all good". All the eyes in the room were on Kyle now and he smiled an edged smile and tilted his head towards Vic "Your call Ma'am".
Mentally she shook herself and picked up the phone, keying off the speaker "Was this a test Wilson, cos if you send any more of your boys over her to misbehave like that, I might break the next one properly for you" and there was still an edge of temper in her tone.
Wilson laughed "Vic hell I believe you can and would, I just needed to make sure that you could handle a stressful situation the right way. Kyle is my second in command here, I trust him. He is too damn pretty for his own good but he makes it work and gets the job done. You should keep him, it would be good for the both of you". Vic let out the breath she was holding explosively, and held back what she REALLY wanted to say, instead eyeing Kyle with evil intent, responding into the phone "I will keep him on trial, and we'll see" and keyed the call ended with no pleasantries. Having the gall to test her responses!
She gathered herself for a moment, handing Leon his phone back "Ferg get the cuffs of Pretty Boy here and take him with you, now you have two teams, Leon and I will do the forensics on Branch's truck. Ruby, I will be back later to take care of the paperwork I'm sure is waiting for me. Get to it people!"
Hello lovely readers and thankyou for waiting patiently for me. Yes I sat my exam and passed and my final course mark was 90% so pretty stoked about that. Had some other challenges for my time and creative energy plus I am a bit blocked on how some of the rest of this story comes together. Waiting for it to magically appear didn't get me anywhere so now I am just going to write it as I can and hope the rest falls into place.
Most of my chess pieces for the story are on the board now, so hopefully the rest of it will play out naturally. Thanks for waiting for me and I will be back, promise, might not be updating quite as fast as I usually do tho - its been freezing cold here in Winter downunder, we have had snow and below zero temps for several days. As I usually write at night time to save on heating costs I have been going to bed earlier on the colder nights. Enjoy the Longmire Days, wish I was there!