Bridges: Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Cass-

I sit in my truck looking at the pictures with the tire tracks and the casts the guys had done. I got the report on the tires and everything last night. It’s one of the few things that wasn’t hard. I scanned the photo into the computer and sent it to several service providers that contract out for us. I knew the truck was olive green from paint rub away from the flower boxes they smashed at Sam Chase’s.

I know that green, red neck let’s cammo-paint our truck kind of thing. There’s only one truck in town that fit’s the bill. I spent two hours researching Sam’s complaints and the incidents…There wasn’t something right there either. I check with dispatch and get a list of the calls and dates and officers sent out there. There’s one that is out there a lot. Derek Wade…wait…Yeah. I was right; when I looked I found a property claim against her property by Henry Wade. He tried to get Sam kicked off for squatting in her home saying she wasn’t Samaritan Chase. Oh I can see he really drug out the big guns, there. When she proved her ID she got dragged through the mud publicly, that’s harassment. I just have to prove it.

I checked Derek’s files and nothing. I checked the cabinets and found it lost in the paperwork shuffle “Misfiled.” I’m the sergeant. Not in my department. I didn’t say anything but photocopied the reports and put the originals on his desk with a note saying for him to write them up and to enter them in the system.

I check on Henry Wade, hmm interesting. He’s been buying up land out that way. I know a lot of the new housing has been creeping out that way because of the hill and the view. I also read there’s a new golf course and country club slated for building permits out there.

Now this is making some sense.

Again I just have to prove it.

That brings me to here. Sitting in my truck after driving around town to find the cammo painted 4x4. I found it out at Dillon’s lodge a cabin rental and high end fishing lodge. I also seen Mr. Wade and his lovely new black Escalade there too. I checked plates and the 4x4 belongs to Rick Blacklock. He’s got a nice long list of priors, as does his brothers and nephews and even his kids. I’ve just got a hunch that something’s up. I filed with dispatch a surveillance notice and drove out to Close to where Sam’s place is.

Its early morning and they seem to know when she goes out for her run. I pull the bronco into the bushes hiding it under the tree boughs. I sit for a couple of hours with my camera and the big telephoto lens. I see Sam leave earlier than usual this morning and take off at a run. I know it sounds unprofessional but even knowing what she was…is…biologically Sam is still a fine looking woman. I kind of get a little lost watching her jog, no run at first like she’s trying to get away from something. I’m really attracted to her, him…her goddess I’m confused, I’m gay well a lesbian and I’ve never been into guys. I’ve never thought I’d be attracted to a girl like her, like Sam Chase. As soon as I met her I fell into deep “Like” of her. Sam’s pretty alright, blonde straight hair, long legs, really nice butt and a rather striking set of C- cups. But it’s those big…in this amazing way blue eyes that have all this soul in them…I had my notions about the trans-girl when I heard about the call about the vandalism of her place. I read the complaints that I knew about then and was expecting…I don’t know? Samaritan Chase? No name change, ex-military? I wasn’t expecting them to be pretty. I wasn’t expecting those big blue eyes to look at me like…

~Are you like them? Are you here to hurt me too? ~

I’m pissed if Derek’s dirty or just being a douche and helping his brother and skimming the law. If she feels this way about us…likely.

That look more than her looks made me want to pull out all the stops on this. And the fact her Mom was RCMP too. If I’d ever get a girlfriend my folks wouldn’t be…squeamish with it’d be Sam. Sort of maybe…

I watch her come back the and then head up the other way she waves to the bikers as she runs passed and doesn’t see me as watch her jog…bouncing…just right as she passes by where I’m parked and goes all the way down to the 4-way stop. I watch her go back home and oddly breathe a sigh of relief when she’s safe at home.

I take a look at the Bikers and they’re tearing the old ranch house apart stuff getting tossed out windows and doors into dumpsters and there’s tarps everywhere and tools and a railway shipping crate. Two classic cars…

After a bit I see them all head over to Sam’s house. She lets them all in and they kiss her on her cheek. Friends then? I’ve known some bikers who were pretty decent guys. They must have helped her fix things up. They certainly have the tools for it.

Another hour nearly passes right on cue I see and hear the 4x4 and I start taking snaps of it and as it passes I see something get tossed out the window and smash out the windshield of her old half ton. I get it all really fast on the camera. Including the license plate. “Gotcha!” I drop the camera on the seat and pull out of the bushes and from under the boughs of the spruce trees and hit the road whipping the ass end around and hit the gas and then the lights and sirens and start to radio it in. The pursuit and I call in another new Officer Andy Mitchell to cover the truck at Sam’s and take statements and evidence.

And of course the just have to think that they can out run me. They might, they know the area better. But I’m trained to drive. I’ve got them dead to rights and I’ve got the radar gun going on the dash and the dash cameras going. The only way they might have a chance is to lose me and ditch the truck. If I don’t catch them in the truck they can say it was some one else who stole it.

We race through these very twisty back roads some dirt and some chip seal covered for nearly and hour going 140-160 kmph. We nearly get hit twice by logging trucks as we take corners…I lose a door mirror the first was that close…There’s tonight’s nightmares. I see the 4x4 slow down as we come closer to town. I’m telling my other officers where we’re going to come out at or near. I see why they slow, not stop but slow. Somebody jumps out of the truck as we go over a bridge and drops down into the river…”Shit, shit, shit!” I call that in too we’re way up somewhere on top of the valley edge and on the outskirts of town. He gets to the first intersection of town before we stop him there with a tire belt. I and 3 other officers approach the 4x4 with our guns out. There’s a teenager behind the wheel.

*** It turns out that his name is Eric Blacklock. He’s 15 and he won’t say a word until his dad gets there. I see Rick and there’s this redneck smug arrogance when he comes in. He’s got a lawyer with him and he ends up saying nothing about who it was who jumped out of the truck. I’ve only got a blurry just on the edge of the dash-cam’s angle shot of the person. It’s not enhance able, and it’s not enough to use in court. Eric’s saying. “I don’t rat on my friend’s cunt.”

“Some friend he’s leaving you to take the heat.”

“What heat?”

“The brick had a note, a threatening one. That’s not just uttering a death threat but with this it’s a hate crime.”

“You can’t prove shit bitch. I didn’t know he was going to throw that.”

“But you drove, you’re an accessory.”

“Bullshit, we was speeding and you was cherry pickin.”

“You tell me who was with you and I’ll tell the crown you’re co-operating.”

“Fuck you; you filthy cock sucking whore, where’s my dad and my lawyer.”

It went like that until the lawyer and Rick showed. Rick Blacklock is the same size as the one who jumped out of the truck. I look at him and he looks at me and smiles because I can’t prove it. He says his son took the truck without his permission, but he wasn’t pressing theft charges. His layer says that Eric cannot be held responsible for the actions of the other person in the truck and since we can’t prove that there was intent he can’t be considered an accessory. Rick’s smug and smiling at us the entire time. “It ain’t my boys fault that people wanna kill it and get it outta our town.” I’m pissed as can be but stay professional. I fight the urge to take out my baton.

In the end we have enough evidence to charge junior with the speed fines, operating a vehicle without a permit or insurance and fleeing the scene of a crime and reckless endangerment, we get to impound the truck as evidence too. Rick looks too happy. His kids a minor and will get a slap on the wrist from this at least the most is juvy. The lawyer will plea it all down too.

We’ve got the truck those, the tires should match the pictures and the castings. It’s a start.

Sam-

The guys come over grinning at me and me using the bullhorn. I get a chorus of good mornings and kisses on the cheeks that leave me feeling a lot better. The guys say it smells really good and Chuck says. “Eet Smell tres marveleu madame. Jentlemen, jentlemen we’s ave to be clean now non? Lave ton miens.” There’s a few looks like ??? And Eli says wash your hands you filthy bums.” Brandon’s the last one to come up the steps and he smiles at me as I greet him. He kisses my cheek. “That smells great.”

“Uhm thanks.”

“Mmmn, the food smells good too.”

I blush at the compliment and his hand touches the small of my back as he holds the door open letting me in first despite me welcoming them all in. Those manners, the way he has about him and that ever so right gesture of how a guy touches a girl really gives me a jolt, a little yet much needed kick start to my femininity.

I let them get seated and Bobby and Steve say grace the rest of us aren’t really sticky about that kind of stuff but we bow are heads and take a moment. It starts slowly with small helpings and manners but like on those nature shows when you see the piranha take that first bite then there’s another then another until the feeding frenzy happens.

I’m feeding seven full grown men and two teen boys…Oh my god…

Everything’s going really good and I’m having a blast. I’m being a good hostess and the guys are eating me out of house and home but I needed to clear a lot of stuff out anyway. It’s such an awesome feeling really. I don’t think the house has ever been this full. We didn’t have much family so Christmas and Thanksgiving weren’t big family occasions.

We even get this whole snow white and the seven dwarves thing going on. Imagine me as snow white. There’s this little girl inside my heart waking up like she was sleeping beauty and she’s clutching herself and spinning in a circle.

I cooked and the guys insisted on doing the dishes. “No guys I can do them.”

Brandon smiled and sipped his coffee. “No we’re not bad guests; we clean up after ourselves just like the dwarves did at Bilbo’s place.”

“Are you calling me a hobbit?”

“No, but are your feet hairy?”

Then he proceeded to grab me and my legs and tickle my feet!

“Brandon! Brandon!, eeek!, no , no, no!”

I’m laughing so hard I’m crying and giggling. So many first for me, giggling, I’ve never been a giggler or said, squeaked Eeek before in my life.

Then of course it had to happen, it had to stop. I heard the sound of a fast big engine and then there was a loud crystalline…SMASH!...I looked at my clock on the wall. “Fuck!” I got up and ran outside in my bare feet. There was a truck speeding down the road too fast for me to get a license plate or a look at it other than it was dark colored. My dad’s truck had it’s windshield smashed, whatever hit it so bad smashed a whole right through it…

I immediately hear sirens and see the lady Mounties Bronco blow past my place in hot pursuit lights going and the siren screaming. I see her vanish up and over my hill heading out of town.

I feel Brandon wrap an arm around me and turn me into his shoulder. This just kind of adds up to the hidden layer of stress that was still, inside me from my nightmare this morning. I can’t help it. I’m hurting like somebody punched me in the heart and it took the wind out of me. I cry on his shoulder for a few awhile and the guys are out looking at things, some are cursing. “Why? Why are they doing this to me.” Brandon doesn’t answer, not verbally he just has this look in his eyes that yeah, we both, we all know why and he kisses me on my forehead and holds me some more. I really like this feeling, warm from his touch him holding me. Large muscled arms around me, the bulk of his body shielding me, keeping me safe. It feels good despite what happened. I like being held and feeling…I like not feeling alone.

Eli’s on the phone to the cops and his boys come back from acrossed the road with a camera and the guys start taking pictures. Eli looks over after turning off his phone. “There’s an officer already on their way out here.”

“There is?”

“That’s what they said, It looks like they were waiting for something to happen.”

“Yeah.”

Brandon sets his chin on my shoulder from behind, he’s still holding me. “Hey, it’s not that bad Sam, at least they’re finally taking this seriously.”

“Yay…the cops are finally listening to me…” Just a little sarcasm in my voice.

I can’t help but still look at the windshield of the truck, I lean back against him. “Brandon?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for this.”

“Mmn, thanks for breakfast.”

“No I mean it.”

“Sam, there’s no reason you should have to thank people for being decent human beings.”

“Yeah but just decent people don’t just hold someone like me. The comfort means a lot you know.”

“It’s all part of my evil plan.”

I turn my head enough to look at his face a little. “Evil plan?”

“Mmn, to seduce you.”

I laugh, it’s that preposterous.

Brandon’s hand comes up and turns my head a little more until he kisses me. It’s…It’s not my first kiss from a man but it’s certainly the best. There’s that little just right to a girl touch of stubble and this gentle masculine pressure that sort of demands to be yielded to and returned. It’s a kiss that infects you like his masculinity attaches to the estrogen in your bloodstream and wakes your skin all over your body to the point there’s this swell of heat a swoon through your body and an ache for more in your heart and in your breasts…It’s an ache for more in the best possible way.

No one’s woken that really feeling like a woman feeling in me before. I’ve been aroused before but not ever had I ever felt like this.

It’s the fact that I can tell Brandon actually gives a shit about me, me and knowing what I am. And he’s kissing me anyway. I just start to kiss him back when the mountie cruiser pulls up. I break the kiss and look at him. He lick, tastes his lips tasting my liploss. It’s a killer like satisfying thing to watch a guy do ladies. “So, I think it’s safe to say I like you Sam.”

“I…Yeah, I think I got that bit. But..”

“Yeah you’ve got a nice butt.”

We could have gotten into more flirting and stuff but the mountie was getting out of his cruiser with his own stuff. He’s another new constable and he comes over and talks to us getting our statements. And It gets me upset all over again. This time it’s not just Brandon who comes to comfort me. In different places during the interviews each one of the guys comes over and hugs me. It’s just such a thing this being loved and accepted by this bunch of guys. I shed a few happy tears mixed in with the other tears. Even the Constable after making sure that I’m Samaritan Chase referred to me as Miss, and not once did he look at me like I was anything less than a real girl.

It takes a couple of hours because he’s on his radio a few times. Brandon gives me a nudge. “Call your insurance guys and get stuff ready, we’ll get the constable to talk to them and explain things. It’ll speed things up with these guys a lot.” The insurance guys are a little tense once they hear it’s me, once they realize who I am. I try to explain what’s happening and they keep cutting me off mid-sentence talking about policy stuff that where I parked and…The constable holds his hand out for my phone? I pass it to him.

“Hello this is Constable Andrew Mitchell, I’m on the scene of the vandalism and was called in by the sergeant who had caught the vandalism on camera as it happened. Now as Miss Chase’s truck is well away from the road this wasn’t an accident of something falling out of the window of a fast moving truck.”

There’s a momentary pause on his part. He takes out his hand recorder he’s been using for notes. “Uhm, I’m not sure I’m getting what you mean sir.” He puts the recorder to the ear piece of the phone. Then stops taping after what was said, was said. “Sir, we’ll be down to your offices as soon as possible. I think there has to be a discussion between all the parties involved. Oh and Mr. Murray please have Mrs. Armstrong join us for the meeting.”

“Oh, yes I’m sure we’ll have to bring your employer in on the discussion after all this is a police investigation.”

He hangs up after that and passes me back the phone.

“What’d he say Constable?”

“Nothing I’ll repeat or play back to a lady Miss Chase.”

He goes over and puts the brick that was inside my truck and puts it into an evidence bag, there’s a note in it. He puts it into a manila evidence envelope and I look at him. “I want to know what it says.”

“Miss Chase, It’s not a good idea.”

“They sent that as a message to me.”

“No Miss Chase I’m afraid it was a message for us more than you. It’s telling us that we need to clean this town up.”

“I want to know what they said.”

Brandon puts his hands on my shoulders and pulls me back to him. “Sam, Sam…he’s right, it’s just going to be more of the same bullshit so why torture yourself with it. You don’t need that kind of pain right now.”

He looks at me like he can see into me and can see the guilt I carry in me. “You don’t need to keep punishing yourself.” He hugs me and holds me. “You don’t have to be guilty for being yourself, for changing. You don’t have to feel guilty about surviving either.”

I collapse into tears that I’ve been holding back.

My parents didn’t, wouldn’t ever know the girl I am. Would they have hated me?

Afghanistan…I feel like part of my soul is still over there, I was a medic and a nurse and I should have been saving lives, not killing. Not killing kids…

Brandon…Holding me, knowing like he’s plugged into me. It’s a flood I can’t stop right now, he knows, he knows and it’s out there…He holds me and sits on the front of the Mounties’ car then gently pulls me up into his arms.