Cassandra Morgan

     After their company left, Dillon and Evie went in the house. Dillon sank into the couch. 

     “Your head hurtin’?” 

     Evie sat down beside of him. She sat down with her back against the couch arm, draping her legs across his lap. He trailed his finger tips over her smooth thighs. “A little.” He finally answered. 

     “I’m being really really nosy here, why does Cassandra hate you?”

     He thought about how he was going to answer this. No matter what he said, it wasn’t gonna put him in a good light. 

     “Too close to the vest?” Evie smiled.

     He focused on his fingers as they glided over her skin. “I was young, stupid and it was a mistake.” He paused, “before I became sheriff and she became Sunshine Sue, we dated on and off for a while. It didn’t end well. It was heated and got ugly in a hurry.” He gave a nervous smile. “Not my finest moment in life. She’s married now. They have a family but she still hates me.” Evie kept quiet. “Lookin’ back on it. I used her. I knew she had a crush on me in high school. Not my finest moment.”

     “But you see that now. Is there anyway past it?” He didn’t speak. “If she’s married,” Evie paused. “If the internet is her livelihood, maybe the animosity is there for show?” Dillon stared at her in disbelief. “At this stage in life, to bolster ratings?”

     “I never thought about it like that. Still don’t want to take the chance that those feelin’s are still strong.”

     “What are you praying to charge this person with?”

     “Right now all we can do is filing a false report. Once the name can be revealed, I want either the state or the county, maybe both to sue to cover the cost of the investigation. It shouldn’t be the taxpayers responsibility to pay for another’s arrogance.”

Sunshine Sue

     Deputy Banks, Bradley, Evie, Dillon, and another man Dillon introduced as Edward set on the back porch.

     Deputy Banks wrung his hands, “this will not be popular but I think we need to get Sunshine Sue in on this.”

    Dillon scoffed. 

    Edward rolled his eyes. 

     Evie watched each man’s expression to the comment with interest. “If I may ask, who is Sunshine Sue? I’ve heard the name before.”

     “Have you been livin’ under a rock?” Edward snapped.

     She smiled a mischievous smile, “a closet.”

     Bradley spoke, “Sunshine Sue is on every social platform she can be on. Has thousands if not millions of followers.”

     “Busy body,” Edward scoffed. 

     “She might be the right kind of busy body we need,” Banks offered. 

     “Is her name really Sue?” Evie asked, “that’s just too clever.”

     “No,” Dillon offered. She noticed him touching the table. He would touch it. Think for a second or to, raise his finger, then touch the table again. 

     “We need this person to get so pissed, they come out.” Banks remarked.

    “She is definitely the right person to inflame any situation.” Edward smirked.

     “She hates me,” Dillon was still frequently touching the table. 

     “She hates you?” Evie asked.

     “Cassandra,” Dillon blurted out with his finger touching the table.

     “Cassandra Morgan?” Evie asked. “From school?”

     “Yes.” Dillon answered her. 

     Bradley spoke, “hate might be too harsh.”

     “No,” Dillon softly shook his head. 

     “Why?” Edward asked. “I always knew there was some animosity between her and the sheriffs office.”

     “We may need to burry the hatchet.” Banks spoke. “We just might need her.”

     “Let me get this straight,” Evie put a hand on Dillon’s shoulder. “You want Sunshine Sue to poke the bear? You know who this person is?” Evie asked with surprise.

     “Yes. But we have to get something that will stand up in court.” Edward frowned.

     Dillon almost said something but thought better of it. He glanced at Evie. “I have an idea to poke the bear. Bradley, do you have your note pad?” Bradley handed it over with a pen. Dillon scribbled on it. Before handing it back. “Someone anonymously send her a copy of the council minutes from this month.” He pointed at the pad. 

     Banks asked, “Will she be able to figure out what we want her to see or do we need to highlight part of it?”

     “Highlights might be misconstrued as leading,” Edward hissed. “I can’t believe we are doing this.”

    Bradley hung around until everyone had left. “I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have come and got you. I should have just written up my report for you to read.”

     Dillon extended his hand for a hand shake. “It’s all good.”

Stir crazy

     The cool delight of spring was being beaten back by the heavy heat of summer. Dillon fixed the hole in the fence. Now they were laying out a separate driveway with a fence for Hillbilly Yoga. In the back of his mind, Dillon prayed this wasn’t a waste of time and resources. 

     Every evening, Bradley was visiting, fillin’ Dillon in on the investigation. In Evie’s presence. The team from Frankfort wasn’t getting in the way. They were running with the new information they had received. 

     Dillon was pacing like a caged animal. Evie smiled, “my husband please change into some old work clothes.” He did so full of curiosity. After he had changed, she led him to the upper barn where the goats and cows called a dry place and was now home to Hillbilly Yoga. Up to the top of the barn where she had made a plastic cubical with drop cloths, there was all kinds of paint on a stump she was using as a table. And the largest piece of canvas he had ever saw resting on a well used easel. She gave him a pair of rubber gloves and goggles. 

     As she put on a pair of gloves, straightened her goggles, she filled him in. “We have no objective here. Other than to release stress.” She got a hand full of bright pink paint and threw it on the canvas with all her might. Its splatter hit the bottom corner of the canvas. “Was never good at sports,” she shrugged. 

     With great reluctance, he got a hand full of black paint. “This feels wrong.”

     “All the more reason to do it.” She encouraged. His fist full of paint hit bullseye center in the middle of the canvas. “All that target practice.” She winked. There were squirt bottles full of paint. She put red paint on a paper plate; covered her hands, then punched the canvas like it was a punching bag. “Not too hard, you’ll bust through the canvas.” She gently remarked. 

     She removed her gloves as she walked behind one of the plastic sheets. The first song that started playing was a heavy metal song from their childhood. Then hard rock. Some hardcore instrumental music Dillon didn’t even know existed. The music fueled his need to get his frustrations out. Get out of his own head. Each song took him to the edge of the madness in his brain. Would let him release, before building him up again. 

     After about an hour, his arms were starting to burn. The music stopped but he was still going. It took him 10 minutes to realize the music had stopped. He took his gloves off, in true CPR fashion, not getting a drop of paint on his hands, took the goggles off. Evie was sittin’ on one of the stumps watching him catch his breath. 

     She smiled, “feel better?”

     “You are so beautiful.” 

     She blushed, “thank you.”

     “Yes, I do feel better.”

     She walked over to him with an artist paint brush, dripping with white paint. “Sign your masterpiece Mr. Pace.”

     “Where?” He asked, still catching his breath.

     “Any where.” He chose the bottom left hand corner; DJP

     “Perhaps this should be part of Hillbilly Yoga.” He sighed. 

Investigation

     Dillon and Evie were settin’ on the front steps watching Teka play. Dillon had been as distant as the stars lately. He barely spoke. Ate very little. He always looked like he wanted to cry. Evie wouldn’t push him for details. She knew there were things he couldn’t tell her. The dark circles under his eyes were from lack of sleep. “Are you able to talk about anything?” She asked quietly. 

     He glared at her with anger in his eyes. Jumped up, pointed an aggressive finger at her, “I’m not one of your damn clients.” Before she could respond, he was gone. She went back inside and hopped on a call with a client. 

     About the time the thought of dinner crossed her mind, Bradley was knocking at the door. He wasn’t able to contain his excitement. “Have you seen the sheriff? He will not answer my calls. Gotta get ahold of him.”

     “I might know where he is.”

     They found Dillon workin’ on the break in the fence. “Sheriff!” Bradley shouted before he got out of the truck. “I’ve called you at least 25 times.” 

     Evie stood in front of her dad’s truck. 

     Dillon leaned on the post-hole diggers, “here to arrest me.” The words rolled off his tongue with little emotion.

     “Arrest!” Evie shouted.

     Bradley bounced gettin’ closer to the truck with each word. “You gotta come in. You gotta hear this. I ran from the office to get you. You gotta come now. This can’t wait. You gotta hear this with your own ears.”

     Bradley jumped in the middle, like he knew that was his place and they drove straight to town. 

     Evie sat out front in the waiting area while Dillon and Bradley disappeared. In about 15 minutes Dillon reappeared. He was a shade of red Evie had never seen on a person before. Bradley was maybe 10 steps behind him. Everyone stood watching the men disappeared into the sheriff’s office. 

     Angry voices could be heard. Dillon walked out of his office, “It’s been suggested that I take some time off and let y’all take care of this. You know I am confident in your abilities and know you will uphold the letter of the law. This will be no different than me takin’ a vacation.” The room erupted in laughter. Dillon blushed. “Thank you.” Different deputies patted Dillon on the back as he walked toward Evie, “Will you take me home?”

     “Of course.”

     “I’m sorry my love. For a lot of things.” He suggested they stop and get a milkshake before going home. They parked at the farthest bench from the shop. Shakes in hand, they sat on the table part of the bench. “There are a lot of things that are gonna happen that I can’t tell you about.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry that I snapped at you and closed you out. I promise to do better.”

     “Thank you. I will help you if you will let me.”

     “Promise to try.” He gave a weak smile. Lookin’ up, he made sure they were still the only 2 people around. Before scootin’ closer to her. In a whisper he started talkin’, “this job is stressful and consuming.” He smirked. “I’ve let it be. Not only do I have to worry about gettin’ shot.” He stopped. She didn’t say anything to fill in the dead space. “I’ve been investigated more times than I could shake a stick at. Misappropriation of funds, missing evidence, mishandling a prisoner, you name it I’ve been investigated fur it. This is different Evie. This is a career killer. Even if rumors of rumors get out, this could be devastating.” He jumped up and threw his shake into the trees as far as he could. She got up standing beside him. “I’ve been, being,” he corrected; “first; for interfering with a cabinet investigation. Second; I’m,” he choked, “i’m accused of being a pedophile.” Evie’s eyes got as big as quarters. She placed her hand on his arm. “If word gets out that the big dogs from Frankfort are here, I’m finished. There’s not a word of truth to it. People don’t care about the truth.”

     “Do you have any ideas?”

     “Before today, no. The call went straight to Frankfort.”

     “How were you able to work?”

     “I’ve been here so long and have a good enough record; that if I stay away from the investigation, they let me work.”

     “So, after today?”

     He fell onto the seat of the bench. “Dear God, after today.” He hissed, placing his hand over his mouth.

     “What can I do?”

     “Help me. Help me not take matters into my own hands. I have good deputies. They need to do their jobs. Help me not go crazy while they figure this out. They have the answer to the problem. Now they need to connect the dots.”