Page 27 of The Interns

“But it didn’t take long for it to get out of control. Incentives were offered for the number of tickets written, competitions to see who could get more started among officers, numbers were fudged, radar guns weren’t calibrated, maybe even tampered with…” He sighed, growing visibly frustrated with the situation. “I didn’t feel comfortable with it anymore, so I took any assignment I could to get out of doing it…you really want to hear all this?”

“Yeah.” Not only did she want to hear this, she needed to hear it.

“So I was on duty at the precinct one night when a woman and her daughter, a girl a few years younger than me, were brought in for resisting arrest. Turns out they got caught up in a speed trap on their way from Atlanta to Athens, and the woman called them on their bullshit which most people didn’t have the nerve to do, and the deputies didn’t like that. Things escalated and they arrested the women.”

“Assholes,” Maya murmured under her breath.

“Yeah, the assholes messed with the wrong people, though, because those women were Al’s wife and daughter. When he came in to bail them out, he was calm, but asked a lot of questions. He knew something was up obviously. So, when I went home that night, I tried to sleep off my bad shift, but I couldn’t. I knew, deep down, that if I didn’t speak up about the corruption, I may as well have been doing it myself, so I looked him up the next day and gave him a call. I told him he was right to question it, and it went from there.”

“Did he end up bringing a case against the department?” she asked eagerly, feeling like he’d left her hanging in the middle of the story.

“He hired someone who did, yes,” he confirmed. “The department, the city, the county.”

“Did you have to testify?”

“No. They didn’t end up needing me to. There was more than enough evidence for the case.”

“Did your colleagues ever find out that you were the whistleblower?” she followed up right on the heels of his last answer.

He dropped his chin to his chest and began to chuckle, and Maya realized that her questioning had moved squarely into his personal life. “Sorry.”

“You’re fine. No, it was pretty much an open secret around town, but I never admitted to it before I left.”

“You put your job and standing in the community on the line for two people you didn’t know.”

He shook his head. “It wasn’t really like that. I never should have let it get to that point. I still feel guilty that it took me three years before I spoke up and left. But that’s why I’m going back to Clayville after graduation. I’ll get my foot in the door as an assistant district attorney, and once I’m district attorney, I’ll have the power to investigate law enforcement misconduct and other corruption within the local government. I love my hometown, but it’s far from perfect.”

“You’re gonna clean house.”

“Hopefully.”

“That’s an admirable thing to do.”

He pressed his lips together, not quite in a grin, then looked away uncomfortably. “I’m gonna grab a smoke.”

“Wha?”

She recoiled as he slid off of his stool and walked away. The abrupt end to their conversation left her mind reeling. Had she pushed too much or overstepped his boundaries? Her eyes moved from the empty stool to him walking across the bar with his easy stride, a few steps behind a few of Prescott’s crew who had left their table and were headed out the back door.

Damn, Stanton. He hadn’t missed a beat despite seeming so relaxed and distracted by the ball game and their conversation. She wasn’t sure why anything about him surprised her anymore because every time she learned something new, it only deepened her respect for him. He was laid back, but motivated. Practical, but smart. Tough when he needed to be, but fair. Simply put, he was a good guy. A guy she was happy to share this work with and have on her side.

“You’re not from around here, are you?”

A man, probably a few years older than her, watched her from around the corner of the bar. He wore a pair of khakis and a pristine white polo shirt with the Prescott Family Plumbing logo on the front pocket. He had green eyes, a golden tan, and blonde hair that was neatly trimmed into a crew-cut.

“No.” She slid her empty bottle away, folded her arms, and rested them on the bar. “Just passing through.”

“From the city?”

His eyes traveled down the front of her sleeveless ivory blouse and skimmed across her snug tan skirt and bare legs. She tilted her head contrarily, and he gave her a fake, plastic smile.

“It’s pretty obvious,” he said.

She hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to answer him truthfully, lie, or say nothing at all. They had come to this bar for an encounter like this, but without Reed by her side, she was having doubts about how to play it. And then she remembered Reed’s words. We’re just two people getting a drink. So there was nothing wrong with just letting this guy talk and seeing where it went.

“Yeah,” she admitted, going with the truth, but without giving away too much.

“I’m planning on moving up there soon.”

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