Page 83 of Rent Free

My mom grumbled under her breath.

Pepper all out laughed.

“Then where did it come from, Ms. Solomon?” Assistant Chief Cruz asked carefully. “Because you were caught with this on your person. You had no stops that would’ve netted you that kind of bust. I’m not dumb, Ms. Solomon. You’re going to need to tell us the truth now.”

Sage started to cry, and a couple of weeks ago even, that would’ve affected me. Now? Well, now all it did was piss me off because I saw it for the manipulation it was.

“I confiscated it from a man selling them on the corner,” she continued to lie. I was going to arrest him, but he had a little boy with him named Forest.”

“That lying twat,” Pepper groused. “She’s only saying the first name that pops in her head.”

Disgust rolled through me.

“Then we’ll corroborate your story with the bodycam footage.” He leaned back in his chair.

“I didn’t have it on,” she lied.

“It’s always on,” he corrected. “For it not to be on would mean that you didn’t pick it up from the shift manager.”

He pointed at her chest, and she looked down.

The bodycam was right there in the middle of her chest.

One thing that DPD had done when my dad took over was require 24/7 bodycam footage on every officer on shift.

It’d been decided that it was safest for all involved, citizens and officers alike, to have camera footage to fall back on if shit hit the fan.

“Oh, I, uh…” she stalled.

“Can you access her body cam?” Pepper asked curiously.

“Yes,” Dad said. “Give me a… There.”

He pressed play on the body cam and mute on the show in interrogation room four.

There, we watched her go up to a man who looked slightly shady. After a back and forth, she demanded to have the drugs that he was selling and threatened him if he didn’t.

Without a word, he slapped a couple of bags of pills in her hand and ran.

She shoved them all in her pocket—sans gloves—and started whistling as she headed back to her car.

“Did she at least wipe down the bag?” I pinched the bridge of my nose, my knuckles playing along the back of Pepper’s neck.

“Yes,” Dad said. “She at least had that going for her.”

“You’re firing her, right?” Pepper asked carefully.

“She was fired the moment those cuffs went on her wrists,” Mom assured her. “This is a public relations nightmare due to her notoriety after the kidnapping. Also, she’s a cop, and she was arrested in the highest profile hotel in the area. Now we’re trying to find out if we want to charge her.”

“Charge her, please.” Pepper leaned forward, pressing both of her palms together in a praying motion. “Please.”

Mom laughed. “Sadly, it’s not up to us. We can charge her all we want but it’s up to the DA, who fucking hates us, to prosecute. There are no promises.”

Pepper sighed, wiggling in her seat.

“Peppa!”

Pepper looked over at Forest, who was holding out a pen.

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