Page 37 of Wild Card
“What’s to negotiate? It’s stolen property. You return it.” She paused. “Right?”
Rusty’s trailer park was coming up on my right. I flipped on my blinker.
“It’s not that simple. This is a living creature we’re talking about, not some tools out of a shed.”
“That’s fair,” she said, “but that’s not how the law sees it.”
“Well, sometimes a situation is not black-and-white, and you have to make a judgment call.”
“Okay, so what is your judgment telling you?”
My judgment told me that the sheriff wouldn’t understand what I was doing. He wouldn’t care what was fair, only what was easiest. But Axel had a good heart, and in this case, he was as much a victim as a criminal. He’d stolen Banshee, yes, but Rusty had dumped her and then stolen her back from a guy good enough to care for her.
Nothing about that sat right with me. Even if it wasn’t Axel involved, even if it was a guy I hadn’t just gotten down and dirty with, I liked to think my judgment would be the same. Axelregularly took in the county’s discarded animals, and this wasn’t how we should repay him for his good deeds.
Rusty was the asshole here, but he had the legal proof on his side, so I had to play this carefully.
“My judgment tells me that sometimes we can work out a dispute without an arrest being made. That’s what I’m going to do.”
“Okay, if you’re sure you can persuade Mr. Waters. He seemed pretty determined to have his way.”
“He sure did, but I’ll figure it out. Start updating the report. I’ll get Rusty to drop the charges.”
“Okay.” That was the tapping of keys in the background. “I’m just typing in here that the two parties resolved their differences over a misunderstanding with mediation from Deputy Harvey. Does that sound good?”
“Yep, that’ll work. Thanks, Deputy.”
Now, all I had to do was get Rusty to play ball. I was going to keep this all aboveboard, which meant I had to get that irrational man to listen to reason.
It might be easier to take a page out of Sheriff Hale’s playbook and threaten or blackmail the guy. But that wasn’t me. I was going to have to persuade Rusty.
Nicely, even.
I disconnected the call and turned into the trailer park. Rusty’s red car was still in the drive when I arrived.
I strode up the wobbly porch steps and pounded on the metal door. “Rusty? Open up.”
He yanked the door open, red-rimmed eyes unfocused, pupils dilated. “Well? Did you get my dog?”
“Your dog is safe.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I know.” I pushed past him, observing Candy passed out on the lumpy brown sofa. “Is your girlfriend okay?”
“She’s fine,” Rusty said dismissively.
I crossed to the sofa and knelt next to her. I placed my fingers at her throat. Her skin was hot, but her pulse thrummed strong and steady. She was wasted, but she didn’t appear to be in any immediate danger.
With a sigh, I got to my feet and turned to Rusty. “You should get her into treatment. Meth is nasty stuff.”
He ignored me. “Where’s my fucking dog?”
“She’s with Axel, safe and sound.”
“Why didn’t you bring her back? He stole her!”
“Because you didn’t tell me the whole story,” I said. “It’s messy, Rusty. I could arrest you just as easily as him.”
