Chapter 5

Mary Beth Franldin, Sheriff Zimel's secretary, was in the process of clearing her workload from her desk so that she could go to lunch at eleven-thirty. She was about to buzz the sheriff, to tell him that she was leaving when she heard the sound of footsteps coming down the red-tile floor of the main corridor of the county court house. She held her breath as a ripple of raw apprehension spread through her slender body.

"Oh, no-not today," she moaned.

Even before the outer door to the office opened she knew that it was Hanna Samualson-Hard Hanna! It had to be. There was something about the click-click sound of the metal cleats on that woman's cowboy boats as they pounded against the tile that was most distinctive. No other woman in the county carried herself with so much authority.

The frail blonde's big, blue eyes grew bright and round as the outer door banged open, and a tall, raw-boned amazon in western-style jeans and a flannel shirt open to her navel stormed into the room.

"Hey Miz Samualson," the secretary said, and tried hard to smile as she grabbed for the phone on her desk. "I-I'll tell Sheriff Zimel that you're here, ma'am!"

"Never mind announcing me, little girl," Hanna said with a toss of her long, fiery red hair. She hardly slowed down as she moved passed the secretary, pushed open the door to the sheriff's private office and walked inside. "Rasco...."

The sheriff leaped to his feet. "Why, Hanna," he said, and ran the back of his hands over his thin, bloodless lips, wiping away the remnants of the chicken salad sandwich he had been eating. "This is a nice surprise. What brings you into town on a Thursday!"

Hanna glared at Mary Beth who stood in the doorway. The frail blonde looked as if she had just lost her best friend. "What the hell are you looking at, little girl?" the amazon demanded. "Go file something...."

Mary Beth swallowed hard. "Well, I-that is, the sheriff-ah...." She hung her head, unable to think of anything to say.

"It's alright, Mary Beth," Rasco said. "Listen, I think you'd better hold off going to lunch for a while. I may need you later!"

"But, Sheriff, I...."

Hanna kicked the door closed, cutting off the frightened girl's words. "Pest," she moaned as she flopped down into the chair at the side of the desk. "I hope you're fucking that little bitch, Blue. She ain't good for much else!"

"She's a good secretary, Hanna...."

"Sure, sure," the amazon said, and set her feet up on top of his desk. There was a gaunt sort of sharpness about the woman's features, accented by the fact that she had her long hair tied back from her face in a ponytail, highlighting her high cheek bones and snapping green eyes. She lighted a cigarette, tossed the spent match over her shoulder to the carpeted floor. "I still hope you're fucking her!"

The sheriff moaned, sighed in frustration.

He was a short, pot-bellied man in his late forties with thinning gray hair and steel-blue eyes. He carried himself in a proud, military manner, shoulders back and barrel chest out. Still, there was an obvious sense of weariness about him-a feeling that here was an old horse who had been at the wars too long. It was his hard, intense eyes that had earned him the nickname of "Blue." He had served four terms as Sheriff-sixteen years, and he hoped to serve sixteen more.

"Can I get you something, Hanna?" he said in a tight, controlled voice that revealed none of the animosity he felt at the moment. "A Coke? Ice tea?"

"Knock it off, Blue," the amazon said coldly. "There's no need to play games. You know why I'm here ... and no amount of beating around the bush will change that!"

"Now, Hanna, I.. "Don't you dare 'now, Hanna' me, Rasco Zimel," the redhead said angrily and ground the stub of her cigarette out on the top of his desk. "This isn't easy for me, either, you know? I mean, I have my pride. Now, let's forget all the nonsense and get right down to the business at hand!"

The sheriff picked up the phone on his desk and buzzed his secretary. "Mary Beth," he said with a sigh, "would you please have one of the deputies assemble all the prisoners in the viewing room? Ah-Miz Samualson had a break-in at her motel the other night and she thinks she can recognize the man. We may be holding him on another charge!"

"The men are just sitting down to lunch, Sheriff!"

"Oh, yeah. Wait a minute," Rasco said, and held the receiver down against his chest. "The prisoners are eating at the moment, Hanna. I don't suppose that you could wait until they...." The look on her face stopped him cold. "Sorry," he said as he returned the receiver to his ear. "Better get them assembled now!"

"Yes, sir...."

Rasco returned the receiver to the cradle, looked long and hard at Hanna. "Whether you believe it or not, we could both end up behind bars because of this," he said.

"If you don't look after your friends, Rasco," Hanna said as she lighted a fresh cigarette, "they won't look after you!"

Rasco touched his fingers to the gold badge pinned to his chest. "I get the picture," he said bitterly. He picked up the remnants of his chicken salad sandwich, looked at it for a moment and then dropped it back onto the paper plate on his desk. He had lost his appetite. He could feel the muscles in his back and shoulders beginning to knot, reflecting his mounting sense of apprehension. "Relax, Rasco...."

"You're a bit early this time, Hanna-aren't you?" the sheriff said. "It seems to me like-oh, less than two weeks since you were last here!"

"Lilith will be home from college for her summer vacation in a few days," Hanna said. "I thought Yd better sneak something in before she got here. Besides, I've been randy as a hoot owl for days!"

"How's Lilith doing?" Rasco said. "Getting to be a grown-up woman?"

"Yeah-physically,-anyway," Hanna said with a sigh. "I expect you to keep an eye out for her over the summer. I don't want some local buck figuring she's ripe for plucking."

"I'll do my best, Hanna, but you know...."

"Your best is all that anyone can ask," Hanna said coldly. "By the way, did I tell you that Chip Neilson was out to the motel to see me the other day!"

"Oh, and what did he want?" Rasco said. "As if I didn't already know!"

"He's been out of work since you fired him," the redhead said. "He's thinking about running against you this fall. He-well, he seemed to feel that my support might be of some help to him!"

"You know why I had to fire him as my Chief Deputy, don't you, Hanna?" Rasco said. "That man...."

The amazon cut off his words with a wave of her hand. "He wasn't happy with what I told him, Blue," she said. "I told him flat out that you had my total support!"

"I appreciate that, Hanna," Rasco said. "I know if it wasn't for you and True Fitzgerald I-well, I wouldn't be the sheriff of this county!"

"True's still helping you with the black vote?"

"You know she is!"

"Well, I guess we can expect to see you in that pretty brown uniform and that shiny gold badge for some time to come, Blue," the redhead said.

The sheriff was about to reply to Hanna when the buzzer on his phone sounded. "Yeah," he snarled into the receiver. "What do you want?"

"There's no need to bite my head off, Sheriff Zimel," Mary Beth said, the pout on her lips carrying on over to her voice. "The men are assembled in the viewing room!"

"I'm sorry I was so gruff, Mary Beth, but..

"HANG UP THE PHONE," Hanna screamed. "I'm in a hurry. You can make up with-with Miss Franklin. I've got a motel to run!"

"Listen, Mary Beth, I...."

The sheriff jerked the phone away from his ear as his secretary banged the receiver down into the cradle on her end of the line. "She's a sweet kid, Hanna," he said. "Let's see what you've got for me!"

"Yeah-right," Rasco said as he walked over to the wall facing his desk, slipped a key into the lock there, and then slid back a four-foot section of paneling, revealing a piece of one-way glass that looked into the holding tank that was used as a viewing room. "That's the lot," he said, and then stepped out of the way as Hanna walked up to the glass and peered inside.

Nine men-most of them under twenty-shuffled about on the floor of the tank. They were all dressed in faded,, khaki overalls with a huge black "P" stenciled across the back and on the right knee. Periodically one or another of them would step up to the window (which, of course, was a mirror on their side) and look at himself.

"I see you've got-Billy Meeks with you again," she said. "I heard that he caught my sister in bed again!"

Rasco shrugged. "You been out to see Nancy yet?"

"No time," Hanna said. "I-I'll stop at the hospital after I leave here!"

"Good, good...."

"Billy looks like hell!"

"Well, I-I guess he's feeling guilty!"

"Poor guy," the redhead said with a sigh. "Hey, Blue, who is the blond boy?"

"Which blond boy, Hanna?" the sheriff said. "There's a couple of towheads in there!"

"The stranger-see?" Hanna said as she pointed toward a tall, slender youth with shoulder-length hair and sparkling blue eyes. "The pretty one!"

"Name's Bobby Reese," the sheriff said. "Up from Louisiana somewhere. You don't want him, Hanna.

Hell, he ain't much more than a baby. He just turned seventeen!"

"Yeah, but he sure is pretty," Hanna said, and ran the tip of her tongue hungrily across the rim of her lips. "What'd he do to get himself in here?"

"Traffic violation," the sheriff said with a sigh. "State boys brought him in. Caught him doing better than eighty out on the interstate. I guess they had to chase him for more than fifty miles!"

"What did he get?"

"Well, we had to impound his car. He-ah, he couldn't pay the fine. Judge Williams gave him thirty days. I called his sister down in Louisiana. She's the only family the boy has. I guess the boy's given her a lot of trouble in the past few months and she...."

"How long's he been in!"

"About eleven days, I guess," Rasco said. "I could check the record for you. I know he wasn't here the last time you-ah, paid me one of your special visits!"

The redhead felt her nipples grow hard and begin to pulse as she gazed at the boy. "What does he look like under all the jail-house rags?" she said. "Nice, I'll bet!"

"How the hell would I know, Hanna?" Rasco demanded. "Do you think I go around checking prisoner's dongs, for pity sake? I mean, really, Hanna!" The muscles in his shoulders began to sputter and snap. "What can I tell you? See for yourself, a skinny, good-looking kid. I guess you'd call him quiet The only time he's so much as raised his voice above a whisper in here is when one of the older inmates tried to-ah, that is, there was some talk that...."

"It's called homosexual rape, Blue," Hanna said quietly. "Did the boy lose his cherry?"

"Well, I-I...."

"It really doesn't matter," the redhead said. "He's what I want, ni take him!"

"Hold on-just a darn minute, Hanna," the sheriff said. "I can't just up and release a man without a court order! You know that!"

"How much was his fine?"

"One hundred dollars-plus court costs!"

"And what did you get for the car?"

"Fifty bucks-and lucky at that," Rasco said. "It was an old beater, real junk!"

"Alright-that's half of it," Hanna said. "How' much off for the time he's already served?"

"The court usually figures it at three dollars a day!"

"So eleven days at three dollars a day...."

"Make it twelve," the pot-bellied man said with a sigh. "That'll include today!"

"So, that's thirty-six more. A total of eighty-six off the fine, right? He still owes fourteen!"

"Don't forget the court costs, Hanna," the sheriff said. "That's twelve-fifty more!"

"I'll leave a check with Miss Pure Pussy out front on my way out, Rasco. You make sure you have him out to my place by-say, six-thirty. I'll bet he could use a good meal after twelve days of county cooking!"

"Wait, Hanna...."

"I'll have the boy on a bus heading for Louisiana before noon tomorrow, Blue!"

"You sure about that, Hanna?" the sheriff said "Really sure, I mean? It seems to be like you kept that last boy for nearly a week!"

"It was only five days, Blue," Hanna said, and lifted her chin slightly, smiling vaguely against the memory. "Five beautiful days-and nights. Just couldn't wear that boy out, and-believe me, Blue-I really tried!"

"Yeah, HI bet!"

The pain in his back and shoulders had spread to his arms and legs, and he wanted to scream-or better still, pick the amazon up his arms and throw her bodily from his office.

"You know, Hanna," he said with a groan, "you'd save the both of us an awful lot of trouble if you'd just get yourself married again. There must be...."

"Hey, fuck that noise," the redhead said. "No man is ever going to run my life for me! Besides, marriage isn't for me. I tried it-once. Like mama and Nancy, I need a bit of variety in my sexual life!"

"You promise, Hanna?" Rasco said. "You'll have the boy on a bus by noon tomorrow?"

"Scout's honor," Hanna said, and drew an "X" over her left breast with the tip of a finger. She strolled over to the door, stood there for a moment with her hand on the handle. "Just you make sure he's out there by six-thirty. And, Blue-could you see to it that he gets a bath before he gets there? Get him-you know, all slicked up and smelling sweet?"

"Yeah-sure!"

"You're a love, love....