51: The Series

51: The Beginning Chapter 2 Part 1

51: The Beginning Chapter 2 Part 1

Lindsay Gold finally made it home and was hoping to have a quiet evening and night after her first day as county sheriff. Thankfully, the day was uneventful for the most part. All the personnel files were read, notes had been made, and a list of employees she wanted to meet was drawn up. So far, it had not been a bad day, and hopefully it would stay that way.

As soon as she walked into her house, she could smell pizza. That meant her husband, Wren, made it home first and decided to make dinner. She walked into the kitchen to find him standing in an apron, with an oven mitt on each hand, facing the oven, looking as if he were ready to battle it.

“Hi, babe. How was your first day back at the department?” he asked without turning around.

“It was good. I read all the employee files. I may need your help with one of my deputies,” she answered.

Wren took the pizzas from the oven and set them on the counter to cool. He walked over to Lindsay and gave her a quick hug and kiss.

“If you need my help, this has got to be bad,” he said with a smile.

Lindsay laughed, “I don’t know if that even describes this situation. Let me start by saying that this deputy is highly trained and very good at what he does. The problem is he is afraid of every woman on the planet over the age of twelve. He can’t look at them or talk to them face-to-face.”

Wren started laughing. He leaned on the kitchen counter to keep from falling. After a minute of uncontrollable laughing, he finally caught his breath enough to ask a question.

“You are telling me that you have a male deputy who is afraid of women?” he asked.

“Yes, I am. If you want to know, I also have a dominatrix who is my receptionist and day dispatcher,” Lindsay replied. “But I don’t need your help with her. I only need your help with him.”

“Wait…your dispatcher is a what?”

“You heard what I said, sweetie. She doesn’t wear leather to work, as far as I know, and even if she does, I’m not going to ask a lot of questions,” Lindsay said.

Wren looked at her and said, “I may tease you about this, but tell me what you need me to do to help. Also, as far as your dispatcher is concerned, you are on your own. I have heard things about her. Don’t worry; they aren’t department related.”

“How do you know about my dispatcher?” she asked. “And when it comes to my deputy, I don’t know yet what we will need to do. He may need more therapy than even possible. I am meeting with him tomorrow, and I will know more then.”

“I have heard things about her from others. I can promise you that you have nothing to worry about,” Wren said.

Lindsay smiled. “I know. I am going to change clothes real quick, then let’s cut those pizzas. Is Dillon home?”

“He is playing video games right now. I will let him know that supper is ready to eat,” Wren answered.

“Thank you, babe,” Lindsay said.

While Lindsay changed clothes, Wren went to Dillon’s room to interrupt his video games. Dillon was the typical teenage boy. He loved his video games and his movies. Dillon was Wren’s stepson, but Wren never thought of him that way. From day one, he had thought of Dillon as his son and treated him as if he were. Wren knocked on Dillon’s partially closed door.

“Dillon, your mom is home, and the pizza is done,” he told Dillon.

Dillon did not even look up, “Cool, what kind of pizza?”

“Seriously, that is the only question you have?” asked Wren. “You don’t want to know how your mom’s day went back at the department?”

“I do, but I will ask her when I see her,” Dillon answered.

“Look, I know you are not thrilled with her going back to work at the sheriff’s department, but she is really happy about this. Can you try to show a little bit of joy about her being happy?” Wren said.

“I’ll try, but this isn’t going to end well again,” Dillon answered.

“Just be nice at dinner. OK?”

“Fine,” Dillon huffed.

By the time they reached the kitchen, Lindsay had already finished changing and was preparing to cut the pizzas.

“Ma’am, put the knife down and step away from the pizza,” Wren said as he walked up behind her.

She just smiled and followed the instructions. Wren always tried to take care of her, even when she did not need it. That was only one of the many reasons she loved him.

The three of them ate and talked about their respective days as much as possible. While Dillon could tell them everything about his day but rarely did, Wren and Lindsay had a somewhat different relationship when it came to discussing work. Lindsay did have some restrictions when it came to open cases and victims that she could not disclose. Some cases came up because of the adult entertainment around the military base that she could talk about with her husband but could not be discussed around her teenage son for obvious reasons. On the other hand, Wren could talk about almost nothing involving his job. He could not even tell Lindsay what he did because everything was confidential or classified. This was part of what made their relationship so strange. Strange or not, for them, it worked perfectly. If one did not volunteer something about their day, the other did not ask.

After they ate, Dillon returned to his video games, and Lindsay and Wren settled in on the couch to watch some evening television. While they were searching for something to watch, there was a knock at the door. They looked at each other as Wren got up to answer the door. When he looked out, he saw a young man wearing a sheriff’s department uniform on the porch.

Wren and Lindsay looked at each other, and Lindsay shook her head. Wren went to the door and opened it.

“May I help you?” Wren asked.

“I was told that the new sheriff wanted to speak with me. My name is Andy Baxter,” he said quietly.

Lindsay was taking a drink of her soda and almost choked when she heard Andy. Who had told Andy to come to her house? Was he even going to be able to look at her? This could either be great because Wren was there, or it could go downhill quickly if Andy panicked.

“Andy, please come in. Have you had a chance to eat this shift? We have pizza if you are hungry,” Lindsay said.

“I… I… I’m fine, ma’am,” Andy stammered as he stared at her.

“Wren, Deputy Baxter is probably the most highly trained deputy the department has,” Lindsay said. “Andy, this is my husband, Wren.” Lindsay could see the look of panic on Andy’s face when she asked him, “What can I do for you?”

Andy had briefly looked up when he and Wren were introduced. Now, he was once again looking at the floor.

“Bob told me that if I didn’t talk to you, I would get fired,” Andy said quietly.

“Which Bob told you that?” Lindsay asked with surprise.

“Big Bob,” he answered.

Lindsay let out an audible sigh. “I was planning on staying at the office later tomorrow to talk to you. You do a great job. I am glad you like your job enough to come here and do this tonight,” Lindsay reassured him. “As for Big Bob telling you that I was going to fire you, I will deal with that tomorrow. He is just messing with you.”

Andy glanced up and looked Lindsay in the face. “You aren’t going to fire me?” he asked.

“Not unless you do something really, really bad, and from what I read in your file today, that will most likely never happen. You seem to be the most by-the-book person in the entire county,” Lindsay said to him with a smile. “Now that we have all that taken care of, would you like to sit and take your meal break here?” she asked him.

“Oh, thank you, ma’am, but I ate already. I’m sorry. If I had known, I wouldn’t have eaten,” Andy quickly said, obviously still very nervous.

“Don’t be sorry. You should eat when you can. Would you like to sit for a minute? Maybe you can explain why you can’t look at women or talk to them,” she said.

Andy just stood there and blushed. Then his radio crackled. Dispatch was asking him to respond to a call of an unknown disturbance at a house in a very remote part of the county.

Lindsay asked, “Do you know where that address is?”

“Isn’t that on the backside of the military base?” Andy answered.

“It is. Have you been in that area before?” Lindsay asked Andy.

“No, ma’am,” he answered.

“Let me change, and I will go with you. That is in the middle of nowhere, and you shouldn’t go alone to a call like that, especially if you don’t know the area,” Lindsay said.

As Andy radioed dispatch, Lindsay ran to her bedroom to throw on her uniform. It had been a while since she had needed to respond to anything, and the last time she had, it was an almost identical call to this one. She had been alone with no backup when things went wrong, and she did not want that to happen to anyone who worked for her.

Wren followed her and walked in as she put on her ballistic vest. It always made him nervous to see everything she wore and carried to be safe and do her job. Hearing this call, he is even more anxious. He knew what had happened. He was the only one she had told everything that she remembered. He realized how fast his heart was beating as he approached her. She had just sat down on the bed and was zipping up her boots. He knew she was ready to walk out that door and deal with whatever that was.

“Linz,” Wren said as she stood up. “Please be careful. This call is not a good one.”

“Wren, I love you. I promise you that I’ll be OK. I’m not going alone, and I am not letting my deputy go alone. Not on something like this,” Lindsay said.

Wren gave her a quick hug and kiss before she left the bedroom.

“Andy, you ready?” she yelled as she walked out of the bedroom.

“Yes, ma’am,” Andy replied.

“Do you want me to drive?” Lindsay asked Andy.

“What?” Andy asked.

“Do you want me to drive? Do you know where we are going? You don’t know that area well, and I will drive if you like,” Lindsay responded as she opened the door and motioned for Andy to exit.

“Oh, uh…sure, OK,” Andy said, handing Lindsay the keys as they walked to the car.

“Andy, this is going to be a very long drive unless you can calm down. We are on the north side of the county, and we have to go to the south side. It will take a while for us to get there,” Lindsay said as they got in the car and she started it.

She quickly backed out of her driveway and turned on the lights and siren. It was now dark and raining slightly with patches of fog. It was not a good night for a call about an unknown disturbance in an area where it would take backup a long time to reach them.

Lindsay sighed, “Andy, keep trying to get more information about the call from dispatch, including a phone number, so you call the reporting party while I drive.”