Page 50 of American Love Story

Ron scoffed and that angled his head toward the sheriff. “What would be the right time for you, Whit? After one of these kids gets shot on their way home from school?”

Cindy looked like she finally realized that she’d made a bad call by coming to this and stood up. “I’m going to get some fresh air.”

Sheriff Day’s eyes widened as if only now realizing that Cindy was only a few weeks out of surgery. “If Lorraine knows you’re out here, she’s going to have all our heads.” Cindy’s partner had been a teacher in the Ithaca school district for twenty years and most knew her well and respected her. We also knew she was not anyone to mess with, especially when it came to Cindy.

Cindy glared at all of us as she walked to the door. When she had her hand on the doorknob, she turned around. To my surprise, she finally seemed to have lost her patience.

“Whitney, I’m old and don’t want to have another heart attack. Can you please stop acting like there’s not a problem?Fix this, for fuck’s sake. Do we want all your hard work blowing up because a kid gets shot?” With that, she left, leaving us all in tense silence.

“If it were a matter of one person fixing this, it would already be over. I know you can’t fix all of it,” Ron said exhaustedly. “But you need to do better than a slap on the hand.”

Day twisted his mouth to the side, and when he spoke, I had to refrain from sitting on Ron. “It took a year to get this department back on track after I came out. Easton, you know that. It seemed like half the county was suspicious of me. If I take sides on this…” He trailed off, but his meaning was crystal clear.

Ron leaned in then and the menacing look in his eyes made me think that we’d be lucky if this thing didn’t end up in a brawl. “Please tell me this isn’t about your fucking popularity, Whitney. Do you know what it’s like to have two black teens about to get licenses with this mess going on?”

Ron’s emotional words seem to finally sink in. Day’s usually unaffected face went from realization, to concern, to finally what looked like genuine empathy for Ron’s distress. He uncrossed his arms and clapped Ron’s shoulder, before he spoke. “Ron, I’m not trying to say this is simple, I just don’t know what to do.”

Ron’s shoulders relaxed a fraction, but he looked to me to respond.

“I’m not saying any of us have all the answers here, but we need to find them. This is our fucking job. We promised to do this. If people are scared for their kids, we are failing at our jobs. To start, we need to let this community know, in no uncertain terms, that we do not think what is happening is acceptable.”

Day let out a long breath and turned to look at me. “I’ve made an active effort to recruit more minorities.” I sighed at his words because he just wasn’t getting it. “You know I even had that LGBT training last year, and how much shit I got for it. We’ve gota lot going on, with the opiates addiction wreaking havoc in the rural areas.”

I sighed, well aware of all the shit he was dealing with, because our office had to deal with all those drug charges, but it irked me the way he was talking like he wanted us to commend him for doing the bare minimum. “But hiring minorities is not exactly groundbreaking.” He flinched at that, but I needed to make it clear that I was not patting him on the back for doing what labor laws required him to do. “I know you have your hands full, Whitney.” I leaned in, looking straight at him. “But we cannot just kick the can down the road on this. If something terrible happens, what are we going to tell ourselves then?”

He nodded and let out another long suffering breath. “Fine, I will make sure this is dealt with, but I will appreciate it if I’m given some time to deal with this internally. I’m not ready to crack heads just yet.”

It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear. I wanted Day to push for an anti-racism training for recruits. I wanted him to publicly talk about implicit bias training, to say that we didn’t want to become another town where young black and brown men had to be scared for their lives just because of the color of their skin. But I knew I couldn’t make Day do it, and now he was asking me to keep my mouth shut, too. I looked over my shoulder at Ron, who’d been standing since Cindy had left the room. He twisted his mouth to the side, and I knew, like me, he wasn’t impressed by Day’s answer, but also knew it was probably all we were going to get.

I spoke up before Ron could. “We can give you time, but I can’t promise we won’t have to respond to this at some point. I will not let this county be another one in the long list of towns in this country that sweeps shit like this under the rug.”

chapter fourteen

easton

“Where are you running off to?”

I looked over my shoulder and saw Cindy coming after me as I tried to make my escape out of the courthouse. Things between us had been a little awkward since the meeting with Day, but I’d been too busy to give too much thought to it.

It was Friday and the end of the first week of the trial for the college student sexual assault case we’d been working on for months. It was almost 7:30 p.m. and we’d been debriefing for the three hours since the judge rested for the weekend. I was ready to call it a day. As always, in cases like this, it had been emotionally draining and combined with the stress of the fuckery happening with the sheriff’s department, I needed a break.

“I’m not running,” I answered Cindy as we made our way down the steps leading out of the courthouse.

Cindy had been coming to see the trial, which meant she probably wanted to talk about it with me. Our side was done with witnesses and the defense was bringing in their first one on Monday. That meant we’d work all weekend trying to figure out what they would try to bamboozle us with. I wanted a night off before the two straight days of work I was sure were ahead of me.

Especially because I was supposed to see Patrice tonight. We were actually going out for dinner, which was different. We’dbeen doing this thing where he’d shown up around dinner time, either with some takeout in hand or with a bottle of wine. It was a thinly veiled booty call, but I wasn’t in a place to deny him. I’d gladly have Patrice Denis in my bed as long as he wanted to be there.

Although that wasn’t fair; it was a lot more than fucking. We’d been getting to know each other; we’d been talking and laughing.So much laughing.My biggest problem at the moment was the fact that the more I got to know Patrice Denis, the more I wanted him, all of him. Even after all the time we’d spent together, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get that.

“Oohhhh, this is about the stunner,” Cindy said, her distant expression changing for the usual impish one she sported whenever we talked about my dating life. A knot I didn’t even know I had in my stomach loosened a bit and I smiled back.

“His name is Patrice Denis, and yes, we’re having dinner together. I’m meeting him at that brewery that has the good pumpkin beer.”

Cindy balked at that. “Ugh, I don’t know how you drink that stuff,” she said, shuddering.

I looked around at the trees, which were half bare already. Early October had a bite here in Ithaca. “I embrace the fall weather and all it has to offer.”

“Ummhmm.” Cindy did not look convinced. “So things are going well then?”