Page 84 of Risking it for the Cowboy

Tyler’s boots crunched away, and the din faded.

“What the hell’d you do, Thaddeus?”

“Nothing, asshole. Cindy hooked me up and, well, I got a problem. Something ain’t right, and I don’t know how to find out why. Of the thousands of divorces and custody cases Calvin Mitchell’s presided over, he always takes a hardline position on the parent paying child support.”

“And?”

“I crunched the numbers. He demands parents pay what they oughta and goes after the deadbeats.”

“But?”

“But then there’s Jason Thompson.”

“What d’you mean? Jason Thompson? That fool who tried to defraud you? I thought you were looking up stuff about Charlie.”

A door closing through the cell shrouded Ty’s voice in stillness. A moment later, a chair creaked.

“Yup. Jason. And yup. Charlie.”

“What do the two have to do with each other?”

“Mitchell was the judge who told me since I’d mixed up my court dates, my case was dismissed. And Mitchell just so happened to preside in Charlie’s divorce from Jason.”

“No shit…” Tyler fell silent with surprise. “Jason is her ex?”

“Yup.”

“Who’s been deciding their custody disputes since?”

T.R. leaned back and swigged coffee from his thermos. “I’ll give you one guess.”

Silence.

“Mitchell? Coincidence that in two jurisdictions, yours in Travis County, and Charlie’s here in Nacogdoches County, the same judge gets assigned to the same guy?”

“Yeah, I’m thinkin’ not,” T.R. said.

A tapping sound in the background clicked. Tyler was typing.

“That’s gonna be tough to prove.”

“Maybe,” T.R. said. “But Charlie and Daisy are gonna keep suffering for it if they can’t get before a different judge.”

“And if Mitchell is playing the system to get Jason’s cases … is he tough on Jason too?” Tyler’s question sounded as if he already suspected the answer.

“Nope. Like night and day. Mitchell ain’t once thrown the book at Jason. Charlie’s taken him to court three times asking for sole custody. Denied each time. And each of her bids to get him to pay child support or adhere to the rules he don’t drink when Daisy’s with him? Jason has excuses each time about his employment. Mitchell doesn’t do a damn thing to increase Jason’s accountability.

“And that ain’t all. When it comes to these thousands of custody cases Mitchell has heard, in the ones where one parent is volatile, Mitchell was swift in curtailing a parent’s visitation or in a few cases, severing it all together.”

“Lemme guess. Except when it comes to Jason.”

T.R. gritted his teeth. “Hit the nail on the head. Charlie never told me about how he hurt her, just that he has.” His teeth clenched, because now she didn’t need to; he’d read the details of the divorce for himself. “But now I know, he gave her black eyes, a fractured rib once, countless bru … bruises.” His voice vanished on that one and he cleared his throat to find it again. “Driven under the influence with Daisy in the truck. Few times she’s gone on dates, he’s stalked her, tellin’ the courts he wants to remarry. Can’t seem to let her go but won’t treat her right neither. Not once have his visitations been curtailed or supervised despite Charlie begging. When Jason resurfaced demanding visitation after being MIA for a year, his parental rights were restored with no guardrails.”

“Looks like our boy gets away with murder.”

Yeah, that … was the worst possibility. He clicked open the record number he’d earmarked, sliding his glasses back on.

“In fact, aside from a few verbal censures to abstain from drinking—not even that has been enforced. When she first called the police and got the divorce ball rolling, charges were suddenly dropped. She should have pressed charges.”