Whiteside leaned in and hauled a box to the lip of the trunk. Folded blankets and sheets on top. All bedding and towels underneath, Audra remembered. She had packed the kids’ favorite covers and pillowcases: Star Wars for Sean, Doc McStuffins for Louise. She saw the bright pastel shades as the sheriff dug down into the box.
It crossed her mind then to ask why he was looking inside the box, and she opened her mouth to do so, but he spoke first.
‘Ma’am, what’s this?’
He stood upright, his left hand still inside the box, a stack of sheets and blankets held back. Audra stood still for a moment, her mind unable to connect his question to a logical answer.
‘Blankets and stuff,’ she said.
He pointed inside the box with his right hand. ‘And this?’
Fear flicked on like a light. She thought she had been frightened before, but no, that had been simple worry. But this, now, was fear. Something was going terribly wrong here, and she could not grasp what it was.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said, unable to keep a tremor from creeping into her voice.
‘Maybe you should come take a look,’ he said.
Audra took slow steps toward him, her sneakers crunching on sand and grit. She leaned in, looked down into the dim innards of the box. A shape there that she couldn’t quite make sense of.
‘I don’t know what that is,’ she said.
Whiteside slipped his right hand down inside, gripped whatever it was by its edge, and drew it out into the hard light.
‘Care to take a guess?’ he asked.
No question what it was. A good-sized baggie half full of dried green leaves.
She shook her head and said, ‘That’s not mine.’
‘I’d say that looks a lot like marijuana. Wouldn’t you?’
The cold fear in Audra’s breast spread to her arms and thighs like ice water soaking through her clothes. Numb at the center of her. Yes, she knew what it was. But she hadn’t used in years. She’d been completely straight for the last two. Not even a beer.
‘It’s not mine,’ she said.
‘You sure about that?’
‘Yes, I’m sure,’ she said, but a small part of her thought, there was a time, wasn’t there ? Could I have stashed it and forgotten it lay among the sheets? Couldn’t have. Could I?
‘Then you care to tell me how this wound up in the trunk of your car?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said, and she wondered, could it be? Could it?
No. Absolutely not. She hadn’t smoked anything since before her marriage, and she had moved apartments three times. No way the bag could have followed her here, no matter how careless she was.
Heat in her eyes, tears threatening, her hands beginning to shake. But she had to keep control. For the kids, she thought. Don’t let them see you lose it. She wiped a palm across her cheek, sniffed hard.
Whiteside held the bag up to the light, gave it a shake. ‘Well, we’re going to have a talk about who owns this. I tell you, though, I think this is a touch more than could be considered for personal use. So it’s going to be a long and serious talk.’
Audra’s knees weakened, and she put a hand on the lip of the trunk to steady herself.
‘Sir, I swear to God, that’s not mine and I don’t know where it came from.’
And that was the truth, wasn’t it?
‘Like I said, ma’am, we’re going to have a talk about that.’ Whiteside set the baggie on top of the blankets and reached for the cuffs on his belt. ‘But right now, I’m placing you under arrest.’
3
‘WHAT?’
Audra’s legs threatened to give way. Had she not been leaning against the car, she would have collapsed to the ground.
‘Mom?’ Sean had undone his seat belt and was leaning over the backseat, his eyes wide. ‘Mom, what’s happening?’
Louise stared back too, fear on her face. Tears made hot tracks down Audra’s cheeks. She sniffed again and wiped them away.
‘This can’t be,’ she said.
Whiteside’s features remained blank. ‘Ma’am, I need you to come with me to my car.’
Audra shook her head. ‘But … but my children.’
He stepped closer, lowered his voice. ‘For their sake, let’s keep this civil, now. You just do like I say and this whole thing’s going to go a lot easier for you and them. Now come on.’
Whiteside reached for her arm and she allowed him to guide her away from the back of her station wagon to the front of his cruiser.
‘Mom? Mom!’
‘Tell him it’s all right,’ Whiteside said.
Audra looked back to her car. ‘It’s all right, Sean. Look after your sister. We’ll get this straightened out in a few minutes.’
They reached the cruiser, and he said, ‘Empty your pockets onto the hood there.’
Audra dug into the pockets of her jeans, made a pile of tissues and loose change on the hood. Whiteside tossed the bag of marijuana on top.
‘That’s it? Now turn your pockets inside out.’
She did so, and he turned her by the arm so she had her back to him.
‘Hands behind your back.’
Audra heard the snick-click of metal, felt his hard fingers on her wrist.
‘You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney during interrogation; if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand?’
As cool metal wrapped around each of her wrists, the back door of the station wagon opened. Sean spilled out, landed on his hands and knees on the dirt.
‘Mom, what’s happening?’ he called as he scrambled to his feet.
From inside the car, Louise’s frightened cries, rising.
‘Everything’s all right,’ Audra said, but Sean kept coming.
‘Do you understand?’ Whiteside asked again.
Sean, running now, said, ‘Hey, let my mom go.’
‘Sean, just get back—’
Whiteside jerked and twisted the cuffs, shooting pain into Audra’s wrists and shoulders. She cried out, and Sean skidded to a halt.
‘Do you understand your rights?’ Whiteside asked once more, his mouth at her ear.
‘Yes,’ she said, the word squeezed between her teeth, the steel biting into her skin.
‘Then say it. Say, yes, I understand.’
‘Yes, I understand.’
‘Thank you.’ He turned to Sean. ‘Best get back in the car now, son. We’ll get this all settled in a minute or two.’
Sean raised himself to his full height, tall for his age, but he looked so tiny there on the side of the road.
‘Let my mom go.’
‘I can’t do that, son. Now go on back to the car.’ He jerked the cuffs again, spoke into her ear. ‘Tell him.’
Audra hissed at the pain.
‘Tell him, or this is going to get complicated.’
‘Sean, go back to the car,’ she said, fighting to keep the fear from her voice. ‘Listen, your sister’s crying. You need to go and take care of her. Go on, be a good boy for me.’
He pointed at Whiteside. ‘Don’t you hurt her,’ he said, then he turned and walked back to the station wagon, glancing back over his shoulder as he went.
‘Brave boy,’ Whiteside said. ‘Now, you got anything sharp on you? Anything that might cut me when I search you?’
Audra shook her head. ‘No, nothing. Wait, what, search me?’
‘That’s right,’ Whiteside said as he hunkered down behind her. He wrapped his big hands around her ankle and squeezed, moving the fabric of her jeans against his palms.
‘You can’t do that,’ she said. ‘Can you? A woman officer should do it.’
‘I can search you, and that’s what I’m doing. You don’t get special treatment just for being a woman. Was a time I could have called on the Silver Water PD for a female officer, just as a courtesy to you, not because I’m obliged to – I’m not – but not anymore. Mayor closed the P D three years ago. Town couldn’t afford it anymore.’
His hands worked their way up her calf and thigh, squeezing, exploring. Then he pressed the back of one hand up between her thighs, into her crotch, only for a moment, but enough to close her eyes and sour her stomach. Then across her buttocks, into the hip pockets, and down the other leg, before his forefingers probed down into her sneakers. Then he stood, hands brushing down her sweat-soaked back, around the front, across her stomach, skimming the outline of her breasts, up to her shoulders, down her arms.