The Second Doublewide on the Right, part 24

I’m Fixin’ To Present part 24 of The Second Doublewide on the Right:

Ocmulgee County Deputy Sheriff James Earl Murphy got up way before daylight, eased out of bed so as not to wake Candy Sue, and tiptoed down the hallway to the bathroom. While he stood underneath the stinging stream of hot water in the shower he was thinking about what he planned to do today.

He was finally going to bust that dope dealing neighbor of his, something he had been waiting to do for quite awhile. The suspect had a perfect profile as a dope dealer with all those gold chains around his neck, plus the vehicle he drove was a dead give away.

He would have acted before, but the trouble was that there was never any activity going on at his trailer. The deputy had concealed his squad car off Hwy. 86 several times and followed him, but he always disappeared onto the interstate or into some fried chicken joint.

But now he had him.

After pestering Candy Sue to hint around to him that she wanted some dope, he had finally shown his hand. He had as evidence the two joints Quantavious had given her as a tip when he bought those three lunches. That was a mystery too, why he had bought three lunches. All he knew was that the suspect fit the profile and he had no other obvious means of support, so he meant to bust him. It was downright embarrassing to have a dope dealer living in the same place he lived. But he aimed to fix that right after daylight.

When he had reported to his shift yesterday and received the blessing of his supervisor, he had gone to the Magistrate Judge’s office at the court house and filled out an application for a search warrant.

The judge was a friend of his, but still a stickler for details and very inquisitive concerning evidence, before he would sign a warrant.

“Listed, James Earl,” the judge had said, “you don’t have much here except what you think is going on. Even if you do find drugs when you execute the search warrant, when it gets to court you could still be accused of profiling.”

“But I submitted the two joints as evidence,” James Earl protested.

“And how did you come into possession of them?”

“Uh, I had an undercover informant get them from him.”

“Will they testify in court?” the judge asked.

“Of course they will,” James Earl had replied, “I can promise you that.”

After the magistrate judge had reluctantly signed the search warrant the deputy had returned to the sheriff’s office and made arrangements for the K-9 Officer to accompany him when he executed the search warrant.

Deputy Murphy finished his shower, donned his uniform along with his weapon and other accessories, and was ready to move. He drove with his lights off until he got out to Hwy. 43. Then he flipped them on and turned left heading toward the strip center in Apt-To-Miss. The parking lot was empty when he pulled into it. He waited for eight minutes and was reaching for his cell phone when he saw the headlights approaching.

It was the K-9 Officer and he was late, which aggravated James Earl, because he knew that being late was the kind of mistake that could turn the advantage in the other direction.

The SUV pulled up next to his cruiser, driver’s side to driver’s side, and the K-9 Officer rolled his window down and said, “Morning, James Earl, you ready to roll?”

“I was ready to roll eight minutes ago,” James Earl said with an edge to the tone of his voice. “Where the heck you been?”

“King wouldn’t load up until he had performed his morning toiletries,” the K-9 Officer replied.

King was the Ocmulgee Sheriff Department’s award winning drug dog, a German Shepherd by breed, and could sniff out a gram of any kind of drugs from 20 feet.

James Earl didn’t know how to argue with a dog about his toilet habits so he initiated the action by saying, “It’s fixin’ to be daylight. You know the drill. Cover me when he comes to the door in case he has a weapon. Once I get him cuffed you can bring in King. Let’s roll!”

They went in fast, but when James Earl passed Jimmy Ray Hurd’s trailer he noticed a dim light coming from his kitchen window and wondered what he was doing up so early. He also reminded himself that the skinny, thieving rascal was fixin’ to be next on his list.