The Second Doublewide on the Right, part 15
I’m Fixin’ To present part 15 of The Second Doublewide on the Right:
Candy Sue’s breath caught in her throat and her hand flew to her chest when she turned toward the voice coming from behind her. Besides being brutally handsome, he was also tall and well built, not to mention that he had a big gun on his hip, but it was the handcuffs on his belt that quickened her pulse.
Deputy Murphy waited patiently as if he knew she was flustered and would eventually regain her voice. Finally, she did, and gazed up toward him with fluttering eyes and trembling lips as she said, “I got this guy following me around, stealing my money, flattening my tires and leaving dirty messages on my cell phone and I ain’t got nobody to turn to for help!”
“You do now,” the deputy said in a reassuring tone, “you’ve come to the right place. What I’ll need to do first is get some details, and we can do that if you’ll step inside my office for a few moments.”
Candy Sue indicated her intention of doing exactly what he had requested by rising from her seat and following him to the door he had entered from. While he was unlocking it with his key she asked, with her eyes on his belt, “Are you going to handcuff me?”
As he swung the door open he turned, chuckled and said, I’ don’t think that will be necessary.”
“At least not this time,” Candy Sue thought to herself as she followed him down a narrow hallway where they passed several small offices before he turned into one of them and motioned for her to have a seat next to his cluttered little desk.
Somewhere among the stacks of paper he located a pad and a pen. Then he said to her, “Tell me everything,” and she did while he made lots and lots of notes.
After she had related every last detail about what had been happening between her and her ex-husband she asked the deputy if he thought the law could do anything about it?
“I think we can, ma’am,” he replied while still writing on his pad. “Based on the information you have furnished I believe I can get an arrest warrant issued on the charges of stalking, criminal trespass, theft by deception and with making threatening and harassing phone calls. Do you save the messages on your cell phone?”
“Uh huh,” she confirmed and continued, “What has to happen in order to get an arrest warrant issued?”
“I’ll fill out an application for one using the information you have given me and present it before the Magistrate Judge, and get him to sign a warrant.”
“What would happen then?”
“He could be apprehended, booked and put in jail. But that doesn’t mean he wuld stay locked up for long. All he would have to do is post a bond and be released pending a court appearance. In the meantime we could file for a hearing in Superior Court in order to get a restraining order preventing him from coming near you.”
‘All this will take some time, won’t it?” Candy Sue asked.
“Yes, ma’am, I’m afraid it will. It’s a vicious cycle.
“Ain’t no telling what he might do to me before then,” Candy Sue lamented.
“Miss Collins, I see that you run that little restaurant at the strip over in Apt-To-Miss, and that you live in the Shady Dale Mobile Home Park right behind it,” Deputy Murphy said as he studied his notes. “How did you happen to end up there?”
“I wanted a restaurant of my own and that was all I could afford, and living in Shady Dale makes it real convenient,” Candy Sue replied.
“Uh, it seems that I’m fixing to become a neighbor of yours. I’ll be moving into a trailer in Shady Dale this weekend. Perhaps, uh, if you don’t mind, I could kind of keep an eye for your ex while we go through the process of charging him?”
Candy Sue almost squealed with pleasure, but managed to stifle it before she asked, “What ever made you want to move to Shady Dale?”
“Kind of like you, it’s about all I can afford,” Deputy Murphy replied as he turned back toward his keyboard and hit the “enter” key. “Well now, look at this!” he exclaimed with obvious pleasure. “It looks like we won’t even have to bother with fixing to get an arrest warrant for your ex!!”