CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I had it together now; I had no desire for drugs or alcohol at all, had my own place, and was completely comfortable financially. I even had a girlfriend that I saw from time-to-time. Wouldn’t you know that she would be my downfall and I didn’t even see it coming?
Amy was a really cute brunette. She worked as a waitress at a diner called, Twisters. I went there every week or so because they had some really good pasta meals. I didn’t really notice her at first; sometimes she served me, sometimes someone else did.
She was friendly enough I guess and she flirted with me. I never gave her much thought though, figuring that she was just looking for a nicer tip. But, one night I ran into Amy. I was standing at the counter in the gas station, paying for some gas and some snacks, and I glanced over and there she was, standing next to me.
She smiled at me and said hello. She was still in her uniform and it was late, so I guessed she’d just gotten off from work.
I said hello back to her and we made some small talk as we walked out of the station’s store area. She still flirted with me and smiled a lot. I remember thinking that she had a really nice smile that lit up her whole face. I hadn’t noticed it before.
After a few minutes, I could tell that she was interested in me. I liked her too, but I wasn’t looking for anything serious, NO relationships to distract me from my work.
Amy got around to asking me if I was seeing anyone. When I told her I wasn’t, I saw her eyes widen a little and her pupils dilate; a sign of pleasure.
She then tried to act shy, and after a few more minutes of talking, she worked up the courage to ask me why I had never asked her out. I told her that I was too busy, and didn’t have the time for a relationship. Too busy to make any commitments.
Amy smiled, then chuckled before saying that surely I couldn’t be so busy that I couldn’t hang out every once in a while with a friend.
I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, so we went out, had sex after the first date. Amy was cool. She turned into what you would call a friend with benefits; someone who I could call to go to a movie with me, or to dinner, or just to hang out with for no reason. She was also someone I could call anytime when I felt like getting laid.
So, we had an understanding. We were friends. At times good friends, but still just friends. No strings attached.
But of course, like an idiot, I got too comfortable with her.
I trusted her. She didn’t know much about my life, especially about my thievery, and never asked.
I had Amy over to my trailer many nights. On a typical night we might grill some food on my back deck, then, watch a DVD. Sometimes we would end up messing around, sometimes not. Sometimes, she would spend the night, sometimes not.
One night, when we were sitting on the back deck, Amy noticed a SUV I had covered in the yard. Even though it was covered, part of the cloth had been blown aside by the wind and she could see that it was a newer model champagne colored Cadillac Escalade. It had custom rims that kind of made it stand out a little more than a normal one.
You know, I realize now that it was all my fault; that I got careless. I should not have had her on my back deck with that stolen vehicle there, so visible.
Amy asked me if the Escalade was mine. Her question caught me off guard. I told her no, but I could tell she could see that I was a little nervous.
Of course I was nervous. A description of that vehicle had just been broadcast on every local news station earlier that evening. I knew it, and she knew it. I could see it in her eyes.
That really messed up the evening. Even though she didn’t mention it, I knew I had screwed up. I was hot! I was so angry at myself for being such an idiot that I could have kicked my own butt.
But, the deed was already done. I just needed to figure out how I was going to salvage the rest of the evening. I sure didn’t feel like having sex.
We both continued on with the evening as if nothing was wrong. I had a few beers that night. The first I’d had since going to rehab. They helped me to relax, get rid of most of the tension. Then, I screwed Amy like there was no tomorrow. She left later that night around midnight.
A few months went by and neither one of us said anything about the SUV. After that day, I made sure to never bring any vehicles back to my property, never to expose myself like that again. But the damage had already been done, as they say.
From what I understand, Amy was not the person that gave me up to the police; it was a co-worker of hers from the diner. A girl named Tina.
What I heard was that Amy and Tina went out for a few beers one night after work and after swapping a few stories about guys they had dated in the past, and who they were currently seeing, Amy told Tina about me. Well, one thing led to another, and Tina asked what I did for a living.
Amy, who had a few beers in her by that time, told her that I was in sales, but then let it slip that she’d seen the stolen Escalade covered up in my back yard.
I know Amy didn’t intend to get me in trouble. In fact, she told me later that she had not meant for it to slip out. She also told me that she never imagined Tina was a rat.
But then, she didn’t know that her friend had a problem with taking and selling pills. Amy didn’t even know that the girl was on probation. You see, Tina tried to keep that part of her life hidden from the boss and her co-workers.
So, what happened was that Tina got busted again, but this time, she was looking at some time in prison. It was her third arrest and she had served about nine months of a five year probation sentence. Because of that, she was going to get at least eight years.
The bad thing was that she had two young kids and her public defender told her that eight years was the best deal he could get. To try to mitigate the harshness of the news, he told her that with good time, she would probably only end up spending five and a half years locked up. A long time for a mother to be away from her kids.
Prior to the offer, Tina had been in jail for six months while awaiting trial, because she could not afford to pay a bond. She had pretty much given up any hope of getting a better deal when her P.D. mentioned that if she happened to have any information of any unsolved crimes that she could give to the District Attorney, he might be able to work out a better deal for her, depending on the seriousness of the crime.
That’s when Tina remembered what Amy had told her about the stolen Escalade in my backyard. She sang like a bird. The D.A. had me arrested and charged with twelve counts of felony burglary and twelve counts of felony theft. I guess he was trying to make a name for himself by clearing out a bunch of ‘cold cases.’ In any case, I was in deep doo-doo. Each felony carried a maximum of four years, and if all of them were ran consecutively (a very real possibility in Arkansas), I would end up receiving 96 years.
But first they had to find me guilty.