CORRUPTED LAW
SQUEAK… The old metal rear door of the Clint Police Station was always in need of repair.
The metal door rattled on its rusted hinges as it banged against the side of the worn brick wall. Rain was falling heavily as if every soul in heaven was weeping uncontrollably. The gravel and uneven parking lot was already filling with water. The torn and ragged awning tarp stationed above the door and walkway flapped wildly in the wind. The rusted iron poles and bars rattled just as hard threatening to collapse on its inhabitants.
The club member a man with greasy and tangled shoulder length black hair stood with a cigarette in his mouth. His black leather biker vest was covered in different patches and sewn on badges. Detective Hawkins’s eyes traveled over the black vest for only a fraction of a second. He was able to only read and take in a fraction of them. He saw several patches containing the years 2017-2023, a 1% badge, the club’s symbol of a pitchfork with a draped bandanna, and a badge initialed FTW.
“Detective Hawkins,” the man said simply flicking his cigarette into a rain paddle. It bobbed several seconds before disappearing into the grayish soup. “Axel why the hell are you texting me?
You and your club have gotten me into a lot of trouble. I am going to lose my job! Sheriff Hanson is already suspicious of me and now you’re here!” Axel gave an unconcerned little smirk, “we paid you for the risk.” “Sydney pays me to look the other way on your little deal with the Walker twins…and I did! Need I remind you that I am the lead detective and investigator into the Walker Kinfolk. I thought this would be a quiet operation. However, you decided to bring your entire club up here like it’s a
Detective Hawkins removed the toothpick from his mouth. Flicking it like Axel’s cigarette into the rain. It seemed to carry for a second before becoming lost in the wind. “What do you want Axel?
The sheriff is right inside and…” “Do you know who you arrested earlier?” Detective Hawkins nodded, “Yes, I know Sydney. He is my brother-in-law after all. He purposely and deliberately caused a scene that required…” Unable to finish Axel turned and with a scowl interjected, “I don’t care what he did! You had no right to put him in lock up! We PAY you to look the other way! He was supposed to go and pick up this month’s supply from the twins. I had to ask another brother to go.”
It was Detective Hawkins’s time to interrupt. “Yes, but I CAN’T look the other way when your members deliberately cause trouble in front of Sheriff Hanson! I HAD to do something if you want to keep this relationship and your cash flowing…” Axel’s teeth gritted in suppressed anger, “The ONLY
thing that you HAVE to do is get our man out of lock up! The Walkers and that maniac father of theirs only do business with him or me. I had to send somebody new. So as soon as we get the supply we are out of here.” Silence enveloped them both as the rain and wind was the only thing that transpired in what appeared to be a standoff.
Finally, after a crack of lightning illuminated the dark sky. Detective Hawkins broke the silence. “How am I supposed to do that Axel? Do you have any suggestions? I just…JUST came from a meeting with Sheriff Hanson. He tore me a new one! Now you expect me to go in there and just spring him like…” “Figure it out…” Rolling his eyes, “You are asking for the impossible. I am not going to risk everything for…” “YOU WILL Jayson…” Axel froze as his weathered face turned red. The hair from his stubbly black beard stood on end like a porcupine preparing for an oncoming assault. “I don’t care what you have to do or how you do it. Sydney is the Sergeant at Arms and one of the key components in making sure the deal that we made with the Walker twins continues. The table wants him out before we leave. The table needs him out, and I can NOT go against what the table has
voted on. It is imperative that he is released before we leave.” “Well maybe he shouldn’t have been fucking around with me and my patrol vehicle in front of the sheriff. He has put me into a very precarious situation!” Axel shifted his body, “Again I…do…not…care! Sydney pays you your cut!
Now you need to prove your worth your cut. Get him out however you can, but it must be done now!”
“Axel you are asking for a miracle. You are putting my job, my career, and my very existence in Clint at jeopardy all for…” “All for club business Jayson, all for club business.” He clapped him on the shoulder, “So, all you have to do is let him go and look the other way. By the way, your cut will be in a black van behind the saloon when my driver returns.”
“Look the other way…Look the other way…look the other way…” Detective Hawkins seemed to repeat the phrase in his head returning into the station. Making his way down the extended hallway his mind racing with questions and crippling criticism at his life choices. His eyes had landed on the calendar revealing the date. “The third…on all days why is all this happening on the third?” He said it almost as if God was mocking him. Almost a year he had been doing this and it all began on May the third.
[May 3, 2021]
CLINK… A thick shot glass slid across the wooden bar surface. Another tall whiskey bottle clinked against it with a high pitch that wavered an eye lid. I remembered my face waking as if startled by the tone. “W-w-what…” “Jayson…” came the disgruntled voice of the bartender. I groaned hearing the bar stool next to me scratch across the floor.
“Jay Hawk…trust me, you will want to hear this. Someone wants to buy you a shot.” My eyes fluttered open wider as I repeated in a hoarse, “shot?” My head lifted from the bar seeing to my surprise a man I had not wished to see. I pointed my finger at him, “Sydney…no, no, no!” I watched the brown amber liquid fill my shot glass. “Jayson is that how you treat family after so long? Besides
you haven’t even heard me out! I came all this way…came back home to find you and talk to you.
How did I know you would be here?” “The Wagon Wheel Saloon is the only bar in Clint Sydney. You haven’t been gone that long, have you? When did you get back into town?” “I just rode in with a couple of the brothers.” I snorted while taking the shot glass in my hand. “You return out of the blue but completely missed our wedding. Your sister said that you ran off with some motorcycle club.”
Sydney smirked, “Indeed I did with a club called The Satan’s Outlawz. I pledged for two whole years and now I could even make table soon. How about you Jay Hawk? Are you treating my sister, right?”
I snorted into the shot glass sending sprinkles of whiskey to trickle down my mouth. “Nobody has called me Jay Hawk since football in high school. Maybe if you called or stopped by once and a while you would know these things. You weren’t here at all for your sister…riding along with that club of yours! You’ve been gone going on four years now.” I held up my hand with the shot glass in hand and drained it with one gulp. “Maybe if you were around more, I wouldn’t be here hiding out.”
“I see you guy are still having your usual fights.” Sydney asked simply as I nodded. “Your sister can be a real bitch sometimes. She wants to get out of this town. Who can blame her?” Sydney snorted running his finger under his nose before tossing his blonde hair behind his ears. “Yeah, you can thank our father for that…drunk bastard.” He chuckled in clear disbelief at the own hypocrisy at his words, “leave the bottle for us.” The many rings on his fingers clinked against his own glass.
“What are you doing here Sydney? I know you didn’t come in to see your sister, that’s for sure. She would have told me. So just stop and tell me what you are doing here?” I watched him examine the bar before returning to me.
“A little bird told me that Sheriff Hanson promoted you to Detective. The same little bird told me he put you in charge of investigating and dismantling the Walker Kinfolk.” “What of it…” Sydney returned to his low tone, “Well, what if I told you that I am working on a little business deal with the Walker twins. What if I told you that I have a chance of making table? And you’re the only person
that could make that happen for me.” I turned to the bar and gripped the whiskey bottle next to him. I poured myself another shot wondering if I should just head home. “And how would that be?” “Clint is dying Jayson you and I both know that. Hell, every citizen in this town knows it. Jesus Jayson Silas & Mooch’s Maintenance Garage closed its doors. The shop meant everything to old man Silas! You’re constantly fighting and bickering with my sister over living here in Clint.”
I gripped the shot glass and without hesitation emptied it with one gulp. “What of it Sydney?
Clint is our home, and it takes money to move and find a new one. It takes money to start a new life.
And money is something that we do not have.” “Well working for Clint Law enforcement hasn’t worked so far. It’s only a matter of time before the mayor unincorporates the town. How are you going to save enough money to get out then?” I traced my fingers along the empty shot glass in front of me. I shrugged, “I haven’t really thought about it to be honest.” A faint smirk spread across Sydney’s face. “Maybe we can come to some mutual benefit?” “Mutual benefit,” I repeated as he nodded back at me. “As I said I have a deal in the works with Remington’s brood. Yes, a benefit that would only require you to simply look the other way.”
This had caught my full attention causing me to sit upright on my bar stool. “Wait, are you asking me to deliberately disobey Sheriff Hanson’s order?” “Not deliberately just…look the other way…delay your investigation for a while that’s all.” “And I am supposed to do this for what…out of the goodness of my heart, because we are family?” Sydney smiled, “No, no, no, I and the club could guarantee you a cut. A cut that you can use to eventually move out of this shit hole of a town and start over somewhere else.” “Sydney, do you realize what you are asking of me? If Sheriff Hanson ever found out…” “He won’t find out that’s the beauty of it! Clint’s Law Enforcement would be disbanded and dissolved before anybody would ever discover anything. It would be a win-win for both of us, including my sister! What do you say?”