Juvenile Crimes - Chapter 40
The End of My Beginning
Coquille, Oregon, December 23, 1996 concluded…
Selena and I got back late the night before, Sunday. My time in Coos Bay was running out fast but I needed to maximize my income before venturing out on my own, so I worked every day I could until the end. I banked my available vacation time to cash it out on my final paycheck instead of taking the Holidays off. Blanchett was kind enough to grant me the next Monday and Tuesday off (just before New Years) as “comp time” for a small portion of my overtime, leaving me three-and-a half work days left before I was finished here.
I planned on doing an overnight trip to Portland on Christmas Eve, then returning late on Christmas Day. That gave Selena space and time with her family and me with mine before I returned for the last time to get my stuff and move to Portland. We had agreed that we both wanted to keep seeing each other – and she would temporarily take care of my cat - but we were both free to date other people. Time would filter it out, or so I believed.
The two weeks at the end of December are always the slowest time at the Courthouse – any courthouse. Every judge and attorney who can will schedule a long vacation in those weeks. Most of the business during that time is just the routine stuff, unless there is a juicy ongoing trial or a fresh massacre or something like that. Usually it was just processing the assholes getting arrested for assaults, DUII’s, that sort of typical Holiday fair. Business would pick up after New Year’s Day, when the summons’ to appear started landing on the calendar and everybody got back to work. I had loaded up the pipeline of new cases for Lance and crew simply by working down my stack of police reports. Not my problem anymore…
I was working late getting that accomplished - and getting to the bottom of my stack of police reports for the first time ever (clearing my Inbox had NEVER happened) when I noticed it was getting late. December in Coquille is dark early, making it easy to lose track of time after about 4:30. I only had a couple of small police reports left to read and charge, so I decided to bug out for the night. It had been raining off and on for days, so it took a minute for me to put on my shoulder holster and pack my P-85 9mm, then get my sports jacket on over it, then my raincoat. In my outfit packin’ heat, I kind of felt like a mobster from the ‘30’s with an updated wardrobe - it’s a strange feeling carrying a gun under your suit but I was starting to get used to it.
I passed Chloe’s office and wished her a good night as I walked by. She was the only other person in the office and still hard at work on her own mess of cases. A few moments later, I walked across the dark street to the empty parking lot with only my car remaining in the middle. Just as I was about to open the car door with my key, I heard the very familiar, “Hey you!”
I know that voice! Those words with that voice! Unmistakable…
I turned around and to my complete shock, there stood Tami.
My father had an old saying that I never really understood until that moment – I didn’t know whether to shit or go blind!!
It was the closest I’ve ever come to seeing a ghost.
My instinctual reaction was walking the two steps to her and hugging her strongly. She was alive!
“Oh, my God! I’m so happy you’re safe,” I said without time for any thought.
…But what in the name of God was she doing here, now, over a year since abandoning me? I thought a few seconds later. Then, I started looking around…No baby carriage, I guess that part of the dream couldn’t be real…Then my inner cop-voice said, You might be in danger here…