Read Ed Lynskey - Isabel and Alma Trumbo 01 - Quiet Anchorage for Free Online Page B

reporters, and he shouldn’t attract any more bad press.”
    “I can’t extort him like that,” said Dwight. “Suppose I ask this as a favor to a fellow officer of the court?”
    “Spoken like a true lawyer,” said Alma.
    Dwight muttering under his breath held the receiver to his ear. While making his prison visit request, he overheard Sheriff Fox’s television hubbub playing in the background. His response left Dwight frowning.
    “But Sheriff Fox it’s imperative I consult with Megan tonight. She has the legal right to a speedy counsel, and a lawyer wasn’t present earlier… look, I recall you owe me for my free legal advice on your messy divorce… okay, that’s more like it, and I’ll meet you at the prison in fifteen minutes.”
    After they hung up, Alma said, “Good show, Dwight. We can go right on in our car.”
    “Hold on there. My deal with Sheriff Fox included just me, not you.”
    Alma shepherded Dwight from the den and to the foyer. “We’ll repay Sheriff Fox his kindness of pulling a fast one on us.”
    “Dwight, hadn’t you better lock your townhouse?” said Isabel. They’d stepped out into the buggy porch light.
    “Why bother? It didn’t keep out two pushy seniors tonight.”
    He sat behind Isabel in their sedan’s rear seat. Alma mashed the gas, and they whisked through Quiet Anchorage’s streets serene and dark as the abandoned drive-in movie lot. The sheriff’s long, narrow office also housed the prison. Alma flicked on her directional blinker and nosed in next to the sheriff’s cruiser bristling its whip aerials and American flags. Sheriff Fox, arms folded high on his chest, waited by the door under a buzzing streetlight. His shoe tip tapped on the concrete, a nervous tic, as they approached him.
    “Counselor, who are your pair of shadows?” he asked.
    “Dwight’s shadows are his client’s family members,” replied Alma. “Sheriff Fox, we came here to see our niece.”
    He hooked his thumbs in his duty belt and thrust his chin at them. “Alma, I don’t know anyone more stubborn than you are unless it’s Isabel. So you went out and snagged a lawyer, and now he’s come under false pretenses to do your bidding. Well, well. This one time I’ll relent, but only as the old favor that I owe Dwight. I dang well won’t be wangled by the likes of you or the newspaper.”
    “Take us to Megan,” said Alma. “She’s hurting, no thanks to you.”
    Sheriff Fox’s cadence turned brusque. “We’ve handled her with kid gloves and done everything by the book.”
    “Sheriff Fox, Ms. Trumbo is understandably distressed over recent events and isn’t impugning your law enforcement professionalism,” said Dwight, sounding contrite. “Please accept our apologies.”
    The apology placated Sheriff Fox to a degree. “All right, let’s finish this, so we can all go home for some shuteye tonight.”
    “Ask Megan how much sleep she’ll get tonight,” said Alma.
    Dwight looking over shook his head at her to hush.
    Fat chance, Alma stared back.
    The four paraded into the station house’s vestibule before Alma and Isabel stopped in the low-lit hallway. They looked at Sheriff Fox, and he understood them, but he didn’t like it.
    “No, ladies, my office is off-limits, so you’ll see Megan in Interview Room One.”
    “Just bring her to us,” said Isabel. “Meantime I hope Interview Room One is a non-smoking space.”
    “Yes, I do enforce the indoors smoking ban,” said Sheriff Fox.
    “Imagine that,” said Alma.
    He extracted a key and undid the door for Dwight to go in and put on the overhead lights. Alma found the space cramped and the air stale but managed to bite her tongue. The four oak chairs at the cafeteria table made for hard seats. Alma sneezed at the cigarette butts cluttering a glass ashtray left on the table. Dwight began to rock back and forth in his chair.
    “Dwight, take a chill pill, as Megan would say,” said Isabel. “Our goal is to be strong when she sees