51: The Series

51: The Beginning Chapter 16 Part 1

Lindsay sat in her office, going back over the personnel files, still trying to find a replacement for Keith. She had found two reserve deputies and a new applicant, all of which would have been good choices. Unfortunately, when Lindsay called them, all three declined, and one of the reserve officers said he would also be resigning because he had heard about some of the calls that had been coming in. Lindsay was waiting for Little Bob to get back from the call he was on. She wanted his and Big Bob’s input on finding Keith’s replacement.

She had just pulled the bottle of aspirin out of her desk drawer and had taken a couple with her now cold coffee when she heard the door chime. She saw Little Bob coming in and could see he was carrying something. He briefly stopped at Cat’s desk, gave her something, and headed straight for Lindsay’s office. When he walked in, Lindsay finally saw what he was carrying.

“Ma’am,” he said, giving her a little bow. “Would you care for a hot fudge sundae?” Little Bob asked Lindsay.

“Bob, I could almost kiss you for this. Thank you. I need some chocolate right now,” Lindsay said.

“I thought you might. Cat mentioned that she was stressed and craving chocolate. Frankly, I ate a few chocolate doughnuts for breakfast, so I feel the same way as you ladies. These calls are just getting weirder and weirder. Let me write down the info on the one I just finished,” Little Bob said as he dropped into the chair in front of Lindsay's desk, grabbed a sticky note, and began writing.

Lindsay could not resist, “Bob, you are married, have four girls, and your mother-in-law lives with you. You have absorbed so much estrogen over the years that you are one of us, ladies.”

“I can’t argue with you on that one,” he said, laughing.

He handed the note to Lindsay, and she began to type it so it would be small enough to fit on the map. She could almost swear that the pins in it were multiplying on their own. She felt like every time she looked at the map, there were more pins. She read the note while she typed. She got to the last line, which was the type of call. It had only one word: vampire.

“Vampire? Are you serious?” she asked Little Bob.

“Completely serious. I have no other way of putting it. The guy went outside and found some of his animals had bite marks and were roaming around in a daze. The bites were two perfectly round holes in the neck of each one. When I got there, the animals were all just sitting around staring off into space. It was the darnedest thing I have ever seen,” Little Bob told her.

She quickly finished the tag for the map and put it in place. She went back to her desk, sat back down, and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She sent a quick text to Wren that said vampire and the address. She sat her phone on her desk and finally took a bite of her ice cream.

“Bob, I think this is the best ice cream I’ve ever had. From the bottom of my heart and taste buds, thank you,” she told him.

“You’re welcome, Lindsay. I know you have been working, on average, twelve hours a day, six days a week. I know a few days that you have worked for sixteen to twenty hours. I don’t want you to burn out working too much. You know I have worked in different departments, and I have to say I think I like working for you the best. You don’t treat all of us like we don’t know what we are doing, and you trust us to do our jobs. I want to thank you for that,” Little Bob told her.

“You’re welcome, Bob. I have always been able to trust you, Big Bob, and Max with anything. Right now, we all have to be able to trust and depend on each other, especially with these freakish calls,” Lindsay said.

Her cell phone that was sitting on the desk beeped. She picked it up and saw that she had gotten a message from Wren. It read:

“On my way to your office. VAMPIRE?!”

“Wren is on his way here,” she told Little Bob.

“Would you do me a huge favor and look through these files and see who can replace Keith? The three I wanted all said no. I haven’t started calling anyone from these yet. Maybe they won’t tell you ‘no’ as quickly as they tell me,” Lindsay said.

“Of course I will,” Little Bob told her. “Isn’t that part of my job as chief deputy anyway? You need to learn how to delegate responsibility a little. You are going to have either a heart attack or stroke before you turn forty if you don’t let others around here do some work.”

“Big Bob will be coming in early to help find Keith’s replacement if that helps you any,” Lindsay told Little Bob with a smile.

“My day is now complete. I get to work with Big Bob,” Little Bob said as he stood and picked up the files from Lindsay’s desk.

“I could call Max in to help you two if you like,” Lindsay said.

“You are joking, I know, but it might not be a bad idea to have him help with this. We may have someone on the night shift that would want to go to days and then hire a new night deputy,” Little Bob said.

“That might not be a bad idea. Then go ahead and call Max if you want to, but make sure he knows it is not mandatory for him to come in,” Lindsay told him.

“I will get started now on these. You finish that ice cream before it melts,” Little Bob said, then turned and walked toward his desk.

Lindsay did not argue about eating the ice cream. It did make her feel better. What Little Bob had said to her also made her feel better. She knew that at least one person appreciated what she did and thought she was doing a good job as sheriff. Lindsay also knew he was right about needing to delegate some of her work to others in the office. She heard the door chime and looked up to see Wren walking toward her office.

“Vampire? What does that mean?” he asked as he closed her office door behind him.

“That’s what Little Bob said it looked like. He said the wounds were two small round holes in each of the necks of the animals, and all of them were in a daze,” Lindsay answered him.

“OK. Don’t worry about that too much. I will send some people out to handle things,” Wren told her. “Who brought you ice cream?” he asked as he sat down.

“Little Bob did. Cat had mentioned she wanted chocolate, so on his way back from the vampire call, he picked up hot fudge sundaes for Cat and me,” Lindsay said. “He is married, has four daughters, and lives with his mother-in-law. If he hears one woman in his house say they want chocolate, he makes sure there is chocolate for everyone.”

“That poor guy, they have him trained,” Wren laughed. “But at least I know that he will always take care of you for me.”

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Cat opened it slightly and stuck her head into Lindsay’s office.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I just had a call that I think the two of you may want to both go on. Do you remember the flying monkey that Max said he saw?” Cat asked.

Wren asked, “How could we forget?”

“Well, it is back. Someone saw it in the same area again. Would either of you or both of you want to go see if it is real?” Cat asked them.

“Sure, why not take a nice drive through the country?” Lindsay said as Cat handed her the location of the last sighting.

“Have fun, you two, and try not to get lost,” Cat said with a smile and wink. “Oh, and remember, the backdoors of the patrol car cannot be opened from the inside,” Cat added as she closed the door and returned to her desk.

Lindsay and Wren just looked at each other and laughed. Cat seemed to know that they would love to have some private time together, but they knew that was not going to happen today and probably not anytime soon. They were happy they got to spend time together, even if it was chasing a flying monkey.

Lindsay asked Wren, “Are you ready to look for this thing?”

“Sure, I’ve got nothing else to do right now. I will make a couple of calls on the way there,” Wren said.

“Do you need to get anything out of your car for this?” she asked.

“Like what, a giant butterfly net?” he asked.

Lindsay started laughing. “I can almost see you running across a field with a butterfly net chasing a flying monkey. I might even pay to see that one.”

Wren started laughing, too. “Let’s go. We can make jokes on the way.”