Page 67 of Cognac Secrets

Red flag, I thought to myself, and I was immediately wary where the cop was concerned.

“Do my best,” the cop said and the medic turned to True and patting the back of her hand that rested on her jittery bouncing knee said, “You stay right here as long as you like, sweetheart. I’ll be right over here,” he looked to me and gave me a nod and I nodded back at him and reassured that I had it in hand, he stepped away, leaving us alone with the cop who had his note pad and pen out, pen poised above the paper. True’s hand tightened around mine and I gave it a reassuring squeeze back.

“You ladies have your identifications for me?” the officer asked and True gave me a worried look. Hers still had her deadname on it and an old photo when she was still in what she liked to call ‘boy mode.’

It honestly barely even looked like her anymore, but court fees and good old-fashioned deep south prejudice had prevented her from doing anything about it thus far. It was something she had planned to deal with when her license was going to expire sometime this year but she was still months off from it.

She let go of my hand to fish her wallet from her purse which she had slung across her body. It was a tiny thing, just big enough to hold her phone, wallet, and keys.

I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and my ID out of its wallet case I had it in. He looked at mine first and then me and nodded once, then he looked at True’s and his face became stony. He looked from it, to her, and back to it and True paled and gripped my hand and the officer rocked back on his heels and said coolly.

“Alright, I’ll be right back y’all. I just need to go run these real quick. Standard operating procedure. You understand, right?” He pasted a smile on his face that gave me the heebs and I muttered something likesureorof course… because what the hell else was I going to say. I wasn’t honestly paying attention to what was coming out of my mouth. My mind was already a million steps ahead of him with potential problems that could arise from whatever he was about to find on the screen of his cruiser.

He stopped along the way and conferred with another cop and True asked me, “What the fuck, Sandy?”

“What?” I asked turning back to her.

“What the hell does ‘sure course’ mean?”

I shook my head like I was trying to clear it and said, “I think I meantsure,of course,but I skipped ‘of’ in there. Sorry.”

“Oh, my God, he’s going to arrest us. He’s going to think we’re on drugs and arrest us,” she said and she looked like she was going to be ill.

“No, he’s going to think the truth, that we’re two traumatized women who just saw something horrible to the point we aren’t with it, True.”

True looked at me like I had done lost my fucking mind and I scowled.

“He’s going to look atyouthat way, not at Justin Straw sitting in the back of an ambulance with a pair of fake titties and scarlet nails.”

I sighed a little helplessly and said, “We don’t know that yet, just wait and see…” I turned back to look and he was on the radio but his sharp gaze from his watery blue eyes was fixed on me.Shit.

“Fuck me,” I muttered.

“What?” True asked, her hand gripping mine tighter.

“Dollars to doughnuts with the way he’s looking at me right now, you’re thelastthing on his mind. He’s looking at a missing person and he thinks he’s going to be some kind of Captain Save-A-Wayward-Daughter. He probablythinkshe’s saving a ho.” I sighed.

“Oh, shit,” True whispered and I think she blanched for a completely different reason out of the corner of my eye. Her second hand joined her first around mine and she stammered, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think about that, Sandy – I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t you cry,” I warned her, sniffing. “He can’t do anything. He can’t put me in the back of his patrol car and drive me to Mississippi back to my daddy’s house. We aren’t down the street in the same small town. I’ll just do what I’ve always done and tell him I don’t want to have anything to do with my family and that they can fuck all the way off.”

“I don’t know how you do it,” True said.

“Do what?” I asked.

“Stay so calm about your family and so sure in front of cops about them,” she said.

“Same way you manage to keep ignoring yours exist; stubborn determination and lots and lots of practice,” I said under my breath as the cop climbed out of his car and started heading our way, his spare tire of a gut jiggling over his utility belt.

“Here you go Ms. Starkweather… uh, Mr. Straw.”

“Self,” I corrected him. “That’sMs.Self, she hasn’t had the chance to get it legally changed yet,” I corrected him, taking my IDandTrue’s and handing it back to her.

“Riiight.” He drew out the word and looked at True like she was some kind of specimen or sideshow freak, and I felt my temper start to rise like mercury in an overheated thermometer. Lucky for the cop, he tore his eyes from my bestie and put his focus on me, and no surprise at what came out of his mouth… “Ms. Starkweather, do you know there’s a missing person’s report out of Issaquena County up there in Mississippi for you?”

“Population fourteen hundred,” I said. “Yeah, so?”

“You maybe want to come talk to me, over here?” he asked and jerked his head to the side. True’s hand was so tight around mine I was afraid she’d snap a hand bone or split the skin.

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