Page 21 of Served
“Jason Sanders,” I shot out quickly, biting my cuticles.
He typed a few more things and nodded his head. “Yep, says a warrant was issued today and when they went to his place of residence, he was arrested without incident.” He was scrolling, mouthing things to himself before telling me, “Looks like he assaulted a man last night.”
Wait, what?
“No, that’s not true. I was there. This is all wrong.” I shook my head and knew there was a scowl on my face.
“Sorry, hun, that’s what it says here.” He turned the screen around for me. There he was. In bad lighting, holding a little sign with a number on it. My little butterfly bandages were still over his cut. And under florescent lighting his bruise looked awful.
I was shaking my head as I read over it. “This is all wrong. He didn’t assault anyone. You have to let him out. Jimmy, do something.” I was getting frantic, and Jimmy walked around the counter and grabbed my shoulders to lead me to a desk.
“Alright, alright. Calm down. Tell me what happened, and I’ll see what I can do. But I can’t just go pluck him up and let him go. You understand?” He was so sincere; I could tell he believed me and wanted to help.
“If I tell you something, can you not tell my dad?” I nervously waited on his answer. I absolutely didn’t want my dad involved in this.
“I can promise I won’t tell him, but that doesn’t mean he won’t find out. But if you say this man was wrongly accused, I need to know details or I can’t help you, or him.”
I bit my cuticles some more and my leg rattled the desk we sat at.
“If I tell you, can you get him out?”
“Look, I’ll be straight with you, Luce. He’s been booked. He’ll have to bond out. But if something happened, you should tell me. Maybe it’ll help him later?” Jimmy reached over and put his plump hand over mine. He had known me my whole life. I knew he meant well.
“Jimmy, I gotta go. But please, don’t tell my dad I was here. He’ll just worry.” I jumped up and quickly walked to the door.
Jimmy yelled out to me, “I’m worried, Luce! Come back and we’ll sort this out!”
I ignored his plea and pushed the door open after rushing past everyone. I looked up as the door closed behind me. Across the street there was a bail bondsman.
I power walked across the street and flew into the office. A pretty young girl with too much makeup on and bleach blonde hair smiled warmly at me.
“Hey hun, need to bail someone out?” The girl asked with a deep southern accent. She got straight to it.
“Um, yeah, my boyfriend, well, a man friend, whatever. I need to bail out Jason Sanders. He was just booked today.” I was going to need a manicure if I got through this day.
She typed some and then blurted out, “Okay, got him here. It’s ten grand for bail, so I just need a thousand for our ten percent. We take all payments except checks,” she pointed over to the sign on the wall.
I furiously pulled my wallet out, fumbling through it. My brain was misfiring signals to my hands, and I couldn’t pull my card from the slot. I finally lost my cool and started slamming the wallet on the counter. The pretty girl put her hand over the wallet calmly and stopped me, then used her other hand to flip it open and asked which card it was.
“I’m sorry. Visa.” I was mortified. But that felt good. Not the release I had hoped to be enjoying this evening but at least something was getting slammed.
The girl ran the card then slid it back in for me and passed me the receipt. I pulled a pen from the cup on the counter after putting my wallet away and did my best to sign it. It looked like my late grandmother’s signature when her Parkinson’s had set in. My hands were both shaking, and I couldn’t get the pen back in the cup, so she took it from me and grabbed my hand.
“It’s okay, hun. That happens a lot. Here is your copy of the receipt and let me print out the paperwork. He’ll get a copy, but you need to hold onto it, too. And be sure he makes it to his court date, or you lose your funds.”
She typed a few things and printed several pieces of paper and had me sign several places. After making copies she placed mine neatly into an envelope with their business card.
“Okay, it takes a couple hours to get them out. Do you want to run grab a bite to eat or make some calls?”
I looked at my phone. It was half past six. The thought of food didn’t seem appealing, but I knew I needed to eat. And I could go for a drink.
“Yeah, um, I’ll be back in a bit. Thanks, for everything.”
The pretty girl smiled warmly again and then walked to the back, so I left. I stared across the street. The idea of him locked away in there like some hardened criminal made my spine shudder. I looked around for somewhere to get food. Of course, there was a donut shop right by the police station. Oh well, an iced coffee is probably a better option that a real drink right now.
I went inside and ordered an iced coffee and a Bismark donut. I sat in the corner pulling small pieces off my favorite donut and sipping my coffee. A text came from Amy.
Amy: Hey, leaving work soon. It’s dead and the other gals need the money. WRU
