Page 10 of Special Agent Raven
“As a matter of fact, I do. And I’m not surprised to see you’re a cop. Most people wouldn’t have jumped in to save the children unless trained to rescue those in need.” Unfazed over Cane’sconfession, she had to admit to wondering earlier how any average man could have done what he’d managed.
She walked to the back of the jeep and lifted the rubber matting. “I had a special compartment fitted and installed in the rear.” Sure enough, there was a snazzy, built-in partition with a fancy rifle, two Glock replicas resting in their allotted spaces, and extra ammo stored as well.
Raven lifted out one that she handed to Cane, who automatically checked the chamber, and then took the other for herself, both hiding them under their jackets in the back waistbands of their pants.
Chapter Eight
In minutes, they forced the jeep through the worst of the muddy areas, bumping and ramming the wheels over some pretty rough terrain. As they drove, Cane saw the isolation, homes being abandoned because of the eviction warnings to go to higher ground.
“Hey. Look over there.” He pointed out two figures dressed in black breaking the glass on the front door of the house they just passed. Without hesitation, Raven pulled the truck over and stepped out of the vehicle, Cane right behind her.
“Hey. You two. What the hell are you doing?”
Both figures stopped. Being so intent on what they were involved with, they hadn’t seen the jeep pull over. “Uh, nothing. We live here.”
Raven stepped closer and recognized them. “No, you don’t. You live further west, in that old trailer park.” Both were teenage troublemakers known for their wild behavior with booze and drugs. “You were trying to break in and steal from this family.Christ, guys, during a flood where victims are everywhere, many now homeless, and you two assholes are taking advantage? I oughta shoot you for trespassing and be done with it.”
While the smaller of the two high-tailed it out of the yard, the other wasn’t as smart. The sneering-faced idiot lunged forward aggressively until he saw Cane step out from behind her. Then he hesitated, but he didn’t have the sense God gave a jackass. He didn’t stop talking. “You wouldn’t dare, Miss Goody-two-shoes Raven Wire. We know all about you and your weird grandma.”
Cane had the sucker in his grasp in seconds, his powerful grip hurting the arms of the skinny-assed idiot. With his feet dangling inches off the ground, the delinquent wriggled and tried to push free but to no avail.
Cane growled. “Want me to teach him a lesson in how to show some respect?”
“I do.”
Cane grinned and then forced the boy to stop moving by holding his arms behind him in a punishing way. “Apologize to the lady, then give us your name. We’ll let the owners know who to charge for their broken window.”
“Go to hell. I ain’t… ow. Stop that.”
“Apologize… now. I’m not from around these parts. But at home we don’t put up with this kind of bullshit. Do it now. Name too.”
“Okay… okay. I’m sorry. Raven knows who I am. And she knows my pa will beat the tar outta me for gettin’ caught.”
Raven meant business. When he looked away as if bored, she slapped his face to get his attention and get it she did. “Then stop breaking the law, Jim Junior. Easy peasy. You’re at a crossroads right now and things can go either way for you. If you don’t straighten out, you will end up behind bars. We see knuckleheads like you in the slammer all the time, and trust me, it’s no kind of life. Get smart. You don’t like your old man to pushyou around, then leave and get a job. You’re what, eighteen now? There’s lots of guys in your position who get away and make something of themselves.”
Cane turned the boy, compelling him to look up into the hard cold eyes of a man with no give. “See, dummy, you’re lucky Raven is here. Cause I sure as hell wouldn’t be this nice. You’d be hurting badly if I had my way. Now scram and don’t break into any more places, or so help me God, you will be paying with more than money.”
He shoved the boy so hard he tripped, but quick like a bunny, Jim got to his feet and ran out of sight. Cane looked toward Raven to see her grin. “So, Miss Goody-two-shoes has a tough side too.”
“Damn rights. Those kids are ruined because of their family. Passed on from father to son in this case and the mother hasn’t a backbone left that hasn’t been beaten into submission. There’s a whole lot of that same problem around many of these parts. Too bad we couldn’t arrest the assholes responsible for creating sons who have no respect for other people’s rights or properties, but unfortunately, that’s not the way the world works.”
“Maybe it should.”
“No arguments here.” Raven shook her head in despair and walked back to the jeep. “A friend I work with thinks they should bring back some kind of physical punishment for offenses like this rather than hauling them in and letting them go with no actual discipline. I’ve always shied away from agreeing, thinking she was nuts. But when I see kids like Jim, too lazy or scared to grow up, I sometimes wonder.”
Cane snorted a laugh and shared a story. “When I first got into law enforcement, I worked in a small town outside of Houston where the sheriff kept such control over his county that he was known for not only being reliable and in charge, but his arrest numbers were ridiculously low.”
“Low?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t until I’d been there a few weeks that I found out he had his own system for juvenile bad behavior. The parents who agreed that he could punish their wayward offspring in his own way were always pleasantly surprised. Seems he had a room where he’d scare the bejesus out of the brats for breaking whatever laws he deemed bad enough. And we’re talking everything from graffiti to shoplifting, or drugs and gang shit.”
“How did he do it?”
“Turns out, he took livestream, gritty, down-to-earth videos of some of the youngsters that they’d incarcerated. He got them to admit the nauseating truth of what one could expect if they ended up in jail. Seeing and hearing the horrific, real-life stories from kids just like themselves did the trick for more than a few. Drove them away from the wrong path before it was too late.”
Raven chuckled. “Smart. I wish there were more people like him who took the time.”
“Well, many thought him old-fashioned, but they couldn’t argue with the results. When the local schools showed incredibly high scores for their various curriculums, and the sports teams were some of the best in Texas, the outcomes were indisputable. He just retired and the whole community, grownup kids included, mourned his loss… threw him a hell of a goodbye party.”