Senior Year Box Set

This was another lesson I’d just learned the hard way. Tracy’s post was like people bragging about going on vacation or sharing vacation photos while there and then, when they got home, finding their house had been robbed.

But how could you tell when sharing something might be dangerous? Did you abstain from posting on social media?

Frankly, for a lot of people, that would probably be best. No one cares that you think you’re an ‘influencer.’ Or that your dog is the bomb (even though Duke did rock, and the world needed to hear about the funny stuff he got up to). In Duke’s case, since he was our mayor, I felt justified in sharing Duke-isms with his peeps. He probably needed his own social media account.

When a thought like that crossed my mind, I recognized Lily was right to take my posting access away at times. That just proved that everyone needed a Lily in their life to tell them ‘no’ to posting dumb stuff.

The problem was, it never occurred to Tracy that an innocent post would lead Bill to her doorstep. She’d been lucky when she recognized the distinctive sound of his Corvette as he pulled up. She’d been smart and escaped the house before he and his goons had caught her.

The two men who accompanied Bill turned out to be muscle for a crime family out of Chicago with outstanding warrants. Sheriff Cochran suspected that the same group had supplied Tiny and Bill with drugs when I’d been in middle school. He speculated that they’d recruited Bill when he was in juvie. Later, we found out that a lawyer who worked for the crime family had arranged for Bill’s early release, so the sheriff’s suspicions appeared to be confirmed.

During questioning, I mentioned that Paul and Cassidy wore bodycams, the drones all had video, and the car was set up with cameras. When Sheriff Cochran heard that, he almost kissed me. I gave him Fritz’s number to get copies of everything.

◊◊◊

On the way home, Fritz called me to check-in.

“I got a call from a Sheriff Cochran. He’s requesting footage from today’s events. I told him I needed to review the video first to ensure there’s nothing confidential on it. He threatened to get a warrant for the raw footage.”

“I’m glad you didn’t send it to him yet because I just remembered that Paul mentioned me being dosed with ecstasy while I was in Greece. That’s the sort of thing I don’t want to have leaked to the press. I’ve had enough drama with the paparazzi in the last few weeks to last me a lifetime. It gets old after a while,” I admitted.

“I’ll personally go through the raw video and see what’s pertinent. It’s probably safe to send Sheriff Cochran the exterior car video and the drone material right away to keep him happy,” Fritz reasoned.

“You can also send him the video of Paul’s bodycam from the time he got out of the car up until we loaded him back in.”

“I’ll run through that quickly and check out the conversation between you and Paul about the drugs. If there’s nothing there the Sheriff needs, I don’t plan to send it to him. If he gets persistent, we may have to loop in Ms. Dixon,” Fritz suggested.

I hated to get lawyers involved if I didn’t need to. I crossed my fingers that what Fritz would send the sheriff would be enough.

◊◊◊

What with all the excitement, I’d gotten home late, so I made the executive decision not to wake my parents up. When I came into the kitchen for breakfast, my mom and dad were waiting for me.

“Show me your chest,” Mom ordered.

“It looks worse than it is,” I tried.

“Show me!”

I winced as I pulled up my shirt. Mom gasped when she saw the ginormous bruise that ran from just below my neck to right above my navel and out to my armpits. It really did look awful, and I admitted to being a little tender.

“I’ll call one of the trainers and have them give me some treatment today,” I said in an attempt to deflect my mom’s coming tirade.

“I’m calling Devin and thanking him,” Dad said. “When Devin first told us about this stuff, I only thought in terms of baseball. I never imagined it would save your life when you were shot.”

Mom got a haunted look and ran upstairs. That wasn’t good. I hoped we weren’t about to experience ‘Irrational Mom,’ the one who would ground me until I left to make my movies.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go talk to her,” Dad said, leaving me alone.

I guess that meant I was making breakfast.

◊◊◊

Tami waltzed in the back door as I tried to figure out what to make. It reminded me of when we were kids and just walked into each other’s houses.

“You’re skipping church and coming with me,” she announced.

“Okay?”

“We’re picking up Tracy and going to the original Granny’s for breakfast.”

I sent my dad a text, and we left.

◊◊◊

When we arrived at Granny’s, I soon discovered that the morning paper had run a story about yesterday’s events. I really am a ‘stupid boy’ at times. I made the mistake of showing two middle-school-aged brothers my bruises because they wanted to see where I’d been shot.