Bluest of Grey Skies

Chapter Eleven

Regina hauled Leroy out of the bar and into the back of the cruiser, ignoring the ramblings of the drunken man as she slammed the door shut tightly. She sighed and grabbed the extra pair of cuffs from the box in the trunk and headed back inside where the other man involved in the fight and was now sitting at the bar with a cold beer in front of him.

"Are you sure that is a good idea, sir?" Regina asked as she sat on the stool next to him.

"Hey, Leroy is the one who is drunk here, not me. I just went to take a piss and he came after me, lady."

"Sheriff Mills," Regina corrected him, clenching her fists as she resisted the urge to grab the fowl-mouthed man. "You will address me as Sheriff Mills or ma'am, do you understand, sir?"

"Yes," he mumbled and reached for his glass of beer, sipping it before turning to look at her. "You know, we've never had a woman police this town before."

"Oh?" Regina raised an eyebrow. In the time she'd been there, just shy a month, she had heard her fair share of comments, all of them centered around her being a woman and how it was unheard of for a woman to be a sheriff. "Well, everyone has their opinions, sir, but I can assure you that I am more than capable of doing my job."

"Never said you weren't," he replied quickly and raised both hands before turning to the bartender behind the counter. "Claudia, got some ice for this shiner of mine? Thanks, doll."

"I'll give you a choice, you can tell me your side of what happened here or we can talk down at the station."

"Told you, ma'am, I was taking a piss and Leroy just came after me. There's no story. I tried to get away, fought back a little, then you showed up."

Regina wrote his statement down on her pad of paper and got his name, Theodore Bixby, and the very moment he told her his name, she knew he was on the list that Kathryn had given her. She kept her wits about her, gave Theo a written warning and returned to the cruiser to find Leroy passed out in the back with his face pressed against the glass and a steady stream of drool rolling down from his mouth and dribbling over the glass and his chin.

Regina got in behind the wheel and turned the cruiser around, turning off the lights before she hit the gas. She had just about had it with Leroy and seeing how she didn't have the best of first impressions with him, she was convinced the man was unable to change his ways, especially when it came to his frequent, daily visits at the Rabbit Hole.

"Don't trust 'em," he mumbled from the back seat as she pulled up around the back of the station.

"What was that?"

"Don't trust 'em," he said again. "The Gold's. Don't ever trust that family."

"Hmm?"

"Damn well put Theo up against me," Leroy muttered from the back seat and he leaned forward and pressed his face against the metal grate. "Bet he told ya I came after him first," he chuckled bitterly. "Probably said I came after him while he was trying to take a piss."

Regina sighed and turned off the engine before climbing out of the cruiser and yanked open the back door. Leroy mumbled incoherently as she reached to pull him out of the back. "Come on, big guy, let's get you comfy in your cell and you can sleep it off, okay?"

"Theo works for him, ya know that, don't you, sister?" Leroy asked once she hauled him out of the back seat and leaned him up against the side of the cruiser. "I know you know. Gold ain't innocent in any way or fucking form. Neither of them are, 'cept for that pretty young wife of his who has no idea what's really going on. Gold keeps her nice and drugged up these days I hear."