"What a guy."
"The store clerk remembers you bought chips. Sergeant Huress stated you admired his pickup and asked if you could sit in it. You sat there with your bare legs up on the dash, stuffing chips into your mouth. He said you started making suggestive talk about how cops turned you on. You got upset when he wouldn't respond. That's when he told you to get out."
"Did he explain about his unzipped fly? Which Linda Call will corroborate. And how his back window and tailgate got broken? Come on Chief, you don't believe that crap. Why do you want that piece of shit, excuse me, that scheming sexual predator on your force?"
"To continue…you got out. He was still worried about you. He waited there until Linda Call pulled up. You skipped over to her pickup, gave her a long kiss and drove off with her. Why did you get in his truck, if you didn't want anything to do with him?"
"Every crude word out of his mouth will be in my statement, and you're not going to like it. Linda did him a favor. If she hadn't come along when she did, he'd have gone ahead to the next really stupid step and be facing additional criminal charges plus a civil suit from me and would be missing at least one eye, probably two."
"Will you try to keep it out of the paper?"
"I'm not here to negotiate with you. Start doing your job. Now give me whatever form I need to make a formal complaint."
When the item ran in the newspaper, it stated the allegation and identified Huress by name. It clearly identified Sandy as the accuser and the sister of the jailed suspect in the Towson murder case. An alleged witness was mentioned but not named.
The item brought forth almost total indifference. Although Bobby Huress probably caught hell from his wife, the town ignored it. No reaction, no furor at all except for two phone calls, and one vulgar letter stating it was the sluttish morals of women like Sandy that create such situations.
As predicted, the police review panel dropped the charges at the first reading. It was as though the Bobby Huress incident never happened.