Always

Chapter 120

There was a stone bird bath in the middle of it all, a small waterfall spilling into the bottom part of the basin. "Wow." Colby whispered out, leaning forwards in his seat while he pulled forwards. "Are we are the right address?" I asked. He nodded, his eyes wide, looking around. He pointed and I looked to see Kristie's truck parked up ahead. "Guess so." He pulled up and parked behind her, then we stepped out of the car, facing the back porch. It was wrapped around the entire back of the house, hanging plants and lanterns swinging from the top rail. There was a huge fire blazing a couple of hundred feet away from the house, a few people standing or sitting by it, music blaring in the distance. We walked towards it, Colby holding me by the waist to keep me from falling. It was dark and we couldn't see very well until we got closer to the fire. "Heeeey!" Kristie exclaimed, getting up from her chair. She hugged me, then Colby, and stood back. "I'm so glad you guys could make it. This is Travis and Nessa, our next door neighbors, and you remember Abby." She pointed everyone out and we waved and said hi. "You guys sit down right here. We can go ahead and start talking business, if you want. Then have fun later." "Sounds good," Colby replied with a smile. We took a seat on the white cushioned patio love seat, and Chris walked up, passing Colby a beer. While I watched, he struck a lighter and touched the flame to a blunt. Chris caught me watching him and smiled. "It's for my nerves." I giggled. "Sure it is, Chris." I turned back to Kristie. "So what do you have on Randy?" Colby leaned forwards to he could hear a little better. The music was actually pretty loud. The difference between living in apartments and living in the country...no noise complaints. "Well," She blew out a cloud of smoke from her vape. "I actually do have that recording of him beating that girl at the club. He punched her in the face, she fell on the ground, and he kicked her in the ribs a couple of times. Caught me watching, and threatened to 'beat my ass' as he put it, if I ever told anyone. Of course, I told everyone, but the girl was too scared to press charges so nothing ever came from it." Colby shook his head as I sat back, feeling a little defeated. That wasn't really going to help us. "What can we do with that? If she doesn't want to press charges, then nothing will happen." Chris started giggling, standing beside our seat, on the other side of Colby. Was he high already? "What are you laughing at, dummy?" Kristie asked him, rolling her eyes at him. "I've got proof that he's a crooked cop." "Wait, what?" Colby asked, jumping up. "You're serious right now?" Chris nodded, a smile plastered to his face. "Yeah, I was a cop for a little while before he made it look like I had stolen weed from the evidence room." He must've noticed that we looked at the hand holding the blunt and then back to his face. "I did NOT do it. I wasn't even smoking then. I quit because of the random drug tests. I loved being a cop, helping people, but Randy is still a bully. He made my days hell, giving us grunt work, or the worst things that came through the radio. Me and my buddy, Charlie. He still works on the force, but mainly stays behind the desk because Randy won't let him do anything else." "Get to the point brother." Kristie said between clenched teeth. "Okay, damn." He took another big hit from the blunt, offering it around. The neighbor guy took it from him and inhaled deeply, blowing out a huge cloud of smoke towards the star dotted sky. "So, I have video evidence, the security camera footage, of Randy stealing evidence from certain cases. I hacked into the server before I left, because I knew that he was trying to blame me. I didn't think that I would actually get blamed since I didn't do it, but oh well. Charlie helped me look through some of his older cases too, and I noticed a pattern. Whenever him or one of his friends are involved, evidence mysteriously disappears from the case. Different forms. Sometimes photos or videos, sometimes time stamps get erased, or statements get lost. I've seen him in the evidence locker several times, before the things were disappear or be tampered with. Seeing as how he's lieutenant and most of the guys on the force are his dickhead friends," He smacked his lips against his teeth and threw up his arms exaggeratedly.  "There's literally been nothing I could do....until now. I know that he covered up evidence with Nick's case too. The photos that they took on the one occasion that you tried to get help," He nodded towards me and I remembered. Nick had forced himself on me, and left bruises. I went to the hospital because wanted it to stop. I was ready to get help. They took photos of the bruises and the scratches, noticing the blood in my private area. "Your husband did this?" I remember one of the er nurses asking, her eyes astonished. I nodded, looking away ashamed. The police came to the hospital to get my statement, statements from the doctor and nurses, and evidence. I even had a damn rape kit done on me. Randy was one of the cops who showed up, and even though I begged the nurse to not let him take anything, she said that it was out of her hands. Nick got really mad after that...showed me that he could do what he wanted to his 'wife.' I remember crying in the bedroom afterwards, hearing him tell Randy all the gory details.