He Defended Her, He Said I Deserved It novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: The Complaint

"Objection," Darla said. "Assumes facts. Insults my intelligence."

I didn't look at Darla. I looked at the photograph.

"Nothing," I said.

"Nothing?"

"I paid him nothing. He gave me his shirt." I slid the photo back across the table. "You've never even met him. He's the man who came running when I screamed. Where were you?"

Brantley held my eyes for a long moment.

"At a bar," I said. "Fifty feet away. Celebrating."

He wrote something on his legal pad.

"No further questions," he said.

Five days later, the state board sent Ike a letter.

He read it standing up behind his desk, then sat down and read it again.

Then he handed it to me without a word.

A complaint had been filed alleging that Isaac Bonner, a licensed bail bondsman, had altered or fabricated video evidence in a pending civil matter.

Pending review, his license was suspended. He couldn't write a single bond.

"Isaac," I said.

"Don't."

"It's a nice name."

"It's my grandfather's name. He was a mean drunk who sold insurance."

"Who filed it?"

"Doesn't say." He took his reading glasses off. "Doesn't have to."

I sat down on the edge of the card table.

"Ike, this is because of me."

"This is because of him."

"It's your father's business."

"My father ran this place for thirty years with a Maglite and a bad back. He'd have run out that door for you too." He folded the letter in half. "Then he'd have been a lot ruder about it than me."

The news got around Marshall Street by noon.

By two, the regulars started coming in.

I'd seen them for years without knowing who they were. Bail bondsmen have regulars the way bars do.

A tow truck driver Ike had bonded out three times, who brought a sack of hot biscuits.

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