Lawless

Chapter One

I didn’t know the ho convention was in town.

Sierra, oh my God! She’ll hear you!

Kate glanced to her right to see who Sierra Finn and her best friend Maggie Herndon were giggling about. She watched as they stared openmouthed at the spectacle of Mayor Grimsby’s new wife, Cherry, parading toward them down Main Street in a black polyester dress so short and tight it could have been mistaken for a bathing suit. Her black platform pumps smacked the sidewalk in front of the town’s old-fashioned drugstore, The Soda Counter.

Is that the worst spray tan you’ve ever seen, or what? Sierra’s fuchsia-tinted lips twisted in a sneer. And her hair! The good Lord never made a color that tacky.

Kate kept her countenance blank, though she agreed that over bleaching had clearly ruined Cherry Grimsby’s crackling tresses. At the same time, Sierra’s masses of curls were dyed an ostentatious auburn no scalp had ever voluntarily sprouted, and Maggie’s sedate low braid was tinted a flattering but definitely unnatural hue of midnight blue. In the northern California mountain town of Lawless, Sierra and Maggie apparently considered themselves the height of stylish edginess while platinum-blond newcomer Cherry Grimsby was just beyond the fashion pale.

Kate caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the window of a passing semi. Cheap dye had stained her shoulder-length mop a brassy brown that was somehow both gaudy and mousy. Along with her wan complexion, boyish figure, and dowdy outfit, Kate’s unappealing hair rendered her nearly invisible. She’d been playing it safe, hoping her nonthreatening presentation would make her more disarming. All it had done so far was allow the subjects of her investigation to ignore her.

Kate edged closer to the women, stiff with frustration over her week-long failure to infiltrate the Lawless drug ring purportedly run by Sierra’s boyfriend, Stoney Randall. She couldn’t pass up today’s chance to get close to Stoney Randall’s lover. She took another sideways step toward Sierra and Maggie.

Maybe she’s just a little more fashion-forward than we are, said Maggie with a sideways glance at Kate.

Sierra rolled her eyes. Nobody dresses like that but hoochies, Mags, and you know it. Besides, that woman is just plain nasty, inside and out.

Kate jumped into their conversation. Is she really that bad?

Sierra stared up at Kate with a frown. Worse.

By then Cherry Grimsby was within earshot. Kate watched the young blonde’s green eyes narrow and her bright red lips twist in a sneer not unlike Sierra’s. Kate heard spaghetti Western showdown music in her head and fought a smile.

Well, look what we have here. The ho patrol, Cherry drawled with an apparent lack of ironic awareness.

Kate watched Maggie step out of the way at the same moment Sierra’s fists bunched and her stance widened. Having already seen the diminutive beauty launch into a wild physical attack on an obnoxious neighbor, Kate decided to forestall any potential violence. If Sierra was in jail, Kate couldn’t get close to her. She stepped between Sierra and Cherry and pulled out her best finishing-school smile.

Good morning, Mrs. Grimsby. My name is Kate Sooner. Please forgive my forwardness, but I moved to Lawless just last week, and I’ve been meaning to introduce myself.

Sierra and Maggie both gawked at Kate. A few passersby stopped as though a street performer had started tuning up a guitar.

The mayor’s bride put out her hands as if warding off unseen demons. Oh, you don’t fool me, honey. I know you’re with those crazy-ass bitches.

Kate offered her most innocent look of bewilderment and saw a few more pedestrians had paused to watch. There was now a circle of spectators around the four women.

Don’t even try to play games, skank. Step away or I’ll call the cops.

And here I was hoping you and I could be friends. Maybe I should try introducing myself to your husband instead. Kate smiled even more sweetly. I hear he’s much friendlier than you.

Don’t you dare talk to him, you slut!

I guess I’ll just have to try to restrain myself. Kate held up her hands in surrender. She allowed herself a small smirk, and most of the clustering bystanders grinned. From what little she’d seen of the mayor, he was short, round, and utterly average, despite a glorious head of thick, wavy brown hair.

Kate almost felt sorry for the young woman before her. She was so underweight that her bones stuck out. She wore a heavy layer of pancake makeup that aged her skin, and her overprocessed hair looked like ivory straw. She’d have been pretty, if she’d just let her natural good looks shine through. Cherry Grimsby was a victim of gendered expectations and she’d sold her youth to a small-time politician in the middle of nowhere—for what? A ranch home and a white Lexus?

But Kate had a job to do, and she mustered her most mean-spirited self to do it. By the way, Mrs. Grimsby, I love your shoes. Even if they are knock-offs.

What? Leaning down to roughly wrench a stiletto off her foot, Cherry glared at Kate and held the shoe in front of her like a talisman. These are the real deal, trailer trash. I can tell you don’t know any better, what with your Walmart rags, but these here are Louboutins, and they cost a thousand bucks!

Kate whistled softly and shook her head as if in wonder. The small crowd of townspeople had edged closer and each face reflected a mixture of amusement and curiosity. Like Kate, nearly all of them were wearing cheap jeans and T-shirts with either boots or sneakers. Like Kate, nearly all of them looked at Cherry Grimsby as if she might have escaped from a cut-rate reality show. The mayor’s new wife wasn’t making any friends with her gauche snobbery, and Kate knew it even if Mrs. Grimsby didn’t.

Absently, Kate noted that every single face she’d seen in Lawless so far was white. She blinked before she spoke again, wondering if this was an important feature of the town and her investigation.

I’m sorry to tell you, Mrs. Mayor, but those are not Louboutins. You got ripped off. See the red on the bottom there? It’s the wrong shade.

Cherry Grimsby gasped, stomping her bare foot and then wincing. Like hell, it is! Anyways, what would you know about it?

Thinking quickly, Kate retorted in a sharper tone, "Have you considered learning to read? There was a big article about fake Louboutins in that magazine, Inside Glamour, or whatever it is. I read it in line at the Dash and Dine last week." Kate pointed up the street at the town’s only full-service grocery store, and more than one head turned as if to verify the existence of the supermarket.

Oh, please, spare me. There’s no way anyone in this backwater town knows a single thing about fashion, least of all you. And that stupid magazine doesn’t know diddly either.

Kate held out her thumb and forefinger in a measuring gesture. Plus, the heels on your knockoffs are about a quarter-inch too high. That’s why your toes are all swollen and red and hurt so much. That magazine said the angle of the fakes puts too much pressure on the front of your foot. See for yourself. Those poor toes of yours look like boiled baby hot dogs.

A dozen pairs of eyes swiveled down to the Cherry Grimsby’s bare, ravaged foot.

Well, she’s right, isn’t she? Those little toes are all red and swolled up! Elderly Mrs. Whittaker, head of the Lawless Ladies Brigade, spoke at a volume about twenty decibels higher than did most people in regular conversation, and about forty decibels higher when she was surprised. Kate flinched at the noise level and noticed several others doing so as well.

Sierra laughed loudly. They are!

Maggie pointed, her gesture an echo of Kate’s. She’s right!

Sierra confided in a loud mock-whisper, I bet that’s why she’s such a bitch. Her feet must be killing her.

I think I remember that story, put in Mrs. Whittaker in an eardrum-shattering holler. She’s right! They had a picture and everything!

Kate nodded at the octogenarian and was relieved to see others following suit. Though there had been no such article in any such magazine, the old woman’s corroboration made Kate’s lie more credible. By suppertime at least a dozen people would remember seeing the magazine in line at the grocery store and would cluck their tongues over the gullible wastrel their mayor had married.

I hope that wasn’t Lawless money you wasted on your fake shoes, Mrs. Mayor, growled Jed Fontaine, who’d run for office against Grimsby the year before and lost. He ran his stubby fingers through his thinning salt-and-pepper curls. We don’t want to pay for the real thing, much less a knockoff.

Mrs. Grimsby squealed in frustration. These are not fakes! And of course it wasn’t this crappy backwater town’s money!

There was a collective gasp and Kate smirked at Sierra and Maggie. Her mission’s success depended on her making connections with the right people, and she thought going after the unpopular newcomer might have helped her forge a link with her targets more effectively than anything else she’d tried. She’d been here seven days already and dreaded facing the end of September with nothing to show for her efforts.

Kate had a moment’s guilt for her lie and for humiliating the witless woman. She squelched it with thoughts of her real life back in Virginia, where a neat row of her favorite shoes sat in her overstuffed walk-in closet. The value of her entire shoe wardrobe was less than that of a single pair of the heels she was maligning. Kate had worked hard her whole life and had to watch her budget, while this mayor’s new bride strutted around toting a six-hundred-dollar purse and thousand-dollar stilettos. Resentment surged in her empty belly and subsumed her conscience, and she gazed serenely at Cherry Grimsby’s splotchy face.

Can you believe this girl? Mrs. Whittaker’s teased lavender curls fairly vibrated with outrage, and her voice rose with her ire. Kate took a small sidestep away from the older woman and noticed Sierra and Maggie exchanging amused grins.

Why am I even talking to you idiots? Just you wait, I’m gonna tell Bobby about this! With that, Cherry crammed her swollen foot into her undersized pump and stomped back to her white Lexus. The tires squealed in protest as she yanked the wheel and raced away.

At her departure the small crowd melted away. Kate fought a smile until Sierra rushed over to smack her on the arm in what was apparently an affectionate gesture.

That was beautiful!

Kate half-smiled. Not too mean, you don’t think?

Are you kidding me? That woman is a grade-A bitch, and you put her right in her place!

Sierra’s gleeful smile was infectious, and Kate let herself enjoy the moment. Until now, Sierra had coolly rebuffed Kate’s efforts to befriend her.

I’ve seen you around before, Sierra asserted, narrowing her eyes. You moved into Mikey’s old place, right?

Kate shrugged. It was empty when I got there. Mikey a friend of yours?

He was okay. Kind of a pig.

You’re Sierra? And Maggie? I’ve seen you both around too.

Yeah, you’re next to me and Stoney. Maggie lives right across the way, next to that weird old guy.

Mr. Greeley? How old is he, a hundred? And how come he never wears any actual pants?

Maggie shuddered. He’s so gross. I think he knows those boxers don’t hide everything.

Duh, he’s a perv! Sierra made a gagging sound. I wish somebody would just shoot him and put us all outta his misery.

We were just going to the Redwood. Join us for lunch? Maggie’s warm smile made Kate grin.

Love to. I’m starving.

Man, you made my whole fuckin’ day, Sierra enthused. I hate that fake-ass bitch. If she keeps looking down her nose at me, I’ll break it for her. Do you know she’s only been here three weeks and she’s already trying to act like she runs this town? She’s in that cop shop every five minutes trying to get somebody busted. Thinks she’s the queen of Lawless.

As Sierra continued her tirade, the trio meandered down Main Street toward the Redwood Café. Kate kept her manner casual and her breathing easy. After less than a year of working various short-term undercover jobs, she felt like an analyst pretending to be a field agent pretending to be Kate Sooner.

Were you telling the truth? Are her shoes really fake?

Kate shot Maggie a wicked smile. Who knows? She was right. Look at me. I don’t know anything about fashion.

The three cackled as they entered the popular Main Street burger joint. Within seconds they were seated at one of Redwood Café’s four booths along the north wall and were examining red plastic menus. Kate looked around. The vinyl booths were Pepto Bismol pink with red tabletops, the walls were painted an eye-searing mint green, and the floor’s black linoleum had faded to mottled gray. Scattered around the small space were a half-dozen bright red tables surrounded by dark purple chairs. The café looked like it had been dipped in a vat of melted prom dresses and left to dry in the sun for a couple of years. She looked across the table at Maggie, who was picking a cuticle and watching her.

It’s high noon on Monday, she noted, shrugging in Maggie’s direction. Why isn’t this place packed?

End of the month. Maggie made a face. People have run out of money by now. The jobs went away years ago, and now half the town is living off government checks. The other half… Well, you can imagine.

Kate grunted. She couldn’t help but wonder how many people turned to crime because they couldn’t find legitimate work.

Sierra tapped on the table with her menu as if to close the subject. Well, it is what it is.

Kate nodded and followed the cue, smiling brightly. So, what’s good here?

Ohmygod, girlfriend, are you a Redwood virgin? Sierra’s playful smile was accompanied by a hard pinch to Kate’s arm.

Kate rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to punch Sierra in the throat. Well, I only moved here a few weeks ago, and I don’t really have any friends yet. I know it’s silly, she confided, leaning forward and lowering her voice, but I don’t like going to restaurants alone.

Me either, gushed Maggie. I feel really self-conscious. She blushed, her pale skin pinking from her chest to her forehead.

Not me, claimed Sierra. I’m not afraid of anything.

It’s true, she’s not, declared her best friend. What else haven’t you done since you moved here?

Well, I don’t know. What should I do? Where should I go?

Maggie ticked off on her fingers. Every place on Main Street. Everything’s been here forever. Some places closed, but you already know that, I guess. There really isn’t much else. Swim in the river. We can show you where the prettiest places are. Unless you have someone else to show you.

Kate shook her head.

What else?

That’s pretty much it. Main Street is all there is. I know it’s hokie, but that’s all we have.

Sierra jumped in. Girlfriend, eat a tamale from the truck in front of Bob’s. They’re the best. Everyone goes there and they’re cheap too. The truckers empty the truck every afternoon, so beat the crowd if you can. Oh, and get a milkshake from The Soda Counter.

Truckers? Like, driving cargo trucks? Or like construction-type trucks?

Sierra shrugged. Who cares? Cargo, I guess. The important thing is the tamales. Seriously.

Tamales from the truck and milkshakes from The Soda Counter, huh?

Definitely. Maggie smiled. The ones here are pretty good, but they’re amazing over there. Expensive, though.

But worth it, said Sierra. Seriously. If you don’t like their milkshakes, we can’t be friends. I mean it.

Kate smiled at the younger woman’s bluster.

Hey, hold on, gimme your phone.

Kate handed it over and watched Sierra pull up the texting app. She was glad now that she’d taken the time to set up a fake texting history with Crystal and Jared. Sierra texted herself and Maggie and handed the phone back.

There. Now we all have each other’s numbers.

Cool. Have you two been friends for long?

Oh, forever.

Sierra reached up to twist her voluminous auburn curls into a loose knot at the top of her head and snapped a wide clip around it. Maggie started here in the tenth grade, and we were both total outcasts. The teachers didn’t give a shit when we got bullied, so we had to stand up for ourselves. We stuck together then, and we still stick together. Always will.

Maggie nodded, her eyes wide and damp, and Kate held her gaze, surprised at the pulse of attraction that ran through her. Maggie was at least five-ten and blessed with generous curves she probably hated. She wore faded black jeans, broken-in black Reeboks, and a black Hello Kitty T-shirt.

She looked like a living doll, with her perfect bone structure and flawless skin. Her pretty features, including beautiful dark eyes, were untainted by makeup. The contrast between her light skin, dark eyes and hair were striking.

She had looked exactly the same every day for the week Kate had been watching. The only thing that changed was which black Hello Kitty shirt she wore on a given day. She was graceful and quiet and radiated calm intelligence. She was exactly the sort of woman Kate had always been attracted to. Other than her fair skin and casual wardrobe, she looked like Kate’s ex-girlfriend, Gail.

At that thought, Kate took a deep breath to steady herself. She’d squandered her relationship with Gail, she knew, by taking the smart, beautiful woman for granted. She’d been so focused on her career that she’d assumed Gail would be around when she finally decided to get serious about their relationship.

I’m like a sex doll you think you can store in the closet and pull out when you want something, Gail had said as a parting shot the last time they broke up.

Kate hadn’t even argued. She’d already decided at that point to go into fieldwork and told herself it was better to do so without a girlfriend. But seeing Maggie reminded her of Gail, and by her third day in residence at the trailer park, Kate had reminded herself that her cover was a straight girl who would not stare longingly at the anime-inspired beauty she monitored every day.

To redirect herself yet again, she recalled a college seminar on sartorial social markers and the disguising nature of self-imposed uniforms. Maggie was trying and failing to make herself invisible, and this only served to draw Kate’s eye even more. Don’t stare at her. She’s the subject of your investigation, not the object of your desire. It helped that Maggie’s personality was quieter than Gail’s. Gail was often quiet, like Maggie, but she was also fierce in a way this more washed-out California version of her didn’t seem to be. It was Gail who’d elicited from Kate the frustrations inherent in being a woman in a federal agency, Gail who’d asked why Kate didn’t fight for more autonomy and visibility.

You teach people how to treat you, she’d insisted, her dark eyes flashing. And you’re teaching them you don’t deserve to be respected or valued.

Kate had snapped back something sharp, she recalled, feeling defensive because as usual Gail was right. Now she wondered why she’d been so resistant to Gail’s message. It had often felt like Gail was trying to change her, trying to remake her into some new person who didn’t have Kate’s insecurities and fears.

It was Gail who wanted to move in together and Kate who refused to do so. It was Gail who wanted to get married and Kate who insisted they weren’t ready. And it was Gail who finally walked out without a backward glance on their third anniversary, after Kate gave her a fitness watch instead of an engagement ring. If I’d been willing to move the relationship forward, I probably wouldn’t be here. She dragged her thoughts into the present, eager to leave behind her frustrations over that unfulfilled relationship.

Thin, wiry Sierra stood just over five feet in her battered Doc Martens, and her brown eyes glittered with barely contained intensity. She wore enough makeup for two showgirls, most of it sparkly and either fuchsia or cobalt blue. She seemed to own an endless array of colorful low-cut Ts and skintight jeans, though at home in the trailer park she traded her black ankle boots for leopard-printed Uggs.

Sierra’s wardrobe was another kind of uniform. She dressed like every other young woman in the trailer park and most of the young women in Lawless and its surrounds. If a hunter wore camouflage in the woods to disappear into the scenery, wasn’t a grown woman dressing in the uniform of working-class teens another way of disappearing?

The thought gave Kate pause. Sierra did look more like a high school sophomore than a woman in her mid-twenties. Maggie looked even younger.

Kate realized they’d probably sported the same looks for the last decade. Those black boots Sierra wore could well be her first pair, bought when she was still in high school. The two friends were like actors in a play about prolonged adolescence, and Kate wondered how much of their costuming and posturing was real and how much for show. She realized how absurd it was for an undercover agent to speculate on the falseness of her subjects’ presentation and exhaled to clear her mind.

Tuning in to the end of a story of mutual loyalty between her two subjects, she said, A true friend is a real treasure.

Amen, girlfriend. Sierra snapped her fingers over Kate’s shoulder, presumably to summon the server. You work?

Kate shrugged. Sorta. I input stuff in the computer. You know, like transcribing.

Sierra narrowed her eyes. Sounds hella boring. Does it pay good?

It is hella boring, and it definitely does not pay good. She shrugged again. But I couldn’t find anything else. It’s not like I went to college or beauty school or whatever.

Don’t feel bad, Sierra added. College is for rich assholes. Mostly. Except for Mags.

Oh, yeah?

I’m surprised you get fast enough Internet here to do a job like that. Maggie’s solemn gaze belied the casual tone she’d used, and Kate noted her quiet intelligence. I take a few online classes, and I’m always running into trouble.

So am I. It’s barely fast enough on a good day. I have to wait forever for it to load and at least once a day it just craps out and I have to put all the data in all over again. But the rent here was the cheapest I could find, so what can you do? Lucky for me, the company reimburses me for my Internet. But they’ve always been a few months behind and moving slowed it down even more. They probably sent my last check to my old place, and my ex probably cashed it and I’ll never see it.

Sierra and Maggie exchanged a glance, and Kate took a moment to decide on the Goldmine burger. It was loaded with bacon, an onion ring and all the fixings. With tax and tip, the meal would end up costing two-thirds of her remaining cash, but she was starving. Her stomach was so barren she thought it might start echoing when it growled. Besides, she told herself, she needed to spend some time with Sierra and Maggie.

Maggie narrowed her bright blue eyes. Don’t take this the wrong way, but while we’re talking about it, can I ask why exactly you moved to Lawless? There’s nothing here. No jobs, no colleges, no tourist areas. We don’t even have a motel here. I know the rent is cheap, but it’s not like most people come here on purpose. They get stuck here. So tell us. What’s the story?

Kate had prepared a response for this question weeks ago but wasn’t sure it would work now. She was glad the waitress, whose faded nametag read Darla, interrupted them to take their order.

What can I get you girls?

Darla’s petulant voice and languid posture suggested she’d like to get them a sharp poke in each eye, but Maggie smiled and ordered a veggie burger in a polite tone. Sierra’s manner with Darla was both friendly and imperious, and Darla seemed to take this in stride. Kate ordered and saw the waitress’s glance flick in her direction, her naked curiosity a surprise.

You here on vacation?

Kate shook her head,