Page 17 of The Billionaire's Special Relationship

“Dang. That’s a long time. About what? Thirty years ago? Give or take a year or two?”

“That’s correct.”

“Why would you suddenly come back now, if I might ask? It’s not every day that a guy who works for a heavy-hitter like Dellstone as, I’m assuming, an executive, would be in our little town.”

Stuart was not the kind of man comfortable with sharing, but the chief seemed to be a man attempting to help the community. “My mother lived here. She recently passed away.”

“Oh! So sorry to hear that. I didn’t know we had the mother of a titan of industry in our town.”

“I left a long time ago. A lot of the people who knew me back then left too. Or died off. Or, in your case, never knew me to begin with. I’m just here to close out her books, make sure there are no outstanding debts, put her house on the market, and leave.”

The chief grinned. “You have about as high an opinion of this place as I have of New York City.”

Stuart smiled and nodded his head. Definitely Clarence Thomas, he thought.

Then a knock was heard on the door, thechief yelled to come in, and that same smug officer walked in. “You wanted to see me, Chief?”

When he saw Stuart sitting in the office with his legs crossed, he slowed his progression. But he kept walking to the desk.

“This is Mr. Jacobs,” the chief said. “He said he witnessed an accident today, but you ignored his input. Is that true?”

“I didn’t know what he was about, sir,” said the officer.

The chief frowned. “What do you mean what he was about? He said he witnessed the accident. Did you take down his statement?”

The cop stood even more erect. “No sir.”

“He said the one you declared was the victim was the instigator.”

That was when Stuart interceded. “That white girl rammed her big Durango into the small vehicle of the young black lady he arrested. And then the white female jumped on the much-smaller young lady and began fighting her. They young lady they arrested was only defending herself. She didn’t start any of it.”

Stuart could see the frustration on the chief’s face. “What’s her name?”

Stuart could tell that the officer knew her name, but he didn’t want to reveal it. But he knew he had no choice. “Morgan,” he said. “Tabitha Morgan.”

“You’re on desk duty until you hear from me,” the chief said, and then dismissed him.

When they left, he phoned the desk sergeant and ordered him to release Tabitha Morgan immediately with no charges filed.

Then he ended the call. “Sorry about that,” he said to Stuart, as Stuart rose to his feet. “It’s how they’re used to operating around here. It’s deeply embedded in the culture of this place. But I’m going down hard on every single cop who still refuses to change their ways. No exceptions.”

“That’s good to know that somebody’s changing things,” Stuart said. “I remember how nastily I was treated when I was growing up here simply because I was a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. My family was very poor. That treatment you don’t forget. And if it was that bad for me, I can only imagine how bad it was for African Americans and other people of color around here.”

“I’m here to tell you it was bad.” The chief chuckled. “That’s why I ran for public office. I decided I wanted to change things from within.”

Stuart extended his hand. “Thank you, sir, and I’ll be on my way.”

“Well now,” the chief said as he shook his hand. “There’s the matter of that other thing.”

Stuart stared at him. “What other thing?”

“You said you would make all of this worth my time?”

Stuart suddenly realized that he had made the false assumption that a black chief helping out a black female would be above bribing. But he should have known when money was involved nobody wasabove anything. He pulled out his wallet. “How much?”

“How much you got in mind?”

“A couple hundred.”