Arresting Developments

The six teens gathered in the living room, Heather leading Zack and Gavin in, while Ashley brought Kurt and Victoria. Walking in, Zack, Kurt and Victoria were curious what the cause of the sudden call was, but Gavin was gripped with fear and dread. Had he spilt some cum on the sofa after his late-night masturbation with Ashley? Though, surely that wouldn’t require the gathering of the whole cabin, and Ashley could have explained it to Heather…right? His trepidation was abated when they walked into the room and found nothing looked untoward or out of place; everything was just as he’d left it the night before. Three couches facing a fire place, a coffee table and a television. Except it was television that drew their attention.

On the screen was an image of Lisa’s father, Carlos Rivera. A pretty blonde newscaster was talking over the photo, while a tag line at the bottom of the screen read ‘RESIDENT HERO DETECTIVE ARRESTED’.

“Rivera…that’s Lisa’s father, right?” Kurt asked.

“What’s going on?” Victoria asked, her face falling as she shook her head. “First, Lisa, now her dad?”

“Shut up,” Zack barked, moving forward and sitting on the coffee table. “I’m trying to listen to the report.”

Gavin grabbed the remote and turned up the volume as the blonde newscaster provided a final run through of the story.

“….the detective known across town for his loyal service to the Azure Rocks police department was arrested this morning for obstruction of justice. This comes after his daughter was arrested for possession of a Schedule II **** yesterday. Eye witnesses say that early this morning Detective Rivera approached the lead judge in charge of the case, Jerry Selzer, and attempted to coerce the official into quashing the case, believing his daughter to be innocent of all wrong-doing. When Selzer refused, Detective Rivera reportedly got violent and trashed the room, although there is no indication that he became physical with Selzer himself. The judge filed the complaint after, which led to Rivera’s early morning arrest.”

“What the fuck?” Zack growled, standing and kicking the coffee table, while Gavin turned the volume down again. “This is insane.”

“I’m mad too, but don’t kick the furniture,” Heather warned him with an irritated pout. “It sounds like Carlos Rivera messed up. If he hadn’t done anything, Lisa might have gotten off with a fine. But now, the judge might want to send a message and her dad has ruined his career.”

“It’s not like he’s wrong,” Zack pointed at the television, though the reporter had moved on to a different news story. “She is innocent.”

“They don’t know that though,” Kurt interjected while rubbing the back of his neck. “We believe she’s innocent but without any hard evidence the law can only act off of what seems like the likeliest answer.”

“I’m not sure she’d have gotten off all that easily anyway,” Victoria said, frowning thoughtfully. “It is a highly regulated **** and there’s a push to crack down on **** like that, especially in small towns like Azure Rocks. At the very least, she’ll be sent to rehab and probably have to complete community service. She might even be subject to regular **** checks.”

“That’s only if we don’t figure out who did it. Someone planted those ****,” Zack replied, determined, turning to Ashley. “What about your lead?”

“We’re working on it,” she assured him and chewed her bottom lip, wishing she had better news for her sort-of boyfriend. “We were on our way out, but we saw this headline during breakfast and thought everyone needed to hear this.”

“Whatever it is, I hope it pans out,” Zack replied, clenching his fists. “I don’t know if Lisa will hold out any longer at this rate. First, she’s arrested, now her father. What’s next? Her mother? She won’t have a life to come back to by the time this guy is finished.”

“In fairness, we don’t know that this wasn’t part of the plan,” Victoria remarked, all heads turning her way. “If the plan was to target Carlos Rivera through Lisa, perhaps the person was relying on Carlos to react violently. It’s no secret that when it comes to family, people, even otherwise good, well-tempered people, can sometimes act violently and irrationally if that same family are threatened, or put in danger. Maybe whoever it was behind this was banking on that fact.”

Heather narrowed her eyes at the blonde, aware from her discussion with Ashley last night that Victoria also knew that the lead suspect was none other than Heather’s own father, Robert Ravers. Though, of course, Victoria didn’t know that Heather knew that she knew, so the comment was not intended to actually hurt the dark-haired cheer captain.

“That’s awfully convoluted though,” Gavin complained, scratching his head. “People are difficult to predict and one corrupt judge who would agree to overlook the case, or if someone had stopped Mr. Rivera on the way would have been enough to throw a wench into the whole thing. Unless you’re suggesting that he orchestrated who the judge would be AND that Mr. Rivera would confront him at this particular time and date.”

“Well, you’re right about people being unpredictable,” Victoria said bitingly and folding her arms over her full, braless tits. “You think you can trust someone and they’re screwing you over as soon as you turn your back.”

Gavin swallowed hard, dropping the point as Zack spoke, “Victoria’s right. Until we know more, or what exactly happened, we had to treat everything as suspect.” He turned back to Ashley, “You said you were leaving soon? I want to come too. Gavin and I will both come.”

Shaking his head, Gavin didn’t feel up to confronting some shady figure that had already gone after a policeman’s daughter and a policeman himself, but it was Heather who spoke up, “No. You’re staying here. It’s just me and Ashley that are going out this time.”

“What?” Zack stared at Heather in disbelief. They’d been getting along so well for the past few days, and she’d been incredibly supportive over the paternity issue of his birth. He couldn’t believe how she was rejecting him now. “Why the fuck can’t I come?”

“Quite frankly, I don’t trust you not to act like Carlos Rivera right now,” Heather insisted, glaring at the dark-haired boy. “You’re standing there with your fists clenched, flipping out at everyone, talking about how everything is suspect. Now is not the time for you to go in guns blazing, shooting first asking questions later. Right now, we need cooler heads to prevail.”

Ashley looked between Heather and Zack. On the one hand, she hated seeing Zack this upset, and she was sure that Heather just didn’t want Zack blowing up in Robert Ravers’ face. Yet, she had a point. Zack was in no state to talk to anyone without accusing them, or worse, and the situation was already a very sensitive issue as it stood. So, she held her tongue and allowed Heather to deny Zack.

Zack growled wordless for a moment before throwing up his arms and stomping off to the kitchen. “Fine. I’m going to make breakfast. I need to do something.”

“Great, hopefully by the time we’ve returned you’ll have cooled down,” Heather called after him, notably not mentioning that the situation would be resolved, because that would mean her father being behind all this, and that was not something she was willing to accept just yet. She turned to Ashley. “I’m gonna go pee, then we can go.”

Ashley nodded as Heather turned and left, heading down the hall towards the bathroom. Gavin and Kurt, both still in their underwear, excused themselves to get dressed, leaving Victoria and Ashley in the living room alone. Remembering her promise to Gavin to talk to her best friend about the situation with Kurt, Ashley decided that while she waited would be the perfect time to have that discussion.