She tells a story

Constable Cobb gestures as she shuts the door on Cindy, pointing towards the front section of the trailer. You lean against a counter, your arms folded, looking at her and waiting for her to speak.

"I can guess what you're thinking," she says, the flush still on her throat and her hands toying with her belt.

"Can you?" you answer calmly. "Let's hear it."

"You think I'm a dirty cop. You think I've used my job to take advantage of situations. You think I did that with Miss Danton in the past and you think I'm doing it now. Is that about right?"

"Pretty close," you nod. "And you're trying to get me involved to share the guilt around."

She nods, chewing on the corner of her mouth as she looks at you before nodding again.

"This is a dirty town," she says. "The people here...some of them...they're good at getting their way. It's subtle...takes time. But when the hooks are in you...you're stuck." You look at her, waiting for her continue. She gives you a look full of anxiety. "You're new here. New to town, new to the school. You don't know. It's easy...to get trapped. Look at you...already riding a student around on your bike while she comes in public. You've been here what? Two days? Wait till you've been here two months and you'll be surprised what happens."

"What's trapping you, Officer Cobb?"

"Beth," she says with a shuddering sigh. "Life. Life and weakness and mistakes that come back to bite you."

"Why not leave? There's lots of jobs in other towns. You could start over."

"No. I can't leave," she shakes her head. "That crappy old house next door? That's my parents. My dad, he's in a wheelchair, can't farm any more. My mother, she's....well she's not a strong woman. They can't make it without help. I can't leave. I'm all they've got."

"So take them with you. Sell the farm and move somewhere you can be together."

"You think it's so easy!" she says with sudden anguish. "You got all the answers! The place is mortgaged to the hilt, and by the time the sale was done there wouldn't be enough to buy a wheelbarrow. The land is leased to other farmers for just barely enough to cover the mortgage, and even then it's short sometimes. It's not so easy!" You can see her eyes fill with unshed tears and she turns her face away for a moment and takes a deep breath.

"So what, in all that, makes it ok for you to use your position to take advantage of a helpless student?"

"Nothing. Nothing makes it ok. But she's not so helpless. None of those rich bitches at the school are! She's just as bad as...as some people here...you make one mistake...and they have you..." she says sadly, before turning to look at you with sudden firmness. "They'll have you too. If you stay, they'll have you too. So either get back on that bike and ride off into the sunset, and never come back, or come back with me and let's give that snotty little cunt in there what she's asking for."