Boone nodded absently as he turned the truck off and grabbed his keys. He was a bit mesmerized by the sex-on-a-stick pacing angrily behind the three teenagers. Jackie was magnificent, and Boone knew he really needed to figure out if Jackie was a guy or a girl before his growing desires overcame his common sense.
Boone climbed out of his truck and made his way to the bottom of the steps. He glanced at each of the boys, smirking when he saw them shaking. He recognized all three of them as wannabe hoodlums from town. Not a single one of them was over the age of fifteen.
“What have you got here, Jackie?”
The spray paint on the wall behind Jackie didn’t bode well for the three teens.
“I caught them breaking into the house. They started out here on the porch and had gone to work on the walls inside.” Jackie nodded toward the house. “They dropped their paint cans inside. I’m sure you’ll find their fingerprints all over them.”
“Breaking, entering,andvandalism?” Boone raised his brow at the boys. “You three are bound and determined to do serious time, aren’t you?”
“One of them had a crowbar, sheriff.”
“A weapon, then?” Boone made a tsking noise as he shook his head. “Boys, boys, boys. What am I going to do with you?”
He saw Jackie’s lips twitch.
“He said he’d pay us fifty dollars if we spray-painted the place,” Bobby said.
Boone stiffened, all amusement leaving him in an instant. “Who said?”
“Shut up, Bobby,” Travis snapped. “Keep your fucking mouth shut.”
Jackie popped the kid on the back of the head. “No swearing.”
Boone squatted in front of Bobby and looked the kid right in the eye. “Who paid you to vandalize Jackie’s place?”
Bobby visibly gulped as he glanced to the boy who’d snapped at him. Travis shook his head, giving Bobby a warning glare.
“Neumus, would you please come assist me?” Boone called out without looking away from Bobby. When he heard Neumus step up beside him, he pointed to Travis. “Take him for a walk behind the woodshed and impress upon him how swearing and lying to police personnel could be detrimental to his ability to sit down.”
“Gladly.” Travis yelped when Neumus grabbed him and yanked him off the porch.
Boone waited until they walked away before returning his attention to the boys still in front of him. “Put your arms down.”
They looked ridiculous with their hands clasped behind their heads.
“Now, who paid you to spray-paint Jackie’s shop and house?”
Bobby gulped again. “He didn’t give us a name. He just paid us twenty-five dollars to do it. We were supposed to get the other twenty-five dollars after we spray-painted the shop and house.”
“I see.” Boone glanced up at Jackie, who looked even more confused than Boone was. “So, you basically got paid twenty-five dollars to spend the next two years in a juvenile detention center?” Boone shrugged. “Sounds to me like this mystery man got the better end of the deal.”
“Whoa, what do you mean two years in juvie?” Bobby babbled as pure panic came to life in his eyes. “We just sprayed some paint on the wall. That’s it.”
“True, but you broke into Jackie’s house with a crowbar and vandalized it. That’s breaking and entering with a deadly weapon. That’ll get you two years in juvie.”
“Oh man,” Bobby said with a groan, “my parents are gonna kill me.”
Boone pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. He had no doubt they weren’t there to hurt Jackie, just paint the walls, but that was still damage to private property plus breaking and entering.
“Here’s what I think you should do, Bobby. Tell me everything you know about this guy who paid you and apologize to Jackie, and maybe, just maybe, he won’t press charges for the breaking and entering. You’ll still have to do some community service for the vandalism, but it’s better than two years in the slammer.”
When Boone glanced up, Jackie raised an eyebrow at him. Boone shrugged. Travis, Bobby, and Sean weren’t really bad kids, just kids with too much time on their hands. They were young enough to be turned around before they ended up criminals for life, but they needed direction. Hopefully, community service would do that.
“But I don’t know anything,” Bobby insisted in a high voice. “I told you, he never gave us his name.”
“True, you did.” Boone stepped over to lean against the porch post. “But you can tell me what he looked like.”
