Zane sat down opposite the woman.
“I need your biodata for the file. Write it on there for me please,” he said pushing the file over to her.
“Make me,” the woman replied.
Zane looked her in the eyes and she stared back at him. Second for second, unwavering, challenging, teasing even. Zane said nothing and waited for her to tire of her challenge.
She smiled. “You’re forgetting something. I’m the one going to prison here. I have no small amount of time to kill. So, we can sit here as long as you like and I’m guessing you’d like that considering how you were ogling me back at the warehouse.”
Zane felt his cheeks turn red and retorted, “Don’t flatter yourself.”
The woman pretended not to hear him. “You’re probably thinking how much you’d like my gorgeous lips around your cock right now.”
“You mentioned it so I guess that’s what’s on your mind,” Zane replied.
The woman sat forward resting her face in her hands. “Actually, I was wondering when you’re going to get your shit together and start doing your job. A girl needs her beauty sleep.”
Zane felt anger rising within him and almost made a comment he would later regret. He managed to stop himself. He pulled the file back over and turned it the right way up for him.
“Name?” he asked.
“Hope.”
“Hope what?”
Hope I suck you off?”
Zane waited, his pen poised over the file. When she said nothing else, he looked up. Straight into her eyes. Her lips were parted in a smile. A smile he could only describe as playful. Then she bit the left side of her lower lip while she maintained her smile and held his gaze. His resolve began to fail. He felt desire begin to stir in him.
Zane was lost. Lost for words. Lost his train of thought. Simply lost. In her. He wanted to take her then and make her his. In so many ways. Thoughts that no man, even less a police officer, or worse, Chief of Police should think, crashed through his mind. Like a bull in a china shop. A womanizer in a brothel.
Zane realized he was licking his lips, lost in his thoughts, and pulled himself back to reality.
“Hope who?” he asked firmly.
“Hope Ryder,” she finally answered. He looked at her again to see if she was fooling around. She wasn’t.
He went through the rest of the details and she answered. She was twenty-six years old. Sad he thought. Such a waste of a ...
He pushed his thoughts away again and began his questioning.
“Are the person responsible for setting up this operation?”
“What if I am?” she shrugged.
“Well, there was no-one else there who seemed to be capable of giving orders.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m in charge of the operation,” Hope replied.
“I’m guessing you were in charge today,” Zane fired back. “How does someone like you set up an operation like this? This hasn’t been set up overnight.”
“I couldn’t tell you that for free. Training costs money. If you want to learn the tools of my trade you have to pay me.”
“Do you have an answer for everything?”
“Makes life fun,” she smiled. He stared at her icily indicating that he found nothing funny about her attitude.
“God, you’re fucking boring. I thought you’d be more fun. I’ve had more fun with other cops than you. Maybe you prefer dick in the ass. That would explain it.”
Zane’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t care what other cops are like. I’ve got a job to do and I’m doing it.”
“Well, you can’t do it without me. Funny how cops need criminals to have a job. Even funnier is how you can do nothing unless criminals co-operate. See, you can’t do a thing to me. Not a thing. Or I’ll cry police brutality. And then you’re fucked. And not in the way you’d like.”
“Screw you, lady,” Zane said losing patience. “Just answer the damn questions.”
“Or what?”
Zane sighed, “What do you want?”
“The question is, what do you want? I’ll answer every question you ask. Just be honest about what you want. And when I give you what you want, you let me go.”
“You need to stop flattering yourself. I won’t let you go and you know that,” Zane replied.
“You want me. I see it in your eyes. I knew from the moment you first looked at me, you wanted me. So take me. Any way you want. Then I’ll tell you everything and then you let me go.”
Zane was speechless. Hope held his gaze shamelessly.
“Are you bribing me with sex?”
“I didn’t say that,” Hope smiled.
Zane paused a moment. “Okay. Let’s see just how honest you are. What I want is for you to tell me everything about the drug operations you’re setting up here in Hurstville. I want to know everything. Suppliers, dealers, connections, everything. There. I’ve told you what I want. I’ve been honest.”
Hope’s eyes narrowed. “You think you’re so clever. They warned me about you.”
The statement caught Zane off guard. Managing to keep a straight face he asked, “Who warned you about me?”
Hope said nothing as she studied Zane across the table. “I’ll tell you what. You’ve got enough information now to go and search your big police database. When you’ve done your research come back to me and then we can talk.”
Zane grabbed his file and left the room locking the door behind him. He found Brian waiting outside looking through the one-way mirror. He wondered how much Brian had heard.
“She’s a tough one,” Brian commented.
“Tell me about it,” Zane growled. “I’m going to check the database in the meantime. See if you can get anything out of her. How did it go with the other one?”
“I locked him up already. Don’t waste your time. He’s just another illegal immigrant who got roped into doing something criminal because he couldn’t get a job. We arrested him on the first day on the job. He says he wanted to leave when he realized what he’d be doing but he was scared for his life. Same old story.”
Zane sat down at his terminal and typed in ‘Hope Ryder’ on the search screen. Under offenses, he inserted ‘drug abuse, drug trafficking, drug pushing, drug dealing, and prostitution’. He hit enter and waited.The screen lit up seconds later and Zane stared as the list of offenses appeared one after another on the screen.Zane hit the print button and waited as sheet after sheet of information printed out. When the printout was finished he scanned the sheets learning what he could as fast as he could.Hope Ryder had been operating in small towns near Hurstville for the past few years. She had been caught on numerous occasions but had always somehow managed to slip out of the clutches of the law. She was known as ‘Flamingo’. No information told him why she was called ‘Flamingo’.He could not believe how many times she had slipped away already. How was it possible? She had never killed anyone, never used violen
Hope left his office and he watched her round the corner into the passage as she headed for the front door. She had fished his mobile from his pocket and placed it on the desk in front of him so he could answer when she called him.A few minutes later, his phone rang and he snatched it up, answering it.“Hope, Flamingo?”The call was cut off without any word from her on the other end.Zane grabbed the keys to his cuffs and unlocked them, freeing himself. He ran to the front door of the station and looked outside. Hope was nowhere to be seen. He turned and ran back to the interrogation room where Brian was still cuffed and locked in.He freed Brian who thanked him and rubbed his wrists to get his circulation going again.“What the hell happened?” he asked Brian.“That woman is more dangerous than you think,” Brian said defensively. “She pretended to fall off the chair and I fell for it. Then sh
Zane finished up his report and saved it on the system. Then he did his final rounds before leaving for the night. He said goodnight to the officer on duty, Tex. Tex had come on duty after the day’s drama so had not been in the station at the time that Zane was cuffed in his office.Zane believed it would be a quiet night despite the arrests they had made earlier in the day.Hope’s accomplices were all teenagers. Street kids just trying to earn a buck. Zane was tempted to simply let the kids go but he didn’t have the right to do so.He had seen so many kids just trying to make a buck and getting sucked into doing something criminal. By the time they found out what they would be doing for the job it was too late to back out.Generally, they would be out on the street again in a few days but they’d have a record. Something that could have been avoided if people like Hope didn’t get involved with them.Zane sat in his car
Zane sat up and turned away. He grabbed his shorts and pulled them on. He left the room and returned to the kitchen where their coffee still stood on the table. It was cold.He put their mugs in the microwave and heated them as Hope followed him into the kitchen. She was still naked. She retrieved her panties and put them on. Then she put on her skirt and top and sat at the table.“Those drugs are low-key stuff but still drugs. That’s where it starts. Kids just want a gentle lift or high and before they know it, they want something stronger. Then they move on to the really bad shit and from there it’s a one-way ticket.”“I don’t peddle bad shit. Have you never had your share of weed in your life?”“Who hasn’t tried it? The problem is some people don’t know when to stop. Others can control their need for use of drugs. As I said, it starts with the mild stuff and it’s just downhill from there
Zane woke the next morning and rolled over hoping to find Hope beside him but she was gone. She had left a note for him and he read it eagerly.Sorry to love and leave.It’s not you. I thoroughly enjoyed last night and I enjoy you too. You’re an interesting man.I think it's best that I go and that we don’t see each other again. I’m guessing that the next time you see me will be when you arrest me if you arrest me. It will be best if you do, rather than repeat last night. Even better would be for you to leave. Take a transfer and go settle in another town far from here. You can’t stop what’s coming and neither can I. But we are on opposite sides and I can’t change that. I’m pretty sure you won’t either. Even if you wanted to, other people aren’t willing to give you the opportunity.Please don’t let your ego get in the way. Listen. Think
Zane climbed into the cruiser and swore as he looked at the courthouse. He had always had a good working relationship with Judge Borth but their discussion left him feeling uneasy.Judge Borth had seemed to be less than his usual self this morning. Maybe he had gotten out of the wrong side of the bed.Whatever the reason, Judge Borth had not been himself. He had been distant and cold. Zane pondered what to do. There was no point going back to the station. He picked up the files of the kids he had tossed on the front passenger seat and went through them.James O’Reilly, sixteen, Lamar Pendleton, sixteen, Barry Jaxon, seventeen, George Hartly – eighteen. He didn’t check further. He looked at James’ address and decided to visit him. He was just on the outskirts of town.Thirty minutes later Zane pulled up outside a timber house. The house needed a lot of work but, he suspected, the family didn’t have the money to fix it or they
He headed straight to Andy’s house. He knocked on the door and a big bulk of a man answered. He was surly but seemed to relax when he realized it was Zane, the town’s chief of police.“Yes chief, how can I help ya?”“I’m looking for Andy. Is he here?”“Why? He done somethin’ wrong?” the man asked immediately suspicious.“On the contrary,” Zane smiled. “He’s done something right.”“Oh, well that’s good,” the man smiled. He opened the screen door and invited Zane in.Zane politely declined, saying he was enjoying the beautiful day outside.“Andy!” the man shouted.Moments later a young boy about James’ age rounded the corner into the living room behind the man at the door.“Yes, Dad?”“Police chief here wants to have a word with ya. Take a walk with him outside,” the m
The ‘Hello Goodbye Motel’ was a single-story structure with ten guest rooms. Even so, it wasn’t easy to approach with stealth. All the rooms had windows that looked out front over the main road. The entrance was such that every car had to drive by each room on the way to the reception. The chances of being spotted were high and the chances that Hope wouldescape if she saw him were high. He would have to go to reception and ask if they had a guest fitting her description.If she spotted him driving up in that time she would be long gone by the time he got to her room. He watched for hours but so no movement. He wondered if Hope had checked out already. After her capture, she might have decided to move on. Brian radioed him and asked where he was.“I’m questioning the kids we arrested who were released. So far nothing. Let me know if anything comes up at your end.”Brian assured him that he would.Zane turned his