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 she hit me, grabbed my gun, and smacked me with it. That’s where I got this nasty blow,” Brian said touching his head gingerly. “Next thing I know she’s got my gun and has cuffed my hands to the chair. That’s when you came in. What happened to you?”
“She cuffed to my chair in the office and then made me take notes. None of it makes any damn sense. Then finally she left and told me I could unlock myself after she left and get my gun at the door. She’s one slippery customer.”
“I’ll say,” Brian agreed. “Say, let’s see the file and the notes she made you take.”
Zane hesitated for the briefest of moments and then made a decision.
“Funny thing is, she took the notes. At least I think so. When she was ready to leave, she took the file from me and took some papers out. I’ll have to check. Why don’t you go check on the other prisoners and I’ll go check on the file,” he lied.
“Okay,” Brian said and headed off to the cells. Zane headed to his office where he opened the file and removed the notes he had taken. He folded them and put them in his pocket.
It wasn’t long before Brian returned. “They’re all accounted for. She left them here. They probably weren’t very important. Have you got the notes?”
Zane shook his head. “Nope. She took them.”
“Well, you must remember what she told you?”
Zane frowned as if trying to piece it all together. “None of it made any sense. Her alias is Flamingo. She said she uses money from peddling drugs to help kids through school. When I told her that she was turning the children she was trying to help into addicts, she disagreed. She said a little weed never hurt anyone. She kept bragging about how I could never catch her. That’s pretty much it.”
Zane finished and looked at Brian. Brian seemed to consider what he had said and then shrugged.
“But look at her record,” Zane said holding the file out to Brian. Brian opened the file and studied the information Zane had printed.
“Wow, she’s been going a long time.”
“Indeed she has. But she’s never been sentenced. She always seems to escape somehow. Just like tonight. It’s like she’s got help.”
Brian frowned and touched the wound on his head, “I hope you don’t think I helped her.”
“Of course not,” Zane replied. “I suggest you get your cut looked at. Go on. Get yourself to the hospital. I’ll write up the report here as embarrassing as it is. What’s disappointing is that none of the other jurisdictions ever communicated anything to their neighbor jurisdictions about Hope. If they had, we might have been more alert.”
“I guess that since she’s never attacked or killed someone, never been sentenced but always escapes, she’s pretty low key on the radar. That would explain why the other jurisdictions never told us about her.”
“Yeah. Well, I’ll start calling the other jurisdictions and see what they can tell me. We need to make sure we’re communicating about her. Look how far she’s come. Just think how far she’ll go if we don’t stop her,” Zane said. “Now go on. Get yourself out of here and to a doctor.”
“Okay, thanks Chief. I’m sorry I failed you tonight.”
“Never mind. You didn’t fail okay?”
“Okay,” Brian said seeming a bit brighter. “I’ll go see a doctor now.”
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
He breathed slowly and as quietly as he could trying to hear what was happening in the bedroom. He hoped she would leave again soon for any reason. His luck had run out though. He heard her push open the bathroom door and enter the bathroom.He heard the rustling of clothing and saw the blur of her movements through the shower curtain. He wondered if she could see his blurred outline standing still in the bath. From her blurred outline, it was clear that she was undressing. She finished undressing and sat down on the toilet, relieving herself. Then she flushed the toilet and Zane heaved a quick sighof relief under cover of the noise of the flushing toilet.In the next instant, the shower curtain was swept aside as Hope cried out.“Who the hell are ...?” She broke off her question as she realized that Zane stood in her bath. She held a pistol trained on him. A smile slowly stretched across her face.“Well, well, Chief.”
She listened to him breathing and to his heartbeat. She felt torn. She hadn’t known a man like Zane in a long time. But from when she had first been informed about him and come into this town and watched him, she had felt an ache in her heart. An ache she hadn’t known since she had first laid eyes on her daughter’s father all those years before. She had known what she was coming to do here. Had been promised this was her last job. Then they would let her go. Let her daughter go and she would be free. With a handsome payoff to boot and even funding for a non-profit organization to help street kids without having to employ them to pack or push drugs on the street.In her heart, she agreed with Zane. He was right. Even though she hadn’t started outright and had been peddling marijuana to begin with, she had never intended to do it this long. It had never been meant to be a way to make a living but rather a temporary to an end.And then? Then she ha