by Sandra Ryan
“Over shots of whiskey?”
“Babe, alcohol has the ability to make things clearer. Almost like the way I feel whenever I have you in my arms. The world just becomes a lot easier to navigate.”
“Oh, you must have had quite the time with alcohol,”
Sandra laughed, throwing her head back in careless abandon. The sight of the bare neck stirred something deep in Olga. She brought her lips down on it, biting down gently. Her hand found its way into Sandra’s shirt. Sandra shivered slightly as the cold hand made contact with her bare skin. Olga cupped each mound, gently caressing each tip, her mouth still working miracles in Sandra tongue and ears. Sandra held back the moan in her throat. She could tell from the intensity of Olga’s kisses that something was going on with her. Olga was holding on to her as though her life depended on it, so Sandra could not see beyond the pleasure.
Soon, they carried the party to the bedroom. Olga lifted her and gently placed her on the bed, then dipped one tentative finger into her. She was wet with desire and from all the teasing. Olga then spread her legs and began working on her with her tongue. Sandra felt the waves of desire crushing down upon her each after the other. Olga gave her no time to recover. She went on the task, making sure that she delivered the appropriate amount of pleasure. Sandra was gasping for breath when she climaxed, her whole body strung taut and bursting with the energy.
*******
Olga woke up a few minutes past two that morning. She was a light sleeper, coupled with the fact that whenever she was worried, she usually experienced severe bouts of insomnia, making it impossible for her to sleep.
She could hear Sandra snoring softly beside her. They had managed to carry their party from the couch into the bedroom where they had gone at it again, with Sandra climaxing two more times. At the end she had begun crying for unknown reasons. Olga had gathered her into her arms and they both had slept off in that position.
She got up and padded across the room to the window, careful to sidestep the pieces of clothing strewn all over the floor. She could feel the beginnings of a cold but she didn’t feel like going through the entire process of picking out an outfit and then wearing it; she could wake Sandra in the process, and she needed Sandra to be asleep. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts.
She sighed. She looked towards the direction of where their office stood on the other side of town. She wondered if Holly was still in the office, if she slept there. There were nights Holly did not go home, choosing to sleep on the couch in her office. Olga wondered if this was one of such nights. She wondered if Holly felt as conflicted as she felt over what she was about to do.
Probably not. In the first place, Holly did not know that she was actually living with the person she had designated her ‘source’, also that the person was female and that they were dating. But she knew that all of those would not matter to Holly. She expected the job to be done, and worried less about how it was done. The truth was that Olga had not found anything wrong with that philosophy for a long time. She too believed that whatever had to be done to ensure that their case was won, had to be done. Although, for this very time, she knew that what she had to do to confirm Samuel’s innocence would come with grave consequences if she was found out, nevertheless, she knew she was going to go through with it regardless of what the consequence would be.
She turned away from the window and made her way into the living room, Sandra usually dropped the bag containing her laptop on the coffee table, except she wanted to work with it which would be when she would carry it into bed. Olga found the bag, unzipped it and extracted the laptop. When she turned it on, she found both their smiling faces staring up at her. She could still remember the day the picture was taken, they had spent that whole day at the beach, eating grilled cheese and barbecue and splashing around in the water. At the end, Sandra had taken that selfie of them holding each other, lines of laughter and the hint of water in their hair. In the background there were other people milling around, but Sandra had managed to crop them out to focus the camera just on the both of them. When she had told Olga that she was going to use the picture as her wallpaper for her laptop, Olga had not had the heart to refuse her.
Olga looked at the picture now and paused for a few minutes. Then, steeling her resolve, she typed in Sandra’s password. It was not hard. The password was the name of Sandra’s cat that had died when she was a teenager. Olga had known the password for a long time and sometimes even used Sandra’s computer to access her own email when hers broke down. But somehow she knew that this night’s was different. She was not using the laptop with a clear motive. What she was going to do with the laptop was a breach of trust and could potentially put Sandra’s career at risk. That was why she had felt such conflicting emotions all evening. The weight of Sandra’s disappointment was bearing down upon her already, but she brushed it aside. She had promised Holly to do everything she could to ensure that the case was effectively handled.
She navigated to the New York Police data base and typed in Sandra’s code. The code had been harder to get her hands on. As a rule, all police officers were supposed to keep their log in passwords secret, and were not even supposed to disclose it to their spouses, but one day Sandra had told her details of her log in password. It had just come up in conversation one day as Sandra was trying to explain to her the various forms a person’s log in details could be.
She navigated to the search area and began with Sheridan Cox’s girlfriend, Heather Kline. Her details popped up. Olga was not surprised she was on the system. With the way Holly had described her, Olga had been sure that the lady would have a record or something. She stared at the mug shot; she wasn’t a beautiful woman. She had a prominent forehead and cheekbones. But her eyes had such depth in them. Olga imagined the woman smiling. Hers was the sort of eyes that drew people in, making them feel as though they are drowning in its blue intensity. In the photo though they were looking lifeless, dead, like snake eyes.
She had a rap sheet running back almost fifteen years. She had been first arrested when she was thirteen for shoplifting. That time, she had been living with her third foster family. As the years rolled by and she was bounced from one foster home to the other, her crimes increased both in intensity and frequency and she got picked up a lot more often. She graduated from petty offenses to ones with much more violence; she even spent time in solitary for beating a fellow prisoner within inches of her life because the prisoner had taunted her mother. She was in her late twenties now and was already a veteran in the prison system.
But then over the years, she had become a lot calmer. For a period of almost four years she did not have even a single arrest. For all intents and purposes, she was a law abiding citizen. Then a few months back she had been arrested for speeding and driving under the influence. The arrest was so out of character that it stunned Olga. From all indications, the woman, Heather, had made such remarkable progress, thus Olga was almost shocked to see the arrest surfacing. She scrolled down to find the arresting officer.
It was Sheridan Cox! Immediately, things began falling into place. This was obviously how the both parties became acquainted and began dating. Who was to tell if the young woman had gone into the relationship of her own free will or whether Cox had blackmailed or even threatened her? And even at that, what exactly was the extent of her involvement in the whole saga? Olga sat staring at the screen for a long time, and was jolted into reality at the sound of Sandra's voice from the door.
"What the hell are you doing?" Her voice was raised in a shriek. She marched from the door and snatched the laptop from Olga's hands and stared at the screen, shock and disappointment swimming in her eyes.
"What is this? What were you doing, Olga?" This time her voice came out a lot less sharper.
"I'm sorry, babe," Olga stammered. "I just needed to get some information from your server."
"I do not need your apologies. What I need is an explanation. If you needed anything why didn't you ask me? Why were yo
u snooping through my laptop?"
"I was afraid you would not oblige me."
"So you decided to go through my privacy without my consent? Whatever made you think you had that right?"
"I was not thinking, Sandra. And I did say I am sorry, didn't I?" Olga got up and began making her way to the bedroom. Sandra's voice was behind her.
"Sorry doesn't even begin to cut it. Don’t you know that anything someone logs in it is recorded on the central server? What would be my explanation for going through a person's criminal record? Do you even realize that you may have potentially put my job in jeopardy? I could be out of a job by morning."
"What exactly do you want me to say?" Olga threw her hands up in the air.
"You could begin by telling me whose identity you searched on the database and who you are doing it for?"
Olga's shoulders slumped. She looked aghast as she lifted her eyes to meet Sandra's.
"I can't tell you that. It is privileged information for a client. I might be putting our investigation at risk by telling you."
Sandra was incredulous. "You cannot tell me the person for whom you risked my job for? The person for whom you broke my trust? Olga, you cannot fucking tell me? What the hell is this?"
"I can only tell you that the information I got off of your laptop may potentially prove the innocence of someone," Olga said.
"And that is supposed to make me feel good, right?" Sandra replied. "And what are you even doing?"
Olga had brought out her suitcase and was throwing clothes into it.
"I am leaving. Just for a few days. I think it is for the best. Eventually, when everything is settled, we would sort out this. But right now, I have to be someplace where I can figure things out."
"You are leaving? How does that help anything? You do not drop this on me and then scamper off. That is not how things are done.”
Olga walked to where Sandra was standing. She dropped the suitcase she was carrying on the floor and gripped her by the shoulders.
“Listen, I would come back, I promise. Just give me these couples of days. I would make it up to you. I would try to gain your trust back, but right now, I need to be as far away from you as possible. It would be better for us both that way.”
“So you are running away? That’s it? Your response is to pack up your things and leave?”
“I’m sorry again, Sandra but I just have to do this. I hope you eventually come to understand.”
“Just go.”
Olga could hear her sobbing quietly behind her as she reached for the handle. She felt terrible hearing Sandra crying so for a moment she stood at the door, her hand on the door knob. Her heart was torn in two, oscillating between staying and leaving. When she made up her mind and finally opened the door, she heard Sandra say to her.
“You can leave, Olga, but do not expect that I would be here waiting for you when you return.”
*******
The woman continued to ramble non-stop. It was as though she ran a commentary on anything and everything she set her eyes on. For over thirty minutes since she sat down opposite Olga, she had been going on about one thing or the other. Now she was talking about her two daughters. It appeared her husband had taken them away from her and she had hired an attorney in a bid to get them back.
Olga sighed and looked around. Various cars were parked at the farthest end of the park. Being the weekend, a few families had come out to enjoy the sunshine and the food. There were several of the families at the different benches in the park. Children were milling around, playing under the watchful gaze of their parents. The scenery was almost picturesque, like something found on the pages of a travel magazine or something.
Olga forced her gaze back to the woman sitting in front of her. Now she was talking about her church, how they ran a relief program of which she was part of. Olga felt the beginnings of a bout of irritation. Surely the woman knew she did not believe in God or cared for any religious organization for that matter, why was she bringing up the subject? Did she expect her to laugh and smile and contribute to the conversation, or was she supposed to suffer through the long tirade with a smile on her face? Olga chose to do the latter.
Her gaze returned back to the woman’s face, it was dotted with small bumps and was folded in wrinkles. Her hand that was on the table looked so old and shook slightly as she spoke. She kept tugging at her sleeves and sniffing. She was the perfect picture of a recovering junkie. The woman’s name was Sophie. She had been Sandra’s colleague, but had been let go because of her addiction to drugs. She had since claimed that she was going to rehab and was making strides in trying to get her life back. She had been married, and had two daughters but her husband had taken the children and left and had even filed for sole custody.
When Olga left her apartment, she had checked into a hotel, then gone through her contact list to see if there was anyone she could find to help fill her in on Sheridan Cox. Although she had gotten the information she needed concerning Heather Kline, she had not been able to gather information regarding Sheridan Cox or his connection with Nathan Benson. She had then called Sophie. She and Olga had had drinks with Sophie a few times so they were like acquaintances. She figured that since Sophie had already been let go from the force she would have no qualms sharing whatever knowledge she had with her. She would not be inhibited by the fact that she swore an oath of secrecy or anything. In fact, when Olga had called her, she had seemed pleased, almost too eager to hear from her. Olga had no doubts that this was probably because since she left the police force, a lot of her friends probably deserted her.
“Do you want something to eat?” Olga said, stopping her in the middle of her speech. Sophie did not look too pleased with that but responded,
“Sure. I’d have a burger and some iced tea, please. This weather seems bent on sucking out all the moisture from my skin.” She gave a small laugh, and rested her arm slightly on Olga’s. Olga felt a strong urge to take her hand away but left it for a few more seconds, gritting her teeth the whole time
There were several vendors in small booths around. Olga beckoned on one of them, and in no time, a plate of burger was sitting in front of Sophie. She elected to take just iced water herself. Sophie dug into the meal, only pausing in between bites to smile up at Olga. For a moment, there was silence, the only sound being the smacking sound Sophie made as she chewed. Olga watched her. When she had taken the last bite from the food and gulped down the last of her drink, Olga began talking, she did not want to give her an opportunity to launch into one of her numerous stories again,
“So, I told you over the phone that I needed your help with something?”
“Yes. I did wonder what it was that you needed my help with that you could not just ask Sandra for. By the way, where is she? I had been working under the assumption that it was you two that I was going to be seeing.”
“She could not come, she had a few things she needed to handle today,” Olga said, biting down on her lips, trying to hide her irritation at the other woman’s inquisitiveness. “and yes, I did not ask her because this is for my firm, it has nothing to do with my private life.”
“Oh. So I assume that you would be paying then?”
Olga gave a melancholic smile. She had known that Sophie would probably ask her for money. Every junkie, whether recovering or not would never pass up the opportunity to make a few extra bucks.
“Sure, that can be arranged. It depends on the quality of the information you give me.”
Sophie’s eyes widened at the mention of money. Then it narrowed again as she looked at Olga suspiciously. She obviously thought this was a ruse to get her to talk.
“How is Holly Hackett these days?” She asked. “I heard you guys took on Samuel Clark as a client?”
“How did you get that information?” Olga asked, deliberately choosing not to answer her question.
“Oh, I have my ways,” Sophie replied cheekily. “Little goes on in this city that I am not aware of. As for Samuel Cl
ark, it is really unfortunate that this is happening to him at this moment. His is a classic case of a person being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“So you do think he is innocent?” Olga asked.
“I wouldn’t go as far as proclaiming him innocent. However, the police have just a shitty case against him. What they have is mostly made up of conjectures. Until they have something concrete, nothing is to say that it wasn’t some other person who carried out the nefarious activity and is trying to pin it on another man.”
“I see.” Olga said. “It is funny you think this way because what I have to ask you is somewhat connected to the case. Are you familiar with a police officer called Sheridan Cox?”
Sophie’s eyes widened in recognition at the mention of the name. She did not even bother taking a look at the picture Olga slid across to her.
“Do you think he is the person who committed the crime?” Sophie asked instead.
“We do not know. He is just a person of interest in the case. I am checking him out. Whatever you tell me may prove to be useful or not. I just need to hear you out first.”
Sophie did not respond. She refused to meet Olga’s eyes. Looking instead over her shoulder at a couple of children throwing balls across front of them.
“So you expect me to rat on another police officer? Don’t you realize that that is perhaps the greatest offense a police officer could commit? Selling out his fellow officers to civilians?”
“Oh, come on, Sophie. What loyalty do you speak of? I mean, you cannot obviously be talking of protecting the same individuals who had no qualms kicking you out of the force, leaving you in the cold to fend for yourself all alone? I mean, how many of them still keep in touch? How many of them spare time from their busy schedules to actually check on you to even know how you are doing, if you are surviving?”
Olga placed her hands now on Sophie’s. “Listen, this is bigger than you and I. It is bigger than whatever loyalties you think you owe your compatriots. A man’s freedom is potentially at stake here. If telling the truth about a former cop would help set him free would you not do it? Is that not what you swore an oath to do?”