A Dangerous and Cunning Woman

by Ethan Johnson

  She caught a glimpse of the former elementary school in the distance and recalled her time living there, first with Lyssa, then with Sapphire. She fell in love with Lyssa there. Sapphire didn’t approve, but she didn’t approve of any romantic entanglements between co-workers. She didn’t soften her stance after Lyssa was expelled from the academy, or what passed for it back then.

  “You need to focus, Pembrook,” Sapphire once told her after Diane spent over an hour chatting with Lyssa. “You’ve got big dreams. You want to eat at the Cotillion nine days a week. You want fancy clothes and fancier jewelry to wave around under everybody’s noses. Getting mixed up with that doormat isn’t going to get you where you want to be.”

  Diane snorted as she replayed the conversation in her head, just like she had the first time. “Lyssa’s not a doormat. She just needs to blostom and find her passion.”

  Sapphire put her book down and gaped. “Blostom? What’s that word trying to be?” She looked upward, then snapped her fingers. “Blossom! Good God, Pembrook. It’s great that you’re trying to cram sixteen years of English class into three months, but you’ve got to actually learn the words and their proper pronunciation. Guh, you remind me of some doofus who kept saying there was no statue that said his dog had to be on a leash at Hemphill Park.”

  “Dogs ain’t allowed at Hemphill Park, are they?”

  “Nuh, they ain’t. Gawrsh,” Sapphire said, making her upper teeth stick out as she dropped her voice an octave, then she returned to her normal speaking voice. “That genius got a $400 fine and a free copy of the statute that said no pets of any sort were allowed at Hemphill.”

  Diane fumed and folded her arms. “You don’t have to be so damn mean.”

  “Awww, did I huwt your widdle feewings?” Sapphire pretended to weep, then stared intently at Diane. “Tough. I know you, Pembrook. If there’s one thing I’ve learned spending time anywhere near you, it’s this: you respond better to negative, not positive reinforcement.”

  “Like how?”

  “Like this: I took you two to the Cotillion. I know you enjoyed it. I know you wanted more of it. But instead of taking steps to get more of what you wanted, you focused on your silly lovey-dovey nonsense, and blew all your money on stupid crap because she told you to, or because you couldn’t resist the thrill of spending money on anything and everything, like this is the first time in your life you ever got to do it. I saw a lot of that in college, Freshman year. In fact, I saw a lot of the stuff you do in college. You haven’t been experimenting with thignoids and clam dip, though, so there’s that.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t make Cotillion money.”

  “Not with that attitude, you don’t. But I guarantee you, if someone said you were banned from the Cotillion for life, you’d tunnel your way in there with a teaspoon.”

  “That’s not true,” Diane sniffed.

  Sapphire rolled her eyes and returned to her book. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say, Toots.”

  In the present day, Diane wiped a tear away with her knuckle and hated what she had to do next. She pulled her comm unit out of her clutch and searched the directory for Sapphire’s contact listing. Maybe she could lend her the bail money. Maybe she knew someone else who would. Diane couldn’t let Lyssa spend one minute in her cell without giving it everything she had to get her out of there.

  Nobody was going to keep Lyssa away from her, she vowed.

  Diane punched up Sapphire’s contact listing and sent her an urgent chat request. Sapphire did not respond. Diane groaned and tried again and got the same result. She stuffed the comm unit back in her clutch and stomped back in to the intake desk. Parcells looked up from his tablet and nodded. “Got the money?”

  “No, I didn’t. But I shouldn’t have to. These charges are phony as all get-out. Seems to me, there’s a way to get her released to my custody instead of posting bail.”

  Parcells sighed and shook his head. “And as I told you before, that’s usually true, except assaulting a police officer threw all of those little shortcuts and rule-benders out of the window. Kenner wants an example made of this one.”

  Diane jutted her chin at him angrily. “An example? Did Goodwin say you’ve got next?”

  “No, nothing like that. I mean, Kenner wants her put on trial ASAP, and he wants the biggest book we’ve got thrown at her. He’s not screwing around, Pembrook. Best keep your nose out of this.”

  Diane expected Goodwin to emerge from somewhere with a crack about where her nose had been, but he didn’t show himself. She wiped another tear from her eye and nodded. “Can I see her, at least?”

  “That, you can do. You’ll have to leave any loose items at the front desk when you hit the cell block. You’ve got about an hour before they clear everyone out who isn’t awaiting trial. Hop to it.” He pointed toward a plain white door in the background. Diane nodded and hurried toward the door. Parcells looked up from his tablet. “Oh, it says here she’s still being strip-searched. Might be a few minutes before they let you see her.”

  Diane gulped and pushed the door open. She hated walking up or down stairs in her heels, and after a few steps she paused to pull them off. Her bare feet slapped against the glossy concrete steps until she reached the lower level. She slipped her heels back on and walked briskly toward the guard station. She flashed her ID badge to the officer seated behind a dull steel desk.

  A woman with a tight light brown pony-tail looked up from her tablet and looked Diane up and down. “Hot date?”

  “No, I wish. I’m here to see someone.”

  The woman tapped away at her tablet and spun it around on the desk. A list of prisoners sorted by first initial and last name appeared in neat columns. Diane frowned as she looked for L. Delaney, then remembered to look under D instead. She pointed to the entry for D. Delaney. The guard shrugged and selected the listing for her. “She just got placed. D block, cell 23.”

  Diane nodded and repeated the instructions. “D. 23.”

  “Hand over any loose items: purses, wallets, timepieces, glasses, fitness bands… if you weren’t born with it and it’s not one of these items, it goes in here.” She pointed to a short list of acceptable clothing items, then pushed a plastic bin toward her. Diane placed her clutch in there and patted herself down for anything else that she was forgetting. The guard nodded and motioned for her to walk through two tall black posts. Diane obeyed, and green lights flashed in her wake. A second male guard waved her onward.

  “You’ve got about thirty minutes, give or take. When you’re told time’s up, you come back here pronto, got it?”

  “Got it,” Diane said over her shoulder, and made her way to D block.

  After waving a metal detecting wand over Diane, a husky guard rapped on the steel door of Cell 23. He inserted a key and gave it a quick twist before pulling the door open to allow Diane entry to the cell. Lyssa was curled up on her cot awkwardly with her back to the door. Her body shook as she sobbed into the canvas.

  “Twenty minutes,” the guard said, then he slammed the door and locked it behind Diane. She nodded over her shoulder and took a moment to look upon her helpless girlfriend. She recalled her own time in solitary, and how she longed for Lyssa’s touch, to feel her breath or even the sound of her voice. She wasn’t allowed to enter the cell block. Diane felt fortunate to be able to comfort Lyssa in the way nobody could for her in her lowest moments.

  She stepped forward and crouched beside Lyssa’s cot. She pressed her hand to Lyssa’s orange shirt and rubbed it up and down. “Hey, Lyss. I’m here.”

  Lyssa swatted her arm away and rolled onto her left side to face Diane. She pulled her arms close to her as if to prevent Diane from tearing her shirt open. “Don’t touch me,” Lyssa said sharply.

  Diane steadied herself with the edge of the cot. “Okay, I won’t touch you. Not unless you want me to.”

  “I don’t want anyone touching me,” Lyssa said. “The guard said some guys are coming down here to rape me. The guard said he’s going to
record everything and put it online. I just want to die.”

  Diane shook her head. “I’m not going to let that happen. I’ll stand guard day and night, if that’s what it takes to keep you safe while you’re in here.”

  Lyssa wiped her nose with her fingers. “You’re just one person. They’ll beat you up, and then they’ll take turns with me. I know what goes on in places like this.”

  Diane thought back to her own incarceration. Maybe it was because she was a police officer, even one accused of being a cop killer, but nobody seemed particularly sex-crazed. After Griggs stopped the beatings, she just recalled virtually endless boredom. She found a way to fight it by working out. She wondered how Lyssa would handle the long hours of isolation and little else. Lyssa had only been locked up for under a half hour and Diane was getting a glimpse of the answer: not well. In that moment, she was more worried about what Lyssa would do to herself than anyone else harassing her.

  “I won’t let that happen,” Diane said softly.

  “Get me out of here,” Lyssa said.

  “I’m doing everything I can. I’m going to talk to Sapphire.”

  “What’s that going to do?”

  “Well,” Diane said, trying to sound confident, “she’s loaded, right? I mean, her parents are. Maybe she can call in some favors and get your bail posted. Maybe she can convince Kenner to release you on an I-Bond to my custody. I’ll keep you locked up someplace much nicer.”

  Lyssa glared at Diane. “You’re enjoying this? Glad I could entertain you.” She turned back onto her right side.

  Diane reached for her, then pulled her hand away, remembering her promise not to touch Lyssa unless asked. “I’m not enjoying this one bit. Baby, I’m going to get you out of here. Promise me you’ll stay strong for me. Promise me you won’t let the bastards get to you.”

  “I’m not promising anything,” Lyssa groaned. “There’s no escape. I’ll probably be dead by morning.”

  Diane reached for Lyssa and squeezed her arm. “Don’t talk like that. I mean it, I’m not going to let anything happen to you. But, tell me this: did you really hit Goodwin? Just you and him, no witnesses?”

  Lyssa shook her arm free. “There were witnesses. Three other officers.”

  “Did you get any names?”

  “Besides Gabe? No. I mean, I didn’t know the other one’s name was Goodwin, so that’s two. I didn’t recognize the other two. They were fat slobs that did everything Goodwin told them to.”

  Diane recalled the incident in the gym. “Short, dark hair?”

  Lyssa rolled onto her back and huffed. “You know, Diane, I didn’t make a point of remembering every little detail about them. It all happened so fast. A car pulled up, four guys got out, and they started following me and saying they heard I was a hot lay. I kept my back to them and tried to find someplace to go to get away, but suddenly one of them grabbed me from behind. That Goodwin guy put his hand between my legs, and I screamed for help. He just laughed and said he couldn’t feel anything down there.” Tears spilled from her eyes.

  Diane patted Lyssa’s shoulder. “I swear to you, I’ll kill him with my bare hands.”

  “There’s no point. He won. He always wins. Jerks like that always do. I told the guy who booked me what happened, and he just laughed at me. Lieutenant Kenner came out of his office and I tried to tell him what they did, but he put his arm around Goodwin and told him he was doing an amazing job.”

  Diane’s stomach soured. Sapphire didn’t have much nice to say about Kenner, despite Diane’s positive experiences with him. Up until now, he was a powerful ally. She worried about her own future if Kenner stopped backing her up. She assumed he didn’t know about her relationship with Lyssa. What if he did? Would that change anything?

  Diane recalled Sapphire’s warning to the two of them about being openly romantic around the academy. She resolved to find a way to convince Kenner Lyssa was just a friend, and nothing more.

  “Maybe Kenner will listen to me. I’ll tell him what really happened. I need the whole story from you. Did you hit Goodwin?”

  Lyssa rolled back onto her right side. “Get me a lawyer. I’m not telling cops anything else.”

  Diane dropped to her knees. “Lyss, don’t shut me out. I’m not a cop in here. Not with you. Not like… them.”

  “Leave me alone,” Lyssa said.

  Diane’s head drooped. She had hoped to be comforting. Her eagerness to fight Lyssa’s battle was just making things worse. She nodded and got back to her feet. The guard rapped on the door. “Time’s up, Pembrook.”

  Diane bent over and patted Lyssa’s shoulder. “I’m coming back for you. Stay strong. I love you.”

  “Just go,” Lyssa said.

  Diane walked numbly to the door. She knew Lyssa was angry and hurt. She didn’t expect her to shut down completely. Diane didn’t know when she would be allowed to come back and visit but she hoped Lyssa wasn’t in an even darker place when she returned. She vowed to do whatever it took to get her released from solitary.

  The guard opened the door and slammed it quickly after Diane left the cell. He locked the door and gestured down the hall. “They’ll give you your stuff back when you check out,” he said.

  Diane read his name pin and gave him a thin smile. “Richards. I don’t think we’ve met.”

  “I transferred here. Tenth Precinct. Well, now they call it some bullcrap name like Parakeet or something. They’ve got this thing about animal names. I figured Panther sounded cooler, plus I heard this place doesn’t put up with sissy crap like the other joints. We’re taking the streets back and showing everyone who’s really in charge.”

  “Keep an eye on my friend. She’s caught up in a huge misunderstanding. I’d hate for her to suffer for something she didn’t do.”

  Richards gave her a confused look. “The bitch is stone guilty. I’m going to enjoy watching her get what she deserves. They told me I can join in if I want to, but I dunno, I like to watch. Let them get their hands dirty. I like hearing them bitches scream.”

  Diane fingered her horse pendant. “Good to know. You like screaming.”

  “Oh yeah, really gets me off. Damn, Pembrook, you’re one of the guys. You didn’t get embarrassed or nothing by my locker room talk. The other bitches, man, they all complain.”

  “It’s just locker room talk, right Richards? All talk, no action.”

  Richards stiffened. “It ain’t all talk. I’ll show you the video next time I see you. That porker’s gonna squeal ‘til she ain’t got no voice left.”

  Diane fought back the urge to strangle him with his tie. She nodded politely and waved to the front desk. “Time to check out of here. You keep your hands clean, Richards.”

  “You know it,” Richards said, beaming. He did an about-face and shuffled down the hallway toward D Block.

  Diane checked out at the front desk and took her clutch back. She gripped it with both hands and made her way back to the intake desk. After calling for a car to the Cranston Towers, she sat on a bench and thought through her next moves. She remembered her calls to Sapphire. She popped open her clutch to check her comm unit. A white slip of paper was wrapped around the device. Diane cocked her head and removed the slip. It contained a single word in block lettering: FOCUS.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Diane pulled her heels off when she got home and tossed them aside carelessly. Her aching feet were soothed upon contact with the plush carpeting that covered most of her apartment. She pulled her comm unit from her clutch and checked for any missed contact attempts. There weren’t any; just a general message from the admin team to keep their access cards safe and prevent unauthorized duplication. Diane shrugged. She had only given her clutch to one of the cell block guards, and she placed it in a secure storage bin. Nobody was swiping her ID.

  A chill ran down her spine. That slip of paper that said FOCUS wasn’t in there before. Someone had gotten to her clutch. She wondered if the guard snuck it in there before returning her person
al items. No, Diane recalled, the woman had opened the bin and handed the clutch directly to her in a single motion. Maybe someone had slipped the note into her clutch before she even got to the Panther Division building. But who? And when?

  Diane squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. She couldn’t worry about the mysterious note. She promised Lyssa that she’d do whatever it took to free her from her dreary prison cell. She sent an urgent transmission to Sapphire with her comm unit and paced back and forth impatiently as she waited for Sapphire’s face to appear on the small screen. Instead, the comm displayed a text entry screen to relay a callback message. Diane canceled the transmission attempt and padded off to her bedroom.

  She changed into a t-shirt and sweat pants. She flopped on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Her stomach grumbled, and she realized she never made it to dinner. She eyed her tablet on her bedside table. She considered having something brought upstairs, being in no mood to dress up for one of the on-site restaurants. Instead of punching up a delivery menu, she absent-mindedly launched the entertainment menu, then the listing for Fortune and Destiny. She gave the screen a wan smile and a curt nod. Even a small dose of Alexa Charlevoix would work wonders right now, she thought. Diane felt powerless. Seeing Alexa overcome adversity would be the spark she needed, she decided.

  After a brief delay, the Fortune and Destiny loading screen went blank and was replaced by a single entry. The catalog of recent and “classic” episodes was gone. She tapped the lone file and was greeted by an unfamiliar face. A goateed man in a loose-fitting shirt gave a sad smile to the camera. “Hello, I’m Ron Passavanti. I’m normally not in front of the camera, but I’m sorry to say it’s time to say goodbye to Fortune and Destiny. All of you fans have been great, and maybe we’ll see you again on another program. Fifteen years is an awesome run, though. Guess it was time to move on.”

  Diane shook her head. Tears welled up in her eyes as she stared dumbly at the tablet. She said aloud, “But… but I was watching that. What am I going to do now?”