But if there was once a line, I sure as hell had crossed it already, and when they brought the man into the office at the gym, I would have to cross it again.
“So, Mr Grange, did you say you had a fantasy about getting it on with a police officer?” the African woman asked the silver haired man she had escorted into the room.
He ran his gaze all over me. “Indeed.”
It was time for the show. I pulled the band from my hair and spun my head to allow it to flow freely. Taking a few steps towards him, I undid the buttons one by one, revealing more of my body to him with each unfastening. I pushed my emotions away. If I didn’t go through with what was expected of me, the mission and my life could both come to an abrupt end. Embarrassment, guilt, fear, and regret could not ride with me if I were to do this convincingly. Something shiny caught my eye on his finger—a gold wedding band hit by the light from the overhead fluorescent tube. I could use the fact I was doing it for Mrs Grange.
“Mr Grange, get on the bed, coz you’re under arrest.”
I took off my shoes and undid the button of my pants. Mentally blocking out the rest of the people in the room, I allowed the pants to fall to my ankles and then lowered the shirt from my shoulders. I stood a few feet away from the man wearing only my matching bra and panties. Thinking about having sex with Mr Grange did nothing to turn me on at all, and I had to remind myself it was just an act, like a prostitute.
He ripped his clothes off and sat in the middle of the bed. I didn’t know which part of him to look at as I spotted a chest covered with a carpet of grey hair, a car salesman type of expression on his face, and a tiny flaccid cock resting on the mattress where he sat. “Are you gonna restrain me, officer?”
Perfect. I picked up the handcuffs from the discarded belt and smiled as I held them near him.
“Hands in front of you. You’re under arrest for extreme handsomeness.” As I spat the cheesy line out, I felt thankful the other people in the room were professional enough to not burst out laughing at my obvious lie.
I watched him get hard as he presented his hands, allowing me to secure his wrists in front of him. Giving him a subtle push, he laid back and rested his head on the pillow. It felt like his eyeballs were already having sex with me. I unclasped my bra and threw it to the floor, but his eyes were still staring at my panties. The time came for me to take a deep breath and expose it all.
“Oh, nice,” he said to me the moment my last item of clothing left my body. “I like it when the carpet matches the curtains, unlike so many chicks who shave it all off.”
I couldn’t allow his fascination with my pubic hair to distract me. He thought he was there to screw a high-priced call girl.
Climbing on top of the bed, I grabbed the horrid thing between his legs and rubbed it a few times in a firm grip between outstretched fingers. As hard as he was, I didn’t feel the least bit wet and ready for him. I closed my eyes and thought about Ed’s sexy body from the night before as I sat up and lowered myself on top of his erection.
He was nowhere near as long as Ed, and when I leaned forward and put my hands on the man’s chest, I received two handfuls of course hair, unlike the smooth muscular chest of Ed. Moving up and down, I was careful not to move too much for fear his small penis would fall out and push me out of my autopilot mode of fucking.
In less than a minute, I could hear his breathing accelerate. I opened my eyes and smiled at him as I removed his cock from inside of me and pumped him by hand so his load shot up at his chest.
“Oh, man,” he said, his restrained hands not allowing him to grab a sheet to wipe himself. I took my gifted moment to get off the bed and fetched my pistol from my belt. I had to finish the act convincingly and think of the consequences later. I turned to him with gun in hand and pointed it at him.
“Hey, what the fuck?” he said.
“Have you heard about the praying mantis and the way the female eats their mate post-coitus?”
“No. Why are you doing this?”
I ignored his question. “You don’t look appetising, so I’ll have to do it this way,” I said, looking in his eyes as I fired three quick shots in his face.
“Impressive,” Ed said.
******
While the others cleaned the mess in the room, I ran for the gymnasium showers. I felt dirty in so many ways. I dreaded to think how long it would take to shower and cleanse myself of all that I had done. Alone in a giant shower cubicle, I sat beneath the flowing water, my legs wrapped up against my chest. Surrounded by pale ceramic tiles, I allowed the tears to flow freely.
My father had been my inspiration for entering the police force, and if he knew what I had done in the last two days, I don’t think I could have looked him in the eyes again. I wanted to howl and scream, but I couldn’t risk the type of attention those actions could bring.
I needed to get my shit together. Any of them could enter at any time, and if I were supposed to be some type of femme fatale, I couldn’t be found in such a hopeless emotional state. And if I did everything right, I could blow this whole Praying Mantassassin conspiracy wide open and put the last four deaths behind me.
“Hey, are you okay?” A female voice came from the other side of the locked door of the shower cubicle.
“Yes, I’m fine, thanks.”
“You’ve been in there for nearly half an hour. My brother’s wondering what the hell is up.”
“Just making sure there’s no blood on me, Hayley.” It was a poor lie, but the best I could come up with.
“Well, try to wind things up quickly. Ed says you and him need to be somewhere.”
I climbed to my feet and turned the water flow off. Grabbing the dry towel from its rail, I went about the business of drying every part of my body before putting the clothes back on that I had worn to the gym. What the hell else could Ed want to expose me to on this day?
******
“You did good in there, Hannah. Real good. Some of the new recruits hesitate and make a mess of it. Occasionally, one will back out of the sex or murder, but sometimes, we get someone like you. Did you feel anything about shooting that man?” Ed asked.
“I felt good. I saw that wedding ring and thought to myself ‘you dirty prick.’ Any man who cheats on his wife deserves nothing less.”
“Wow, sexy and unforgiving. You have it all, girl.” He smacked me on the ass and walked to the driver’s side of the car.
I climbed in around the other side of his patrol car. I snuck a peek at my cell phone and saw no messages waiting for me. Morrison knew not to contact me until I gave him a new number each day when I purchased a new burner phone. There had been no opportunity so far, and I had to make sure if I did get one on any given day, no one would find it or be able to contact it, apart from Morrison.
My father had warned me about the loneliness and isolation one went through while undercover, and everything he ever told me only proved to be an understatement. He’d said he had balls of steel and a photographic memory, both being the most important tools of any undercover cop. Well, I didn’t have balls—just good old fashioned courage like past powerful women in history.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little embarrassed having sex in front of everyone in the room. I was thinking of you when I was with that creep.”
“Well, that’s normal—the initial embarrassment and thinking of me when you’re with another guy.”
I smiled at him. “Why, you cheeky man.” I wasn’t falling for him at all, but his sexual prowess had me itching for more “So where are we going now?”
“To meet a man. A sleazy piece of filth whose help will be needed for our next mission. I don’t like the guy, but in this line of work, you’ll meet a lot of people you don’t like. Some of them you get to kill, but some you have to side with for the mission to be a success.”
I resisted the urge to ask too many questions, but to not ask any could also shine a light of suspicion onto yourself. “Have you ever killed someone on a mission
who you shouldn’t have?”
He looked at me through a pair of eyes hidden by his thick sunglasses. “I can’t think of many of us who haven’t had to work outside of the mission parameters, but you didn’t hear that from me, okay?”
“I understand.” Ed seemed like a decent person, despite his homicidal tendencies. But I was on a different mission, which would possibly mean having to bring him down. At that moment, I began to wonder if I was actually cut out for undercover work.
But I was already in too deep, and to back out now could mean an end to not only my police career, but my life, too.
Chapter 5 — Ed
I sat ACROSS the table from the pompous sleazy form of Roger gritting my teeth. “So you’re willing to do all this to your best friend in order to have a shot at getting with his wife?” It had been a ten-minute meeting, the majority of the conversation coming from me as I went through the details of his part of the mission.
“Have you seen this fucking goddess?” Roger asked.
“No, I’ve never met her.” It wasn’t a lie. Talissa hadn’t been an active member for some years, so I hadn’t met her. I had seen photos of her, making Roger’s summation accurate, if I were into curvy brunettes. “Of course, now we’ve had this meeting, if you go outside of what I’ve requested you to do, the consequences won’t be pleasant. We need to get this guy to cheat on his wife, and the chat program is the key to it. You’ll have a week to familiarise yourself with it, and the names of those users inside of it. You can’t write anything down, no evidence whatsoever. Commit it all to memory, and feel free to have some fun. Your friend will suffer the week from hell, and you have to support him to a point. And no speaking to Kate about any of this. She asked for your involvement, but to converse with her about anything is a risk she doesn’t want to take.”
“So what will happen to Terry?”
Hannah looked at me as I answered, “Hopefully, he’ll just lose his job and his wife—and doesn’t take things too hard and kill himself. You can’t worry about stuff like that now. You’ve signed up for this gig, and it’s up to you how you live with your sins after the act.”
“Hey, if it means anything to you, I don’t have a conscience. Thanks for this opportunity.” He stood from his chair and extended his hand to me.
I stared at him. “Just stick to the plan.”
Hannah and I walked from the diner to the car in silence. During our meeting with Roger, she’d remained silent, not being privy to much of the details of the upcoming mission. There would still be a few days to go over her part, and from what I had already seen, I knew she had the capabilities.
“Wow, that man hasn’t heard about the bro code,” Hannah said as we buckled up.
“You meet all types in this line of work, and many of them are not nice people. What Roger doesn’t realise is he won’t be riding off into the sunset with the wife of his best friend.”
Hannah nodded. She knew not to ask me to clarify what that meant. For the remainder of our journey, we engaged in small talk, our conversation centering more on TV shows and cooking. It had been a hell of a day for her, but I had full confidence she was ready for the job. Plus, I had some video footage of her in case she tried to turn me in.
We pulled up out front of her place, the same location where I started my day. “Are you going to come in?” Hannah asked.
I thought this would happen. I sighed and looked her in the eye. “We can’t keep fucking. What if it gets back to our superiors?”
“Are you serious? I’d be more concerned about that other thing, you know, killing people and stuff.”
“That’s easier to hide. But if we stay intimate, people will notice our chemistry. You’re a hottie. You can get anyone.”
“Yeah, I am, aren’t I?” She opened the door and left, and I needed to get onto my next investigation.
******
“Isn’t this all types of illegal?” the young man behind the computer asked.
I pulled out a stack of twenty dollar bills. “Would this make you feel any better about breaking into the police databanks?”
“A few more of those and I might well forget what the word illegal even means.”
It felt too easy. I could have gone in offering much more money, but taking into account the man’s age and the fact he lived with his mum and dad, I knew I could start low. I presented another stack of paper to him, and he smiled, tapping away at his keyboard.
My gut was still telling me something didn’t entirely add up. Hannah seemed too good to be true.
“I want to know everything about her. Her family, who she hung out with at the academy and who she’s worked with and for.”
“Wow, she’s kinda hot,” the hacker said. His fingers raced along those keys as he opened several tabs in the internet browser. “So why can’t you look up this stuff yourself? You’re the one who works for the police.”
“At the time we busted you, you had all of the old records downloaded to your computer. I led my superiors to believe that I erased all of your machine’s records and the illegally gained information held on your hard drives. The stuff you have could bring so many of this nation’s fine officers into deep shit, but I wanted you to keep all that for a reason.”
“So what’s this enchantress done?”
“You don’t get to ask questions. Is there anything else you have on her?”
The man stood. “No, that’s it. Knock yourself out.”
I took the offered seat and clicked on each of the tabs on the top of the browser window until one caught my eye. I checked the date of the file note detailing a promotion to a Miss Hannah Hall and the name of her commanding officer.
“Okay, I have you now, Hannah.” I pulled out a USB stick from my pocket and plugged it into a port on the hacker’s machine. “I need you to zoom and crop this so you can only see the two people having sex in this video. And the quality needs to be clear enough that I can make out their faces.”
“Oh wow. Sure thing, officer. Mind if a make…”
“A copy? Knock yourself out.” I stood and walked away from the computer, grabbing my phone to make a call. “Boss, it’s me… I don’t care if it’s a bad time… That new partner of mine is a fucking detective, not a recruit, and I need to get a hold of her superior, Devon Morrison.”
My boss told me to end the call and wait for his return call.
“Holy shit! She’s smoking hot,” the hacker said.
“You can’t share this with anyone until I say. Then you can go crazy with it. Make it go viral for all I care.”
“No probs, man. Who’s the lucky dude in the video with her?”
“It’s probably better for you not to know. How long will this take?”
“I’m guessing about ten minutes, even less if you leave me alone.”
I nodded at him and took a walk outside, and my phone rang a minute later.
******
The hacker transferred a zoomed and cropped video to my phone of Hannah’s sexual encounter with the man she killed. It took the young man a couple of minutes to calm down after he saw how it ended—the man in the video getting his brains blown out. A few more twenty dollar bills helped to encourage him to get back on track with the job I had requested.
After I had driven for ten minutes, I found a quiet place to pull over to make a call. On the third ring, I heard a voice on the other end.
“Internal Affairs, Inspector Morrison speaking.”
“As in Devon Morrison?” I asked.
“Who is this?”
“You best let me ask the questions. My name is Constable Edward Nelson of the NYPD, and I’ve been partnered with a detective you might know. Does the name Hannah Hall ring any bells?”
“I’ve never heard of her.”
“Don’t lie to me… Inspector. You may have deleted the files, but that doesn’t make Hall a new recruit. She’s a detective who worked under you before you transferred to IA.”
“Who the hell do you think…”
“I’ve got evidence of her doing something very bad.”
“Arrest her then. Why should I give a shit?”
“Are you in front of a computer now?”
“Yes, I’m still at the office. Why?”
“Well, check your email. There’s a very interesting attachment in one addressed from a Harry Bollocks. Don’t worry, it’s virus free, but riveting viewing.”
“Harry Bollocks? Is this some sort of joke?”
“Open the fucking email before I send it on.”
The line went quiet for a few minutes until he got to the part where Hannah made her kill.
“What the fuck is going on, Ed?”
“You wouldn’t recognise the man, but he is a loyal member of the Lambigino mob family, so if they were to get a hold of this footage, what do you think happens to your girl? And the man who ordered her to do the hit?” I asked.
“You son of a bitch. What the hell do you want from this?”
“You excommunicate Hannah and allow me to use her for a job. When I’m done with her, you get her back. You try to contact her, I send this video to the Lambigino Family and attach your name. They might not get you straight away, or even a month or year later. But when they do, they won’t come for you first. Do we understand each other?”
“I could trace your number and find you and make you disappear.”
“Yes, you could. But if anything happens to me, this video goes viral. I’ve taken all insurances to make sure what I want to happen does happen. And then everyone gets to go on with their lives.”
I ended the call and opened the phone and snapped the sim card in two. I used my baton to smash the phone to pieces and decided it was time to head to PM headquarters.
******
I sat in the office of Praying Mantassassins headquarters, talking into an intercom to a person known to me only as Mr M. I had never met him in person, nor seen a picture of him or known anything about him apart from being one of two people who owned and ran the PM organisation.
7PM - Ed & Hannah (A 5PM Short Story) Page 3