Chapter Seventeen
Beth was warm in the car beside Jonas, something was playing quietly on the radio, Jonas was whistling tunelessly along with the music as he drove through the dark streets. She could not quite hear what it was, but the tune was slightly familiar.
One of those annoying pop tunes that always stick in your head, she thought. Never mind she would not have to put up with it long, she just wanted to score and go home. Jonas was always good for that, he could get his hands on whatever she wanted... usually, all she had to do was flirt a little, touch his arms when she spoke with him, that sort of thing, putty in her hands.
He had tried it on once, but she had pushed him away, playing hard to get. Some things she would not do, still there was no harm in letting him think he had a chance. She had even found herself praising him to other people on occasion, what that was about she had no idea.
"It was good of you to give me a lift home Jonas, I am always forgetting my jacket, silly really in the middle of winter, but it was actually quite warm when I came in this afternoon".
"No need to thank me", Jonas said, with a sleazy smile on his lips, "I just need to make a stop to get the stuff you wanted, it's on the way to your place anyway".
Jonas turned into the wharf area surrounded by large warehouse buildings, Beth could see the Forsyth Barr stadium all lit up over towards the Marina. She did not think she had been in this part of town before, at least not at night. It was quiet and no one else was around. She looked at Jonas, his demeanor had not changed, was he planning something. Rumors at the university were that Jonas had his favorite students in every year; he had more than one if the rumors were correct. Of course there were rumors of a heavy hand on occasion, Jonas pushing things a little too far with the wrong person. She had not seen that side of him, when she rejected his advances he had not taken it any further. Was this what he did, waited until he could have his own terms, a place no one would be. A place he could take what he wanted. She tried not to think about it, what could she do anyway, she just had to go with it.
Looking about at her surroundings it was just streets of faceless buildings. She had no idea if they used the warehouses during the day, as most of them had no signage on them. It was an eerie feeling being here at night, with Jonas. She shivered involuntarily as he pulled the car to a stop outside a large rundown building with orange wooden sliding doors on the front. What in the hell was this, she thought. "Do you know someone here?” she queried Jonas.
"No one, it’s my building. Wait here I will just go and get what you wanted".
"Can't I come in with you?” Beth asked, feeling slightly nervous left outside on her own.
"I don't think that's a good idea", Jonas said, as he got out of the car and went over to the doors.
Beth watched him unlocking the heavy padlock on the front. Seeing Jonas disappear inside, she thought of getting out and making a run for it. All this for a bag of weed, he could be doing anything in there. She looked at her surroundings but did not recognize the road where they had parked. Where would she go anyway? Sighing, she sank back into her seat and fiddled with a button on her shirt.
Jonas returned a short time later making Beth jump slightly as he opened the car door and threw the small bag onto her lap. The familiar smell of her chosen vice permeated from inside the plastic. "It's the good stuff", Jonas said licking his lips and staring at her breasts, "Lot's of head".
"You know how I like a lot of head Jonas", Beth said silkily, playing along with his disgusting dialogue. Inside she managed to hold back an involuntary gag at the thought of what Jonas was implying.
"We could share that one", Jonas was saying as he pulled away from the curb. "Heads always better with a partner..., you know..., to share the high".
Beth felt the bile rise in her throat.
"I know Marion's not home at the moment", he added with a perverted smile on his face.
She could almost see the sexual tension leaching out of every pore in his body.
"Not tonight", was all Beth managed to say, fighting back the urge to tell him to 'get fucked'. She could be hard when she needed, and she could not afford to lose what Jonas provided. Moreover, she was still hoping to take Marion's place in the play; she had worked bloody hard for that.
She could see the whites of his knuckles as he gripped the steering wheel tightly, pushing the accelerator slightly harder than he had to, causing the car to surge forward. It looked like he was not going to stop at the approaching intersection.
"Better get you home then, I would not want to mess up your night", Jonas said tightly, as he jumped on the brakes at the last moment and swung the car violently around the corner.
Almost immediately, the darkness lit up with flashing lights, blue then red. A short burst of a siren pinpointed where the lights were coming from.
"Bloody police, where in the hell did they come from?” Jonas said. He looked like a nervous schoolboy as he pulled the car over. "Throw that shit under the seat", he said urgently.
Beth looked over her shoulder and saw a blue uniform approaching, hips weighed down by all sorts of scary looking things. Panicking, she shoved the plastic bag into her bra, straightening her shirt as the police officer knocked on the driver’s window. The person was huge; his arms were as big as her thighs, his blue shirt stretched over his biceps to the point of ripping.
The whole thing seemed surreal to her, surrounded by darkness, blue and red flashing lights blinking, giving glimpses of this officer standing beside the car looking sternly at Jonas as he remonstrated about his driving. Panic was making her thoughts clouded, she could not make out much of what was being said, words like 'Speed' and 'Dangerous' morphing into words like 'Cannabis' and 'Search'.
The next thing that happened was the passenger door opened and another police officer beckoned her out of the car, this time it was a female. Beth had not had much to do with the police before, apart from the Detectives earlier that morning. This police officer was reciting something to her from in her notebook. Words like Lawyer, Search, and Cannabis. Did she hear Marion's name in that, bloody hell, what did she have to do with it.
Beth started to panic even more, reaching into her bra she pulled out the bag she had stashed there and handed it to the female police officer.
The officer was touching her shoulder now, talking to her, words she did not hear, did not understand. Tears had welled up in her eyes, as she was lead over to the police car and placed in the rear seat. The officer was saying more to her, things she did not listen to, she was watching Jonas. She could see Jonas getting back into his car. The car started moving and then Jonas was leaving. It was his stuff, why did they allow him to leave. The huge police officer got into the driver seat of the car, the female officer was sitting beside her. Beth completely shut down with fear. The car began to move. Lights began to flash by faster and faster until they became a solid line of light. Beth closed her eyes as she sank deeper within herself, into her safe place.
The car was slowing now, it was pulling in behind a huge dark building, and she opened her eyes, watching as a massive iron gate slid silently open inviting the car into the bowels of the building. The door opened and a gust of cold air prickled at her skin, Beth shivered from inside her safe place. She watched through her eyes, which showed her the outside world as a door opened in the darkness and light flooded out to meet them. She watched as they led her inside and then shut her into a small airless room. She could see it had a desk, chairs and a box that looked like it held some sort of digital equipment.
The two police officers were sitting in front of her now, the bag of Cannabis on the table. The smell, which she usually enjoyed, was making her nauseous in the small room. She could see their mouths moving but could not make out what they were saying. Fear had completely taken control of her. She wanted to shut her eyes again and close out the world, curl up in a ball and hide.
She moving again now, ushered into a cold faceless room with glass pane
ls and bars. Bright lights were everywhere. A different police officer was standing behind a desk protected by Perspex, what did they think? That she was going to attack them. His voice muffled behind his protective bubble, was making it difficult to make out what he was saying, so she just stood and stared. She could see her reflection in the reflective surface. The face looking back was not her; it was Marion. What had she done?
Hands were holding her shoulders and upper arms, moving her towards another open door, a large steel door hiding its claustrophobic environment. Inside was a bed, a blue vinyl mattress, a steel toilet and a basin. It looked like a functional hotel room without the frills. The door shut behind her, its clang sending a jolt through her numb mind and body.
Beth started to cry.
Human Frailty, a Detective Mike Bridger novel Page 18