by Anne Hagan
“Why do you say they’re busy?”
“They’re right on the I-70 corridor that runs through the state. Lotta’ drug trade moves through on the way into the city and on to St. Louis.”
“Wow.” I was dumbfounded. “Funny, I grew up right off of 70 in Zanesville. I guess I just hadn’t thought of it like that.”
“Oh yeah, girl. Hancock needs all the help they can get trying to stem that tide.”
“Do you think they’d hire me…I mean if it’s okay with you…” I stopped talking, unsure of myself.
“It ain’t up to me but I just told you; They need help and they need more women. You’re not black but you’re female and you have law enforcement training.”
“I…I just don’t want to step on your toes or anything. It’s your thing and…”
“Listen, Mason,” she interrupted, “I wouldn’t be telling you about it if I wanted to keep it some big secret. And, just so you know, I’m going to be looking for a roommate to split costs with, at least for a little while. Would you be interested in that?”
Chapter 13
Late Friday Evening, June 24th, 2011
Greenfield Indiana
“Me and some of the girls are going to The Underground after we bust outa’ here tonight; you in?”
I stopped working on an arrest report and looked at her. “That new dance club up in Broad Ripple?” I set my mouth in a grim line. I’m not much of a dancer.
Gevona caught my look and gave me her best pouty face. “Come on; we finally got a back to back, Friday, Saturday night off.”
“Technically, we’re working. This is Friday.”
“Whatever Mason!” She swung a hand at me. “You know what I mean. We can dance all night because we don’t have to be back here tomorrow night. It’ll be fun.”
“I didn’t bring nice clothes with me tonight.” I tried to make an excuse.
“No prob! Our apartment’s on the way. We can stop real quick. Wear that blue blouse your mom sent you for your birthday. You look nice in that.”
It took all I had to control a smile. I hadn’t thought she paid much attention to me like that.
“Are you in or not?”
I let out a fake sigh. “I suppose.”
“Good; that makes six of us then. You and me will ride together and meet up with the others.” She nudged me with an elbow, “Who knows, you may just get lucky tonight.” I choked back the lump that rose in my throat while she continued with her train of thought, “We’re gonna’ find you a lady friend. You’ve been all about the job ever since we got out of the Army.”
###
12:05 AM, Saturday Morning, June 25th, 2011
The Underground
The old bar turned alternative dance club was jumping when we finally got there just after midnight.
I looked at Gevona. She was an absolute knockout in a red dress she’d decided to ‘slip into’ since we had to stop by the apartment for me to change anyway. She’d primped her makeup in the locker room beforehand and slipped into jeans there that I’d thought she looked just as good in but, either way, I wasn’t complaining.
“This is unreal,” she yelled to me as we finally squeezed our way past the front door security.
The music was loud and thumping. Guys were grinding with other guys and women were all over each other on the crowded dance floor positioned straight out in front of us. Beyond them was the raised DJ booth where a shirtless guy was spinning. A small stage, presumably for a band, stood next to his booth but it wasn’t empty, even though he was playing. Bolder club patrons were up there putting on a show while pretending to be oblivious to those looking on.
“We’ll never find our crew in here,” I called out to Gevona as I scanned the crowd thronged to the left of the dance floor. Some were watching the floor while others had their backs to it, vying for drinks at the bar that ran almost the length of the left wall. Half a dozen male and female bartenders worked the crowd, the males shirtless and the women only barely covered.
“Girl, they’re probably already dancing!” she called back. “Oh wait,” she paused and started again, “I think that’s Bennie over there.” She pointed off to the right of the dance floor somewhere where there was more floor space that was mostly taken up by a full square bar more toward the front of the club with small tables behind that.
I couldn’t pick Bonita Harris, ‘Bennie’ as she preferred to be called, out of the teeming crowd on that side of the room but Gevona headed that way and I followed.
We weaved our way in and out and around people as we worked our way past the bar and toward a raised platform of sofa like seating and tables along the right side wall. They’ve got to be way over their fire capacity limits in here…
My thoughts were interrupted by Gevona grabbing my arm. She pointed with her other hand then waved as she leaned in to me and said, “It is Bennie, see?”
The other woman was waving back at us from a seat on one of the couches. As we continued toward her, the other three women from the department all arrived at the couch from an area somewhere ahead of us. Slightly annoyed, I shook my head. I suspected they’d been on a mass bathroom trip. What makes completely capable police officers act like school girls in a place like this?
Gevona waggled her head at the group as we finally got through the throngs and reached the roped off and elevated area. “VIP seating ladies? What gives?”
“With bottle service,” Bennie replied, indicating the Vodka, mixers and ice already on the little table. “It cost a little bit more but I, uh, know one of the bartenders so I got a little break.” She raised her eyebrows suggestively.
“I’m in,” Gevona told her. “What’s my cut?”
“Just $50 right now, with tip. If we get another bottle…”
“It’s okay,” Gevona said as she turned to me. “What about you Janet?”
Not knowing what else to say and not wanting to be a party pooper, I said, “Count me in too but, I’m not really a vodka drinker.” I took out my wallet when I could see my roommate doing the same and we both handed Bennie our share.
“They’ll bring you something else Janet,” Bennie told me. “It’s just, if you get a whole bottle, it’s more.”
“It’s okay; I’ll make do.” Somebody should be the designated driver anyway, I thought to myself. It wouldn’t do to have any of our deputies picked up for a DUI.
A woman came by dressed in next to nothing and, within seconds, was fixing Gevona a drink. After Bennie pressed a little money in her hand – presumably some of what we’d just turned over to her – I caught her attention myself.
As she leaned over to me where I sat, her boobs prominently displayed right in front of me, I smiled but managed to pull my focus up to her face. “I’m the driver for this bunch. Can you get me a soda with orange and cranberry?” I asked her, while trying not to be overheard. It wasn’t hard in the din of the place.
“Sure thing sweetie. Nothing else?”
I just shook my head no.
Gevona was gyrating on the floor with some very tall black woman who, I wasn’t entirely sure but I strongly suspected, was a male to female transgender woman. I’d catch occasional flashes of her red dress or her grinning face as the two of them put on quite a show.
I’d found a spot at the rail along the floor where I was slowly sipping my juice mixer and watching the crowd. I’d left the safety of the banquette of sofas when the other ladies started pairing off with women from the club. It was getting a little too ‘couples oriented’ back there behind me for my tastes.
Someone squeezed in beside me. I turned to find a tall, blue eyed, butch woman looking down at me. I’m not short, but she had me by several inches. She smiled and leaned back a little so I didn’t have to look into her neck.
“You’re not dancing?”
“Not much of a dancer,” I smiled back at her, opting for being polite and friendly.
“Can I buy you another drink?” she asked me as she pointed at my
glass that was now only about a third full.
“Sorry, it’s just juice.” I held the glass up, “Designated driver; I’m here with friends.”
She smiled again. “I’m trying everything here. I usually don’t have to work this hard.”
We’d been talking less than 10 seconds but, deciding to cut her a break, I offered her my hand. “I’m Janet. And you are?”
She never got a chance to respond. A ruckus arose from behind me and, instinctually, I turned toward it.
A rather large, beefy male, presumably a customer given his position on the outside of the square bar, had another man, a manager I suspected, given his shirt and tie and position on the inside of the bar, in a headlock. Even from my vantage point several feet away, it was obvious the manager was choking for air. His face was turning a growing shade of red as he struggled against the other man’s hold.
Drawing my badge wallet out, I bolted for them as I yelled “Sheriff’s Deputy!” The crowd between the rail and the bar parted and let me pass.
I was out of my jurisdiction but assault is assault and I wasn’t going to let the situation get any further. I got right up to the two men and ordered the aggressor to stand down and stay right where he was. He released his chokehold on the other man but he kept a hold of his arm.
“Let him go now,” I ordered.
The security guy I remembered from the front door appeared behind him and did some sort of move on him I couldn’t see from my viewpoint that got him in his control and caused him to release the other man from his grip.
I looked around the tall man at the bouncer. “Is there somewhere we can take these two?”
He pointed toward the back of the club.
“Let’s go, all of you,” I told them in my no-nonsense voice.
A young woman, likely barely 21, that I hadn’t noticed before, stepped from the outside of the bar on the other side of the aggressor. Her face was tear stained, mascara running from her eyes in a spiderlike effect that she’d smudged as she dabbed at it. She followed behind us, whimpering.
At his reluctance, I prompted the manager to leave the relative safety of the bar and go with us and put a hand on him to propel him forward when he was still reluctant to move. We followed behind the security guy who kept a firm grasp on the customer as we headed toward a hallway off the back, to the right of the stage.
A security guard back there stood when we approached but let the bouncer and his charge pass into the hallway without question. “Sheriff’s department,” I called to him from behind the man I was loosely escorting. Turning, I saw the younger woman was still following us. “She’s with us too.”
He was keying his mike as I stepped past and I heard him call, “Barb, security office.”
The bouncer led us all into a room with a desk and chair and two additional chairs. It was small and cramped and otherwise unadorned. He directed his charge to one chair. The girl followed and stood next to him. The guy from the hallway tried to squeeze in too.
Thinking better of sitting the manager next to his aggressor, I directed him to a corner behind the desk then I took charge. Looking at the guy in the shirt and tie, I asked him, “I assume you work here?”
He nodded.
“And your name is?”
“Geoff.”
“I’m not here to play games. Geoff, what?”
“Jamison. I’m one of the assistant managers.”
“You’re a damn rapist is what you are!” the other man spat at him. I put out a hand to quiet him.
The door, which was only partially closed given the crowd already jammed into the small room, swung in a little. A woman I estimated to be about five or six years older than me with short blond hair stepped in and eyed the scene.
“And you are?” I asked her next.
“Barbara, uh, Falk. I’m one of the owners. What’s going on?”
“These two, I pointed at her manager and the other man, had a little tussle out there at the bar. I’m with the Sheriff’s Department. I’m just trying to get to the bottom of it.”
“I’ll tell you what happened,” the aggressor piped up again. “Your manager over here tried to rape my sister.” He looked at the young woman standing next to him. She hung her head.
“Is this true?” Falk questioned Geoff.
“I ain’t talkin’ in front of all of these people,” was all he would say in reply.
Angry didn’t begin to describe the way I was feeling. “We need to get this figured out and I’m not leaving until do.” I turned to the owner, “Ma’am, you should stay. I can handle this. If you want to send your security team back out to their posts?”
She nodded and directed the two men back to work then closed the door behind them and leaned against it.
“Okay, you are?” I asked the man who’d started the fight.
“Michael Walls. This is my younger sister Katie.” He looked at Falk as he continued, “I come in here every once in a while.” She nodded in support of his claim. Seeing that, he went on. “Katie’s just coming out. I admit, I haven’t been the best big brother but…I was just trying to help her loosen up a little and then this…this scumbag…” He flung a hand toward Geoff Jamison.
“Mike don’t; it’s okay. Let’s just go,” she told him softly.
The sound of her plea, as quiet as it was, reverberated in the tiny room. My heart went out to her.
“It’s not okay,” he told his sister.
“Katie, can you tell us what happened?” I asked her in the gentlest tone I could muster.
She wouldn’t look up at me. I knew I needed to separate her from the two men and interview her separately but I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. That’s when I remembered my friends.
“Ms. Falk, do you have an office back here?”
“Just down the hall.”
“Would you take Katie back there please and also ask the security guard at the end of this hallway to have the DJ page a Gevona and a Bennie to come back here please? They’re deputies too.”
Barbara moved forward, took the younger girls hand and led her from the room without another word.
I waited in the small office the three or four minutes it took for first Gevona and then Bennie to show up. They both looked somewhat shocked at seeing me back there but quickly moved professional masks into place as I told them what I knew to that point.
“I’m going to step over to the owner’s office and get a statement from the alleged victim,” I whispered to them, hopefully out of the earshot of her still incensed brother. “I’ll call Marion County from there. See what you can get from these two.”
Barbara Falk graciously handed her office over to me when I explained to her that I wanted to interview Katie privately. I stepped outside the office with her briefly first and admitted to her that I was actually with Hancock County and would be calling Marion County in. She thanked me for my honesty and moved off to see what Bennie and Gevona had dredged up with her manager and her customer.
It was a very long night after that as the Marion Department didn’t send a female officer over and Katie wouldn’t talk about what happened to either of the men that did show up. I was the only one she would open up to.
When she was reunited with her brother, he convinced her to press charges against the manager for assault, at a minimum. I felt like, after talking with her and after hearing what little Geoff had to say in his own defense, he should have been charged with attempted rape too but that was between the victim and Marion County. Once they had her statement, I was effectively out of it, at least for the time being.
After turning a night out on the town into a case, I took no small amount of flak from my fellow deputy and roommate for always being on the job.
Chapter 14
Saturday Night, 11:20 PM December 31st, 2011
Greenfield, Indiana
“I actually thought we’d be busier.”
Shrugging, I replied to Gevona, “The mid shift probably will be once all the
clubs and bars ring in the New Year and then close up.”
We climbed into her little car and she steered us out of the parking lot. I wasn’t sure how to broach the subject with her but, finally, trying to keep my tone neutral, I just asked her; “Are you going out with Lexi tonight?”
I feared the answer but I had to know. She’d been hot and heavy with the voluptuous brunette for a couple of weeks and had spent little of our off duty time at home. She was always with the other woman.
Gevona glanced at me quickly and then refocused on the road. I didn’t think she was going to answer me at all and, when she spoke a good 30 seconds later, she caught me off guard.
“No, I won’t be seeing her tonight…or ever.”
Now I half turned to face her. “What happened? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking? You two seemed like quite an item.”
“New Year’s Eve, that’s what happened.”
“Huh?”
“She didn’t like that I had to work tonight. Actually, she seemed to think that I could just ask to be moved to day shift, period, and it would happen.”
“Yeah, right.” I snorted at that.
“Couldn’t get her to understand that police work doesn’t work that way. And, she didn’t like it when I told her the low man on the totem pole definitely gets the short end around major holidays and that on drinking holidays, everybody draws duty.”
“So, you broke up over that?”
She shot me a look. “We weren’t going steady Janet. We were just dating.”
“You know what I mean.” I tried to hide my happiness at the whole turn of events.
She didn’t pick up on my glee. “Honestly, you couldn’t pay me to be out after midnight tonight anyway unless I was working. My mama always called New Year’s Eve amateur night. Too many drunk fools on the roads between one and three o’clock.”