The stray caught her scent and, curious, stuck his snout round the corner of the Dumpster. She was eating a burger which she had nearly finished. On seeing him however she crouched down and held out her hand, offering the last bit for him.
The stray moved cautiously towards her, tail between his legs, and finally reached out to take the morsel in his teeth. He moved back and dropped it on the ground then, having looked around bit a small piece off and retreated behind the Dumpster again. Presently he ventured out from his hiding place and, seeing the remainder was still there, went over to it and swallowed it down in one gulp.
Jill watched him. She liked him and now hoped she might befriend him so she stayed down and talked to him. He responded and moved over to her, allowing himself to be petted. She picked him up and cuddled him- he was just a small dog, a terrier something cross, short hair with white tips to his ears and a timid disposition.
As Jill cuddled her new friend and told him what a clever clever boy he was, yes he was, so clever a car approached. Jill heard the sound of a window going down and was then blinded as a bright light shone on her. She saw the man in the expensive car shake his head and the car accelerate away. At thirty two she wasn't the attraction those girls in their teens over on the strip were and business had been slow since she started out just two weeks earlier.
"Probably a serial killer," she told Billy (the name she had given him) "so just as well you were along to protect me, aye Billy boy?"
She was, in truth, bitterly disappointed at what had just happened; she needed money desperately and that was a John who could have got her a place to stay, for tonight at least. She cuddled the dog a while longer then put him down and moved out into the light to try and get some business for the evening.
Her luck changed and she had three customers that night. The first one wanted to flop his cock out for her to look at and fondle while he groped her tits. He came and she wiped him up with a Kleenex then gave him a kiss on the cheek. That was worth sixty bucks and she got a cheery wave from him as he drove away. A young guy wanted a fuck, missionary position, no going down just get it ready here I come and he paid her a hundred then the last one was a blowjob for a middle aged man who offered her seventy or a hundred if she would swallow.
Once he had come in her mouth he turned nasty and a knife appeared in his hand and was suddenly pricking her throat. She turned white in utter terror and swallowed opening her mouth wide for him to see. He paid her the hundred bucks and gave her an evil look then drove off. That was how he got his thrills, terrifying the hookers- at this stage anyway.
Jill sank to her knees in the gravel and shook. This was crazy, she needed the money so badly but this? What if he had felt like cutting her throat, what if the next one felt like it, or the next. She sat with her arms wrapped round her shins as she tried to work out where from here. As she did the dog came over lay down beside her. She saw him and changed from sitting to sprawling so she could pet him.
He reminded her so much of the dog she had had when she was a girl all those years ago and she left her problems to themselves while she poured her affection on her new friend Billy.
There were two Deputies in the cruiser, male and female. The Sheriff's Office found that worked better when dealing with hookers; too many allegations when two male Deputies were involved. They had been alerted there was a new woman on the streets by one of the hookers who worked on the more popular stretch and who wanted this newcomer removed in case she took away some of her business.
They had stopped several hundred yards down the road and had her under surveillance with the night vision equipment the male Deputy had brought. He it was doing the watching while the female, Chloe, sat attending the R/T and nursing her coffee.
She spilled it when he told her the man had a knife to the woman's throat and just as she was about to start the engine and race down there her colleague put his hand up.
She glared at him; she knew what that was all about; he might know him, someone higher up might know him, too much paper work, too late at night to start, all the excuses. Oh yes, arrest the girls but God forbid any of the men should be arrested.
It was a waste of time protesting; the Sheriff's Department was a refuge for male chauvinists and if she wanted that pay check she just had be a good little bitch and play along. The very words the Sheriff himself had used when she started twelve years before. He had also made a point of fondling her tits while she had had to stand there and endure it.
Now though, when she looked at the woman in the half-light she was sitting then lying slouched on the ground.
"He's cut her!" She exclaimed unaware of the dog. Not waiting for her colleague's signal she turned the engine on, wheel spun off the gravel, fish tailed on the tar seal and a few seconds later screeched to a halt beside the slumped form in front of the dumpster.
Chloe threw her door open and raced over with her torch. She smelt what must have been his aftershave as she rushed over to the woman expecting to see a pool of blood. Instead she found Jill, now curled up in terror hugging a little dog.
"You're alright?" she asked.
The woman, who had been looking fearfully at her, nodded.
"Yes Ma'am."
"You're not hurt? What's this?" Chloe asked shining her torch on Jill's throat where the small mark showed red on her white skin. She went right up to Jill and looked at the mark.
"That's deeper than you might think; you were lucky. You know that don't you?"
Jill nodded, that was the reality she had pushed from her mind, just how lucky she had been and he had looked so safe, just an average middle aged guy.
"Hey!" Lionel, Chloe's partner, called," we're not social workers, are you arresting her or what?"
"No, just checking on her," she called back to Lionel who she knew was late for the drinking session with his buddies.
"You find somewhere to lie low," she told the Hooker quietly," and I'll come back to see you in half an hour, my shift ends in ten minutes- no overtime so its work to rule."
She grinned at Jill on saying this and Jill suddenly realized that just as she had befriended Billy this Deputy was wanting to befriend her. She nodded and looked warily into the Deputy's eyes which looked encouragingly back at her then pointed to behind a stand of trees and Chloe nodded.
She returned to the cruiser and noticed the apprehensive look on Lionel's face as she started up again.
"In a hurry?" she asked innocently.
"No, no not at all just a nice easy drive Chloe thanks," he replied and sat silently as she drove back to base.
Ten minutes later, equipment safely in her locker and report sheets filed she was on her way back to the dumpster in her car, well her utility to be precise. She pulled up alongside the trees and got out to look for the woman. Jill had moved a few yards away to a better hiding spot and was hugging the dog who lay contentedly in her arms with his eyes shut.
She had spread a rug on the ground and was sitting on that with a half empty plastic rubbish bag next to her. Chloe sat down beside her.
"This it?" she asked indicating the bag.
"Yes, I mean yes Ma'am," Jill answered.
She wasn't sure about this Deputy; she had had people take an interest in the past but things had tended to turn out badly, especially with her uncle but that was long ago she reminded herself. She wasn't sure but her instincts told her she was one of the good ones.
"You're going to get yourself killed doing this, you know that, don't you?"
This time the woman looked her in the eye and Chloe saw the look of helplessness in her face.
" Wouldn't be a big deal anyhow," she managed then looked down at the sleeping dog and rubbed her face against his fur.
"So who would look after?"
"Billy."
"Who would look after Billy?"
She had no idea and was silent then shrugged and let out a sigh.
"I can help."
