Buster's
By Charles Wallace
"Since 1995?" Casey asked herself out loud, surprised.
The phrase, absent any punctuation, was painted on the side of the building, just under the establishment's name,
Buster's
It was the first stop on the freshly-minted
senior
food inspector's agenda. The building was old, sparse, and simple. Metal roof. A pair of grimy glass doors acted as the entrance. All the signage looked fresh. But there wasn't a place to mark that, nor did Casey particularly care.
This place should have been shut down years ago,
she'd already concluded. She read through the restaurant's incredibly thick history:
Five "minor" citations...
Three incidents of an employee contaminating the food...
An armadillo infestation?!
That wasn't all. It was like reading a food safety-themed horror novel. And Casey took safety
seriously
. It was an outgrowth of her personality — Casey took
everything
seriously.
She exercised daily, a solid, strict two hours of sculpting her body. She ate an almost perfect diet, just enough fat to feed her feminine features, just enough protein to keep herself strong, as little carbohydrates as she could and only the
good
ones. She didn't smoke. She meditated twice a day. She stood as much she could.
Every last bit of Casey's day was pre-planned, when it didn't happen or she ran over, she was not a pleasant person.
Today, she wore some flattering slacks, a pair of comfy leather flats, and a simple blue button up shirt, with a little scoop to the neck to hint at a little cleavage. She was happy to small busted, it was far less maintenance and pain, but she did wear a push-up to give her what she had. Little makeup, she didn't have the time or concern for that.
The most recent report should have shut the restaurant down, full stop. An employee, the cook of all people, had been caught...relieving himself in food.
Multiple times.
Known to management, apparently, with no action taken against him.
The previous inspector, Kristina Perez, had done the necessary leg work, only the shut down order was missing. Given the latest listed date, it appeared the investigation just ended. No penalty whatsoever. Nothing even indicated the employee in question had been fired.
***
Earlier that day, back at City Hall, that discovery was what put
Buster's
at the top of Casey's list.
It was technically her second day on the job. The first had been spent purely with introductions and moving into
her office
. The thrill of having her own space — the title "City Inspector" under her name on the door, straight out of a movie — broke her composure. Casey
smiled
. She even did a little dance when her door was closed.
Today, she had to work.
It had been several months since her predecessor had resigned...in a sense.
Terminated
was the official reason, but Kristina had intended to seduce when she showed up -- eyes hungry, lips smacking, tits nearly hanging out the front of her unbuttoned shirt, a skirt barely that barely reached below her ass -- it was all very deliberate. She pushed herself on Art, the deputy inspector and only other commission employee.
Not just literally pushed her tits in his face, Kristina bent herself over, skirt hiked up, no panties, and just offered her womanhood, her ass, whatever he wanted. In full view of the security cameras. And did the same to the officers who came to remove her from the premises.
Casey wasn't there, of course, but she'd seen some of the footage. The rest came from Art.
His details were firsthand, typically male in focus, but he also seemed reliable. Art seemed to Casey to be a decent man. Married for 15 years, 3 kids, collected fishing lures as a hobby. Just a stable, dull man who lucked into a political connection via his cousin, the much more gregarious Mayor Streeter Downs.
Art refused Kristina's advances, removed himself from the situation ASAP, and even sounded like he regretted having to file a harassment complaint against her.
"She was on something, it didn't feel right," he'd told Casey. "She was my superior for about 6 years. She's met my kids. Not going to say she was perfect, but she treated people alright."
After the firing, Art held things together and kept the city safe. He did his job. He was a good inspector, and probably should have just been promoted. But bureaucracy chose Casey. If there was any resentment, he was devious enough not to show it.
"I'm honestly just glad they finally got somebody else in here," he told her when she asked him about any hard feelings, giving her a warm handshake to punctuate it. "Kris and I didn't worry about who was in charge, just getting the job done. It's been kicking my ass since she...well..."
Still, Casey smelled trouble. She was young, but she'd been in bureaucracy long enough to know how dangerous politics could be. Circumstantial or not, Art was related to power,
politics was literally in his blood.
So she looked into the time in between her hiring and Kristina's firing. Most of what gained came via gossip. Casey could position herself just close enough to the lunchtime pool of administrative assistants to worm her way into a juicy tale, but not close enough to get drawn in. They may have been the same age as Casey, but she was a department head, not a glorified clerk.
But information was power, and if Casey wanted to protect herself from politics, she needed some dirty dirt. The "girls" could provide.
Following Kristina's...
resignation
...it sounded like a fight broke out between Mayor Downs and the City Council. The Mayor wanted Art. The Council wanted to fill the role with a qualified applicant who was also a woman, Casey.
Someone not related to the mayor.
The Council won, of course, or Casey would've never learned about the fight, nor heard even worse stories about what Kristina had done, nor that the Mayor hosted a secret poker game with a few of her fellow (all male) department heads and had quite a debt.
To his credit, no one really mentioned Art much. Casey picked up no indication he'd ever
wanted
to get the senior inspector role, at least. But with his seniority, the promotion would have put another kid through college, or made his retirement that much nicer. And cousin had gone to bat for him, surely that indicated some ambition?
Casey decided to keep Art at arm's length, but saw no reason not to work with him. So she took the
Buster's
file to him as soon as she noticed the oversight.
"You never requested the closure," Casey said, looking down at him over her reading glasses. They made her feel older. He returned her stare with a nervous glance. Casey didn't mean to intimidate, but she didn't smile either. People told her she just had a face though.
Art then looked into the file and the name on the restaurant, and seemed to lose color for a moment. He said, shakily, "Oh wow, that is bad...I...well, I guess that was the day she came in. I didn't want to touch anything she'd touched." He wiped his face. "She got some fluids on a few things. I sanitized the place, but I must've slipped it in the wrong drawer."
He gave Casey a long look, then read the report again, and frowned. "There's no just ignoring that, I guess." He sighed and looked at her again. It surprised Casey, made her feel uncomfortable, but he didn't
do
anything exactly. Just looked at her, the nervous still there, but...
It was like he was evaluating her. As a woman.
"I intend to correct this oversight today," Casey said, putting on her sternest voice and giving her hair bun a squeeze. It made her feel better, but she also felt like the movement drew attention up and to her face, rather than whatever had his interest. "Unfortunately, Kristina did not include her supporting documentation in this file. I cannot find it. I looked already.
Twice.
So I am going to do my best to corroborate it."
Art looked like he was going to speak. Casey decided to be nice.