She felt like she was suffocating. The doors and the clear plastic partition of the police car seemed like they were closing in on her. Maybe it was just the after effects of the drugs she had taken, they certainly wouldn't have helped but she knew herself that a part of her conscious mind was very definitely still working. How could this have happened? How did she end up here, like this? And more importantly how the hell could she get out of it? That was the thing she had to get an answer to and quickly.
For a brief moment Police Commander Gillian Anderson allowed herself to think back over the events of the past 48 hours. It did not make for happy thinking. From the first moment that unmarked envelope had dropped onto her desk she had had grave misgivings and look where it had led her. Just look at what being willing to go to all lengths to preserve her career had done to her. She had become a call girl, worked in a seedy brothel and just tonight walked the sidewalks as a cheap hooker. And now this, arrested on charges of prostitution and drug dealing. Her career would be ruined. It had to be a further set up, what a fool she had been. She resisted the desire to shout at the two officers driving her to the station, 'Do you know who I am?' because undoubtedly they did and she could do no good through that so she sat in the back seat her wrists handcuffed behind her and considered what she would say to her lawyer.
Up front the two arresting officers smirked and took sneaky glances at their prisoner. Their sexy commander looked quite the whore in her outfit, her top ripped to expose most of her left tit and her fishnet stockings torn below the hem of her tiny mini skirt. Whereas Gillian was dreading being led into the station there were a whole number of people (including the two cops) who were relishing the thought of it. It was a set up for sure, she realised, as she was led into the station right through the main entrance. There were banks of photographers waiting to see her led humiliatingly past them as their cameras exploded to life and a million questions were shouted out. She should have been given at least a blanket over her head but the two cops led her inside seemingly as slowly as possible and when one of them 'accidentally' bumped into her as they ascended the stone stairs it was enough to dislodge her barely in place torn top and expose her boob to the paparazzi. They all (including Gillian herself) knew it would be front page headlines and pictures for the next day's papers. She could just imagine the headlines.
She dropped her head in shame and allowed herself to be hustled inside where there were even more cops waiting to see her brought inside. Why didn't any of them clear the press away? Spare her some blushes at least. Allow her some shred of dignity to be preserved. But it was like no-one wanted to acknowledge who she was and what she was here in the police force. The Desk Sergeant read her her rights and took her bag and at that point they discovered the large amount of coke in her handbag, she looked at it disbelievingly as he started noting it down, made a call to a detective and she heard the word 'dealing' in his conversation. She struggled, tried to claim her innocence, that she had been set up but no-one had any love lost for her before so they certainly wouldn't help her now. She was led down into the stone bowels of the station and released from her handcuffs as she was placed inside a large holding cell. At least, she thought, it was empty, she did not have to share it with the lower class criminals, not realising the irony of her thoughts.
Now, at last alone in the darkly lit cell, sitting on the edge of the uncomfortable cot and contemplated her future, how she had got into this mess and what she could do to get out of it. The normally cold, hard Police Commander even allowed herself to let go a sob and begin to softly cry. She knew nobody would be sorry to see this happen to her, if only she had made some friends on her meteoric rise in the force rather than alienate everyone she had passed on her way to the top.
Suddenly a voice spoke from the shadows outside the cell and she had to get up to the bars to hear it clearly.
"I told you Commander that if you did all that I asked of you you would have me behind bars by the end of the night, didn't I. Well here I am."
At that the door swung open and a tall, male figure appeared and stepped into the diffused light in the cell. She gasped as her old partner Joe Dupree walked calmly into the cell and smiled at her. He had also advanced in the force while Gillian had scratched her way to the top and he was a Sergeant now.
The door clanged shut behind him but he remained at the door looking at her with a mixture of vindication and triumph written across his face.
"You bastard" Gillian spat as he got to her feet, unsteady on her heels and made to come towards him. But the events of the night had dulled her senses and he easily caught her wrists and pushed her back down onto the cot.
"Now then Commander, you're in enough trouble, don't want to get an assault charge against you too, do you?"
He stood powerfully over her and cast her a mocking glance as she once again tried to cover up her left breast which had come loose from her torn top in her efforts.
"Don't worry about it, I saw them and a whole lot more this afternoon. Remember when you were in the mask?"
God, it seemed so long ago but yes, she remembered this bastard fucked her in the brothel while she wore that mask. She shuddered at the memory. Still at least now she knew her enemy and tormentor and once she got this whole mess explained she would begin to make his and his helpers lives hell.
"You won't get away with this you bastard! I'll prove all the things you made me do and then I'll get you, I'll make you wish you never crossed me!"
He smiled cheekily.
"My god you do look hot when you're angry Gillian. Something to do with that red hair. Turns me on! But I hate to disappoint you but you're going to have to wait to get your revenge. You see it's not just me that desires to see you taught a lesson you'll never forget. There's a whole lot of us that have clubbed together to arrange all this, I'm just the point man in this endeavour. You must really have pissed off a whole lot of people in your years in the force."
Gillian caught movement from the shadows and a line of recognisable faces entered the cell and stood across from her. As she watched them file in the true scale of her plight was starting to reveal itself to her. She recognised each of the men as they filed in. The Honourable Judge Mackie, Kelvin Perry owner of the towns largest news network (TV channel and newspaper), Michael Biskin, the District Attorney, Mayor Joseph Brown and a handful of the cities leading industrialists. Then came the worst, Chief Clancy Simpson, her immediate boss. Joe waited until they were all stood around her in a wide 'U' shape as she sat on the edge of the jail cell cot, about ten feet back and Joe waited until she had glimpsed all their faces before speaking.
"Quite the powerful gathering isn't it Commander? And not only that but they aren't alone in this, their peers and colleagues all know about this plot too and were more than pleased to offer their support and help wherever they could. Seems like a whole lot of people are only too keen to see you taught a lesson."