Less than a year on the force, and I'm pulled off traffic and given an undercover assignment. The Chief didn't even brief me at the station. The two of us met with an FBI agent at a bar outside of town.
“This is Marge Branson,” the Chief told the FBI agent, “She hasn't been with us long, but I think she's the perfect person for the job.”
“We just want to wash our hands of it,” the agent said, “it's not our jurisdiction, and we're stretched thin as it is. Here's everything we've got.”
As of that moment, my only contact was with the Chief. As far as anyone at the station was concerned, I had been transferred.
“Why did you really pick me for this?” I asked the Chief the next day.
“Frankly, you're the only one who looks like the members of the gang. In other words, you got the job because of your looks.”
The Chief answered my snort with a smile.
I'm in great psychical shape. I can go toe to toe with all but the “no neck” crowd at the station and miss it when I don't work out.
The Chief's near forty-year-old eyes see me as being attractive. My mother is a little older, and thinks I am too. If there weren't so many mirrors in the world, I might agree with them.
I slid my slacks up over my voluptuous hips. I like to think of them as being voluptuous. It sounds much better than: “Kind of big.”
I put my bra over my firm breasts. I like the term: “firm.” It sounds better than: “Kind of small.”
I start putting on makeup. I've never come up with a good name for freckles. I've hated them for as long as I can remember. Some people think they make me look younger, I think they make my face look dirty.
I've got great eyes. Big and expressive, they'll knock you out even before I do my face. If I could jack up my eyes and slide a new body under them, I'd be gorgeous.
Checking myself one last time, I hit the street. There are people in Hollywood who could make me look as good and the Chief and my mother think I am, but I don't have the time or the money to let them work their miracles. Besides, I've got more important things to do.
A string of rapes have been going on for nearly five years now. There have been at least two hundred victims. It's hard to nail, because few of the victims will co-operate.
The reason the victims are reluctant is that they are all men, and the rapists are women.
The FBI bailed out when they figured there couldn't be more than twenty or thirty involved, and nothing had crossed state lines. Most incidents involved five or six women attacking a single man, and each one was carried out with military precision. As I read the reports, one thing became abundantly clear; these men were never given a chance.
I didn't fight my sense of begrudging admiration for them. In fact, I tried to encourage it. If I was to infiltrate this group, I'd have to learn to identify with them. Once I was in, I could identify all the members, and bring them to justice.
FIRST CONTACT
“One screwdriver, coming up,” Felicia said, “Tell me if it's too strong,” she said, handing me the glass.
It was so strong I almost choked.
“That's all the O.J. I've got,” she apologized, “I've got some grapefruit juice.”
She filled the rest with grapefruit after I said; “What the hell.”
She was our first, and only, lead in the “girl gang” case. A parking ticket near a particularly brutal rape had put her near the scene, and quiet investigation revealed some interesting facts. One of those facts was the reason I was here, and I needed a good belt to do what had to be done.
Felicia was a man-hating lesbian, with a court order not to go near her younger brother. She had a habit of kicking him in the nuts every time she got near him. The latest victim had been kicked in the nuts repeatedly.
The victim also reported an African-American voice among his attackers, and that attacker had been the one kicking him, and the one who carried him to the bed.
The six foot tall black woman easing down next to me matched the height his account implied.
“You haven't done this before, have you?” she asked.
“Sure. Of course. Lots of times,” I lied.
She didn't say a word. She just put her hand on my knee and waited.
“No, I haven't,” I said. I had to play this right, and being caught in an obvious lie would be stupid, “I've had terrible luck with men, but I still have my needs. I'm sorry, I don't mean to use you, but I have to find out.”
“Oh, baby,” she said, gathering me into her arms, “I know how it is. Let Felicia make it all better.”
I fought the disgust when her lips covered mine, fought the urge to slap her hand as it slid up between my legs, and fought panic when she pushed me down into the couch and covered me.
If I had known she was going to make love to me for over two hours, I would have broken free right then, and told the department to “shove it.”