"NonConsent"
It had been a long day. Donnie, his partner Jackie and their eight man back up team had been sitting in this hotel room for six hours and there was still no sign of the psycho they were hunting. And, yes. Psycho was the accurate word in this case as their prey seemed to think of himself as a 21st Century "Jack the Ripper." He had slaughtered nine prostitutes so far. Most of them street walkers but the last two were high dollar call girls. That's what led Donnie and his partner Jackie to take up residence at the Wallingford Hotel.
The team had chosen two connecting rooms. On Donnie's signal, three of the officers would go through the connecting door with Donnie while the other three would sweep out and around to the entryway. The two remaining officers were DataDicks monitoring the multiple small cameras they'd hidden on this floor. The "Dorks of Death" had four cameras in the room with Jackie, four more in the hallways and one in each of the two stairwells.
The NYPD TechnoDorks had thrown together a pretty decent webpage for Detective Jackie Esposito. Using her image to lure our slasher to the hotel. She had seven appointments this evening and all of them had turned out to be guys just wanting to get laid. They were waiting on the last one to arrive before they called it an evening.
"I think we got one." Dork 1 commented.
"What d'ya got?" Donnie asked as he and Jackie stepped to the monitor.
"Guy in a gray business suit and black wool overcoat. Coming up the west stairwell... Grabbing the door to this floor now."
They watched as he entered the hallway and headed towards room 607. Which was the room they had rented for this operation.
"He looks familiar." Jackie commented.
Donnie squinted as he tried to place the man. "Yeah... Yeah. He's a politician or something." Donnie scratched his chin while he thought. He snapped his fingers just before saying "Councilman Hoffman."
"Aw, I like him." Jackie commented. "He's the one that got the funding for the more durable cameras in the projects."
Sergeant Polson commented, "Doesn't mean he isn't slaughtering hookers to keep people from finding out he likes boinkin hookers."
"Yup." Donnie commented before turning to his partner. "Get your shoes on."
Jackie kicked off her comfy bunny slippers and slipped on the four inch black stilettos to match her short, form hugging, black cocktail dress. She smoothed out the dress before going into the "bait room" and closing the connecting door behind her. She then went to the table near the window and waited. She wanted it to sound like she was across the room when he arrived as opposed to standing next to the door like a cop waiting to pounce. The rest of the team watched as Councilman Ray Hoffman knocked on the door.
"One moment please." They heard Jackie yell from her room.
"He doesn't look crazy." Dork 2 commented.
"Yeah. He looks pretty relaxed..." He turned to his team. "Let's get ready."
The seven of them pulled their weapons and readied themselves next to their respective doors.
Jackie opened the door to her room and smiled. It wasn't hard. He was attractive. Well built. And he returned a genuine smile of his own.
"Hi. Felicity, is it?"
"That's right." She said in her best 'party girl' voice. "And you would be, Ray?"
He nodded. "I am." He smiled again. "May I...?" He motioned towards the interior of the room."
"Of course." She smiled back as she opened the door wide and let him in. He took off his coat and set it on a chair as he took a seat near the table by the window. "You found the place OK?"
"I did. Yeah. I've never actually been to this hotel but it's nice."
"Really." She smiled as she sat across from him. He nodded a too naive smile. "And what do you like about it?"
"Well..." He shook his head in thought. "The carpet for one."
She looked at the green carpet that covered the room. "Oh, of course."
"This is a verrrry high quality berber."
"Mmm. Do you even know what a berber carpet looks like?" She smiled.
"No idea."
Jackie laughed. "You seem very relaxed. You've done this before, I take it?'
He shook his head. "I haven't actually."
"THAT, I find surprising."
"I don't know what to tell you... In my job you have to be a bit of a salesman so..." He shrugged. "...maybe I hide it well?"
She nodded. "You mean your job as a City Councilman?"
He let out a sigh. "Yeah... That one." She was still nodding at him. "You recognized me, huh?"
It was her turn to shrug. "You're one of the one's I like."
"Ah. Well, thank you." He smiled.
"So, Ray. You were a little vague on what you preferred in your email. Would you like to discuss it now?"
He gave a slight shake of his head as he thought. "Umm... sex?"
She laughed. "Any particular kinks I need to know about."
"I... want you to stay the night. I'd like to know what it's like to wake up with you in the morning."
She laughed again. "You haven't seen me in the morning."
He smiled. "I suspect you're far more breathtaking than you give yourself credit for."
She smiled but watched him a moment. "So, no kinks about knives then?"
His brows furrowed. "Jesus, girl. What kind of clients do you have?"
Both doors to the room slammed open as the NYPD swept in. Councilman Hoffman picked up a pen from the dresser behind him and stepped between Felicity and the men. He held the pen sticking between his middle fingers like a punching dagger.
"Police! Drop the weapon!" Donnie stated with his gun pointed at Ray. He didn't know what Ray was going to do with that pen, but he
knew
he didn't want to find out.
Ray took a split second to glance over his shoulder. He saw Felicity still sitting calmly in her chair with her legs crossed, watching him. He dropped the pen and raised his hands in the air.
"My apologies officer. I didn't realize you were the police."
They cuffed and searched him. Searched his car. And did everything they could to make sure he wasn't "The Ripper." When they realized he was not...
"We gotta cut him loose, Jackie."
The Councilman had been sitting on the bed staring at the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back, but his head came up and Detective Donnie Fonta had his full attention when he overheard that last comment.
"I don't have a problem with it." She replied.
The Councilman stood and approached them. "What do you mean, you have to cut me loose?"
Donnie took out his handcuff keys and stepped behind the Councilman to remove the cuffs. "We're letting you go sir. We hope you've learned your lesson from this, and never do it again." He stepped back in front of the Councilman and smiled once he recovered the handcuffs.
"The hell you are, Detective." The Councilman stated in a very authoritarian tone.
Jackie and Donnie exchanged glances before looking back at him. "You -want- to be arrested, sir?" Donnie asked.
"I WANT to know that if one of my peers is caught committing pediphilia with a nine year old that the NYPD isn't going to give them a slap on the wrist for it."
"Oh! Uh, no sir." Donnie suddenly realized what was wrong. "We're not letting you go because of your job. We're hunting a serial killer that's murdering prostitutes." The Councilman began nodding an almost embarrassed kind of nod. "And if we arrest you then..." Donnie grimaced.
"Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah, he'll read about the call girl sting." He shook his head. "I'm sorry Detectives. I assumed... Well, I'm sorry. You're right."
"Ah, it's OK."
"Uh, is there anything I can do to help?"
Donnie shook his head. "You know anything about psychics?"
"There's a non sequitur for you."
"It's the Departmental joke about this guy. He seems to be psychic."
"How so?" Asked Councilman Hoffman.
"Well no matter where we are. He's somewhere else. If we're Downtown, he's uptown. If we're in Harlem he's in Brooklyn. You know."
"Could he have a police band radio?"
"Nah. We switched to cell phones and he still managed to avoid us."
Hoffman nodded. "Then he's a cop." Neither Donnie nor Jackie looked happy to hear that.
"What are you saying?" Jackie asked.
Hoffman shrugged. "The only way he could have known what you were doing if your communications was across cell phones is if he already knew the plan from the station house." He watched them as the reality of it all sunk in. "Tell me about these murders. Are they neat or messy?"
"Nine cases of Jack the Ripper." Donnie stated.