Thank you to everyone who has stuck with the story to this point. This is the penultimate chapter of the Sister/Genie series.
All the comments and especially the ratings have been so gratifying. Hang in there for just a bit longer, and thank you for coming with me on the story this far.
Also, I've tried to be as accurate as I can around the policing and legal terms and such in the UK, but apologies to any natives if I've "bollocksed something up".
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Jaya was still nervous, but had calmed down a little.
She'd been taken to an interrogation room straight out of a TV procedural, complete with metal table, folding chairs, and a mirror taking up most of one wall. She also noticed the obvious monitoring camera in one corner, which was the major reason for her anxiety dropping just a bit. Before, she was in danger of bodily harm or violation. Now it was just legal issues. Jaya wasn't confident, especially since this was a foreign country, but given the way the officers, particularly Finney and Marks, had been behaving, she assumed they'd been pushing the limits on some things. Hopefully she just had to hold her ground.
Both Marks and Finney came in after letting her stew for a while, Marks sitting across from her while Finney perched in the corner. The leering smile hadn't left his face and for the first time in a long time Jaya wished her body wasn't as attractive. Or at least that she'd worn a bra.
"So look. You tell us what you were looking for in this apartment and how you got into it with the woman at the hospital and things are looking brighter for you," Marks said.
"I'm not telling you anything until I talk to a lawyer," Jaya said.
"See, stupid Americans don't listen, do they?" Finney said, "Look, we got you on assault and burglary without any trouble, yeah? It's just a matter of what you're willing to do to make things easier on you."
Jaya saw Marks shoot an annoyed look at his partner briefly, but then he turned back to her.
"Look, the barrister's just gonna draw all this out. He's gonna tell you not to talk to us, then we have to throw you in lockup, don't we? And while your government solicitor is running around trying to fill out paperwork and get you hearings and evidence, you're stuck in a cell for who knows how long? Meanwhile, we've still got the same evidence and you just have to spend even longer in jail."
Jaya sat and glared. She thought most of that sounded off, but she also knew it was a bad idea to just agree with them.
Marks looked like he was going to launch into another speech and then the door opened. A tall, balding man with an oval face and a grim expression looked into the room. Finney straightened up a bit and Marks turned.
"Can we help you Brian?" Marks said.
"Out here," the man growled. Both men started to move and he added, "Her too."
Marks paused, "Brian, we haven't finished our-"
"Now!" the man Brian barked. For the first time both officers looked worried. Finney grabbed Jaya's arm and yanked her up a little roughly. They walked back down the hallway to a conference area. When they entered the room she felt Finney stiffen, but she started to smile.
Trevor stood in the room, completely unrestrained and looking a bit annoyed, but there was a small smirk on his face.
Standing next to him was a woman in a business suit Jaya thought was familiar but she couldn't place her. She looked to be somewhere in her thirties, with dark red hair cut in a bob style that stopped at her chin. Her suit obscured a lot of her features but there was some definite curve to her frame. She had a neutral face on, betraying nothing.
Standing to the other side of Trevor was a man with grey hair cut short and glasses, but his frame suggested a body that was well maintained but was slowly losing the battle to age and a slower lifestyle. He was in a uniform that seemed more formal than the rest of the people around and when her escorts caught sight of him they suddenly snapped ramrod straight.
"Here they are Chief Superintendent," the man Brian said.
"Thank you Inspector Dyson," the Chief Superintendent said, "Miss...Gazdar is it?"
Jaya snuck a quick glance over at Trevor, who nodded slightly, and she said, "Yes. Jaya."
"This is Miss Dupree, your lawyer," the chief said.
The red-haired woman came forward and gently took Jaya's arm, pulling her away from Finney and Marks. "Are you all right? Did they hurt you?"
Finney reacted to that but was glared at by his superiors and didn't actually moved. "No," Jaya said, "The woman who did the cavity search was very professional."
Trevor and Ms. Dupree's head snapped around to the Chief Superintendent, who was glaring daggers at Inspector Dyson, Finney, and Marks.
"This is how you keep house, Dyson!?" he asked. He didn't seem to be shouting but his voice seemed loud.
"I...can assure you my officers must have had cause, sir," Dyson replied, though it was obvious to everyone he was nervous.
After a moment of silence, the Chief barked, "Well!?"
"We...um...she was our chief suspect in the burglary but we couldn't find the items she took, sir," Marks said, "So obviously she must have them on-"
"Just stop," the Chief said, "get those cuffs off her."
Finney immediately said, "Chief she's our top suspect-"
"One more word, Finney! Undo those cuffs and be glad I'm not having them on you!"
Jaya's hands came free and Dupree pulled her a little farther from the police. The Chief's expression softened a bit as he turned to them.
"Miss Gazdar, Mister Mondrian, I believe there's been a misunderstanding here. If you would be willing to-"
"Misunderstanding my arse, we arrested her right and proper! She's dodgy as hell" Finney snapped and moved forward.
Dupree stepped in front of him and snapped, "Back away from my client or I'll have your badge and the Met will be paying for this woman to live in luxury for the rest of her life!"
"Her sugar daddy paying her bills then?" Finney replied, shouting over the words of the two other men who began speaking, but Dupree shouted all of them down.
"You were called because a woman had been assaulted by her boyfriend and carried to the hospital with her sister because she had life threatening injuries, and your response to this was to arrest her sister."
"That's bollocks. They don't look a thing alike! And we've only got her word there was a man there at all!" Finney said.
"Except that I was able to call the other Miss Gazdar's office and get ten witnesses who'll testify to Jasmine's ongoing relationship with a man who has four different arrests for violence in the past five years. And who's related to the woman whose flat Miss Gazdar was found in. Now I wonder why you two couldn't find that after nine hours and instead brought her amazingly attractive sister back here for a strip search?" Dupree asked
"There was-"
"Officer Finney, if you don't want to spend the next decade of your life in a jail alongside people you've helped put there I suggest you shut your mouth," the Chief Inspector said, his voice cold. He turned back to them, "Miss Gazdar, please accept an apology on behalf of The Metropolitan Police Service-"
"Chief Inspector Greely," Dupree said, "This is not in my best interests but given your help so far I'd recommend you not tell us that. In good conscience we can't allow this to stand."
Greely's expression hardened, but he nodded. "Then I'll say good day to you. I have some business of my own," he said.
Trevor came over to Jaya then and hugged her. "Go with Taylor here to get your things. You have to sign a few papers. I already got my bit taken care of. I'll get us a car.
Jaya nodded and walked with the lawyer down the hall. Behind them, she could hear muffled shouting. Somewhat buoyed by the situation, she couldn't help teasing.
"Amazingly attractive, huh?" she said.
Taylor's skin was as pale as Jaya's so the woman's blush was blatantly obvious. "I was just making my point to them. Those men clearly had no intent to investigate and were grossly abusing their authority. What about that female officer?"
Jaya looked around nervously. "You're my lawyer right? Officially, I mean, you weren't just telling them that to scare them."
"That would be very unprofessional Miss Gazdar. I am your lawyer in all legal respects," Taylor said.
"So we have attorney client privilege and everything?" Jaya asked.
"Not how we call it, but yes. Now what do you want to tell me?"
"The woman, Murphy, definitely was going to do something. Probably humiliation games or something like that. I threw her off when I seduced her. It didn't seem like she'd had a
willing
sex partner for some time."
Jaya saw Taylor pause. She mostly had a poker face but her eyes betrayed some of her feelings and Jaya thought she saw a lot of anger. "That was very brave of you, Jaya. Or...Mariah? Trevor wasn't completely...forthcoming with me."
Jaya blew out a breath. "That's a much longer conversation. One where you definitely need to be my lawyer."
Taylor nodded and they continued on through the process of getting her out of the police station.
* * * * *
In what felt like the first piece of good news in a long time, when they returned to the hospital and asked about Jasmine, the doctor told them she was stable, but had a lot of recovery to go through.
"We want to keep her here for a couple of days to make sure nothing else goes bad," the doctor said, "Then she's got probably a week of home recovery. The pneumothorax would take a week or two on its own, and then the ribs are a month, month and a half. Ordinarily she could probably be back to doing things in a day or two but given how many injuries she had I want to recommend bed rest for at least three days or so, better a week if I'm honest."
"Do we have to worry about the wounds not being closed or anything like that?" Trevor asked.
