chapter 99

word count: 1533

as officer beverly simone sat, hands cuffed behind her, in the hard plastic rear seat of the squad car,, the crime scene investigation unit took their own sweet time tearing her apartment apart collecting what she knew to be very damning evidence against her.. 

tears of utter frustration dribbled down her cheeks,, as in silence she tried to make peace with her beloved brenda,, begging her forgiveness for having screwed this thing up before she could met out her damning revenge.. 

how had this happened?? she had planned it out ever so carefully.. she was sure that she had sufficiently seduced gil,, surely he had not caught on.. she reviewed her actions carefully and was sure she had done nothing that would have served to show her hand..

it had to have been that damn hank bowers.. but how?  how had he caught on to her?? maybe she should have taken him up on his offer to “get to know each other better”?? perhaps if she had,, she would have been able to keep closer tabs on him..

filled with shoulda woulda coulda’s she looked on helplessly as the crime scene investigators brought out sealed brown bag after sealed brown bag and placed them in the white panel van.. she was fucked,, and she knew it.. 

she tried unsuccessfully to wipe all evidence of tears from her cheeks on the shoulders of her silky coverup.. at least they could have let her get dressed. would it have been so hard for them to extend her at least that much professional courtesy??

at long last a uniformed patrol officer approached the squad car.. as he opened the door,,  he called out to a fellow officer, “i got 50 bucks on the crack whores!!”

“fuckers!” she said under her breath,, as the uniform settled into the front seat and dropped the squad car into gear.. she knew the arresting officers were betting on who would get the better of her in the holding cell.. she had done it so many times herself,, but somehow knowing that this time the wagers were being placed against her made the practice seem so cold.. so inhumane.. how could they?? she was one of their own after all.. 

as the squad car lurched forward,, the arresting officer gave her a piercing glance in the rear view mirror as he cut a sharp left out of the apartment complex,, nearly causing simone to smash her head against the car window.. 

“karma is truly a bitch.” she thought to herself as she recalled all the times in her career she had treated a perp with the same disregard as she was currently being treated.. she had been on the other side of this coin enough times to know she was being deemed guilty until proven innocent.. 

“innocent…” she thought to herself as the uniform hit the gas and sped toward the 45^th street precinct house she had just recently come to regards as her second home..

“fat chance of that..”

***

having taken statements from seemingly everyone at the pink lady that had come into contact with the he/she assailant,, several uniforms collected michael and simon the bartender and insisted on transporting them to the station house to work with a sketch artist and compile as near a composite drawing of the assailant as the two of them could come up with..  

michael, under the guise of retrieving his chap stick, deftly stowed the glass pipe and baggie of crystal in the pocket of some unsuspecting party goers’ jacket as it hung innocently enough on the back of a nearby barstool.. it pained him to leave it behind,, but the 45^th street precinct was nowhere to go with a stash of drugs and paraphernalia,, especially given the fact that he was high as a kite and it was taking everything he had to try and disguise that fact under the watchful eye of the new albany pd.. 

“he was just too glorious to be a woman..” simon was informing the uniform as michael rejoined the group and they headed toward the squad car.. 

“and those breasts!!” michael exclaimed in effort  to act natural in hopes of hiding his drug induced paranoia, “they were way too magnificent to have been factory..”

***

“buzz!!” trudy yelled out, as she tried to push her way passed mrs. dunn and forcibly enter the foyer.. 

“this bitch won’t let me in the house!” she bellowed as mrs. dunn held her ground and forcibly detained trudy on the front stoop.. 

“get the fuck out of my way!! buzz!!” trudy’s called out as she stomped on mrs. dunn’s foot in effort to distract her long enough to force her way in the door.. 

mrs. dunn was unfazed,, and  stood her ground long enough for buzz to round the corner.. 

“trudy?? what the heck are you doing?” buzz said as he entered the foyer just in time to see trudy grabbing a big clump of mrs. duns hair and attempting to drag her to the floor.. 

“let go of her!!” he ordered as he grabbed trudy by the arm in an attempt to get her to loosen her grip on mrs. dunn’s hair.

“are you fucking crazy??” he yelled at her,, as he wrestled mrs. dunn free of trudy’s death grip on her hair,, and locked trudy’s arm behind her, gaining some degree of physical control over her.. 

“yes i am!!” trudy yelled back.. “i am crazy in love with you,, and this , this bitch, would not let me in!! tell her buzz!! tell her you love me too,, and you want me here,, and her gone!!”

“trudy, trudy trudy,” buzz shook his head with displeasure as he slowly loosened his grip on her arm and tried to soothe her with the somber tone of his voice.. 

“let’s just calm down and see if we can’t discuss this like two adults.” buzz continued.

trudy took immediate offense to what she perceived as a condescending tone,, and flew into a rage..

“tell her buzz!! tell her to get out!! tell her to get out or i’ll..” with that trudy lunged at buzz,, scratching a deep gash in his cheek as she tried desperately to get him to comply with her wishes..

buzz grabbed her by her outstretched arm and wrestled her to the floor.. he held her down with his knee,, as she kicked and screamed obscenities at him.. 

mrs. dunn  had seen enough. she hastily retreated to the kitchen where she placed a call to 911..

“911, what is your emergency?”

“this is elenore dunn,, i am detective buzz miller’s housekeeper.. there is a crazy woman trying to gain entry into the house.. detective miller has her pinned in the foyer!! please come right away and remove her from the premises!!” mrs. dunn barked breathlessly into the phone.. 

trudy could be heard screaming obscenities in the background as the dispatcher collected the pertinent information and assured mrs. dunn a squad car was on its way.. 

***

as the uniformed officer ushered a scantily dressed beverly simone into the booking office she maintained her silence.. she knew all too well that anything she said would be used against her,, and with the overwhelming physical evidence she knew had been collected at her apartment,, she knew better than to add any fuel to the devastating fire that awaited her.. 

the arresting officer, pushed her roughly into a chair where she would await her turn to be booked, photographed and finger printed.. she could feel the eyes of every uniform in the room piercing gaping holes in her person.. she kept her head bowed,, careful not to make eye contact with any of them.. she silently wished they had placed her in a cell to await the booking procedure,, at least there,, no one would know she was a cop..

she waited for what seemed like an eternity before a female uniform called her name and requested her presence at the booking desk.. she took a seat in the cordoned off privacy window and began to answer questions, succinctly, offering no more information than was called for..  

she kept her gaze trained on the floor in front of her throughout the questioning procedure and was strangely grateful when she felt the firm grasp of yet another booking officer on her arm as that meant at long last she would be fingerprinted, photographed and put in a holding cell where she could escape the searing gaze of her once fellow officers.. 

as simone fell in step with the firm grasp of the booking officers hand on her arm, she heard a strangely familiar voice screaming out threats and obscenities in the entry way to the booking office.. she looked up,, and saw it was none other than trudy hunt,, that maniacal woman who had attacked gil in the squad room just a few weeks before.. 

as luck would have it, trudy caught sight of simone as she was being lead across the booking office and into the processing room.. 

“you!!!” trudy screamed out across the room in a blood curdling tone.. “you fucking whore!!! i’m gonna kill you!!!”