Saturday 31 October 2020

CHAPTER 30: Bad Trip

 


John Action sauntered into Precinct 13 headquarters and saw that old Sergeant Kitchen wasn't at the front desk. It was a woman officer, one he didn't recognise.

"Well hello there, I guess you're the new girl" he said to her.

"And I guess you're Action...I've heard a lot about you" she replied with a smirk.

"All good, I hope"

"They were more like warnings" she said. "Anyway, you can't stand around here trying to charm your way around your co-workers, Action, this lady's come in with a complaint" she nodded to a young hippie woman sitting, waiting on a bench in the reception area. Action wandered over to her.

"What's the problem, Ma'am?" he said.

"Well...it's..."


"my ex. He breezed back into town with some bad acid. Well, I told him I wanted nothing to do with it and threw him out but he still operated around Oasis Springs, selling his junk. Anyway, he quickly split the place and we've got a whole bunch of people having a bad trip, attacking passers by and causing trouble" she said, sadly.

"Bad acid: that's a bad scene, sister. I'll head over there, crack some skulls and get that junk off the street and out of the hands of those acid-heads"


Mirage Canyon, 11:17 am

The main street looked quiet, too quiet. Action's hand hovered over his .38 service revolver....just in case! He needed some information so he wandered over to The Solar Flare lounge; a classy joint most of the time although they were known to violate state hygiene laws from time to time. Action walked up the stairs to the lounge but although the doors were all open, no one was around. "Strange" he thought to himself.

He wandered over to the large windows that afforded an excellent view of the main street. From here he could observe any strange goings on without being seen himself. As he watched and waited, he noticed a violin propped up on a stand right next to him....he couldn't help but pick it up and give it a go.


He saw a fair haired lady of about 40 stagger down the street, rubbing her arm in pain. Taking this as a cue, Action put down the violin and ran over to her.

"Excuse me, Ma'am, is anything the matter?" he said to the lady.

"Yes...ow...I've just been punched by this weird young woman. She claimed I stole her bananas and that I was in league with the secret government so she just lurched at me and started punching me. Fortunately, she only hit me in a couple of places like my arm...there's no serious damage."

"Where did this happen?" said Action.

"Over by that small park area" she said, pointing to a grassy area that had a few benches. "Look! There she is! The woman who hit me!"


Action looked around and saw an enraged looking young woman pulling a man doing yoga off the ground and hitting him over the head. He ran over, his hand still hovering over his service .38.

"Freeze right there!" he shouted. The woman looked around terrified, the man staggered over to a nearby bench.

"Oh my God, what have I done?" she said, wild eyed.

"You're Jonesing from a bad, bad trip, lady" said Action. "Now you're going to come with me and tell me all about where you got that acid from"


Action called for some back up and the lady was bundled into a squad car to take back to police HQ. Action took a moment to grab a coffee and have a brief work out to keep his muscles toned. Sergeant Kitchen entered the recreation room and walked over to him.


"Good work out there, Action" said Sergeant Kitchen.

"Just doing my job, my way" replied Action.

"Anyway, we're processing that lady plus a few other freaks who've taken some of that same batch of LSD. Oh, and the Chief wants some progress on those robberies. We're still holding Aurora Ahmed; the Chess Bandit, someone needs to interrogate her"

"And that someone would be me, right?" replied Action, downing his coffee.

Down in the cells he went to fetch Ahmed and take her to an interrogation room.

"I've said all I got to say in front of your colleagues and my lawyer" she said.

"I know" Action replied. "I'm not interested in you...I want to know who your fence is"


Action took her to an interrogation room and sat her down. "We've got you for the Jade statue job, you're going down but if you want to avoid hard time you'd better co-operate and tell us who your buyer is"

"I'm not a fink!" she replied. "You've got nothing!"

"We've got witness statements, we've got your fingerprints on that chess board and you left enough clues to fill a ship" said Action.

"So what if I did touch that chessboard? Plenty of people play chess"

"We know your signature style, Aurora. Now this is pretty open and shut....WHO'S YOUR FENCE?" he said, pounding a fist on the table.


Ahmed started to sweat and wilt under the pressure. "OK, I did have a fence...but I never met them, I swear. But I know it's a woman: Even though she wore a mask I could tell by her voice and body shape the fence was a woman. I don't have a name or contact number; they always contacted me"

"That's a start" said Action, making notes.

At the end of his shift he headed home for some chow. As he sat with his grilled cheese sandwich watching Mr Ed on TV he heard a knock at the door. Looking through the window he could see a very attractive young woman dressed in red and white standing outside.

"Hi, can I help you?" he said, opening the door.


"Oh, hi, I'm Katharine Bowie from the Mirage Canyon Citizens' Association" she said.

"Of course you are" he replied.

"And on behalf of our members I want to thank you for helping our little community out in tackling the junkie problem on our streets"

"Just doing my job, my way, Ma'am"

"And we're very grateful, Officer Action" she said, coyly.

Action smiled. "I'm off duty now but would you like to come in for a drink?" he said.

Katharine smiled and said "I thought you'd never ask"

No comments:

Post a Comment