[LtBroccoli]

“CCPD: LESSONS IN BADASSITUDE”

By

Lt. Broccoli

Author’s Note:  This is a work of fiction.  All characters and locations are made up.  The acts portrayed are also fictional.  Rape is wrong, racism is wrong, violence is wrong.  Also, this is presented in a modified screenplay format.  I'm still working on making it look like a proper film script without spending as long formatting it with this markup tool.  Since it is a screenplay, a couple tips.  The sluglines indicate when and where a scene takes place, and the parenthesis under a character’s name are directions on how the dialogue is supposed to be delivered.  This is a continuation of George's Intro from The Club of Chester County.  It's not required reading, but this does pick up the day after the last chapter about Stephanie Taylor in that thread.

Author's Second Note:  Big shout out to CMG, Carhamgrater, for letting me use a couple of his characters in a story.  I hope I do them justice.

Author’s Final Note:  There’s not much sex on screen in this story, but I needed to tell it for future work.  Also, it’s a bit long.  Ever start a short story and it turned into a feature length screenplay before you know it?  Well, that just happened.  I hope you enjoy.



 
FADE IN:

INT. CAPT. JENKINS OFFICE - MORNING
A middle-aged light-skinned black woman, CAPT. JANELLA JENKINS, sits behind a desk in a cramped office in the Chester County Police Department.  She is dressed in business attire.  On her desk sits a stack of papers to her right, a laptop computer directly in front of her, a phone to her left, and a nameplate that reads “CAPTAIN JANELLA JENKINS” at the front of the desk.

All but one wall of the office has glass windows covered in blinds.  The wall behind her has various photos and awards on it.

In front of her desk are two chairs, currently empty.

There is a KNOCK at the door.

JANELLA
Come.

The door opens.  It is DETECTIVE GEORGE LEWIS.  He is a white, bald man in his late 40’s with a reddish mustache, wearing a dress shirt and tie.

GEORGE
Cappy.

Janella rolls her eyes.

JANELLA
What is it, George?

George enters the office, carrying a few photos.  He is followed by his partner, DETECTIVE XAVIER ‘X’ HARRISON.  Xavier is a mountain of a man, standing at least 6’6” tall and built like an NFL lineman.  His dark black skin looks even darker in his navy blue suit.

The two men enter and sit down in the chairs.  George sits on the left side, X on the right.  George wants to sit on X’s good side, the side he can mostly hear out of.

George hands the photos over to Janella.  They are surveillance pictures of a white man in his 20’s or 30’s.

JANELLA
What am I looking at?

GEORGE
The perp in the Stephanie Taylor home invasion rape.  I’m going to take the newbie here over to sketch today to see if we can get a composite.
Janella thumbs through the photos, paying close attention to the man in them.

JANELLA
Go on.

GEORGE
X had a crazy theory that panned out.  The guy who attacked her wasn’t the same guy who set it up.  There was too much weirdness with the events for it to be someone she knew.  He called it, what was that X?

X
(Shouting)
Vicarious Rape!

GEORGE
Yeah, vicarious rape.

Janella looks at George with a look of confusion.

GEORGE
Think ‘Strangers on a Train’, but for rape.

JANELLA
Got it.  Walk me through what you’ve got.

GEORGE
You want this, X?

X
(Shouting)
No, thanks!

GEORGE
We went over the file, tracked down Ms. Taylor at her old workplace.  We’d walked right past her on the way in.  After giving her manager my unlabeled card, I received a call from Stephanie.  We met her at an MMA gym across the street.

JANELLA
MMA?

X
(Shouting)
She’s studying Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for self-defense!

GEORGE
After meeting with her, we got her story.  She came home on a Saturday night when she didn’t have work or school and was repeatedly raped by a man she didn’t recognize.  Stephanie lived on the top floor of a three-story building with no elevator and a secured door.  The attacker raped her several times over two hours and filmed it, going as far as pointing out the camera and performing for it.

JANELLA
He recorded this?

GEORGE
Yep.  After the rape, he left her tied up in her apartment to some furniture but with ways of getting out nearby.  He hid her cell phone in the bathroom and left her there, telling her to count to 100.  After she counted, she eventually freed herself and spent the next couple days in her apartment alone.  One of the neighbors, a Mrs. Harnaty...

X
(Shouting)
Hanraty, Edith Hanraty!

GEORGE
Right.  Mrs. Hanraty called the police for a welfare check when she didn’t see Stephanie come out of her apartment for a couple days.  The building has a security door and assigned parking spots.  There was no sign of forced entry on the door.  We discovered all of this when we visited the building yesterday.

JANELLA
Now what about these pictures?  These the same man?

GEORGE
Same man.  The building, Winter Garden Apartments, has a secure door system and some cameras in the parking lot and lobby.  One of the cameras in the lot is down and has been for months.  The owner didn’t want to pay for keeping video on the cloud so after 3 months we get 1 frame per second.  From talking to X’s cousin, we found out...

JANELLA
Wait, what about your cousin?

X
(Shouting)
Marlene Huska, building manager!  Turns out we’re related; her brother married my aunt!

GEORGE
From what Marlene told us, she worked that day but only until noon.  Stephanie came home from work at 4:30PM, and the attack lasted a couple hours.  We narrowed our search down from noon until Stephanie came home.  Around 2:30PM, we saw this man in the pictures.  In the first picture, he’s dressed as a delivery driver.  In the second, he’s coming down after the attack.  In the last one, he’s outside facing away from the camera lighting up a smoke.  He thought he was out of range so he took his hat off.  The hat is from a pizza shop across town.  

JANELLA
A pizza guy?

X
(Shouting)
A guy dressed as a pizza guy!

GEORGE
He knew where he was going.  He had a key made to get in.  He had the building access codes.  He had a rape kit in his own bag.  Even with having all of the info and a key, how does he just walk right into a building without some nebby neighbor getting suspicious?

JANELLA
Dress like a delivery man.

GEORGE
Exactly.

JANELLA
Why not someone else like a mailman or Amazon guy?

GEORGE
They’d go to the office and leave.  A pizza delivery guy, or Uber Eats, or any of those services would call at the door but could easily get buzzed in, or be given the code, or have some helpful neighbor open the door for them.
Janella looks over the pictures again.

JANELLA
If he’s the attacker, who set her up?  How’d he get him to go along?

GEORGE
That’s the million-dollar question.  Stephanie gave us a list of creeps she knows, and we’ll look into them.  Most were from her work at Beefy’s, and that’s where we’re focusing on.

JANELLA
Why her co-workers?  You said she went to class, too.

GEORGE
She was working full time and going to school full time.  She didn’t have time.  Her work schedule was set up around her school schedule.  Also, whomever set her up had access to her apartment key and code box.  He could have been a classmate, or even some random stranger, but they wouldn’t have as much access to her purse and schedule.  They’d need access to her purse to get her apartment key.  A pic with a phone and they could use that to make a copy.  Get the room code or building code from her, another room, or online.

JANELLA
So, you now have two suspects, one of which was obscuring his face from the camera and, let me guess, wearing a mask the whole time, and another that could be a creepy co-worker or some random asshole.  How do they know each other?

George shrugged his shoulders.

GEORGE
Not a clue.  They may not even know each other.  Or they could be best friends.  I’m leaning towards strangers on a train, or some weird website.  But it’s not a complete dead end.

JANELLA
How so?

GEORGE
We’ve probably run into this guy before but didn’t realize it.  He was too professional, too methodic for a rookie.  He waited in her apartment out of sight until she pulled into a specific spot, then moved behind her door with a stun gun and a gag.  He zip tied her and subdued her before she knew what was going on.  He brought a fucking rape kit that had everything he needed.  Nothing was stolen.  He methodically cleaned up after himself.  This is Dexter for getting his dick wet.  There’s no way he hasn’t shown up before.

JANELLA
You’re going to go to Sketch and ask them to make a composite, put this out there, and see if we get lucky.

GEORGE
Pretty much.  Also check with the pizza place on the hat.  Giorgio’s.  I’m guessing they sell merch online and in the store.  They’re located in Greenville, not exactly near Cornwall.  We can look through previous cases, see if anything pops up.

JANELLA
Do what you can here, but don’t fall behind on the new cases, either.  Dismissed.

GEORGE
Got it Cappy.

Janella cringes.

X
(Shouting)
Thanks Cappy!

George and X stand up.  Janella stares at X.

JANELLA
Detective Harrison.

Janella waits until she has X’s full, undivided attention.

JANELLA
Don’t. Ever. Call. Me. Cappy.  Understood?

X looks like he’s about to speak.

JANELLA
Detective Lewis calls me Cappy because one time I told him that hated being called that 6 years ago, and he’s called me that ever since.  He does that on purpose to get under my skin.  He’s a jerk, but he’s our jerk.

X showed some confusion.

JANELLA
Pay attention to how he works, what he does to close cases, how he follows up on leads, all of the stuff about being a cop.  But don’t do what he does when dealing with other people.  In fact, do the opposite.  There’s a reason he’s been in this department for 14 years instead of moving up the Chain of Command.

GEORGE
Because I don’t want your job.

JANELLA
Detective Harrison, pay attention to what he does and why he does things, but see also what he shouldn’t do.  You’ll pick it up over time.  Now go, get out.

GEORGE
Sure thing, Cappy!

The men leave the office.  Janella shakes her head.

INT. GRAPHICS DEPARTMENT – DAY
George and X enter a room that looks like a computer lab at an Art College.  Mac desktops, modeling clay, whiteboards along every wall, the works.  A few people sit at the 6 computer stations.  One of them is KAT, a younger, bigger woman dressed in all black with purple hair down to her waist.

GEORGE
Hey Kat.  Got a ball of yarn for ya.

Kat rolls her eyes, not moving them from the computer.

KAT
What now?

GEORGE
Wondering if you can put together a composite sketch based on some video stills and a witness statement?

KAT
Did you send me the pics?

GEORGE
Not yet.  Also, wanted to show the newb where to go.

KAT
Newb, what newb?

Kat turns to see the mountain of a man that is Xavier.

X
(Shouting)
Hello, Xavier Harrison!

X scares Kat with his yelling as he extends his hand.  She tentatively takes it and shakes it, his hand dwarfing hers.

KAT
H,Hi.  I’m Kat.

GEORGE
We’ve got a perp for a rape case, a series of surveillance pics and a witness statement.  He wore a mask during the attack, but she said he had brown eyes.  

George handed her the pics he was holding.  She looked at them.

KAT
Please tell me you have digital versions of these?

GEORGE
Yes, Kat.  I’m old, but I’m not that old.

KAT
Anything else?  Not a lot to go on, here.

X
(Shouting)
Victim said he was taller than George, so between 5’9” to 5’11” and was skinny but fit, no tattoos!

KAT
I’m sorry, but what’s up with the screaming?

Kat shied away from X as he talked, preventing him from seeing her mouth.  X looked to George.  George mimicked a screaming motion with his mouth.  X nodded.

X
(Shouting)
Little deaf right now, ear is constantly ringing!  Sorry!

KAT
That-that’s okay.

Kat turns to George again.

KAT
Let me guess, you’d like this yesterday?

GEORGE
A few months ago when the attack happened, but whenever you can.  We’ve got him on this case but the way he acted tells me he’s done this before.  Too professional and calm for a first-timer.  

KAT
What’s the case ID?  I can get the pics and info from the server.

GEORGE
Umm... X, you got the case ID?

X doesn’t pull out his notes or anything, but recites it from memory.

X
(Shouting)
Sierra Michael Tango 0 7 6 2 3 7 Dash 1!

George nods in approval.  Kat navigates around for a moment until she finds the file.

KAT
There it is, Stephanie Taylor Home Invasion Sexual Assualt.  Got it, thanks.  I’ll see what I can do.

GEORGE
Thanks Kat.

X
(Shouting)
Nice to meet you!

KAT
You too.

The men turn and head to leave while Kat opens the various flagged pictures in the case folder.
George turns to X as they walk.

GEORGE
I want to follow up on that hat today.  I’m wondering if they sell them to anyone or if that’s only given to employees.  And why that store?  Any specific reason or just available?

X
(Shouting)
Might be a big fan of the food!

GEORGE
Another good point.  That tells me he’s either local to Giorgio’s in Greenville, used to work there or is a fan, or went out of his way to cover his trail.  If he’s as good as I think he is, the third option is on the table.  Feel like pizza for lunch?

X
(Shouting)
I’m gonna get fat working with you!

GEORGE
That’s the spirit.

George slapped X on his back.

EXT. GIORGIO’S PIZZERIA – DAY
George and X pull the maroon Ford Police Interceptor SUV into the parking lot of a small strip mall.  There is a Yoga studio, an Indian market, and Giorgio’s Pizzeria.  The two men, wearing their suit coats, walk up to the door and open it.

INT. GIORGIO’S PIZZERIA – DAY
An older man with thin grey hair wearing a white t-shirt and a white apron stands behind the counter.  He wears a nametag that says JOHNNY on it.  Johnny is setting up the prep station when the door opens.  X and George enter the restaurant.

JOHNNY
Sorry, not open yet, be about 15 minutes.

George pulls out his badge.  X does the same.

GEORGE
That’s fine.  We’ll order something after, but mind if I ask some questions?  George Lewis, Chester County Police Department.  This is my partner, Xavier Harrison.

Johnny eyes the badges and gives the detectives a once over.

JOHNNY
Sure, but I gotta get ready before the shift starts.

GEORGE
That’s fine, I can talk while you get prep done.

George takes a quick look around the restaurant.  There’s a menu board, some booths and tables, and a stack of pizza boxes next to a Coke display fridge.  He sees by the menu board a collection of clothing.  Shirts, hoodies, and hats, all with the Giorgio’s name and logo on them.

GEORGE
I see you guys sell some clothing.  Any of that popular?

Johnny grabs some vegetables to slice and chop, answering without raising his head.

JOHNNY
Not really.  Might sell one or two shirts a month, a hat maybe once a month, but that’s mostly to a driver that forgot theirs at home.

GEORGE
How long you been selling those for?

JOHNNY
A few years.  These things are cheaper to buy in bulk and last forever if you don’t use them.  Why you asking about our hats?

GEORGE
My partner and I are investigating a potential break-in.  There was a suspicious person walking around, and the statement said someone wearing one of your hats was seen in the area.  Normally I’d say they were just delivering a pizza, but I’m willing to bet you don’t deliver on the other side of the city.

Johnny’s still chopping veggies.

JOHNNY
What’d they look like?

GEORGE
White guy, skinny but in good shape, wearing a red jacket.  Short dark hair, maybe had brown eyes.  They were a little taller than me, so about 5’9” or so.  Mid to late 20’s, maybe early 30’s at the most.  They might be a smoker.  Anyone work here fitting that description?

Johnny’s still chopping veggies.

JOHNNY
Nope, not now.  Doesn’t sound like anyone that’s been here for a while.

GEORGE
How many people work here?

Johnny finally looks up.

JOHNNY
I’ve got maybe a dozen guys and gals that work here. Almost all of us are older.  The youngest cook I’ve got is in his 40’s, and he’s my cousin.  I’ve got half a dozen drivers that work throughout the week, and a few that only work on weekends.  None of them fit that description.

GEORGE
Sound like anyone that used to work here?

JOHNNY
Not anymore.  No one sticks out like that.  Look, Officer, this is a pizza shop.  If ya last here a week, ya end up working here a year.  There’s a lot of younger people that burn through here, but most don’t last and aren’t worth remembering.  It’s just the way it goes.

GEORGE
Makes sense.  Used to work in a place like this when I was younger, I know what you mean.
George looks at the menu for a bit.

GEORGE
Too early to order something for lunch?

JOHNNY
Nah, it’ll be a few minutes, though.  And it has to be cash if you wanna pay before 10AM, card system is a pain in the ass and I wait until my nephew comes in to set it up.

GEORGE
Okay, two steak salads, one with ranch one with light Italian.  Two bottles of Coke.

JOHNNY
Fries on them or on the side?

GEORGE
On.

JOHNNY
Gimme a few.

George walked away from the counter to X.

GEORGE
Catch that?

X nodded.

EXT. GIORGIO’S PIZZERIA – DAY
George and X left the restaurant, carrying their salads and drinks.  They climb into the car and pull out of the parking lot.

INT. POLICE INTERCEPTOR – DAY
George drives the Interceptor.  The sound of the CB Radio serves as background noise.  X takes a drink of his soda.

GEORGE
Just like I thought, not getting much luck here.

X
(Shouting)
Might have to come back when we get a picture to show him.

GEORGE
Probably.  Wouldn’t surprise me at all if our perp just happened to be a customer.

George drives for a moment, looking like he’s trying to think of something, but not sure how to say it.

GEORGE
That theory about the vicarious rapes, I think it’s solid.  Crazy, but solid.  It got me thinking, we might be in a Strangers on a Train situation.  Remember that movie?  It’s an old Hitchcock film.

X
(Shouting)
Nope!  Never seen it!

GEORGE
It’s an old film.  Two guys meet on a train and start bitching about how much the women in their lives are pissing them off and they talk about killing them, but they can’t because they would each be the main suspect.  The crazy one says “Hey, we don’t know each other.  I’ll kill your bitch, you kill my bitch.  That way the cops won’t know what happened.”  The first guy thinks this is a joke until the woman in his life dies, and this crazy fuck shows up demanding that he hold up his end of the bargain.

X
(Shouting)
Wait, that’s THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN!

GEORGE
They mention the Hitchcock film in that movie.

X
(Shouting)
Great movie, Danny DeVito directs some funny shit!  Death to Smoochie is one of my favorites!

GEORGE
Back on target, X.  So, I was thinking, what if we’re looking at a similar situation here?  What if we’re dealing with some kind of organized rape deal, and that’s what they get out of it?  Our professional rapist is just more experienced, and raped Stephanie Taylor because someone made an offer for him?

X
(Shouting)
Like you rape my girl, I rape yours?!

GEORGE
Exactly.  But then I get hung up on the logistics of this.  There’s no way that both of these guys aren’t local.  They have to both be from nearby, or be able to get to Harbor City quickly.  Look at Stephanie and her schedule.  The setup man had to know her schedule ahead of time, and fast food joints are always changing shit at the last minute.  This couldn’t be a text at 2PM saying “She’s off, can you fly in from New York or drive in from Humdinger?”  He might have a week or two notice, tops.  Even that could change at the last minute.  What if she said at work that she was going to her parent’s place instead this weekend, or she was inviting a few people over for a party?

X
(Shouting)
That’d kill the whole plan!

GEORGE
Exactly.  Imagine how big of a shitshow it’d become if she brought some guy home and she gets tazed and attacked as soon as she opened the door.  Perp wouldn’t know whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass.  Only way he gets to know when to attack is that he’s fed info from someone at the store.  And what would they get out of this, just a video to jerk off to?  Where’s the risk for the setup man?  He has none.  You ever work undercover?

X
(Shouting)
Nope!  Kind of hard to hide when you’re this big and black!

GEORGE
Years ago, I did a little undercover stuff, didn’t like it.  Most of it was more spying than anything else, but one case was trying to do some undercover drug deals.  I’m too straight laced for that kind of work, but even nerds do drugs.  The dealer gets all kinds of weird because I wasn’t fucked up when I went to see him.  I told him it was because I ain’t got no shit, that’s why I’m sober.  He demands I do a line with him, and I ask him why.  He said it was because his lawyer friend said that cops aren’t allowed to do drugs, so if I did some with him, I couldn’t be a cop.

X
(Shouting)
What the fuck!?!

GEORGE
Exactly.  Worst legal advice ever.  But to shut him up, I share a couple lines with him.  A few months later at his trial, he loses his shit when I’m on the stand and tell the jury about him making me do a line of cocaine to assuage his fears.  Anyway, that got me thinking about this deal. It’s probably two way, like Strangers on a Train.  What risk does the perp have to rape a complete stranger if the setup man doesn’t have a similar risk?  And aside from getting to rape a cute girl, what’s in it for the perp?  Nothing but extra risk.  This kind of skill and precision doesn’t come cheap, and everyone involved and likely to set her up is poor.  What skin in the game does the setup man have?

X thought for a moment, sipping on his Diet Coke.

X
(Shouting)

The risk is all one-sided!  Unless the setup man was recorded or the messages tracked!  But that’s bad op sec!

GEORGE
Exactly.  Which brings up another question?  Where does someone order a rape on demand?  There’s bound to be some place on the internet, but they’d have to be local like I said.  Chatting on phones and texts is dangerous, and it’s easier than people think to crack those apps like Signal, but the paranoia of the way the perp acted by the cameras makes me think that he wouldn’t just use any old cell phone to text stuff out.  Nor could they use something like Facebook or Craigslist to organize this.

X
(Shouting)
You think they’re friends?!

GEORGE
I don’t know.  I don’t think so.  Stephanie was adamant that she didn’t know who this guy was and never heard his voice before.  But if this perp has done this before, and knew how to act, he would’ve known something about her beforehand.  That’s where the setup man comes.  But the setup man and perp didn’t know each other, at least not close friends.  Some kind of mutual acquaintance, or group they belonged to, put them in touch.

X
(Shouting)
You think there’s more out there?!

GEORGE
I’m fucking betting on it.  Problem is, we may never hear about them.  Think about the stats.  1 out of 10 rapes get reported to the cops.  It’s not like a murder club where bodies show up and people go missing.  Only reason we got called in for Stephanie was her nosy neighbor and Cornwall PD didn’t want to do the legwork.  We’d have to get real fucking lucky to get another case like this.  Still, let’s check out the old files, and the rumors to see if there were anything that fit the bill.

George and X continue to drive.

EXT. CHESTER COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT – DAY
George and X pull their car into the parking lot and walk into the building.

X
(Shouting)
What’s next?!

GEORGE
We look at some old cases.  Looking for anything that might fit this pattern.  Videotaped rape, home invasions, unknown assailants hiding phones or pulling the count to 100 game.  Anything with similar actions, or a similar perp.
George and X enter the building.

INT. SEX CRIMES BULLPEN – DAY
George and X sit in a windowless conference room large enough to fit a dozen people around a rectangular table.  Along the walls are whiteboards.  4 filing cabinets line the long wall opposite the door.  3 large whiteboards line that wall, each with various names and dates written on them.  The boards say ‘FRESH & NEW’, ‘CURRENT’, ‘COLD & TRANSFER’, indicating the type of cases on each board.  A projector hangs from the middle of the ceiling, facing one end of the room.  A rolling AV cart sits at the other end of room.

George and X enter the bullpen.

GEORGE
3 boards, 4 cabinets.  Fresh, Current, Cold, and Rumors.  Where do you want to start?

X thought for a moment before responding.

X
(Shouting)
I’ll start new!  I can check those on the server while you dig through old paper reports like the old man you are!

GEORGE
Ouch.  Start digging through the new cases newbie.  Remember, we’re not working them, just looking for some keywords.

George walked over to the last filing cabinet.  X pulled up his laptop and logged into the server.
Time passes.  What was once late morning has given way to later in the afternoon, but it’s hard to tell with no windows to track the changes of the sun.

Both men sit at the conference table.  X stares at his computer screen.  George has a pile of folders set aside and some random notebooks filled with interview details.

George looks like he’s ready smack his head off of the desk just to stay awake.  X raptly stares at his screen.

X
Hmm...

George looks to X.

GEORGE
Hmm?  What’s hmm?

X
(Shouting)
One sec, let me project this.

X clicks a few buttons on his laptop, and the projector comes to life.  On the whiteboard at the end of the room, the files that X saved spring to life.

George starts to read, then realizes he can’t see the screen and stands up to move closer to get a better look.

GEORGE
What’s this?

X
(Shouting)
I started the search looking through cases that came directly into us!  That was a waste, since almost nothing comes to us except little towns with no local cops!  After expanding the search and going back many years, I’ve found several that fit this pattern!

GEORGE
What’s the pattern?

X
(Shouting)
Perp recorded a rape, home invasion with no robbery, perp covering their face or hiding their identities, perp hiding phones or threatening the victims.

George strokes his chin.

GEORGE
That’s a lot of variables.

X
(Shouting)
I know.  I got a couple thousand cases over the last 20 years!  But after searching for a moment, I started thinking, they’d have to hit more than one of these to fit, and the video is the most important part!  I threw out anything from the search that didn’t have some type of recording!  That narrowed the list!  After a while, a pattern showed up and I flagged about 50 cases that fit what I was looking for!

GEORGE
50?!  Jesus tapdancing Christ.

X
(Shouting)
Some of them have got to be false positives, so I looked through a few of them!  I ruled out the solved cases, cause if they were in some kind of rape group we’d have heard about it by now!  I also ruled out the cases where the victim was taken somewhere else, like a kidnapping!  Not completely ruling them out, but that’s not our pattern!  I’m down to 20 over the last decade!

George just stood there for a moment, looking that the projected screen.

GEORGE
Fuck.  Even at a best-case scenario, 20 reported cases probably means we’re looking at 200 cases over the last decade, at least.  20 a year.  That’s too many for one man.

X
(Shouting)
Try a couple dozen men and women!  The reports on the attackers range from 1 guy or girl to several mixed together, sometimes one victim other times multiples, sometimes no violence, sometimes a lot of beating, sometimes no bondage or drugs, other times they find out when they get a video sent to them.  It’s all over the place.  But they all have a rape being performed at their homes on video with little to nothing being stolen, and phones being hidden at the end of the day.

GEORGE
Any patterns to locations, time of year, day of the week?

X
(Shouting)
Not a big one!  Seeing a lot of calls from in and around Collegetown, but it’s spread all around!  Some fancy houses, some apartments in Oakville, got a project from Heartland, and some shit down in Veneto!  Some had a person of interest that was known to the victim, but they always had an alibi!  A couple names showed up two or three times, but they always checked out!

GEORGE
How so?

X
(Shouting)
Out of town, obvious alibi, didn’t fit the description, just knew the victim a little but gave them a creepy vibe!  That kind of stuff!  Each time the local PD or even us would investigate, there were never any leads!

George looked at the screen for a moment while stroking his chin.

GEORGE
Do we have descriptions of the witnesses or interviewees that come up multiple times?

X
You thinking what I think you’re thinking?!

GEORGE
That the witnesses that come up multiple times set these women up to raped, and did so for the benefit of raping other women around the same time frame.  Like it was a fantasy football trade.

X pulled up some of his records and looked through the files for some names.

X
(Shouting)
I got 3 names!  Raymond Hibberton, James Lincoln, Colin Smith!  Raymond is in his late 50’s, early 60’s, professor at Chester County Community College where a few students and TA’s were raped!  James Lincoln is in his 40’s, now 50’s, was a manager at a Walmart where two cashiers were assaulted in their homes, and Colin Smith is a white male in his late 30’s that worked as a bartender at a few different places around Collegetown!

GEORGE
So, we’ve got a professor, a store manager, and a bartender.  Any priors?

X pulled up another file on screen.  This one showed the face of an older man with a gray beard and mustache.

X
(Shouting)
The professor had a DUI a few years back that was pleaded down in court to avoid jailtime and let him keep his job!  The bartender had a couple traffic tickets and one simple assault against a patron that got a little rough!  The Walmart manager is clean!

GEORGE
The victims with the bartender, how well did he know them?

X pulled the files up on screen and looked through them at blazing speed.

X
(Shouting)
Barely!  He shows up the most but each time he was the last bartender to serve them before they were attacked at home!  He never describes seeing anything strange or out of the ordinary with them!  He shows up in 5 different files over 10 years, but never more than twice at the same place!  Never describes too much about the women, acts like he barely remembers them!  Each attack had different attackers, though!

GEORGE
He could be the set-up man.  I’m not too concerned about the 4 jobs in a decade, but I wouldn’t put it past him that if we had 5 reported rapes involving him then there were a lot more, and he left when the getting was good.  Anything crazy mentioned about the ID’s?

X
(Shouting)
Now, that you mention it, one of the women said he had an issue with it earlier, said he had to do some extra scanning with it under the UV but nothing too crazy!  What you getting at?!

George stood silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

GEORGE
Look at all three of these men.  They’re in positions where they have access to personal information.  The professor can pull up information from the registrar on students such as addresses on and off campus.  The Walmart manager has access to payroll and HR info, as well as schedules.  The bartender has access to ID’s when he cards them.  They all have access to info to set up a rape for someone else in the group.  And each of them had a good alibi or reason not to be involved in the attacks.  This matches up with some of the stuff I found in the rumor notes.  

George turns and grabs a notebook off of the table and flips through it.  He turns back to the screen.

GEORGE
Every so often I’d run across an attack that fit these descriptions, but for some reason or another they never pressed charges.  Usually out of fear of reprisal or being labeled a victim or just wanting to move on.  Most of them were repeats of Stephanie Taylor.  Woman comes home, runs into an invader or two who subdue her, then tie her up and rape her while recording it.  I’m seeing tales like this going back to the late 90’s, but nothing substantial.  On the rare case the victim pressed charges, it almost always went nowhere.

George taps his notepad a couple times.

GEORGE
There’s a case here, X.  A really big case.  Problem is, we’d have to get very lucky to break it.  Like, catch one of the rapists in the middle of trying to pull off an attack and get them to flip or make them take us undercover.  That’s our only chance.  

X
(Shouting)
How many people you think are involved?!

GEORGE
20 cases a year tells me this isn’t just a couple people, but more.  And the fact that these are local cases tells me that we’re dealing with at least 10 but less than 50.  Probably in the 20-30 range of active members, but could be a lot more cheering them on from the sidelines.

X
(Shouting)
How you get that number?

GEORGE
Mostly out of thin air, but let’s say a serial rapist in this group performs once every season.  Any more and they risk getting caught.  It could be as few as 5, but we’re seeing reports of multiple people at some of these, right?  That tells me teams or friends taking part.  Plus, it takes a long time to get enough info on a woman to set her up for this kind of attack.  Figure a lot of these guys might be one and dones.  Once they set up a sister-in-law or cousin or friend, everyone else in the group would hear something and lock shit down.  Let’s say the average member sets up one woman a year, partakes in one or two attacks a year, with at least 20 attacks that puts us in the 20-30 range.  Could be more, could be less.  And like I said, doesn’t count for alumni of Club Rape.

X
(Shouting)
Where do we go from here?!

GEORGE
Keep looking through the records, see if anything comes in on a future case, talk to IT about the infrastructure of this, and talk to Stephanie about her co-workers.  I’ve got money riding on this that one of them is a member of this group.  Remember the last rule of Fight Club, if it’s your first time, you have to fight.

X
(Shouting)
So everyone in this club is a rapist?!

GEORGE
That’s what I’m going to assume.  How’s someone gonna keep their mouth shut about seeing this if they don’t have skin in the game?

George activates the conference room phone and dials the IT number from memory.  The phone rings.  A man that sounds like he’s in his 30’s answers the phone.

AARON (V.O.)
IT, this is Aaron.

GEORGE
Aaron, this is George up in the Sex Crimes Unit.

AARON (V.O.)
What did you break this time?  Did you turn it off and turn it back on again?

GEORGE
It’s not an IT issue like that.  I’ve got some questions.  What would be needed for someone to set up a hidden website to share a bunch of videos with, say, 200 people and keep it quiet?

AARON (V.O.)
A lot of storage, a secured server, VPN connections, some type of kickass security, and bandwidth.  Also, I’m assuming if you’re asking this is illegal, so they’d have to stay pretty hidden so they can’t advertise or use some web hosting platform that they don’t have control over.  We talking 200 concurrent users, or just people with access?

GEORGE
Not sure, just spitballing here.  How much would all that cost?

AARON (V.O.)
It’s not cheap, but it’s doable.  Especially if this is a small operation that maintains a tight lock on everything.  The most expensive part is the bandwidth, followed by the equipment.  Everything else is relatively small.

GEORGE
How rich would someone have to be to pull this off?

AARON (V.O.)
They’d need money, but not like Bruce Wayne rich.  It all comes down to how much they’re willing to spend, and how much data they’re moving.

GEORGE
Let’s say, 2-hour videos.

AARON (V.O.)
Depending on resolution, 20-30GB.  Maybe more.  Storing the video on a web server is the cheap part.  Moving it is expensive.

GEORGE
What kind of skills would be needed to set this up?

AARON (V.O.)
Anyone good with computers, knowledgeable with computer security, and can either pull together the funds for paying for the bandwidth or has some other way of generating money.  It’s not like they could host this from their home.  Well, not really with that many people.  Expensive, but doable.

GEORGE
Okay.  Let’s say the site gets set up, how would you get access to it?

AARON (V.O.)
George, I can’t answer that question, I need more info.

GEORGE
Let’s assume that you’re running this website that hosts illegal videos of a sexual nature.  How would you go about ensuring that new members don’t get caught, and don’t rat you out?

AARON (V.O.)
Hmmm...  When you put it like that, I would make sure that everyone was going through a VPN, virtual private network.  Think of it like connecting a call through another call.  I’d VPN to a server in, say, Turkey and that connection would then route to the client.  I’d set up some scripts that would only allow logins if they went through the VPN, and would keep a strict whitelist of users.  Nobody not on the list gets access.  It’s easy enough I could walk you through the steps.

GEORGE
Gee, thanks.

AARON (V.O.)
Anything else right now?

GEORGE
Nope, that’s it.  Later.

AARON (V.O.)
Bye.

George hangs up the phone.  He sits down and looks at X.

X
(Shouting)
So, we think those men aren’t the web hosts, but just members!

GEORGE
Exactly.  I’m not ruling them out, but you heard Aaron.  This is expensive enough that a bartender, a part-time college professor, and a Walmart manager couldn’t afford to run this.  I’m not discounting any possible skill, but I’m leaning towards them just being members.

X
(Shouting)
What’s the plan?!

George sat for a moment.

GEORGE
As soon as we can, we get you a hearing aid.  We put this on the back burner until we get more information and work cases where we can put bad people in jail.  We get those names from Stephanie to see if we get lucky on any of them, and keep an eye out for anything crazy that comes in.  I don’t know how long it’ll take, but eventually someone will screw up.  It’s just a matter of time.

George and X stare at the screens for a while.  Suddenly, there is KNOCK at the door.

GEORGE
Who is it?

The door opens.  A full-figured woman with long, blonde hair enters.  This is CAROLINE QUEENSTON.  She’s wearing a tight skirt that comes down below the knees, high heels, and a floral pattern blouse.  Her makeup is well done, and her jewelry gives the impression that she cares about how she looks.

Caroline sticks her head into the room and looks around, tentatively.

CAROLINE
Excuse me, are you Detective George Lewis?

GEORGE
Yes, I’m George, that’s X.  Who are you and what do you want?

CAROLINE
I’m Caroline, Caroline Queenston.  Captain Jenkins asked me to find you, said she wants you in Interrogation B ASAP.

GEORGE
Were those her exact words?

Caroline takes a breath.

CAROLINE
No.  She said, and I quote “Tell that prick to get his ass down to B 10 minutes ago.”

GEORGE
That’s her.  Let’s go.  Come on X, you ever been in the box?

George grabs his coat from a chair.  X locks his computer, both on the login screen and with a cable lock.

X
(Shouting)
No!  Not yet!

Caroline jumps a little at X’s screaming.  George moves with surprising alacrity to the door.

GEORGE
First time for everything, let’s roll.  Caroline, after you and fill us in.

Caroline stands still for a moment at George meets her at the door.  In her heels, she’s about as tall as George.

GEORGE
You do know where B’s at, right?

Caroline shakes her head.

CAROLINE

Sorry, this is my first day here.

George sighs.  X stands behind George, towering over the two.

GEORGE
Come on, newbs.

Caroline moves out of the way, allowing George and X to leave the bullpen.

INT. CCPD HALLWAY – DAY
George, X, and Caroline walk down the hallway.  George takes the lead, putting on his coat.  X is behind him to his right while Caroline walks next to X.  George starts off at a quick pace.  X, due to his size, has no problem keeping up.  Caroline, on the other hand, struggles a little to keep pace with the detectives.

GEORGE
What do we know?

No one says anything.

GEORGE
Caroline, that’s you.

CAROLINE
Sorry.  Attempted 288 on a train.

X
(Shouting)
On a train?!

CAROLINE
Yes, on a train, why are you screaming?

GEORGE
He’s deaf.  Like the Amtrack train?

CAROLINE
No, that subway train downtown.

George looks over his shoulder to Caroline quickly before rounding a corner to the left.  The other two follow.

GEORGE
Where’re you from?  No one from Harbor City calls the T the subway or the train.

CAROLINE
I just moved down from Humdinger.

X
(Shouting)
Humdinger?  What the hell brings you down here?!

CAROLINE
My boss took a job here and I transferred down with him to be his new admin here.  He wanted someone he could trust.

GEORGE
And who’s that?

CAROLINE
Captain, sorry.  Deputy Chief Cartier.

George stops in his tracks.  The other two nearly barrel into him.

GEORGE
Wait, you’re the new DC’s secretary?

CAROLINE
Yes.  Captain Cartier, sorry, Deputy Chief Cartier was just hired on to Chester County last week.  Part of his deal was to bring some people with him, people that he could trust.  I’m one of them.  The arresting officer on this case is another one.

GEORGE
Okay.  We’ll go into details later.  In the meantime, let’s go to the box.

George turns around and walks swiftly down the hall.  Caroline and X follow.

GEORGE
You said a 288 on a train?  What happened?

CAROLINE
Not exactly sure.  Perp started molesting a woman that looked underaged, got a little too handsy and was arrested on the train.  Sorry, T.  Perp resisted arrest, but the officer subdued them long enough for backup to arrive.  Officer was wearing street clothes and off duty during the incident.

George turns another corner and stops in front of a door with a sign that says “INTERROGATION ROOM B” on it.  Beside that is another door.  George knocks on the unmarked door twice it opens.  George scans the room quickly before walking in.

INT. OBSERVATION ROOM – DAY
George enters the Observation Room.  It is dark, with a two-way security mirror that looks into the interrogation room.  Three people already occupy this room.  

Captain Jenkins stands close to the mirror, looking at a chunky white man with a short brown beard and a brown crew cut as he sits, handcuffed at a table bolted to the floor.  He’s a big man with some cuts and bruises on his hands and face.  He sits stoic.

Two other people stand in the back of the room.  One is a man, wearing blue jeans and blue ‘Harbor City Whalers’ jacket.  He looks like he’s in late 20’s with a high & tight haircut and a clean-shaven face.  He stands about 6 feet tall and has a police badge on a chain around his neck.

The other person in the back of the room is a petite woman wearing a green and yellow ‘Humdinger Darts’ hoodie, very short shorts, and white tennis shoes.  Her pale skin and blue eyes are flushed, red from exertion and tears.  Her brown hair is wavy and long enough to go past her shoulders.  Her makeup was very lightly applied.  Her small stature, skinny legs and hips, and short height of barely 5 feet tall make her look like she’s a young teenager.

George walks over to Janella Jenkins, staring at the man in the other room.  

GEORGE
What’s going on, Cappy?

JANELLA
Suspect is Charles Reed, aged 44.  He was caught molesting a female on the T.  Victim is behind us, named Carly.  Charles couldn’t keep his hands to himself, and Carly confronted him.  Undercover from Transit Police saw the whole thing, too.

GEORGE
Transit had someone undercover on the T this morning?

The man at the back of the room, DEREK ANDERSON, spoke up.

DEREK
We’ve had our eyes on him for a while, but never caught him in the act.  He was always just out of reach or kept his face out of camera view just well enough to not identify him.  He’s been groping young women on the train for a long time.  Most of the time we’re lucky if we get a description, always seems to go after young women on their own, usually tweens to late teens, but we’ve received reports on both sides of that range.  Usually feels an ass or two, maybe squeezes a boob here and there, but a few times he’s gone farther, when he’s feeling extra brave like he did today.

George takes in what Derek said.

GEORGE
Did he have anything on him?

DEREK
Had a pocketknife and a small concealed pistol, an HK UPS 9mm compact.

George nods, then turns to Janella.

GEORGE
What happened today?

JANELLA
Ask Carly.

George turned to the young woman standing behind them, walking closer to her.  She leaned against the back wall, face down.  Her cheeks and eyes were red from crying and her hands, shaking, held a bottle of water.

George walked over to Carly and stood next to her.  He stood there, letting Carly get used to his presence before talking.

GEORGE
You okay?

Carly doesn’t look towards George, just stares forward.

CARLY
No.  No, I’m not okay.

GEORGE
You want to tell us what happened?

CARLY
Not really.

Carly takes a sip of water.

A beat.

Silence fills the room.  George stands next to Carly, not saying anything.  He can tell that she’s getting her nerves up to talk about what happened.

FLASHBACK TO:

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN – DAY
People stand and sit shoulder to shoulder on a crowded subway train, called the “T”.  Carly stands on the T, holding on to one of the handhold bars.  Her young-looking face stares out the window, aimlessly.  She has white earbuds in her ears, playing music to drown out the background noise of the crowded subway train.

CARLY (V.O)
I was riding the subway, I guess you call it the T here in Harbor City.  I wanted to get around the city, check out some shops, maybe go to a museum, when I feel someone bump into me.

A robust man bumps into Carly.  She shifts her balance, but holds on to the bar with her left hand.  Her right hand is in her hoodie pouch, holding her phone.

The train goes around another corner, balancing out the move from earlier.  This time, Carly bumps into the man.

Her eyes go wide as she feels something on her butt.  It’s a hand.

The hand rests on Carly’s butt, palm on her right asscheek.  It rests there for a moment.

CARLY (V.O.)
All of a sudden, I feel this hand on my butt.  I try to move away, but it follows me.  The train was crowded, so I didn’t have anywhere to go.

Carly tries to move, but the passengers are packed in like sardines.

The hand slowly rubs Carly’s butt for a moment, before it starts creeping around...
To the front of Carly’s shorts.  The large, calloused hand strokes the front of her jean shorts, petting her privates over her shorts.

CARLY (V.O.)
This hand moves from my butt to the front of my jeans, and starts rubbing my pussy.  Then, he pulls me back into him, and I can feel him against my back.  He then tries to undo my shorts before giving up on the button.

Carly gets pulled back into this larger man.  She can smell his breath on her neck and feel his hard-on press against her back.  He places his left hand over her left hand on the grab bar.

The man spends a moment trying to undo the button on her shorts before giving up on undoing them and instead slides his large, calloused hand into her underwear.
She looks like she’s about to panic, but then she takes a deep breath.

CARLY (V.O.)
It didn’t take him long because within a moment he was finger fucking me.

The man’s hand moves around her pussy, covered from view of others on the train by her shorts and his girth.

Carly can’t move her head to identify the man.  She stares at the window in front of her, and can make out a distorted face.  The face of Charles Reed.

CARLY (V.O.)
I couldn’t do anything, not there anyway.  I couldn’t fight him off, I couldn’t run, I couldn’t scream, as much as I wanted to.  All I could do was sit there, wait for this asshole to finish fingering me, and try to get out of there in one piece.

INT. OBSERVATION ROOM – DAY
Back in the observation room, Carly’s on the verge of tears.  George puts his hand on her shoulder to console her.  She stands there, not rebuffing him but not encouraging him either.

GEORGE
You gonna be okay to continue?  Need anything?  Want us to call your parents or guardian?

Carly steps back from George and gives him a look that could kill.  Caroline, on the other side of the room, puts her hand over her mouth to stifle any laughter.  Janella just grins like a Cheshire cat.

CARLY
Parents?

GEORGE
Yes, parents.  Guardian.  Who is legally responsible for you?

Carly looks at him like she’s ready to lose her shit on him.

CARLY
How old do you think I am?  Seriously, how old do you think I am?  What do you think I do?

George wasn’t exactly sure where this was going.  He looked her up and down one more time.

GEORGE
Honestly, you look like you’re between 12-15.  You look young enough that if my son brought you home, I’d ask why he brought home a girl this young.

CARLY
You. Mother. Fucker.

GEORGE
I’m sorry.  16 then?

Caroline can barely contain the laughter.  Everyone but X is either hiding a laugh or grinning ear to ear as George digs his own grave.

CARLY
I’m 23.  Fuck you, you fucking fossil!

GEORGE
23? On what planet, Mercury?

Janella steps forward just as Carly gets in George’s face as she pulls a wallet out of her hoodie pouch.

CARLY
(Shouting)
Read this, Assaholus Rex!  Or are you so fucking old that your eyes don’t work?!

JANELLA
(Laughing)
Enough.  Enough.  It’s time for proper introductions.  Detective George Lewis, Chester County Police Department, Sex Crimes Unit.  Meet.  Meet Officer Carly Graspper, Detective, Chester County Police Department, Sex Crimes Unit.

George takes a good, hard look at Carly’s wallet.  It’s a badge holder.  Her badge is just like his, but with a much higher number.

GEORGE
Are you fucking kidding me?  You’re the transfer?

CARLY
Yeah.

George looked at the badge again, then turned to X.

GEORGE
X, what’s your badge number?

X
(Shouting)
3190

GEORGE
She’s 3189.  

George turned to Janella.

GEORGE
Cappy?

JANELLA
And miss all this?  Miss the look on your face.  Not on your life.

GEORGE
You can be a real dick sometimes.

JANELLA
Thank you.

GEORGE
You’re welcome.

JANELLA
Now, let’s get back to the matter at hand.

GEORGE
Right.  You, transit cop, does what she said line up with what you saw?

DEREK
Name is Derek Anderson, and I didn’t see much until the next part.

George turned to Carly again, who was starting to calm down a little.

GEORGE
Carly.  Excuse me.  Detective Graspper, what happened next?

[LtBroccoli]

PART 2, it was too long for one post.

FLASHBACK TO:

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN – DAY
Carly is squished by Charles Reed, who is finger fucking her under her shorts.  People to the left and right of her make escape impossible.  She’s on the verge of a panic attack, when her eyes go wide.

Carly takes a deep breath.

CARLY (V.O.)
At this point, I was at this man’s mercy.  I couldn’t go anywhere.  I was trapped, and this man was fingering me, forcing his fat, disgusting fingers into me.  Then, I stopped and surveyed the situation.

Carly, on the verge of tears, looks around as best as she can.  She’s a few feet from the door, but can’t get to it until the next train stop and after this man loses his balance.

Carly looks closely at the reflection on the window, studying his face in case they get separated.  She looks to her left and right.  Mostly a business crowd, not a very rough looking group.

CARLY (V.O.)
If this prick was this brazen with me, he’s done this before.  But I didn’t see him having any friends.  If he did, they would have moved up beside me and joined in.  Instead I had a couple ideas, once I calmed down.  I could scream, but he might try to muzzle me.  The way he acted said he’d like to rape me, but the opportunity wasn’t there.  Suddenly, the train came around a corner and I knew what to do.

The train curved slightly.  When it did, Charles Reed shifted his weight to keep his balance.  At that moment, Carly saw where her head was, and moved it back as fast and as hard as she could, hitting Charles right in in the chin

Charles was taken back by the assault and staggered.

Carly raised her right foot and stomped down on his right toes as hard as she could.

CHARLES
FAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

Charles spit blood from his mouth.  He let go of Carly’s hand on the pole and grabbed his mouth.

Carly seized this moment and spun to her right as hard and as fast as she could.  Charles’s hand was still in her pants.  When she twisted, his arm twisted with it, putting a lot of strain on his wrist and elbow.

Before he could get his bearings, Carly raised her right leg as hard as she could right between his legs, crushing him in the nuts.

CHARLES
AAAAHHHH!!!

Carly, who still had Charles’s hand stuck in her shorts, grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him as hard as she could forward, smacking his head off of the grab pole.  His head made a loud THUD as it rocked against the metal.

Thinking quickly, Carly placed her right leg behind Charles’s feet and swept his legs, dropping him to the ground.  As soon as he was on the ground, she dropped her knee into his throat and pushed down on the pressure point at the back of jaw where it meets the neck with all of her might.

CARLY
(Screaming)
Hands on your chest! Hands on your chest or this will end real fucking bad for you!

The nearby passengers squeeze out of the way, giving these two some space.

Charles looked around, like he was going to try to fight out of this.  Carly pushed down harder on his neck.

CARLY
(Screaming)
Don’t even fucking think about it!  Hands on your chest or you’ll never use them again.

Charles relented.  He placed his left hand on his chest.  His right hand was still awkwardly, and painfully, stuck in Carly’s shorts and underwear.

Through the crowd, Officer Derek Anderson approaches, gun drawn and badge hanging around his neck.

DEREK
(Screaming)
Harbor City Rail Police!  Put your hands up!

CARLY
(Screaming)
Chester County Police Department, I need a hand with this!

Derek hesitates for a moment.

CARLY
My badge is in my pouch, I’ll show you after you handcuff this prick and we get his fingers out of my twat.  Today!

Derek comes over and helps remove Charles’s hand from Carly’s pants and slaps a handcuff around it.  They work to get the cuffs around the other arm.

CARLY
Mind telling him his rights?  I’m off duty, not sure if that would make it legal here or not.

Derek and Carly bring Charles to a sitting position by the door.

DEREK
You have the right to remain silent.  Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.  You have the right to an attorney.  If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.  Do you understand these rights I have just read to you?  

Charles says and does nothing.

CARLY
You understand him?

Charles nods.

CARLY
Good.  Now, for you officer.  I’m slowly reaching into hoodie to pull out my wallet with my ID.

Carly does as she said, slowly reaching into her hoodie to pull out her wallet with her badge and ID card.  She unfolds it and shows it to Derek.

DEREK
Wow, Sergeant.
(To Charles)
Damn, you done fucked up now.
(To Carly)
Is this gonna turn into a pissing contest on where to take him?

CARLY
Not as long as we take him to county.

Derek is about to say something but Carly interrupts him.

CARLY
Look, I know the trains are probably your jurisdiction, but he was caught sexually assaulting a county officer.  Plus, you’ll get in good with the new Chief.

DEREK
New Chief?  What, that Carter guy?

CARLY
Cartier.  Car.  Tee.  Eh.  It’s French.  Anyway, Christopher is a good friend of mine, and you guys do this one for us and you’ll have his gratitude.

DEREK
I’m coming along.  I want to be there.

CARLY
Deal.

The two shake hands.  The train has long since stopped, but the door near them finally opens.  Several uniformed police officers stand by the door as Derek and Carly pull Charles to his feet and drag him out.

GEORGE (V.O.)
Are you fucking kidding me?!

INT. OBSERVATION ROOM – DAY
Back in the Observation Room, everyone stands, raptly listening to Carly describe a lesson in badassitude.  Carly is still shaking, but less so now that she’s coming down from the adrenaline rush.

GEORGE
Holy fucking shit, are you fucking kidding me?
(To Derek)
Derek, you vouch for that?

Derek nods.

DEREK
I can’t tell you what I didn’t see, but from my vantage point, she disappeared out of view.  Then his head flew back, he dropped, then fell.  People started moving around, and by the time I got to him, Carly had her knee on his neck.

George laughed.

GEORGE
That’s amazing!  Our newest team member, who is small enough that she could sleep in a shoebox, just beat the shit out of that heavyweight pedophile jarhead.

Carly looked at George with a ‘fuck you’ look on her face.  Derek sat stunned.  George saw Carly’s look first.

GEORGE
That’s a compliment, Graspper.  You’re about 65 pounds soaking wet wearing boots and you just Carpe Diem’ed his ass all the way to the state pen.

DEREK
Wait, how did you know he was a Marine?  Did you read his file already?

GEORGE
No.  I looked at him for a few seconds, watched how he sat, saw how he took care of himself.  My guess is he served more than a couple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.  He’s 44, probably retired a few years ago after reaching 20 years.  Might’ve been a Gunny, but something tells me that he was an E-6 when he left as a First Sergeant.  His hair and beard look like he’s maintained them the same ever since he got out 5 or 6 years ago.  I didn’t see a wedding ring on his finger, but I’d need to get closer to see if he ever had one.  Doubt it, though.  Might be divorced but he doesn’t have anyone in his life right now.  He does physical work a few months a year to supplement his income.  Carly mentioned callouses on his hands, I’m guessing construction of some kind.  Since he’s riding the T during a weekday downtown during a school day in March, he’s in between jobs or just does whatever he wants, working when he needs to.  She also said he smelled bad.  Was it a chemical smell or some other smell?

CARLY
Chemical, like he bathed in insect spray.

GEORGE
Then he probably does plumbing or septic work, but likely only when he needs the money, and works for someone who’s known him since he got out.

DEREK
But I don’t get how you went to Marine right away?

George turns to Derek, still standing at the back of the room.  George faces Derek, his back to the window and Charles.

GEORGE
Everyone, take a good look at how Mr. Charles Reed sits in that chair.  Go on, get a good view.

Carly, Derek, X, and Caroline move closer to the window, each getting a good look at the man in the Interrogation room.  He sits upright, stiff, head straight ahead but his eyes took account of everything.  His clothes are a little snug for a man his size, but show off his thick muscles.  There are no tattoos on Charles’s arms, and they’re easily visible with his black t-shirt with a Punisher skull on it.

Janella takes a step back, looking back and forth between the group looking at Charles and George, who is facing the far wall.

GEORGE
Clue number one that he is a former marine.  He has military discipline.  This should be the single most stressful moment of a person’s life, but he sits there calm, cool, collected.  He’s not biting his fingers, he’s not smirking or crying.  He’s sitting, completely motionless.  But he’s not motionless.  He’s paying attention to every movement and noise he perceives.  He’s used to stress.  The fact that he’s in his 40’s and he’s this used to stress tells me that he’s spent a long time as either a first responder or military, or had a very rough upbringing.  Possibly all three.  Now, look at his wounds.  He’s not rubbing them, he’s not asking for medical attention, he’s not even acknowledging them.  Why?

X
Because he’s the crazy tough and stupid brave.

GEORGE
Exactly.  Those wounds are an embarrassment to him.  He got bested.  Not just by a girl, but by a tiny little girl that beat him at his own game.  He’s mad because he should’ve anticipated this, but he won’t ever let the outside world how mad he is.  He’ll bury all of that anger and hate, not let anyone see it until he’s alone.  But he’s alone best when he’s hunting.  Which begs the next question. Go ahead, ask.

DEREK
How’d you know he was a Marine?

GEORGE
We’re building to that, but that’s not the next question.  He’s a hunter.  Think about it?

CAROLINE
Why now?

GEORGE
Exactly.  Why now?  Why this time of day? Why is he out hunting prey on the T during rush hour on a weekday and a school day?  Because he knows that his victims are supposed to be somewhere else, or that there’s no one around to care for them.  How many young kids and teens are riding the subway by themselves in rush hour?  They’re not going to school, which is where they should be.  Either they’re skipping school, or they’re parents don’t give a fuck.  Either way, what does that mean?

CARLY
That his victims have no one to turn to.

GEORGE
2 points for Gryffindor.  Sgt. Charles Reed is a hunter.  He’ll hunt deer or turkey, but at some point, probably when he was younger, he developed a taste for young women.  Very young women.  He learned how to hunt them, how to take them, how to make them his, and how to break them.  Carly, when he was attacking you, before you kicked his ass, how would you describe his actions?

Carly thought for a moment, staring at Charles through the window.

GEORGE
One word.

CARLY
Methodical.

GEORGE
That’s what I was thinking.  His actions were methodical, and he had two, maybe three exit strategies.  He’d play with you a little by the door and watch as you ran off at the first chance, or he’d take you to the end of the line to a safe spot he knows of and he’d rape you there.  Depending on whether or not he had enough fun on the train or if he felt some problem show up, that would decide what he did with you at the end.  Since he smelled like chemicals, my guess of doing septic work might be wrong, but he lives near the end of the T line, within a few blocks of the sewage processing plant.  The smell permeates everything for several blocks.  Plus, he has a quick threat that if any of the girls ever talked, he could make them disappear.  I’ve got a feeling that if we can get a warrant for his house and computer, we’ll find a few souvenirs and some crazy shit on it.  Probably the workvan he uses, too.

DEREK
Okay, but I’m still confused on the Marine thing.

GEORGE
Think about it.  Hunter, disciplined, and has a taste for young flesh.  He might have developed that taste later on in life, but let’s assume that he wants to get out of his little town and join the military.  Which branch did he join?  Not the Air Force, the only sights they see are the strip malls of Kansas and the ice plains of North Dakota.  Could be Army, but the way he hunts sounds like he craves action, like he’s only calm when things are on fire.  That’s possible for the Army, pretty likely, but he’s stuck in his ways too much.  He’s reached a failure to analyze and adapt.  Plus, if he’s Army, he can’t engage in his little past time of fucking girls without drawing too much suspicion.  And really, who joins the Coast Guard?  That leaves the Navy or Marines.  He’s comfortable in an enclosed room in high stress situations, but one thing told me Marines.  What was it, X?

X
(Trying to not yell)
That he looks like he eats crayons for breakfast?

GEORGE
Got it in one, X.  Hoo rah.  Also, it was a coin toss guess and Derek confirmed it when I made those Marine jokes.

JANELLA
Okay George.  You done showing off yet?

GEORGE
Almost.  He has a type, girls aged 11-14, preferably white but he’ll take what he can get.  At least with white girls they look like they might be his when he’s standing near them, but he also knows that most white people don’t give a fuck if they see some guy his size molesting a black girl that aged.  Hell, they’d probably blame the girl.  He likes to do his hunting in the later part of rush hour.  This gives him time to find his prey, take them back to his place, fuck them, and get rid of them before the end of school.  He doesn’t like to dispose of them after, but he’s killed before.  Definitely in war, probably at least one or two times when he partied a little too hard in Afghanistan and in Southeast Asia.  He tries not to shit near where he lives, but if things go sideways he has methods of getting rid of a girl, and having a body decompose near the sewage plant might make the place smell better.  He’ll take on a job somewhere to either install a septic tank or fix one, and he’ll use that as a time to install some tool that turns out to be his victim.  But he prefers to just scare the hell out of them to keep them alive.

The rest of the room was speechless, staring at the man in other room.  Eventually, Carly broke the silence.

CARLY
Wait, you got all that from looking at him for a minute?

GEORGE
About a minute, yeah.

JANELLA
What’s your play, George?

Everyone in the room turned to George, who was still looking at the back wall.

GEORGE
I heard someone mention records from transit.  Is that correct?

DEREK
That’s correct, sir.

GEORGE
Please tell me those are reports of previous molestation attacks or rapes that originated on the train, and the suspect bears a striking resemblance to Sgt. Charles Reed.

DEREK
Yes.  Yes, they are records of other attacks, and yes, the attacks mentioned a man that met his description that operated around this time of day during weekdays.

GEORGE
How long until they get here?

DEREK
Should be any moment now.

GEORGE
Did someone swab down his hands before printing him?  Maybe check under his finger nails for skin cells?

CARLY
Yes, and I had someone swab me down to get my DNA and take some photos of the damage.

GEORGE
Good.  Not good good, but needed to be done good.  Has he lawyered up yet?

JANELLA
Yeah, one of them Lionel Hutz types, but not as funny.  Should be here very soon.

George stood for a moment, staring at the wall.

GEORGE
Once those records get here, we need to confirm that the descriptions match Sgt. Reed close enough for us to show that he’s a serial molester and should not receive bail.  We’ll also use that to execute a search warrant at his house.  Call Judge Kovalev, he’ll authorize the warrant in 20 minutes.  Let’s get the DA to send someone over, see if they want to make a deal, I want at least 10 and registration for life.  This is before we see anything at his house or in his priors.  Anything crazy and the deal’s off.  I’m taking point on the questioning.  X, you’re with me.  Carly, Caroline, Derek, stay in here and coordinate with whomever you need to.  We go in there 31 minutes after the lawyer gets here.  That’ll give them enough time to pow wow and us to look over the records and get the ball rolling.  Transit and County will work with City on executing the warrant.  County or City could do this by ourselves, but this started as Transit’s case.  Let’s have this be one big ole party.  Unless they’re going tonight and we’re in the box, I’d like to be there when they knock on his door.

CARLY
Wait, why 31 minutes?

GEORGE
That way when we nail the prick in court, we can tell the judge that we gave them more than a half hour to talk before we entered the room.

As George faced the wall, there was a KNOCK at the door.

JANELLA
Come.

The door opens, and a skinny CLERK enters, carrying a tablet for the Captain.

CLERK
Ma’am, we just received some files from Harbor City Transit Police.  Here you go.

The clerk hands Captain Jenkins the tablet.

JANELLA

Thank you.  Dismissed.

The clerk leaves.  Janella starts reading the tablet.  Everyone but George looks to her as she speaks.  George stares at the back wall.

JANELLA
Charles Reed, 44, lives in Manningham in an apartment building right near the sewage processing plant.  Retired from the Marines five years ago as a Gunnery Sergeant, not a First Sergeant but it looks like his promotion happened less than a year before he retired, so he barely made grade.  Never married, no kids, was stationed on a couple carriers, served a few tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was stationed in Southeast Asia quite a bit.  In the last couple years, he’s worked on and off for a plumbing and septic company run by his cousin, though most of his money comes from his pension.  As far as priors go, he’s had a couple run-ins for assault and a DUI from his time in the service but he was on leave when that was handled.  He’s been questioned by Transit once before for lewd behavior on a train, but not enough evidence to make anything stick.  City cops paid him a visit a while back when they were canvassing the area for a missing 12-year-old girl that later showed up on the opposite end of the train line.  She claimed that he molested her, took her to an abandoned lot, pushed her into his van and raped her, but her parents didn’t want to put her through a trial.  There are about a half dozen cases here where girls and young women describe being molested on a train or worse by a man matching his description.

Janella walks over to George and hands him the tablet.

JANELLA
You were wrong about his rank, but only as a technicality.  Getting a little sloppy there?

GEORGE
I hedged that one, but not enough.

George starts to read the tablet.

Through the window, Caroline sees the door open to the Interrogation Room.  A man in his 50’s wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase enters.  He has a tablet, identical to the one George holds.  That man is ALEX STEIDL, Sgt. Reed’s attorney.

CAROLINE
Looks like the lawyer’s here.

GEORGE
Start the clock, 31 minutes.  X, come on over and read this, look for anything out of the ordinary.  I took a quick look but a second set of eyes on these matters is always good.  Read quietly.

George holds the tablet out with his left hand.  X walks over and takes it from George, then starts reading.

Carly starts to walk over to George, but Janella stops her.

JANELLA
(Quietly)
He’s...preparing for battle.  I’ve seen this a hundred times and it never gets old.  He’ll spend most of the next half-hour in complete silence, formulating the proper questions, analyzing the variables, going all Sherlock Holmes on this situation.  He’s going to play through every question and variable he can come up with, and throw a few out that he’s never seen before, just to make sure he has a response to everything and doesn’t get spun around.  He’s going to war in that box, and his mission is to put a bad man in jail for a long time.

Carly looks at Janella, then George and X, then back to Janella.

CARLY
(Whispering)
How?  How did he do that so quick?  He profiled that perp by looking at him, taking pieces of a story, and somehow figured out he’s a serial child rapist in the time it takes to make popcorn.  How?

GEORGE
About 20 years of experience, and a PhD in Criminal Psychology helps.  If you’re curious, my dissertation was on the physical cues of lying and how people in the dark triad of Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Sociopathy react when confronted with objective facts that do not fit their pre-ordained beliefs, and how their physiological response differs from normal people.  Helps that most of the perps fall somewhere in that triangle.

DEREK
He’s just gonna stare at the wall?

GEORGE
We’re waiting for the ADA to arrive to sign off on what we’ll offer before the search warrant arrives.  10 years and lifetime registration as a sex offender for what he did to Officer Graspper.  If he balks, we drop the hammer on him with every other case.  That deal is moot if the search warrant brings up anything worse, which I’m almost certain it will.  But 10 years should be enough to rubber stamp a confession and avoid a trial from both sides.  Also, I’d like an update on how things are coming along with the search warrant.

JANELLA
Caroline, we need an update on those.  If they’re not happening, make them happen.

CAROLINE
On it.

Caroline leaves the room.

Time passes, about 20 minutes.  Sgt. Reed and his lawyer are discussing the case in the observation room.  X is going over the files.  George just stands there, apparently staring at the back wall.  Carly and Derek are chit-chatting and Janella is responding to texts on her phone.

Caroline returns, knocking on the door as she opens it and walks in.

JANELLA
Any news?

CAROLINE
Just got the judge to sign off on a search warrant, ADA is on their way up.  Sounds like they’re planning on executing the warrant either later on tonight or early in the morning.

JANELLA
Good.  Who’s running the search?

CAROLINE
Sounded like a mix of us and city, with Transit mixed in as well.

JANELLA
Thanks, Miss Queesnston.  George, X, you two ready?

GEORGE
X, you see anything in there?

X
Got something weird.  According to his military record, he was stationed in Singapore for a couple years when his career stalled out.  This was back when he just made First Sergeant. He was on the normal track, but something happened discipline wise to short circuit his career.  Didn’t see anything mentioned, but this sounds like he got into some hot water.  The fact that nothing’s mentioned here, and how his career slowed to a crawl after that suggests he got caught doing something we wasn’t supposed to.  After that he was sent back to Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, You-Pick-A-Stan, all of them.  Nothing bad there, but he’d always cycle back to Southeast Asia.  After he got out, he spent some time in Thailand before coming back to the states.  That’s a little fishy right there.

CARLY
Why’s that?

X
Looks shady as all hell.  Here’s a jarhead going out of his way to cycle back to the Mecca of pedophiles, who’s been overseas for years, and when given a free flight home, skips it so he can spend a month in the Red-Light district of Bangkok.  If he wanted whores he could go to literally any port in the world, but why Bangkok?  Young whores.  The only thing missing is getting stopped by airport security with a suitcase full of candy and Viagra.

There is a KNOCK at the door.  A younger man wearing a suit walks into the room.  It is COLIN HOUSTON, the Assistant District Attorney.

COLIN
Captain Jenkins?  Hi, I’m Colin Houston, I think we worked together a few months ago.

Colin approaches Janella, and the two shake hands.

JANELLA
Good to see you again, Colin.  You up to speed?

COLIN
Think so.  Perp is a former Marine who got busted sexually assaulting an off-duty police officer who looks like a young teenage girl while Transit police was on the prowl for a serial molester that’s a suspect in a couple suspicious cases, and a search warrant was getting signed off on for his apartment, vehicle, and computers.  I heard Detective Lewis was taking point on the interrogation?

JANELLA
That’s correct.

COLIN
I’m assuming that no one has talked to the suspect yet.

JANELLA
Also correct.

COLIN
From what it I’ve heard so far, we should be able to offer a plea deal to avoid trial.  3 years plus registration.

George continues to look at the back wall.

GEORGE
Serves 10.

COLIN
Excuse me?

GEORGE
Serves 10.  Plus lifetime registration as a sex offender, assuming we don’t find even worse stuff when we search his place.  He’s a hunter, and girls are his prey.  There are half a dozen reports of his T molestations, along with at least one filed child rape.  3 years would be a slap on the wrist.  His lifestyle could easily fit around any restrictions placed on him.  In 3 years, he’d be back at it.  10 years, he’ll be in AARP.

COLIN
You really think you get him to agree to 10 years, with his lawyer present?  Tonight, before he makes bail?

GEORGE
I think I’m going to walk his ass into a god damned hole in the ground and leave him there.  And he’s not making bail, not tonight, not with a search warrant being executed on his apartment while he’s in court.

George’s watch BEEPS.  He looks at it and turns off the alarm.

GEORGE
31 minutes.  Ready X?

Xavier nods.  X walks past everyone to the door.  George follows, but stops right in front of Colin

GEORGE
I’ll give you 10 years in ten minutes.

George walks out the door.  In one continuous motion, he leaves the Observation room and through the hallway to the next room over.  He KNOCKS twice, then opens the door into Interrogation Room B

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM B – DAY
The Interrogation room is poorly furnished, with only 4 steel desk chairs and a steel table.  The walls are a beige color, and a large mirror occupies most of one wall.

At the table sit two men, CHARLES REED and ALEX STEIDL.  Charles sat with his hands cuffed and still connected to the table.  Alex, wearing a nice gray suit, turns to the approaching officers.

George walks past the table, barely giving the two men a glance as he walks.  X stops at the desk and pulls out the empty chair.  He sits in it.  X stares down Charles, who barely moves.

George walks to the far corner of the room and looks up.  In his peripheral vision, he can see the mirror.  The lawyer’s gaze followed George, but Charles’s stayed on X.

GEORGE
I’m required by state law to inform you that this session is being recorded.

No one at the table moves.  George leaves the corner and turns to his right, heading around the back of the room, walking towards Charles and Alex.   He maintains a steady tone as he walks and talks.

GEORGE
I’m Detective George Lewis, the man at the table in front of you is Detective Xavier Harrison.

Alex keeps his eyes on George as the detective walks behind the table.

ALEX
Alex Steidl, attorney at law.  My client...

George abruptly cuts him off while rounding the table, not even bothering to maintain eye contact.

GEORGE
20 years.

ALEX
(Flabbergasted)

Excuse me?!

George pulls the steel chair back, letting it screech on the floor.

GEORGE
20 years, he’s out in 10 with good behavior, and he has to register as a sex offender for the rest of his days.  That offer is on the table until I leave the room in 9 minutes.

George sat down.  Alex looks like he was punched in the face, but then regains his composure.

ALEX
20 years?  That’s absurd.  My client was a victim of...

GEORGE
Of police brutality?  You want to play that card?  Okay.

George pulls his seat in, purposefully letting it screech on the floor again.  He makes eye contact with the lawyer for a moment, paying close attention to how the lawyer is trying to maintain his calm.

GEORGE
Mr. Steidl, mind if I call you Alex?

George doesn’t wait for a response.

GEORGE
Alex, let me tell you exactly how fucked your client is.  By the way, what should I call him?

George shifts his gaze to Charles, looking for any reaction.

GEORGE
Chuck?  Chuckie?  Charles?  Fuckchuckle?  Gunnery Sergeant Charles Reed?  Jarhead?  Baz bacha?

Charles flinches at the last name.

CHARLES
(Under his breath)
Hanzeer.

GEORGE
I was right, you do know a little Pashto.  Or was that from hearing the locals call you baz bacha all the time?  You know, child molester.  Picked that up in Khandahar.

Alex shakes his head slightly then leans over to Charles and whispers in his ear.

GEORGE
You should listen to him and stay quiet.  You should also listen to him when he tells you to take this deal.

ALEX
We are not, under any circumstances...

George holds up his hand in, then lowers it quietly palm down to quiet them.  George looks at Charles the entire time, focusing on a spot right underneath Charles’s right eye.

GEORGE
I’ve barely begun, Mr. Steidl.  I was about to tell your client how fucked he was.  Gunny here was caught red handed, in full view of over 50 people, molesting a very young-looking woman.  He struggled against the police when they took him into custody, and he was caught with a concealed gun and a knife in his possession.  He’s looking at assault, sexual assault, attempted rape, attempted kidnapping for that little stunt he pulled when he trapped her and confined her, possessing weapons during the execution of a felony, public lewd behavior, and resisting arrest.  The weapons charges alone are a couple years each, but throw in the fact that your client was caught trying to rape a cop, and that won’t go well.  And we’re not up to the really bad parts yet.

Charles sits as stoic as he can, acting like he’s ignoring George.  The detective keeps talking, keeping his focus squarely under Charles’s right eye.

GEORGE
How many times have you asked yourself ‘how did the cops get there so fast?’  Let me answer that.  They were waiting for you.  You got sloppy.  Predictable.  The hunter became the hunted.  Mr. Steidl, you’ve had more than a half-hour to go over those records on the tablet in front of you, what did you see?

ALEX
I saw a bunch of straws you’re grasping at to get my client to not press charges for brutality.

George laughed.

GEORGE
That’s a good one.  Chuckie, how much you weigh, 280, 290?  That young woman is maybe 100 pounds soaking wet wearing boots, and she kicked your ass.

Charles flinched.

GEORGE
That’s what you’re so upset about.  That’s why you haven’t even acknowledged your wounds, haven’t rubbed your lip or massaged your hands.  They embarrass you.  Those marks remind you how your prey kicked the shit out of you.

Charles tried to lunge at George, but his hands were connected to the table.  Alex put his hands on Charles’s shoulders to try to get him to calm down and stay seated.

GEORGE
You’re pissed because you got your ass kicked by some little slut.  She fucking teased you, let you do what you wanted, them BAM!

George slapped the table on BAM!  Everyone flinched.

GEORGE
While you’re finger fucking this little slut, she fights back, and effectively.  None of the others ever fought like that, did they?

Charles is fuming with rage.

GEORGE
Did they?  Did they?!

CHARLES
NO!

GEORGE
No what?

CHARLES
They didn’t fight!

GEORGE
They got what they deserved?

CHARLES
They knew their place!

X kept as straight of a face as possible.  Alex shook his head and facepalmed.

GEORGE
They knew their place?

CHARLES
They knew their place.  They knew their worth.

GEORGE
And what was that worth?

CHARLES
Nothing but holes to serve.  Nothing but whores.

George glanced quickly at Alex, who was trying to get Charles’s attention.

GEORGE
That’s why you went on the train when you did, after school started.

CHARLES
They shouldn’t be there.  If they’re not in school, they’re breaking the rules.

GEORGE
And break one rule and they’re gonna break them all?  So why not break them all now?

CHARLES
I’m not wrong, they shouldn’t be there.  I’m taking what’s mine!

GEORGE
And what was yours?

Charles breathed a sigh and relaxed his shoulders.  A smirk came across his face.

CHARLES
All of it.  Sometimes a feel, sometimes a rub, sometimes we’d go and have some fun.

GEORGE
Back of your van?

CHARLES
Yeah.  Didn’t take much.  A strong hand, a grab, a shove, show them the gun, then walk them to the van.

GEORGE
Then it was party time?

CHARLES
You have no idea.  Once there, they’re mine.  I can spend all day with them there, fuck’em until they lose their minds, then drop them off anywhere else in the city, or just throw their asses back on the train.

GEORGE
That’s why you always picked right after rush hour.  If things went right, you’d have all day to make them scream, regret what they’ve done.

Charles snorted.  Alex hung his head and shook it.

CHARLES
Yeah.

GEORGE
You learned that lesson the hard way?  A couple years back, you picked up a girl, young blonde, took her back to the van for some fun, but it was later in the day and she didn’t get home before the end of school.  Cops came looking for her.  Remember that?

Charles nodded.

GEORGE
Where you fucked up this time was you misread your target.  What you thought was a panicked fawn reaction, a deer in the headlights, turned into a fighter.  That’s where you failed.

George looked at Alex.

GEORGE
Mr. Steidl, you have 3 minutes to convince your client to take the deal, or take his chances with a jury trial.  There, they’ll bring all of this info, come after him for all of the other assaults as well, and use whatever they gain from the search warrant that will be executed later tonight.

ALEX
A search warrant?

George nodded.

ALEX
Tonight?

GEORGE
Yes.

ALEX
10, he serves 5.

GEORGE
20, serves 10, plus lifetime registration.

Alex looked at his client.  Charles showed a mix of smugness and relief.  

ALEX
Okay.  We accept.

GEORGE
Someone from the DA’s office will be around soon to put the deal in writing.

George stood up, quietly moving the chair.  Once standing, he never directly looked back at the table.  In the mirror, he saw Charles sit deflated, shoulders slumped as the reality of what just happened hit him.  Alex sat there, dumbfounded.

George and X left the Interrogation Room and returned to the Observation Room

INT. OBSERVATION ROOM – DAY
George and X returned to the Observation room.  Carly, Caroline, Colin, and Derrick all look wide-eyed at the two detectives.  George turned to Colin, the Assistant District Attorney.

GEORGE
Let him talk.  He wants to talk.  He wants to brag about all of it.  Just record it all and let him sign the confession.

COLIN
Got it.

Colin left the room.  Janella comes over and shakes George and X’s hands.  Derek slaps George on the back of the shoulder.

CARLY
I can’t believe that just fucking happened.  Like, not even ten minutes and he’s spilling his guts.

GEORGE
Thanks.  But big shout out to X, first time in the box and he walks off with a win.

George claps, and keeps going until others join in.

X
I, didn’t really do anything.

GEORGE
You didn’t fuck up, and that’s the important part.

JANELLA
Enough with the celebrations, let’s wrap this up and go home.

Janella opens the door for everyone.  One by one, they leave.  Caroline, followed by Derek, then X.  As George is about to leave, Carly stops him.

CARLY
Hey.  Um, thanks.  For taking that fucker down.

GEORGE
It’s the job.

CARLY
Also, sorry about calling you a fossil.

GEORGE
No problem.  I’m sorry for calling you a little kid.  I’m having a barbecue on Saturday, some drinking afterwards.  You’re welcome to come if you want.

CARLY
Accepted...Grandpa.
Carly lightly punches George in the shoulder as they walk into the hallway.


FADE OUT:
THE END

An amazingly great read.

A perfectly written Hollywood style story. Love the use of the borrowed characters that were spot on to the writers vision of them! Hoping we see more adventures from George and X. Merit will flow from me when allowed!

[LtBroccoli]

Thank you Marv and CMG.  George and X will return for more adventures soon.  Next up is some stuff with Bob and his crew, then a big tale that ties everything together.

[grendel]

Yeah that is really good work.  Loving George more every paragraph ... love the new characters too ... merit.

[LtBroccoli]

Thanks Grendel.  The new characters of Carly and Caroline are CMG's from his Jailbait series.  I had some ideas for them going forward and asked for permission to use them, and he graciously agreed.

I've got a couple more stories in the pipeline involving George and the officers of the CCPD.  The next time they show up will be sometime in 2021, after I finish the Bob and the Mean Girls storyline.  Once that story is wrapped up, we'll see how all of the characters in this universe tie together.  And all of my stories take place in the same universe, they just don't know it yet.