Duke(77)
Mike tried to yank his arm out of Detective Johnson’s hand, but didn’t manage. He glared at the other detective, who lowered his voice to say, “Don’t make me cuff you and perp walk you out of here. I’m trying to let you keep a little dignity, but make no mistake about it, I’m taking you in and reporting every bit of this.”
“Check her over, I’ll bet money she has a nine mil on her hip. Possession of a weapon while assaulting a police officer? You know it’s all about perception. Help me out here, Johnson.”
Detective Johnson looked at Gen in question, and she gave him a direct look and confidently said, “I’m legally armed, Detective, but I never pulled my weapon. Would you like to see my concealed carry permit?” It was in Duke’s room, so she hoped he didn’t, but it wouldn’t take long to get it.
The detective just shook his head and said, “No, ma’am, but I have a feeling he didn’t do you any favors by announcing to the club you’re carrying. You’re welcome to come with me, we can walk you to your car and see you safely off the compound on our way out.”
“She has privileges,” Duke told him. “Every man here is aware she’s carrying, and good with it, but even if we weren’t, she wouldn’t be harmed. I’d pay the fine and she’d be banned for however long we voted, but she’d come to no physical harm.”
At this, Mike spoke up. “You’d pay her fine?” He sounded doubtful.
Before Duke could answer, Brain stepped forward with a jump drive and offered it to Detective Johnson. “Here’s the video up until a micro-second before Gen took him down. I have the rest if you want it, but I’m hoping this’ll be all you need.”
The detective nodded. “Let’s start with this. Don’t erase the rest, in case my bosses want to see it, but I’m betting they’ll prefer to go the plausible deniability route and never see the rest.”
Duke stepped away from Gen and shook the detective’s hand, as well as each of the four uniformed officers, and thanked them for their time and professionalism.
When the door closed behind them, Brain said, “Okay, give us the parking lot on the main TV in here, please.”
Gen assumed he was talking to whoever he left in the control room, and looked towards the TV to see the feed come on.
“Well,” Detective Johnson was saying to Mike, “at least now we know why you’ve had such a hard-on to take down Bevering. You’ve really stepped in it this time. We’ll leave your car here, you’re riding back with me.”
“I have him on tape admitting to being a pimp! Talking about how it worked in Atlanta, how they were going about it a little different here, more high class but basically the same. It isn’t just speculation anymore! I have proof!”
“Yeah, proof we can’t use, you stupid fuck.”
As soon as they were all in their vehicles, Duke looked to Brain. “Get Martinson on the phone, I want him on this tonight. When the police conduct the warrant and get copies of the audio and video, I want them to listen to the first five or ten minutes, just enough to prove his guilt, and see he did, indeed, get audio and video of the inside of her home. Then I want all copies destroyed in order to protect Gen’s privacy. No one gets to see her naked, no one gets to hear her talking to me during sex.”
He looked at Gen. “If I’d known why McPherson was after us, why it seemed so personal, I could’ve handled this different. Any other ex-boyfriend cops I need to know about?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know he’d targeted you. I’d have told you if I’d known.”
“Understood. Any others we need to know about?”
She shook her head. “I went out with the Fort Oglethorpe Police Chief once, found out he was just starting to date again after his fourth divorce, and told him I didn’t think it was going to work out between us.”
“When was this?”
“A few weeks before I ended up drunk at your bar?”
A muscle in his jaw jerked. “You make it a habit? Dating cops?”
“No. I thought I was having dinner with friends, turns out it was a triple date, they brought guys and arranged for me to have one, too. They thought it was past time I started dating again after Mike, and didn’t believe me when I told them I was done with men.”
At that, he smiled. “Still done with men?”
“Only the play-pretend men, obviously.”
Several of the men laughed, a few gave small war-whoops, and Duke walked her back to the sofa. Sheila came to her, gave her a hug. “What’s the use of having a bad-ass boyfriend if you keep taking down the bad guys, hon? He’s gonna need to come to your rescue at some point. Maybe give him a shot, next time?”