Pretty Privilege

The woman fumbled with the door, her shaking hands struggling with the handle. A dark curl fell in front of her eyes. She didn’t attempt to move it, welcoming it as a hiding place for her tear-stained face.

Inside, the place was dead quiet. The clock had just struck two in the morning and tiredness was begging to set in. Both the man behind the desk and the one standing guard next to the door noticed her right away. Their eyes followed her silhouette. The tight dress and red high heels made her the most interesting person to walk into the station in a long time. Not to mention the easiest to look at.

They are already drooling. This is going to be easier than I thought.

“Excuse me, sir,” the brunette approached the desk. Her voice was as alluring as her figure, low and seductive. Yet, her eyes focused on the ground broke that illusion of confidence. He could smell her perfume—sweet and rich—from where he was sitting.

“Is there a free officer I can talk to?”

“Sure, sweetheart.” Richard, the policeman behind the desk, spoke with soft words. He had been taught to be careful when dealing with vulnerable people at this job. His gaze, though, was more focused on her chest and the way her sparkly dress tightened around it. “What is your name and how can I help you?”

Does he actually think I can’t feel his eyes on my boobs? A woman comes in crying and you can’t do anything but ogle her? Men are honestly the worst.

This is the case scenario I could ever imagine, though.

The woman straightened her head and looked straight at him. Richard struggled to focus his eyes on the computer in front of him, faking innocence. She didn’t seem to notice. “My name is Amanda De Luca and I’m here to report a murder.”

Any dirty thoughts left were gone and buried as soon as she spoke those words. The policeman stood up, gesturing to his partner by the door before guiding Amanda into the hall. He took her to an interrogation room in the back. The dusty desk with the used-to-be-white walls felt out of place when faced with the classy woman in front of him. Richard felt the strong urge to excuse the mess before he remembered why they were there.

“Please sit,” he pointed to the chair across from his. She followed his lead and sat down, her ankles crossed and her hands folded on her lap. “Okay, Miss De Luca, could you tell me what happened?”

Moment of truth. You can do this.

Remember the script.

She closed her eyes. Richard watched her chest inflate as she drew air, before letting

it out slowly. She focused her stare on his. “I was at a party tonight, in this club a few blocks away. I stepped out to smoke when I saw this couple in the parking lot. They were holding hands, walking very fast, and looking suspicious. They didn’t notice I was there.”

The policeman stared at the woman once again, more shamelessly this time as he let his eyes linger. How could they not notice her? He was willing to bet she was the kind of person everyone noticed as soon as she walked in, just as he had.

“They were talking about this guy. About what to do with his body,” Amanda blinked back tears as she spoke. “They were arguing about the best place to hide it. Bury it in the countryside or attempt to throw it into the lake. I tried to gather as much information as I could before running here. I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course it is. You are so brave to report this,” he assured her. She looked at him as she wiped her face, looking as pretty as a picture. Richard wouldn’t have been able to believe she had just been crying if he hadn’t witnessed it. “I need to ask you a few more questions now. Are you okay with that?”

“I think so,” she murmured.

Richard went through the basics but he knew there were dozens of details he was forgetting to ask. His focus was severely lacking. He found himself distracted by the hem of her dress on more than one occasion. At least cameras were taping the session to make up for his distractions. Or that was what he told himself to feel better about his mediocre job and wandering thoughts.

“At what time did you stepped out of the club? Do you remember?”

“Ten forty-five,” she sounded oddly confident, which was weird but also a bit of a turn-on. Richard liked a woman that would take charge. “I had just checked the time on my phone.”

“Where did you go after you went outside?”

Amanda didn’t get a chance to answer. Before she could even process the question, came a soft knock on the door. Without waiting for an answer, Richard’s boss stepped in. Jane Roberts was his superior officer and was always making sure the squad didn’t

forget it.

“I heard there was some action going on so I thought I’d join,” was her way of greeting them. She slid to the seat next to his. “Hello, officer.”

This can’t be happening.

This cannot be happening right now.

Don’t panic. It’s going to be alright. Just stick to the plan.

Richard stiffened and he noticed Amanda, across the table, did too. Her back straightened, her face paled. The hands that had been resting on her lap were now pressed together in a painful-looking way. She must have felt how unpleasant the newcomer was and felt just as uncomfortable as he did by it.

It only made Richard like her more.

“Hello, Captain Roberts,” he tried to force his voice to be polite. “This is Amanda De Luca. She came here to report a possible murder. Was telling me about it, actually.”

Roberts raised her eyebrows. “Oh, really? I don’t mean to interrupt. Please, go on. Act as if I’m not even here.”

Amanda redirected her eyes towards Richard and waited. He nodded, allowing her to continue her story. “I walked away from the main door but stayed closed to the club—long distances and heels are not a great mix. I was leaning against a wall on the side of the place when they walked by. It was very dark so they didn’t even realize I was there. Their car was parked only a few feet away.”

From the corner of his eye, Richard saw his superior thinking. The gears on her head were turning as she figured out what to ask next., even though she knew nothing of the case. He could not let that happen.

“Could you describe the couple, please? Anything you remember is of most importance.”

Jane actually looked impressed by his question, which he resented.

“She was a blonde—her hair was curly and very long—with dark eyes, wearing a leather jacket and ripped jeans. She had a big mole on top of her lip.

“He was very tall. had short, spiky brown hair and blue eyes and was dressed in black clothes from head to toe. I also managed to overhear their names. Katherine and Marco.

“After a pretty heated argument, Marco decided they should bury the body and that he knew the perfect place to do so. He said it would take them about two hours to get there. That’s all I know, I hope it helps with the investigation.”

Richard could feel a smile form on his face. He knew he wasn’t supposed to give much away with facial expressions but it was hard to contain the excitement. They had their descriptions, their names, and an approximate location.

The woman sitting next to him didn’t seem to agree with his feelings. She had her eyes narrowed at Amanda, biting her lip as she examined her. Unlike Richard’s previous scan, Roberts was all business, analytical and distrustful.

Oh crap.

“How long did they argue before they made their decision?” Not a hint of sympathy graced Jane Roberts’ voice.

“It’s hard to say for sure. Twenty minutes? Maybe more?”

Roberts gave her a crud nod but didn’t inquiry any further.

Oh crap. She’s onto you. There’s no getting out of this anymore.

Why couldn’t the dumb jerk handle the case? I would have been out and about in five minutes.

This isn’t going to work. Abort mission.

Silence set in the room.

“Well, I think we have all that we need for today,” Richard decided to intervene. “We are so grateful that you were brave enough to come forward. We will need to be in touch in the next twenty-four hours. May I have your phone number?”

That was not at all the proper way to ask for a witness’s cellphone. Even if Richard hadn’t known, the look Roberts was giving him acted as a very effective hint. However, he couldn’t lose the chance to ask a pretty girl for her number.

“Sure,” the way she smiled back made his stomach do a black flip. Such a pretty mouth. “Do you have pen and paper?”

Roberts didn’t say a word while Richard wrote down the number. She didn’t react when he stood up and guided Amanda out of the room, his hand soundly sitting on her lower back.

“What an amazing night, right?”

Jane didn’t answer. “Did you tape the whole session?” She asked instead. Richard nodded. “Okay, I want to review the video now so the search team can go as soon as possible. You go back to your post.”

He wanted to say there was nothing to review, that his job was well done and nobody had to do a double check on it. He didn’t say any of that, though.

“Sure, boss.”

I need to gather my things, where’s my suitcase?

This dress is so ridiculously uncomfortable and it didn’t even do its job right. It’s all in pieces now.

At least they let me leave.

******

Richard watched the search team march out of the door just as his shift ended. They seemed confident, relaxed even. And, sure enough, less than four hours later, he received notice that a body had been found. Along with several messages from Roberts demanding him at the station. Now.

“This cannot be legal,” he murmured to himself as he slid into the shower.

He went through his routine with almost zombie-like moves. The ride back there was a daze. He was too tired to even wonder why they were making him report to duty several hours before his next shift.

Okay, so I have everything packed up. Nails scrubbed, hair dyed.

It’s time to go.

Jane Roberts was waiting for him in her office. A few locks of hair fell out of her usual bun and she wore glasses instead of her contacts. She looked about as tired as he felt.

“They found the body.”

“I heard. What about the murderers?”

“Still working to identify them. The team found several strands of blonde hair on the victim’s clothes. It should be hard.” Her words were great news, yet her tone didn’t reflect it. Richard waited for the other shoe to drop. “That’s exactly the problem.”

“What?” He was dumbstruck.

“It was too easy. Something isn’t right.”

I really hate airports.

Where should I go now? London, Paris, New York?

“What do you mean? Criminals get sloppy sometimes. We just run into an easy case. It happens sometimes.”

Roberts took a deep breath. She grabbed a paper from her desk and handed it to him without a word. Richard watched the list he was holding, still trying to connect the dots.

“I watched the full questioning and found half a dozen inconsistencies.” He still didn’t react, too focused on the sheet of paper in his hands. “She was out smoking, yet she didn’t smell like cigarettes. She went out at 10:45 and listened to them fight for twenty minutes, yet she reported the murder three hours later.”

“Maybe there’s a simple explanation for all of it…”

“I’m not done. Amanda De Luca reported it was very dark, so much that the couple didn’t even spot her. Yet, she could still manage to identify very specific details like the mole on her lip and the color of their eyes. They were screaming to each other about where to hide the body but nobody else heard it? Do you understand what I’m getting at?”

Richard could feel his intestines turn to mud. “You mean—she lied?”

“I need you to try to contact her,” she ignored his question yet again. “Run her information through the system, look for a current address.”

He walked back to his desk, ignoring how wobbly his legs felt, and did just that. First came the phone call. Richard dialed the numbers as he thought about the pretty smile she had given him when they said goodbye.

“We’re sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected…”

Nice Yankee air. Far away from the disaster from last night.

Maybe I should go sightseeing.

The background check told him exactly what he had been dreading. His heart sank as he stared at the screen.

NO MATCHES WERE FOUND.

How could he have been so stupid?

That girl is very pretty. A perfect next victim. And, this time, I’m doing it right.