Steven tossed and turned in his bed, each night was getting harder to sleep. This whole case was just not making sense and he could not stop thinking about it. He had met the main suspect before she was their main suspect, she had volunteered to give information when she didn’t have to. She had come into the station, and waited over an hour only to be questioned by the detective in a harsh manner. He had watched in silence and seen in her the eyes of an innocent by-stander.
When the detective had decided that she was the main suspect, the only suspect for that matter, he had tried to reason with Det. Shabane that this girl was innocent, but Shabane had said this was 'a high profile case that had links back to a drug & weapons smuggling ring and he needed a fall guy, or in this case a fall girl'. Steven then had called her from a payphone, there were still payphones around and he didn’t want the call traced back to him, he had warned her of Shabane’s intentions and told her to run. If he got busted for this, he would not only lose his job, but he would probably be incarcerated too. It wasn’t all because she was a pretty girl, ok yeah she was that too, but this was about justice! He just knew it wasn’t her.
Still, Shabane had been furious when somehow Ms Cooper had gotten hold of O’Brian’s email address and emailed him with the photos from the docks. It was a huge break in the smuggling case. Shabane, and the Capitan, in fact everyone involved in this darned case thought by sending in the photos she was admitting guilt and trying to clear her name.
They immediately got to tracking her phone when they discovered she was nowhere to be found. Now that had been an interesting event. They traced in to a little dirt road in the middle of the forestry about a hundred kilometers north of the city, but when they got there, all they found was a bag of men's clothing with her phone jambed in the bottom. Suspecting she may have headed out on foot, they explored the area. They didnt find Cooper, but rather they found the man who was in the photographs. Andre was wondering around the forest, quite lost and only in his underwear. He swore that it was Mel Cooper who did this to him. That was yesterday, today they had had no new leads.
He wasnt interested in this case just because she was a pretty face, heck she wasnt like your regular bleached blond babe who frequented the beaches. Those girls were smoking hot, but they had no flesh to them, always stick thin, and a personallity almost thinner than their waist, if that was even possible. He was amazed at Mel Cooper's tenacity, her sheer will power and keeping her head under these circumstances. She was pretty, in a home-grown-goodness kind of way, but she had a personality and a good head on her shoulders. Although Steven was rooting for justice, he was also rooting for this lady.
At the briefing the next morning it turned out that Shabane was trying to do all he could to turn this into a countrywide witchhunt for Mel Cooper. He had brought in the special forces with the assumed statment that "Cooper is the head of the smuggling ring and must be brought down immediately"! Steven couldnt believe this, he thought it was crazy. This was starting to turn into a full blown circus, the only thing that made him realise they were not in some half-rate American cop drama was that Shabane had actually taken this to the press (they never do that in the movies, Steven thought to himself) and openly stated that "Mel Cooper is suspect number one and has gone on the run. Any information about her whereabouts would be greatly appreciated by the South Africa Police force"
Steven shook his head while watching this pathetic fanfare, it had certainly gotten out of hand. He had to wonder, with the way Shabane was gunning for the innocent girl, was he on the payrole of the smuggling ring?
"Whats's wrong with me?" Steven mused over a cold mug of beer sitting on his couch "I'm just a beat cop, I'm not a detective. I should just give up and go back to life as it used to be." Shaking his head, he stood up and walked to the fridge. There was nothing there to eat, so he phoned for pizza.
The Pizza guy arrived fairly soon, he paid and turned around. As he opened the pizza box there was an envelope on the pizza with his name hand written on it! "What the heck?" He carefully put the steaming pizza onto the table and opened the envelope.
"Sorry for being so stealthy and quite likely freaking you out. I know I can trust you, I dont know why, but you are one of the few people who believes in my innocence. Thank you for that.
I have crossed a few lines in the last couple of days in order to clear my name, sorry.
I kept a trace on your phone in hopes that I could get through to you fairly soon, the pizza seemed a fitting choice, I know all of the delivery guy's secrets.
I'll call your cell at 6:30am, if you dont answer, I understand. But I figured you deserve to get some credit for this case, since noone else is even looking for the real killer."
He went over the note a good 5 times before finally looking at the clock, it was obvious who it was from. He had never expected this though. She was quite the woman if she had the guts and the brains to do this! Well, until morning there was nothing for him to do. When the call came he would know what she had and could take it from there. Maybe he wouldnt be stuck as a beat cop all his life!
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