Daring Pt. 01

Annie Marshall, fifty-five, manned the phones for the Daring Police Department. Daring was a small town just west of Erie, Pennsylvania. Annie had worked for the police department for over twenty years. Taking the job as just a part-time position and then, out of necessity, taking on full-time about five years ago. Her husband, her deceased husband, had developed prostate cancer and died, leaving Annie with very little in the way of financial support for her later years.

That morning, Patty Nolan, Annie's coffee drinking buddy, finally asked why she worked the phones for the police department

"I've been wondering for five years now," Patty said.

"Son of a bitch left me with nothing," Annie said, referring to the late Elwood Marshall.

"No life insurance?" Patty asked.

"Sure, there was some life insurance," Annie replied bitterly, "But not enough to live off. I found out he was investing in some horse shit scheme that had fell through."

"How did you find out about that?"

"I went to see John about the life insurance policy, you know," Annie said, referring to John, their insurance agent. "I kept getting John's I'm-an-insurance-agent spiel, and he avoids the issue."

"What did you ask him?"

"I asked him if the life insurance policy was as worthless as it sounded."

"What did he say?"

"You know John, he says, 'Well now worthless could mean a lot of things, Annie.'

"And I said, you're goddamned right it could mean a lot of things. And in this case it               means I'm screwed, right, John?'"

"What did he say?"

"What could he say? It wasn't some kind of mistake like I was hoping. The life

insurance policy was worthless."

"How much?" Patty asked.

Annie cocked her head down and raised an eyebrow, telling Patty that was not

information she was going to be privy to at this time.

"So what was the scheme?" Patty asked.

"I'm getting to that. So I have this life insurance policy and I have it on John's

desk and I'm pointing to it and banging my finger on his desk and I said, 'How could you let him take out such a half-assed policy, John? You're supposed to be our friendly

neighborhood insurance salesman.'"

"What did he say?"

"He's says, 'Now, Annie, I am that man, but you're not seeing the big picture here. I did advise Elwood he needed to invest in a life insurance policy that would take care of either of you in case something unexpected happened.' And I just sat there with this dumb, blank stare

on my face."

"Did John tell you why?"

"Oh, he sure did," Annie said, sipping her coffee.

"Are you going to tell me or are you just going to keep me hanging after all this build up?" Patty asked.

"I'll tell you on two conditions," Annie said.

"Don't laugh and don't tell?" Patty asked.

"Right," Annie agreed, except she knew Patty would probably break both conditions, but she had to tell someone. "I don't know if I can even say it."

"What?" Patty urged. This kind of gossip - not that it was truly gossip because it was coming from the horse's mouth - was the best kind. You knew it was the absolute truth.

"Elwood had invested in this," Annie started then stopped. She took a sip of coffee, cleared her throat and leaned in close to Patty and whispered. "This dildo contraption kind of device."

It took a second for it to register with Patty. It was the furthest thing from her mind. In fact she thought, maybe, dildo was some kind of code word or acronym for something at Elwood's work. He was, after all, a tool and die maker and Patty didn't know a thing about tool and die.

"I don't get it," Patty said.

"You've never heard of a dildo?" Annie asked.

"Of course I have," Patty said defensively. She didn't want to seem like some kind of prude. "I just thought..."

"Thought what?" Annie asked.

"I just thought maybe it was something else. Like for his work or something," Patty said. "I mean you are talking about the sex thing dildo, right?"

"Right," Annie said, happy Patty was finally on the same page.

"Elwood?" Patty said. "Dildos?"

"Shhhh," Annie hissed. "I don't want all of Daring to know about this."

"I never would have thought that Elwood...I mean..." But Patty couldn't finish. The very thought of Elwood Marshall having invested in a sexual toy was beyond her. She never thought of Elwood as a sexual man, or at least not a sexual man in that way. "What exactly did he invest in?"

Annie opened her purse and pulled out a folded up sheet of paper, worn with age. "I asked John the same thing. I told him that if my future was ruined because my husband invested all of our money in some crazy scheme I wanted some satisfaction, something to see where all our money went. And he gave me this." Annie handed Patty the folded sheet of paper.

"What's this?" Patty asked.

"A design concept John said. It was the best he could give me."

Patty unfolded the paper and looked at the design. It looked like a saddle for a horse with, what looked like, a post sticking up out of the middle of the saddle.

"What the hell is this?" Patty asked.

"Well," Annie explained. "At the time they didn't call it anything. What it's called now is a Sybian."

"A what?" Patty asked.

"A Sybian," Annie repeated. "They're real popular if you have the money to buy one."

"And it's very popular?" Patty asked.

"I checked on the internet. They've been a huge success. A bit different than that prototype there," Annie said pointing to the sheet of paper. "They sell for thousands of dollars."

"Thousands of dollars for a dildo?"

"Not just a dildo, Patty. You don't walk into Spencers and buy one of these babies."

"They sell dildos at Spencers?"

"That's not all they sell at Spencers. They have their own little sex shop there."

"At Spencers in the mall? Our mall?"

"Next time you're in the mall take your sunglasses, put them on and walk into the store. You'll see for yourself."

"Did you buy something?"

"Yeah," Annie said. "I bought a dildo, the biggest dildo they had. It was about a foot long, thick as my arm and vibrated like a jack hammer."

"What exactly does it do?" Patty asked.

"What?"

"This thing," Patty said pointing at the picture.

"You sit on it," Annie said.

"And that's it? For thousands of dollars that's all you do? I can think of a lot of other things I could spend a thousand dollars on."

Annie reached into her purse again and pulled out another folded up sheet of paper.

"Here," Annie said handing the paper to Patty. "Look at this. I got it off the internet. It's a working model."

Patty unfolded the sheet of paper and looked at the Sybian, one directly from the

manufacturer, which included the power cord, all the attachments and the control box for manual control of the movement and vibrations. Patty read the advertisement before

speaking.

"Okay, so I was wrong," Patty said. "I would spend a thousand, or more, on this.

But what I don't understand is what happened to Elwood's investment if this is so popular?"

"That's exactly what I asked John."

"And?"

"Apparently, during the testing of the model Elwood had invested in, there was an

accident."

"What kind of accident?"

"While they were in the experimental phase of the production, the part where they have to find out if the thing is doing what they expect it to do, something happened to one of the girls who was recruited to test it," Annie said.

"Where do you find girls to test this kind of equipment?" Patty asked. "Put an ad in the paper? Girl wanted for sexual apparatus testing."

"I don't know," Annie replied. "I seriously doubt, or I hope so anyway, Elwood wasn't involved in that part of it. I suppose she was a stripper or something. I don't know."

"So what happened to her?"

"While she was testing the machine she got shocked by a short in one of the wires and

now she can't feel anything down there. She's totally numb from what John told me. She

sued the company and that was the end of their prototype and Elwood's investment."

"So, in other words," Patty said. "You're the only one that got screwed in this deal."

Annie looked at her watch. "Oh, my god, I'm going to be late."

Annie excused herself and rushed to the Daring Police Department just two blocks down the road. She clocked in, sat down at her reception area with another cup of coffee and that's when Chet Lawrence called.             

"Daring Police Department."

"Annie?"

"This is Annie."

"Morning, Annie."

"Morning. Who is this?"

"This is Chet."

"Chet Lawrence?"

"Yes ma'am."

"What do you want, Chet?"

"Well, Annie, I'm gonna get to that, but I need to explain myself first."

"Okay."

"As I'm sure you know I'm on probation for, well, let's say a few minor infractions associated with hunting on private property."

"I think that was a total of seven infractions, Chet."

"Well now, Annie, two of those were borderline infractions as I recall but I understand your point. I don't want to get into a pissing match about the particulars, but a man has to look out for his family. Wouldn't you agree?"

"What are you calling for, Chet?"

"Well now, Annie, that's where we get into what I'd call one of those gray areas."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning I have some important information to pass along, but I'm sure they'll be questions as to the hows and whys I came about this particular information."

"You're poaching again?"

"Poaching is a strong word, Annie."

"How about trespassing then?"

"That would be more accurate and, more importantly, wouldn't violate my parole."

"So you came across some information while you were trespassing on private property?"

"It's private property that, by the way, is trespassed upon on a daily basis."

"Is this information I need to pass along, Chet?"

"Most definitely, Annie."

"Are you going to tell me?"

"First I better tell you where I'm at. I think that would be a better approach to the situation."

"Where are you, Chet?"

"I'm in the woods across from Eagle Rock Plaza."

"Okay. Continue."

"There's a dirt road that leads back here and off to the side of the road in a patch of weeds I found something."

"Let me guess, a deer?"

"No, ma'am, a body.

Annie called the chief immediately after she hung up with Chet Lawrence.

"He called from his cell phone," Annie told Chief Stone Goddard.

Chief Stone Goddard, thirty-nine, lived in a small, modest house on the corner of Orwin and Machine street about a mile from the police department that afforded him a moderate amount pf privacy. Stone was somewhat of a local celebrity, a basketball star in high school who had gone on to play Division I basketball at Georgia Tech.

The phone was ringing as he made his way out of the shower.

"This wasn't a crank call?" Stone asked.

"Chet's on probation, remember?"

"He was hunting back there?"

"That never came up in the conversation," Annie said. "We agreed he was just trespassing in order to get him to talk. He did call me, chief."

"And he told you what?"

"There was a body in the woods across from Eagle Rock Plaza. There's a dirt road leads back there and off to the side, in the weeds, was a body."

"Male or female?"

"Didn't say."

"I'll be right there."

Stone hung up the phone.

"You don't need an alarm?" the woman asked, rolling over in Stone's bed, the

bedspread slipping down revealing her breasts.

"You like doing that, don't you?" Stone said, glancing down at the woman's breasts and then back to her face.

"Oh, whatever do you mean?" she said like Scarlett O'Hara. She looked, admiringly, at her plump, yet firm breasts. "These little ole things? Surely you can't be referring to these?" She gave them a little push with her hand. "They're just breasts. Albeit close to perfect

breasts, but breasts nonetheless."

"The best money can buy," Stone said.

"Touché," the woman said resorting back to her usual, husky voice. She brushed back her dark, red hair behind her left ear and looked seductively at Stone. "You have to leave so

soon?"

"Afraid so."

"The cat stuck in the tree can't wait fifteen or twenty minutes?" she asked.

"I'm sure it could," Stone said, grabbing a pair of underwear and slipping them on. "If it were just a cat in a tree."

"What is it then?" The woman, tall, got out of bed. She was thin, maybe too thin,

sans the breasts of course, walked to the bathroom, sat down on the toilet and peed without closing the door. "I didn't hear what you said," she said.

"I know. I didn't say anything."

"How about ten minutes?" she said, peeling off some toilet paper and wiping herself.

"I need to get to work."

"This is Daring" she said, standing and flushing the toilet. "What could possibly be that urgent?"

"It's the mayor's cat," Stone said, buckling his pants. "Pure bred."

"You're lying," she said. She moved back into the bedroom, grabbed her panties and put them on.

"You're more than welcome to climb back into bed," Stone said.

"I have a job too, remember?" she said. "Back to what you were saying."

"Which was what?"

"About saving the mayor's cat."

"Yeah."

"What is it? The cat I mean. What breed?"

"I don't remember now."

The woman picked up a shoe and threw it at Stone. Not hard, just playfully. Then she came after him, in her panties, her breasts free and grabbed him pressing her breasts against him.

"Are you sure that cat in the tree can't wait a bit?"

"It can't wait," Stone said, becoming the cop now, being evasive.

The woman moved away, her instincts taking over, catching the subtle nuances in Stone's behavior, becoming the reporter now.

"What's going on?" she asked, moving away from Stone.

"Nothing," Stone said, smiling.

"What?"

"Do you realize you're standing there with only your panties on and you have, all of a sudden, started work?"

"I get some of my best interviews this way," she said. Stone smiled. "Besides, you started first, being secretive about what's going on."

"That's because I don't know what's going on yet."

"What do you know so far?"

"Come on, Bree," Stone said, turning away. "Give me a break."

"So it is something," Bree said.

Bree Stevens was a local reporter for the ABC affiliate out of Erie, a small-time reporter normally covering bullshit stories like traffic accidents or slum lord stories or the occasional drug bust of a small-time meth house. But she longed for her break-out story, like the pizza bomber story in 2003. That kind of story could put her on the road to New York or Los Angeles. The big time.

"This is Daring, remember?" Stone said.

"How could I forget."

"Then get dressed or go back to bed," Stone said, reaching over and kissing her on the forehead. "Quit trying to put the reporter's moves on me. Most reporters have their clothes when they try to get information from me."

"I find that hard to believe."

"You can interrogate me later if you want," Stone said. He was at the doorway to the bedroom.

"I have to work tonight."

"Too bad," Stone said, and walked out of the bedroom.

Daring Police Department was on Main Street in Daring. It also housed the billing department for electric and water, the mayor's office, council meetings and the fire department. In the back, behind the building, was the parking lot and behind that was the local community pool and asphalt basketball courts.

Stone arrived a few minutes later and entered the building, said hello to Annie and went to his office to change. When he came out he said to Annie, "Who's on duty?"

"Will," Annie said.

"Tell him to meet me in the woods across from the plaza."

"Roger."

"And, Annie," Stone said. "This stays right here until I say otherwise. Got it?"

"Sure thing, boss."

She wasn't the smartest girl in the world. Hell, she wasn't the smartest girl in her neighborhood. She wasn't the smartest girl under any circumstances, but Deputy Will Dawson liked to fuck her whenever he got the chance. And although this was early morning and technically he was still on duty... No, he had to tell himself, he was on duty. There was no "technically" about it. If Stone knew he was here there would be hell to pay along with a serious reprimand and write-up. But it was worth the risk.

Elsa Stromski - or if you wanted to get technical about it, Elsa Benson since she got married last year - was worth the risk of getting written up and lectured to by Stone. Lectured to because Bobby Benson, Elsa's husband, was not the type of man who would, in any fucking way, put up with someone fucking his wife.

Now if you wanted to get technical about it, Will thought, one could argue, and rightfully so, Elsa was cajoled, bamboozled, hoodwinked, duped into getting married. Bobby Benson, prick mother fucker that he was, had taken advantage of the situation. Found Elsa at a low point in her young life, played the savior that could take her away from the shitty rat hole home life she had with a drunken, abusive father and a mother who worked night and day to support that habitual behavior. A mother who was too afraid to leave and a father who made sure it stayed that way. With those two role models it's no wonder Elsa chose to marry Bobby Benson. Any circumstance, even a circumstance with a prick like Bobby Benson, had to have seemed better.

But that wasn't what really bothered Deputy Will Dawson. It wasn't what had really got under his skin about Elsa and her stupid fucking decision to marry such a transparent asshole like Bobby Benson. What really irked Deputy Will Dawson was the fact he could be married to Elsa if he had just been smart enough to ask first. But he hadn't. He had thought he would have time. But he had been wrong.

Will had been so stupid he had asked her to marry him after the fact. She looked

confused.

"But I'm married," Elsa said in somewhat thick Polish accent.

"I know that," Will said. "I know that. What I meant was if you weren't married...I mean, if I would have asked you first, before what's-his-face asked you, what would have been your answer?"

Her face lit up like someone had stuck a light bulb inside her head and turned it on.

"I would have said 'yes'."

Of course he knew that would be the answer. He had to ask though. He had to teach himself, what he thought, would be a valuable lesson. He had used her, she had let him use her, and then, like all men who think with their dicks, he had lost her to a man who had no business or right to have her. She deserved better and Will was beating himself up for letting

it happen, for letting her go. He was, he finally realized, in love with Elsa.

But righting his wrong was not going to be easy. Bobby Benson would not give her up, ever, and what Stone would be concerned with, along with Elsa, was Bobby Benson would probably kill them both if he found out they were sleeping together.

"You're flirting with fire," Stone had said one day when they were sitting in the back room of the police station shooting the bull.

"What are you talking about?" Will asked, acting like he didn't know what Stone meant.

Stone just looked at Will with that give-me-a-break look.

"All I'm saying is Bobby Benson, as you well know, is not someone you want on your bad side," Stone said.

"I can take care of myself," Will said dryly.

"That's what I'm worried about," Stone said.

They could meet, have their little make-believe-we're-married sessions at Elsa's out-of- the-way house where they were relatively safe from the many prying eyes of Daring, but, inevitably, they would get caught and/or Bobby would find out and that's when their make believe world would become all too real.