Illegal In Blue

Officer Keith Bohn smirked inside the darkened interior of his police cruiser feeling smug about his stealth position in a used car lot where he was hidden from casual view. Across the street a wedding reception had been raging most of the night, and was just now beginning to wind down. A quick glance at the clock on the radio revealed that it was nearing one AM, a time when most couples had left the reception to a younger, more rowdy crowd.

When Officer Bohn looked up from the clock, his patience was rewarded as he watched one of the Brides Maids say her good-byes at the foyer of the Odd Fellows Hall, and then make her way towards her car. As she did so, officer Bohn had a clear vantage point in which to observe her. As she opened the door to her silver Toyota Highlander, Officer Bohn had a split second of time to see the hem of her maroon dress slip over the mid-way point of her thigh and smiled as the wide bands of her thigh-high stockings were revealed. It was a glorious view, but short lived as the woman slid her long legs towards the pedals of the vehicle and then shut the door in one fluid motion. Officer Bohn's carefully chosen position was not revealed even as the woman pulled out just in front of him and preceded to drive down the deserted street, the yellowish glow of the multiple streetlights glinting off its metallic surface.

For a few blocks Officer Bohn was content just to follow the vehicle, watching for the tell-tale signs of an inebriated driver. That patience began to wear thin however when he thought about the skimpy, tight fitting bridesmaid outfit she was wearing, and even more importantly, the accompanying thigh-high stockings and equally flattering high heels she had adorning her long legs. Thinking of that, the metallic surface of her silver car only reflected more light when he flipped the switch to his blue light bar, and saw the early morning darkness resonate with the pulse of intense blue strobes.

As Keith cautiously walked up to the driver's side window of the expensive sport utility vehicle, through the rear window he could see the woman reaching into the center console, perhaps to innocently grab the necessary driver information police officer's always asked for, or perhaps to grab for a breath mint in a pathetic attempt to cover her alcoholic breath. Either way he was disappointed. He had been in hopes that this woman would have tried to swoon the Officer by pulling up the hemline of her dress, and accenting her cleavage as best she could.

"Good evening miss. I'll need to see your license, registration, and proof of insurance," he said as he shined the powerful light of his menacing looking flashlight in her face so as to temporarily blind her. As she squinted against the bright light, Officer Bohn danced the beam inside the interior of the car, presumably searching for illegal contraband, when in fact he was taking a look at her long legs that stretched out towards the operating pedals of her car. To his surprise however, the look netted its own reward when he saw her black high heels lying on their sides on the passenger's floorboard.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to put your shoes on Miss. In the State of Maine, driving barefoot is a citable offense as it really is for your own safety."

"I know," she said meekly as she handed the officer the paperwork he asked for. "I'm just not used to wearing high heels and it felt funny driving in them."

Keith pretended to look over the paperwork, when in fact it was much more interesting to watch the young lady reach over the center console and begin to place her feet back into her shoes. It would have been a simple task, but the high heels had the added inconvenience of a single tiny strap that wrapped around her ankle and she fought for a minute getting each one of the buckles to lace through the tiny slit. Keith knew it was probably the nervousness at being stopped by a police officer that made the menial task so difficult, but he chose to ask her about the dexterity from a different point of view.

"Miss, have you been drinking tonight?"

Keith already knew the answer when he saw her eyes grow big and her face lose all expression, then just as quickly as she looked up at him; she looked away, pretending to adjust the strap on her shoe as she muttered an answer into the darkened interior of the car.

"A little I guess."

"A little huh? Well I am afraid I am going to have to ask you to step out of the car Miss and submit to a field sobriety test. Are you familiar with what that consists of?"

The young woman only nodded to the officer and quietly removed her seat belt and stepped out of the vehicle. As she did, once again Officer Bohn saw the hemline of her maroon satin Bridesmaids dress gently get tugged up her legs just high enough for the stocking tops of her stockings to show. This time however, he was much closer and got a much better view and had to suppress his pleasure by forcing himself not to grin.

"Okay Miss Boynton, why don't we start with trying to walk in a straight line? Using your feet heel-to-toe, try and walk along this parking lot stripe without using your balance. Do you think you can do that?"

"I'll try," she said and placed her right foot out first, then placed her left foot just in front of it and tried to alternate her feet as she tried to walk the ten feet or so Officer Bohn wanted her to walk a straight line in.

As Keith watched the attractive young woman stretch her arms out beside her, and tried her best to prove her sobriety, he could not help but watch her sexy black stiletto heels, making their slow, deliberate clicking sounds of heel tip upon hard asphalt. Twice he watched the heel dip into a wide crack in the pavement making the young woman lose her balance and catch herself by stepping off the line. On the second stagger, she looked at him, he hands on her hips.

"Can I at least take my heels off? I am not used to wearing them and I at least deserve a fighting chance at this?"

"I suppose that is only fair," he said as he opened up the rear door of his police cruiser so she could have a place to sit as she removed them. As she fiddled once again with the tiny silver buckles of her ankle straps, Keith honestly tried to assess her drunkenness. Even with a few years of law enforcement experience, he honestly could not determine if she was impaired by alcohol or not. This time she had less trouble with slipping the silver prong from out of the hole in the leather strap, but Keith knew removing her shoes was not a real test of mental dexterity.

"This is kind of ironic isn't it? I can't pass the sobriety test with my shoes on and I can't drive my car with them off either," she said with a smile as she pulled each shoe off in turn and tossed them gently onto the asphalt pavement of the parking lot. "You never said whether or not you are going to cite me for that infraction?"

"I think there are more important safety concerns right now than you simply driving barefoot", Officer Bohn said as he watched the young woman stand up and walk the few steps to the white parking lot stripe. As she started to put one foot in front of the other, Keith could not help but look down at her all-but-bare feet. Clad now only in a pair of beige colored stockings; the fabric of which was so sheer that he almost wished she had left her shoes on.

For starters, the young woman had perfectly proportioned feet; neither too thin nor too long, and had each one had toes that nestled one against the other in a perfect descending order. The tips of her toes formed a perfect curve, no toe too long or short, and her nails were painted a deep maroon color that matched her dress perfectly. The color also was also bright enough so that it was visible through the thin, sheer fabric of her nylon stockings, a look that Officer Bohn especially liked. The last thing Keith noticed was how on the third toe of each foot, she wore a bright gold ring, an accent that she certainly did not need, for her feet along held his gaze, or any man's gaze for that matter, without the need for expensive jewelry.

Now as officer Bohn watched the woman struggle to maintain her balance, it became clear that even bare-footed, Amy Lynn Boynton was to inebriated to drive.

"That's far enough Miss Boynton. I'm afraid you are too impaired to drive your vehicle, and out of concern for you and the safety of others, I cannot let you drive home."

As his words began to sink into the young woman, Keith watched keenly unsure what the young woman's reaction would be. As he spun her around and began to place the handcuffs on the young woman, she began to softly cry. He tried to block out her soft tears out of his mind and dedication to duty as he carefully sat her onto the rear seat of his police cruiser watching her head with his hand as he did so.

With her mind on her current predicament, Amy forgot about her shoes until Officer Bohn nearly tripped over them.

"I'll take those," she said as tears continued to stream down her face.

"I'm sorry Miss, we had an incident a few months ago where a woman kicked an Officer with a pair of high heels on, and he got injured pretty. New policy states that they have to be treated like weapons and confiscated. I'm sorry, but it is for my own safety." Amy only nodded as the officer swooped them up, then gently tossed them onto the passenger's seat as he pulled the police cruiser out of the derelict parking lot and started down the main highway.

As he did so, Amy only cried softly in the back seat. Keith could only look at her with compassion. This was the aspect of his job that Keith absolutely hated; arresting people for lapses in judgment when he had to release suspects that he was sure were guilty of far worse offenses, and yet evidence just was not there to support the arrest.

In his mind he rehearsed the whole scene that was about to befall on the young woman. It was true that her high heels now had to be treated in the same manner weapons were to be handled, and it turned his stomach knowing what her beautiful bare feet would have to be walking on. Blood, dirt and vomit were cleaned up from the holding cell on an hourly basis, not to mention the caliber of people that would be milling about in the same cell with her for the next few hours. Dressed as she was in her skimpy bridesmaid dress, Keith knew that in itself was a punishment worse than her crime. Thinking of that, Officer Bohn made a decision that he hoped he would not regret.

As the moon slowly made its arc in the night sky, Officer Bohn maneuvered slowly through the city streets. Behind him Amy cried softly in the back seat, holding her face in her hands as she felt the cold handcuffs cut into her wrists. She was too upset by her current predicament to pay much attention to the streets the police officer had taken until he came to a stop beside the curb. Looking up she noticed he had stopped just in front of her apartment.

"This isn't the police station," Amy stated in surprise as the office got out and opened up the passenger's door and let the young woman out. As he undid her hand cuffs, he smiled as he spoke.

"You're too inebriated to drive Miss, but at the same time I hate to see your life ruined just because you had one to many. Consider this a professional courtesy, but also consider yourself very lucky Miss," he said sternly as he placed the hand cuffs back into their leather case on his belt.

"Are you going to get into trouble letting me go," she asked as she wiped the tears from her eyes and then rubbed her sore wrists in turn?

"I could, but I'll erase the dash cam and conjure up something on patrol report. When your sober in the morning feel free to go back and pick up your car. I'm sure it will be alright there overnight."

"I will," she said slowly, and then looked down at the pavement on the side walk. Slowly she looked back up at the officer, her gaze meeting his. "Now is this where I am supposed to invite you into my apartment and show my appreciation for helping me out? If it is, I will."

Keith only smiled.

"That is quite the offer, but because I'm still in uniform I'm afraid and that would be what we call Illegal in Blue. I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

"But I'm still free to go?"

"Of course Miss, just try to show a little better judgment the next time you are out drinking okay?"

Amy nodded and ascended the stairs leading up to her second floor apartment. As she heard the police cruiser start up and pull away from the curb, her right foot hit the first stair tread. 'Damn it, my shoes,' she thought as she turned to see the taillights of the police cruiser make the corner at the end of the street. To late to flag the police officer down, she climbed the remaining stairs, cringing as skirted a broken bottle of beer on the mid-point landing, and skirted past a bag of trash that some alley cat had partially ripped open. Even with her feet barely protected by the thin fabric of her nylon stockings, Amy took refuge in the fact that she was only barefoot and not arrested, not realizing that it was her bare feet that had given her tonight's freedom.

For the next two days, Officer Bohn often thought about what he had done for Amy and what it would have been like had he taken her up on her offer. Still the thoughts about her were beginning to wane as additional patrols brought additional problems and additional suspects into custody.

He was just wrapping up his shift, sitting at the small diner on the east end of town when Amy walked in. It took her a second of scanning the small building to spy the police officer and immediately smiled and made her way over to him.

"May I have a seat," she cordially asked? Keith had to make a sweeping gesture with his hand as he had just taken a mouthful of his burger, but chocked it down in order to talk to the pretty young woman again. As he swallowed the bite of his burger, Amy continued.

"Your co-workers said you always ate here at the end of your shift. I thought I would catch up with you and see if I could get those pair of high heels I left in your car the other day?"

"Yeah sure, they are in the trunk of my car. I'll go get them."

"In due time," she said with an inquisitive expression now spreading across her face. "There was something else I needed from you though. Why you let me go the other night? Most cops would not have done that, much less turned my offer down. Why?"

Keith grinned but shrugged his shoulders.

"Every week I have to let some jerk out of jail that desperately deserves it because there is no evidence to hold him. You made a mistake in judgment. I just cut you some slack."

"That's bullshit and you know it. I bet in your entire career you have never once personally taken a drunk driver home and told them to sleep it off. I could see you doing that if you thought you were going to get something from me, but having refused my little offer..." she said letting the words trail off as she studied his expression.

Officer Bohn only grinned, his face flushing a bit crimson as he looked down at his burger.

"You wouldn't understand Amy. It's complicated really."

"Try me."

"You have cute feet Amy. If I took you to the police barracks your shoes would have been confiscated and you would have had to walk barefoot on the most disgusting floors you have ever seen. That place is filled with fifty drunks on the weekend and the thought of those cute little feet walking through grime, puke and blood was pretty revolting. I hated the thought of you enduring that just because you had a little too much to drink. That's the real reason I took you home Amy."

"And the reason you turned down my offer?"

"Dressed as you were, the people you would have been detained with, would have been all over you. If I took advantage of you that night, I would be no better then them."

"Interesting reasoning," she said, as a big smile spread across her face. "Of course having just been in a wedding, having a few drinks in me, and having a man in uniform just do me a big favor, really would not have been taken advantage of me. In fact I think you would have done me a favor that night. I was more than willing."

"I could tell, but I was in uniform."

"I know, but it's interesting. I have a thing for men in uniform and you have a little foot fetish," she said now starting to get up. Keith only watched, disappointed that she was obviously leaving as the conversation was just starting to get interesting. "But now that you are off duty, why don't you drop those high heels off at my apartment. I'll be waiting...bare foot of course," she said with a big grin as she turned and walked out of the diner.