To Serve and Protect: Virus Ch. 01

"I heard that and saw that," she said. "But it's right to show how devastating this can be to a cop. We have an arson and two homicides to investigate here, one of them for no reason at all. Torching that house didn't get rid of the evidence a murder had appeared there – Dr. Taylor could find a needle in a haystack or DNA evidence in a pile of ashes. All it did was kill a little girl and intimidate an entire neighborhood. We'll have to formulate a plan to tie this evidence to the likely suspects, and if they aren't guilty, to find out who else could have done it. I am open to suggestions."

Liz panned across the room and stopped when a hand went up. Sue said: "An undercover operative?"

"A good idea," Linda replied, "but we have to dig really deep to find someone who they won't know, or maybe someone they think they know but won't suspect."

"What about me?" Liz said suddenly. She passed the camera unceremoniously to Pete and went to stand by Linda. "I'm an addict. In recovery, clean for a year, but an addict."

Linda eyeballed Liz up and down. "Suppose they make you use again?"

"Then I'll have to clean up again. Besides, I have some things going in my favor. I frequent the clubs a lot, I look like a butch lesbian, which I am, and I can talk my way out of a lot of tough situations."

"You are not a trained police officer, Ms. Guerrin." That from Lieutenant Cronin. But Sue Adams raised her hand again.

"I have an idea this could work, Lieutenant. She knows a lot about the Sheriff's Department and the crooks around here know it. If we feed her phony tips about corruption in the department and she passes it along, the drug lords will see her as a pipeline of information. If we send out a detective or two on a bust and he or she pockets the drug money, she could tell them. Then they try to get the detective in their pocket. The detective reneges on a promise, they try to kill the detective, and we jump on them. I doubt Curly Bill or the other guys will change their M.O."

Linda looked Sue over up and down. "Sounds awfully risky to me, Officer Adams. You are asking not only Ms. Guerrin but an unnamed officer to put his or her life on the line and risk a horrible death. Maybe more than one."

Sue replied, "Lieutenant, we do that every day. It's a question of whether they are stronger or whether we are stronger. To put it simply, it's the real war against terror. Do we win our small battle or do they?"

Cronin replied: "Mighty profound, Officer." Pete panned over to Sue, who gave a high sign for the camera. She said: "Mr. Moskow and I worked it out beforehand. He was going to ask why we fight this war on drugs anyway, why we don't give it up like they gave up on Prohibition. I wanted to tell him that the cruel people will rule no matter what the method – liquor, harder drugs, sex, stealing, whatever – unless they know in advance that someone's going to stand up to them."

Pete gave a shrug and then cursed himself as the camera made a big tilt up and down. Everybody else in the room laughed.

* * *

That night, Sue got home early and made preparations for a night of lovemaking. She made Linda's favorite tea and a good meal from her mother's recipe, checked the bed to make sure everything was in shape, and checked the sex toys for what would suit Linda's mood. She drew a bath, scrubbed herself thoroughly, and set up another bath for Linda. She got some water and put it into a humidifier to loosen Linda's lungs, and turned the humidifier on low, adding some scented oil that gave the room a pleasant scent.

She got out Linda's favorite photo album and laid it on the coffee table, and looked through the photos of Linda, which never failed to give either of them a warm glow. Sue had included some pictures of herself, including those of her graduation, those from her commissioning as a police officer, and several of her in really nice outfits – including one rather revealing swimsuit shot. Sue knew Linda loved her in any outfit, but the swimsuit shot was a favorite because of the look in Sue's eyes when she looked at Linda behind the camera. Besides, Sue wasn't really past that vanity stage where she didn't want to look beautiful for the right person.

Sue took a phone call from Pete as she waited. Pete had wrangled jobs for himself and for Liz at the university, broadcasting regularly scheduled advice programs to people seeking re-certification in just about anything related to a hospital. Liz was doing her stand-up comedy act at various and sundry nightclubs, and Pete was videotaping the shows – he told interested parties that he was trying to get her on Last Comic Standing or its equivalent, and was compiling an audition tape for her. What he didn't tell was that he had a second camera checking for possible drug suppliers, scanning the audience. Both Linda and Sue had put in appearances at some of the clubs which favored lesbians. Neither of them wanted to get hit on, so one would drop off the other and wait for a call asking for a ride home. Sue had been visibly taken aback by some of the club atmospheres, and she suspected Linda had as well. Both of them, and Pete as well, were concerned about what would happen to a recently-clean person like Liz when confronted with some of the things that happened in those clubs.

At long last, Sue heard Linda's car in the driveway. She put the finishing touches on the meal and the tea, put a bathrobe on over her clothes, and turned on a string of Christmas lights in the dining room. Sue would have preferred to eat by candlelight, but the smoke was a bit much for Linda.

Linda came into the front door and stopped while Sue held her in a long hug. Sue could feel Linda's heart racing. Sue let Linda stand there for a while, hoping for a hug in return, hoping Linda felt well enough for the lovemaking that was to follow. At long last came the return hug. Sue stroked Linda's neck and chin, and kissed her softly on the lips. She didn't want to push it.

Linda let out an appreciative "OOOHHHH," when she saw her favorite dishes cooked. She took a mouthful and swallowed, savoring the warmth of it going down her rather sore throat. Sue had provided plenty of lemons for the tea, and Linda took advantage by eating several slices whole. Whenever Linda put out her hand, Sue touched it with a gentle caress. By the end of the meal, Linda was definitely feeling better.

The night was far from over. Sue turned on some nice music in the living room, sat down beside Linda and went through the photo album again. There was a photo set of Linda in her ballet costume, quite a few years after Swan Lake, where she had been a ballerina undercover at a dance touring company. The ballet brought back many memories for Linda. She had killed two men trying to kill Mike Gibson, and after that the two of them had made love for the first time. Ordinarily Linda, now settled with Sue, wouldn't have brought it up. But Sue, after her relationship with Linda had deepened and she had become close friends with Mike's daughter Carol, had found out a lot about what had happened. She used that knowledge to apply to her love for Linda.

Sue and Linda had tried the "butch and femme" roles, with Sue being the butch, soon after their first time together. Sue didn't think of herself as 'macha,' as her Spanish-speaking colleagues referred to certain strong women. Linda was one tough cop, but she had a deeply human, vulnerable side and sometimes she wanted to be brought down a peg or two so she could enjoy life more. So, occasionally, Sue would discipline Linda with swats from a hairbrush. She did that this time as well. Linda cried sometimes, not from pain but from gratitude that Sue wasn't totally intimidated by her lover; that the two of them could be free with their emotions. As soon as this spanking was over, Linda sat up, drew Sue to her and gave her a fierce kiss.

Sue normally dressed like a college student when she wasn't in uniform, and wore college-student nightclothes. But sometimes she liked to look sexy. So when she drew her robe aside, she had on a beautiful gown and sheer panties. Linda loved it. Sue wouldn't let Linda undress her, though ... she undressed Linda one button at a time, with Linda moaning frustration and sometimes holding her breath. Linda did that often when she was building tension, and sometimes Sue had to tell her to breathe. Linda was more reluctant than usual this time. Sue attributed it to her sore throat.

Sue decided this would be Linda's night. She wouldn't let Linda get her off until Linda had gone through orgasm and beyond. She gave Linda a couple extra swats with the hairbrush, then put it aside and began massaging her buttocks. When Linda seemed to enjoy it, Sue moved away and began unbuttoning Linda's blouse to massage some other things.

Linda's breathing came heavy, and her eyes tended to glaze over, when she was really aroused. Sue didn't think Linda's breathing was unusual in this instance. But, just in case, she brought out some medicated ointment to massage into Linda's chest and throat, and let Linda sip some tea. Sue undid Linda's pants and panties, and pushed them down until Linda's bare bottom was exposed. Then she put some more of the medicated ointment on the reddened buttocks. Sue cleaned off her hands with an astringent and began massaging Linda's back up and up, then down and down. Linda moaned.

Sue was a toucher and feeler. Although Linda never talked about her previous lovers, Sue knew two of them – Carol's parents, Mike and Pat Gibson. Carol had never said anything about what had passed between her mom and stepfather and surrogate aunt, but she had told about what Pat and Mike did together, and Sue had picked up the rest from Linda's reactions to her own actions. So Sue knew Linda loved to be stroked and caressed, made love to in the old-fashioned sense of the word, before the main event.

So that's what she did. Linda closed her eyes as the practiced fingers moved all over her body, touching zones that only an experienced lover can find. Sue lifted Linda's breasts one at a time and suckled on them, then kissed in between. She left a line of kisses up and down Linda's neck to the shoulder, and kissed her hands and wrists. She turned Linda over and kissed her legs from ankle to buttock, especially behind the knees. She held Linda's legs together and traced the artificial shallow clefts between them, gradually separating them on each pass. She felt Linda's hip bones, laid her hands on them, and rocked them back and forth as if she were already thrusting into Linda's womanhood.

It was just about time for the main course. Sue gradually sat Linda up on the couch, knelt beside her, and began kissing her tummy. Again she placed her hands on Linda's hips, feeling Linda thrust back and forth. Linda's eyes ranged from glazed to closed, and her breath came in heavy, short rasps when she wasn't holding it in. Sue kissed the thigh nearest to her. Then she slid her knees off the couch to the carpet. Linda's thighs parted as Sue went down to Linda's knee, the back of it, and then to the other knee. Now Sue knelt between Linda's thighs and began kissing, licking and sucking her way up to what was a very wet space between them. At the same time, she rocked Linda's hips back and forth with a steely grip, settling her in for the thrusting motion of her tongue.

For some reason, Linda's sex juices tasted different. Maybe it was the tea, Sue didn't know, but she liked it. As she licked up and down the vulva, stiffening her tongue into a point so it thrust into the vagina, she tasted a sweetness that hadn't been there.

Linda was crying out, almost as if she were in pain. She seldom did that, even with Sue, and Sue loved every minute of it. Sue used the heels of her hands to hold Linda's pelvis in the thrust, while her fingers danced around the pubic region, feeling for the muscles quivering and sending their sensations through the skin. She wasn't disappointed. Linda was heading for the orgasm of a lifetime, and Sue was arcing in her own right, feeling the tremendous thrill only one lover can feel for another.

Linda blew up. She thrust so hard into Sue's face that Sue was knocked backward and fell over, hitting her head on the coffee table. Linda rose up into an almost standing position, let out one more cry, and fell to her side.

(To Be Continued)