Chapter 30: Invalid Indictment

"I tell you there isn't enough here to lay charges."

Lieutenant John Flett clenched his teeth in frustration but Detective Dick Durham's frustration was more vocal.

"Dammitall woman what do you want? Can't you lawyers do anything? We've got video evidence of them planning the whole hooker thing and we've got the Principal screwing that underaged one too."

The woman taking the verbal abuse was Cheryl Mahoney, Peter Mahoney's kid sister who, at the unusually young age of twenty three was the Assistant District Attorney who had been assigned to the case. And she was nervous.

"They may claim entrapment and they could win. We want to be right when we take those bastards to court." Cheryl did not use words like bastard but right now she felt a need to act tough. The lieutenant didn't bother her but the big detective scared her and if he put the word out to the other policemen that she was soft on criminals her career would be dead before it began.

Durham didn't miss much and he saw the scared rabbit look in the pretty little attorney's eyes. Yes, he wouldn't mind doing a bit of legal investigation with her. She had a dark complexion and dark hair and was barely five feet tall but damn, was she put together. No ring on her finger so she was maybe available. Maybe she'd like to do a good deed and give him some private tutoring in the law courses he was taking at night. He hadn't been in a woman as small as she since he was fourteen years old.

The discussion went on for an hour aimed mainly at finding a legal way to trap the two low-lives, Ramsay and Smart. They did have enough to go after the Principal but they decided that it wasn't going to help their main case and it might make the deacon and the developer more cautious.

"Well dammit, get something on them! Something our chickenshit legal people will take to court."

Flett had reported the Assistant DA's conclusion about the case to Chief Reardon and he was subjected to an outburst of the Chief's legendary Irish temper.

"Is that all, sir?"

"Yes dammit! Now go get something done before this story leaks to the media."

John Flett immediately called in Detective Durham and Officer Marker to discuss how they might trap Ramsay and Smart without appearing to trap them.

"Maybe we should bring ADA Mahoney in on this. She can tell us if we're on the right track." The detective's suggestion was a good one but it was not motivated solely by desire to get the criminals. He had an even greater desire to get the shapely, petite ADA or more precisely, to get into her.

Thirty minutes later the four of them were seated in Flett's office.

"Could we get one of the girls to testify about what happened?"

"Good suggestion Mahoney... but I doubt that any of them would do that. They are all illegals and the last thing they want is to go back to Guatemala or Honduras or wherever," John replied to the ADA's suggestion. "And it looks like they're all prospering... never had it so good."

"That's awful," Cheryl said with a shudder. "Can't they see that they're on the road to a bad end... that after their youth is gone they'll be cast out like trash?" The young and idealistic ADA sounded like John imagined Reverend Gillis would sound preaching about the evils of prostitution.

"Could we run a ringer... have a girl pose as an underage immigrant... get a job with Ramsay and act willing to become a hooker and have her make a deal with Smart, too? Will that be legal?

"I don't know Dick? It might be legal but anyway, where would we get a girl who could do that? I mean, pass for a fifteen year old and still be mature enough to carry out the scam?

"She's sitting right here with us, John. With the right makeup you could easily pass for fifteen, Miz Mahoney... a beautiful little Guatemalan girl. Habla espanol?"

"Poquito," the woman replied and despite her dark complexion the fact that she was blushing furiously was apparent to all. But it sounds kind of scary and I'm not sure if it would stand up in court."

"And we couldn't ask you to risk your safety, Cheryl," Flett interjected before she could finish her statement.

"I'd really love to try, Lieutenant. I'm into amateur theatre and this would be a real, serious acting job. Can I ask the DA for permission?"

"There's another problem. Ramsay and Smart are both members of the same church that you belong to, Cheryl. Ramsay's even a deacon."

"I'm new here Lieutenant. My brother is active in the church but I'm not. I'd just stop attending while I'm acting as a Latino."

"I don't know Cheryl? Maybe Officer Marker could do it though. She's a policewoman so it's really part of her job.

"Oh yes Lieutenant... can I?" The young police officer was like a puppy dog in her excitement at the prospect.

"Tell you what, I'll discuss it with Chief Reardon and you Cheryl check with the DA. If it's a good idea for one of you to do it then it'll be a better idea if the two of you do it together. You can be partners and sort of watch each other's back."

The meeting adjourned but on the way out Detective Durham made his first move on Assistant District Attorney Mahoney by asking her to join him at Starbucks for coffee. This suited his partner, Officer Marker just fine because she was becoming increasingly uneasy from the way Durham eyed her body when they were alone together.

Chief Reardon however was not impressed with their plan. "Dammitall John! That'll leave us back where we are right now. They'll still claim entrapment and they'll likely win. Isn't there some way we can get one of the real girls to turn on Deacon Ramsay?"

It was later in the day when Flett convened another meeting. "How can we get one of the girls to turn on Ramsay?"

"Maybe if Mahoney could pretend to be an illegal and befriend one of the Latinas we could get her to turn.

"My Spanish might fool the deacon but it isn't good enough for me to be believable to one of the girls.

"Parlez vous francais?" Flett wasn't much with languages but he'd visited Montreal and picked up a few simple phrases.

"Ah oui," Cheryl replied immediately. "Je parle Quebecois francais."

"Then that's it. All illegals don't come from south of the border. They come from all over and we get a few from north of the border. You can pose as a girl from Quebec... even if your French isn't perfect, none of them... the girls or the deacon will know the difference. The meeting adjourned again and Dick and Cheryl went for another Starbucks.

Cheryl and Dick hit it off well. He'd had enough law now that he could converse intelligently on legal matters and Cheryl was almost starry-eyed in her interest in how policemen did their work. It was not a budding romance but some sexual sparks flashed between them in Starbucks and it seemed natural that they should plan an evening together.

Cheryl was not a virgin but she was a serious Christian so her sexual experiences were limited to the surrender (or plundering) of her virginity to a student minister when she was sixteen and a three month long intimate liaison with a handsome senior divinity student when she was in her second year at university. She did however masturbate frequently and imaginatively and since she became gainfully employed as a lawyer she had acquired a fine selection of toys from a mail order source.

Dick was certainly not a virgin either although he had not had as much experience as he wished. He too masturbated often but his imagination was limited to the selection of his dream girls and the imagined circumstances of the coupling, not his masturbatory technique which was a boringly simple laying on of his right hand.

Their chosen evening out was Friday, four days after the strategy meeting that had led to Cheryl preparing to play the role of a fifteen year old Quebecoise. The movie was unmemorable and after they went for a drink at a small, intimate bar near Cheryl's apartment.

"I'm kind of nervous about this assignment," Cheryl confided after her first drink. "I'm not sure how to go about it."

"Well, remember that you're a fifteen or sixteen year old shop girl and then all you have to do is make friends with one of the others... pick one who looks like she's just arrived, as you have."

"Uh... OK... but what then?"

"Pick a pretty one... just like you. Remember, the success of the whole thing rests on Ramsay recruiting her to be a hooker."

"But how will he do that? And how will I know?"

"I'm willing to bet my salary that the old goat's going to hit on you, Cheryl. You have everything he wants in his girls... like... sorry. I shouldn't say any more about that."

"No... say it... what do I have that he wants?"

"You're beautiful and petite but you have a fantastic ass and fabulous tits. There, you asked and I said it."

The conversation continued in a light, somewhat risqué manner until they'd finished their third drinks. To Durham's delight Cheryl invited him up for a nightcap although he was hoping for something more than another drink of alcohol.