Chapter 31

The law comes to Findley

"What do you think?" Nancy asked. The subject of her question was the athletic, well-dressed and obviously uncomfortable brunette standing at the drink refrigerator. "Do we need someone like her on staff?"

"I'm not sure". Helen replied. "I am kind of surprised she is here. Usually those are carried out by out of state operations. How did she get here?"

"I asked her. She said she was not confident that she would be treated any better then here, and she was not going to be abused on the last day of her life."

The subject of the conversation was homicide detective Sargent Vicky Peterson. It was unusual enough that any police or fire personnel were picked, due to the needs for public safety. But to have a decorated homicide investigator fall afoul of the selection process net was almost unheard of. The city and the state recognized the need to keep people who were sworn to preserve and protect the society, and they usually very jealously guarded their own.

Vicky was as upset as anyone would be, and when she went to the union she was told on no uncertain terms that she was management, and thus not entitled to any assistance from that quarter. Her Captain's response to her questions was succinct.

"Get your affairs in order. It's an election year and the Mayors office doesn't want to antagonize the general public. Doing anything for you would be seen as prejudicial treatment. So transfer your caseload to Martin, Hernandez and Carter and do your depositions for your existing cases and arrests. I'll get an extension with the Population management board to get you an extra week. But you got to follow up."

Knowing that the process for law enforcement was different, Vicky was not impressed with the extension arrangements that were offered. Housing among the general population at Chicago City Jail was not where any police wanted to be. And no better quarters were offered, "Due to budget cuts, you know".

Vicky didn't know what to do until she remembered a news article she had seen a few weeks ago. Cathy Cox has gotten a few tips from Vicky in the past and newsies always were good sources for police, if you had coin with them. Vicky figured it was time to collect.

Tracking Cathy down was more difficult then she thought it would be. When Vicky called the news agency, she was told that Cathy had quit her job. The secretary only knew that all calls were to be referred to legal. After phone tag, the network lawyer gave Vicky the name of opposing consul (Sue Barksdale) and said that any and all questions would have to be referred to there.

When Vicky called the number listed for Susan Barksdale, the lawyer answered the phone herself. Surprised by that, Vicky had to shift mental gears on how to get in contact with Cathy. After a few minutes of fencing around conversation, Sue said "Detective, Why don't you quit dancing around and just come by the office. We can talk more easily. It is obvious you have something on your mind and I promise to listen pro bono. Say at 2:00?"

Lawyers were pretty convincing actors, And Susan was no exception. After hearing what Susan and Cathy had to say about Findley, Vicky was convinced that she should talk with them before she expired on Monday, and either had to report to the City Jail for hold over pending closure of her court cases, or being shipped out of state for termination and sale. The city contract with the Bowers in Cleveland did not sound like a good way to go, based on what Cathy had to say. Susan set up a appointment while Vicky was there for the next available intake discussion slot.

So, at 10:00 on a Thursday morning, Vicky was standing in front of the fridge getting some orange juice, and going back to her table to fill out a three-page document on how to end her life. Thinking to herself that this was one hell a lot of paperwork. More then the coroner had her fill out.

A few moments later, a young blonde woman approached with a portable and asked "Vicky Peterson, do you mind if I sit here with you for a few?"

Vicky looked up at the naked young woman and smiled. "I heard about you from Susan Barksdale and Cathy Cox. You are Carol, right?"

"Nope. Too young for all that she knows. I am Candy. Helen and Nancy are working with some outside clients and asked that I sit with you and help you if I can."

Vicky was a little shocked. Cathy and Sue had told her that one of the most important people at Findley was also the youngest. "Don't let her age and looks fool you." Sue had warned. "Next to Margaret, Candy is the most important operations person there. I don't know too much about the operations side, other then to say that Carol told me Candy was the person in charge and the one everyone looked up to."

"I have also heard a few things about you from Sue Barksdale and Cathy Cox." Vicky replied.

"Well, whatever you hear from people second hand should be tempered with personal experience. And I will try to make yours as pleasant as possible. I am sorry to have met you here like this." Candy said.

"Isn't that supposed to be my line?" Vicky replied

"I can use it too. I don't like this either."

"You sound like a cop." Vicky said with a smile.

"In this place I sort of am. You aren't due until Monday, so we can get a jump on some of this stuff. I know you don't like loose ends."

"How do you know that?" Vicky asked.

"Helen told me. She said that police are the most organized people on earth because they have to deal with the most disorganized. They have to take charge and manage things that they don't yet fully understand and have to make decisions quickly." Candy replied with a smile. "And the higher you go, the more often you have to do that. Right Sargent?"

"Kid, you would have made a great interrogator." Vicky said with a smile. The first thing in interrogation you wanted to do was establish rapport. And this kid was working pretty well on that.

"I just try to be helpful. Let's get started." Cathy replied.

The next fifteen minutes was spent going over the questions, problems and other information that had been developed. "You guys sure have everything covered." Vicky said when she got to the end. "The department should do this with everyone."

"We are pretty proud of it. Lots of people who come here for intake are not even ready for this. Often we have to write a week extension and catch them the following week. The Selection and Population control boards don't even question our one week extensions any more." Candy said.

"So, what's next?" Vicky asked.

"Well, now we talk about the tough stuff. Choices. Do you have any?"

"You mean other then I would rather not be here?" Vicky replied.

"I can't help you there. You could go elsewhere, but I don't know that you would want to." Candy replied.

"Is that your marketing pitch?" Vicky asked with a frown.

"No. We don't get a lot of repeat business, and we can't advertise satisfied customers. But what we can do is treat each person with respect and honesty one at a time. Kind of like what you do when you arrest someone. The process is the process." Candy said with a level stare.

Thinking to herself that Candy would have been a hell of a cop, Vicky grinned. "Ok. So what is the process?"

"That is where we have some choices. Did you look us up at all, or were you just referred by Cathy and Sue?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, I had been asking Cathy about what she knew, and I found out she was fired from her job at United News. When I called, I was referred to Sue. I talked to her, and both of them referred me to here. I really don't know anything about you guys except for their recommendation. And I get here and I see three pages of paperwork and am in an interview with a teenager." Vicky said with some frustration in her tone.

"Ok. You are an ostrich. No problem." Candy replied with a smile.

"Ostrich? Like the bird?"

"Yes. Like the bird with the head in the sand thinking all this is a bad dream and it will go away." Candy said.

After a few moments, Vicky smiled. "You are right. This is a bad dream. I think that this was a bad idea." Vicky said as she started to stand up.

"Sargent, Sit down." Candy said in a low and commanding voice. "Let's go over a few facts for you right now. Sit."

Stunned, Vicky found herself sitting again.

"Here is the issue. You are a sworn officer of the law who was selected in the meat lottery. Why the hell your own department didn't take the steps to get your exempted is not our problem. We can look into it on your behalf because my boss likes to do things like that. Carol Burns, our staff attorney is not here at the moment because she is doing some legal brief for another woman we are trying to get exempted. Otherwise she would be talking with you instead of me. Do you understand me?"

"Yes" Vicky replied. Before she could say another word, Candy continued.

"Second issue. Come Monday you are either in Jail, shipped to Ohio, or on a stick in the courthouse if you try to run. Or you can find some other termination shop on a three-day notice. One that will treat you better then us. Unless you know of some other alternative that I don't, then those are your choices."

"Third." Candy continued in a low and quiet voice." I am the acting operations manager at this slaughterhouse, and your badge lost impact when you walked into that door. We are both selectees. But I am the one with a collar, and you are on a short clock. You have had good people advise you to come here and work with us. Don't you want to spend some time with us and let us find some way to help you one way or another?"

Sitting for a few moments, Vicky finally looked at Candy and said, "You are pretty cold blooded kid. I got to hand it to you, you have balls."

"You don't know the half of it." Candy replied." Now I sent Carol a message to take your case next up on our docket, and she will probably be down here in about an hour. In the mean time, do you have any idea of what we do here?"

"I assume you turn human beings into meat." Vicky said.

"Yes we do. But we try to be nice to you while you are alive." Candy said. "Unless you are hard headed. Then we use two by four therapy to help you get centered. Now, we have a number of event styles and also a standard procedure that is totally painless. The last is confidential, but I can assure you that the medical personnel who have designed it did so with the intent of minimal stress and trauma. So do you wear French cut briefs or granny panties?" Candy said.

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Vicky said. "Bikini briefs. Satin most days." She said an afterthought.

"Nice. So would I if I could get away with it. I have some film clips here I want to show you, and then I want to talk to you about a couple of other systems we use. And for you, I want you to know that there is no additional charge." Candy said.

"You charge people to kill them?" Vicky said.

"Yep. It is on the web page. We have a fee chart. Our free is pretty good, but our fee events range from kinky to seductive. It depends on your interest."

For the next half hour, Vicky was treated to a series of snuff films which would have guaranteed an arrest if it had been outside. In two of the films, Vicky recognized the young woman sitting next to her as one of the managers of the scenes. The shock of the slow hanging, with it's excruciating pain, was almost enough to turn her stomach.

"You did this to this woman?" She said, wanting to reach for her handcuffs.

"Yep. She signed a release as well as a specific request. It fit her idea but probably not her real interest. Once she was air dancing, it was too late to back up. And if you look at her you see she may not have been too angry with us."

"And these guillotine scenes are not fake, are they?"

"Nope. In fact, if you like, you can hang around after lunch and watch us commit murder." Candy said with a smile.

"You are enjoying this, you sick bitch." Vicky said in a low tone.

"Not at all. But it is what we do here. Have you noticed that a lot of women have come and gone through here in the last forty five minutes?"

Vicky looked around and saw that none of the people here were ones she had come in with. "Yes, I can see that."

"Ok. The ones who went back out the door there with the papers will be back between now and Monday. Just like you. The ones who went down the hallway are in stages of preparation for slaughter. And the ones in the interview rooms over there are planning their termination parties." Candy said.

"And what am I doing?" Vicky said.

"Paperwork. You have to be anywhere quickly? I can see if we have some spectators slots open."

Stunned by the casual nature of Candy's comment, Vicky answered "Sure."

An hour later, Candy brought the stunned homicide investigator back up to the reception area so she could gather her thoughts

"I'm going to get you some pasta salad, and wine. I think you need it." Candy said as she sat Vicky down. "Wait here and I will get us some plates."

Vicky had been shown beheadings, and women dying by electrocution while orgasming on a diabolical machine. She had sat in the bleachers, and looked through the one-way glass. She had been shown into the rear carving area, where she had seen women hung on hooks being dropped onto tables and dismembered. And she had seen a dead one mounted on a spit, and sent into a cooler to be shipped to a dinner party on Friday. And all the while the homicidal maniac with the cool grey eyes reminded her of the fact that each woman had in fact picked this, and that they were all doing it because they had been legally ordered to report. Just as she had been ordered to report.

"You expect me to eat after this?" Vicky said to Candy when she returned with a plate of salmon pasta.

"I expect you to get your shit together, drink some wine, and then ask the questions in your mind right now while we both eat." Candy replied.

"You are one hard assed bitch, you know it?" Vicky said.

"Thank you. So. Questions." Candy said as she put a fork of food into her mouth.

"Why did you show me this?" Vicky asked.

"Good question. Before I answer, I have a few for you."

"Ok."

"Do you want to be stored in Jail for the next few months?" Candy asked.

"No." Vicky said. "I think that would be a painful death, much worse then anything I have seen here."

"Good answer. Do you want to take your chances in Ohio?"

"No. I don't think so. I really don't think so. Ok. So now I have to pick what I want?"

"In a manner of speaking. How good are you at working with people? I don't mean just the question and answer of interrogation, but working with them on the worst day of their lives?" Candy asked.

"Depends. I have tried to be good to the survivors and victims'. I never took advantage of them."

"Can you help to kill them?" Candy asked.

Vicky was silent for a few minutes. Then she picked up the wine glass that Candy had brought over and took a big gulp. After a minute she said, "What exactly are you asking?"

"I am responsible for the health and safety of everyone here in an orange collar. I am also responsible for the proper treatment of every client we kill here. You noticed that there are no men in the front area?" Candy asked.

"Yes, I noticed that. Why is that?"

"So the clients here are not spooked or treated badly when they die. They get a woman's friendship and a woman's touch. They are killed by people who would die that way themselves if they had a choice. Everything you see here was reorganized and designed by women. Do you understand that?"

"I can see that. What does this have to do with me?" Vicky asked.

"Simple. We find we need to staff an additional twenty people to help us with our operations here and at H&S. Mainly we need women who can kill coolly, calmly and dispassionately without hating themselves later or the subjects they are servicing. I need at least five for here because some of the people here will be the seed corn to staff H&S. The pay sucks, the retirement plan is worse, and the career is limited. On the other hand, the benefits are pretty good, we eat well and you don't end up in the freezer immediately. We can help you get the time to get filings to get you out of here if you work while you are here." Candy said. "And it beats being in General Population in the jail."

Or sent to Ohio, Vicky thought to herself. "Who do I have to kill?" She asked, dreading the answer.

"Anyone who comes here and is your client. We don't do confrontational drama here. We send them back to find their own way if we can't get them to settle down. We expect patience, compassion, and honesty. Like I gave to you today." Candy said. "Now eat your pasta, and I will get you a refill. I need another lemon soda."

Picking at her food, Vicky was in deep thought when Candy came back. She was with another blonde woman who had a portable and a smile on her face.

"Vicky, I want you to meet Carol. Carol, she thought I was you when she came here. Obviously your fame has spread far beyond these walls. Sue and Carla told her."

"So, Vicky, welcome. I see you have been in good hands. How scared did you get her, Candy?" Carol asked.

"Not too bad. She twigged a little a couple of times, but not too badly. She might fit in here while you find a way out." Candy said.

"Aha. So this is another project. Well, Vicky, while this eating machine sits and eats, why don't you and I have a chat? And I will get a glass of wine myself."