Chapter 3

"Thanks for the information, Ken. This bears some checking," said Police Captain Tom Morrissey.

"Anything to get that bastard for Whit!" exclaimed Officer Ken Dorsey.

"Anna was a sweet girl. She didn't deserve this! If that bastard was somehow involved, I'll bust him myself!"

"Captain, do you know how long Officer Leary will be out of commission?"

"That depends on how long Lieutenant Whittaker needs her. She volunteered to do this and use her own vacation time."

"But you know she has a crush on him, the lucky bastard."

"I know."

"What if he takes advantage of her?"

"I've know Whit since he was a rookie. If anyone is going to take advantage, it would be her. That wouldn't be the worst thing for either of them under the circumstances."

"OK. Thank you, Captain," said Dorsey extending his hand to his Captain.

"I'll keep you in the loop regarding when your partner will return and thanks for the information, Ken." he smiled as he shook the proffered hand.

Whit awoke to the smiling face of Shannon Leary. After her partner left, she stripped off her clothes and climbed back into bed. "Did you get enough sleep," she asked in a concerned voice.

"Yeah. Shan, this is all so weird."

"Not to me. Anna told me that you need me. It fills my heart with so much joy that I can help you," she beamed as she stroked his head.

"That feels nice," admitted Whit.

"I'm glad you like it, my darling love" she smiled.

Whit was kind of surprised and his look told Shannon what she needed to say. "Anna told me that you love me."

Whit was at a loss for words. Did he love Shannon? He had always cared for her. She was a sweet girl, after the academy had destroyed the entitled twit that she had been. He thought back to the first time he saw her sweet side. She was a blubbering mess. She was so vulnerable, so fragile, and so beautiful. He knew he was in a dangerous situation.

Helen was a jealous woman. She kept harping on him to quit the force and get a job in the private sector like his brother. When he told her he was not interested in such a job, she had betrayed Whit for his younger brother, Tyler. Tyler always had a crush on Helen ever since High school. She had finally decided that she would rather be a young executive's "trophy wife", than a cop's wife.

At the time, Helen was still his wife. Whit could not think of Shannon as a woman. He knew she found him attractive because she flirted with him. Shannon did not flirt with anybody else to his knowledge, as she wanted to be taken seriously as a cop. This made for a combustible situation. He had only one alternative: Shannon the ""Kid Sister" was born on that day, so that Shannon the potential mistress would die.

Now it seemed that Anna's spirit was not the only thing that came back from the dead. There was no more Helen. Anna no longer had a body. What was left was the sweet, bright, sexy, beautiful Shannon. No more "kid sister", as that role had to be redefined after what happened between them. His desire to possess the lovely officer had returned, but so did the desire to protect her, to care for her and to love her.

He looked into her adoring eyes "Anna's right. I love you, Shan. I think part of me always has."

"Oh Whit, my darling Master! That is what I've always wanted!"

"About this 'Master' stuff..."

"That is what you'll always be to me."

"I just want you to love me."

"I do, Whit! I think I might have always loved you too. But don't you see? I'm your perfect woman. You desire me, you love me, and you care for me. I feel the same about you and I'll do absolutely anything you want me to do. Isn't that what every man wants?"

"But what about romance? What about your feelings and wants?"

"Whit darling, I'm still a woman and I love to be romanced by the man I love. Buy me flowers. Take me dancing, to restaurants, and on moonlit walks. Give me long, slow and sweet kisses. Seduce me. All of these things will make me happy. What also makes me happy is doing my absolute best to make you happy. As far as sex, anything you do will bring me pleasure. Your touch fills me with desire. I still have feelings and wants, but they have become secondary to yours. Your feelings and wants will become mine."

Whit thought about what she said. He struggled with a lot of it, but in the end, he realized that this relationship could be somewhat evened out, as long as he was mindful of Shannon the person's needs and wants. "Maybe the whole slave thing will eventually wear off too," he thought.

"I'm OK with this as long as we are always honest about what we want from our lives and each other."

"As long as my wants and desires don't conflict with making you happy."

"No. If you feel something, I need you to tell me. Even if you think that it will make me unhappy."

"Well, that'll be easy."

"Why?"

"If I make you unhappy then I'll be unhappy. Any happiness caused by my want would be destroyed by the misery of making you unhappy. For that reason, I would dismiss any such thought from my brain before I could even tell you."

Whit laughed. The whole thing was absurd, but as it was reality, he could not argue with her logic. "OK, we can fine tune this as we go along. The point is I want to love you as a woman: One with her own needs..."

"Whit, look at me." she said, as she climbed off the bed and stood before him in her naked glory. "I am a woman. My needs are simple. I want you. I desire you, I love you. You can learn anything you want about me before this and there will be a lot of things that I'll still love to do, but all of that pales to what my needs are now. I need you, darling!"

Whit didn't say anything. He sat up and reached over to her and grabbed her arm gently but firmly. He then pulled her down to him and they languidly began to kiss.

"He what?!" shrieked FBI Agent Rachel Rivera.

"Rachel, he was only gone for a couple of hours," replied US Marshall Turner.

"Where did you find him?'

"We didn't. He found us."

"Where did he go?"

"He says he took care of some business, which we all know what that means."

"Yeah, I get it..." said Rachel.

"He got laid," grinned the Marshall.

"I know ... well, I guess no harm in that. Just make sure you don't let it happen again! I don't want to have to explain this to the DEA or the DOJ. This is a big case and we can't afford any more screw ups!"

Both Anna and the mind of the body she was a passenger in were frustrated and annoyed. Apparently the captain was told by the prison that Anna's murderer was in solitary confinement and could not be contacted. He tried to pull strings all the way to the Prison Commission but got shot down at every level. "Well, there's only one person, I can turn to and God, I don't want to ... he shouldn't have too with everything he had been through," he thought.

Still, Anna encouraged the Captain to leave a little early to check on Whit and give him the bad news. She was tired of being in men. She wanted to get back into Shannon and show her man how much she loved him.

Whit himself was starting to come to terms with Anna's death. As he could still converse with her, and was having sex with her participating with Shannon in her body, it all seemed so unreal. But now he was interested in verifying who the killer was and having the killer punished. Like Anna, Whit knew who killed her; just not how it was possible. "Shannon, is Anna back yet?"

"No, she needs to be in contact with a living thing to transfer. You'll know when she's back."

The doorbell rang on cue.

When Whit answered, he saw his Captain there and he invited him in. he then saw his Captain do something disconcerting: He winked at him as he walked in. "How are you holding up?" he asked.

"This all seems so surreal, Tom."

"I can only imagine. Is Leary being good company?" he noted seeing the bedding still on the couch.

"She's been taking care of me. I tried to get her to go..."

"But I just wouldn't," interrupted Shannon, as she walked over and greeted her Captain, who gave her a handshake, as both of their eyes glazed over for a moment. Whit realized what that meant. Anna verified this when he saw Shannon give him a wink.

"Well Whit, Dorsey told me your theory about Anna's killer."

"Dorsey?" asked Whit.

"Yeah, I asked my partner to tell Captain Morrissey," said Shannon.

I checked at the prison, but according to the people I talked with, he still has the best alibi in the world," said Tom

"Did you talk to him?"