There were plenty of parking spaces to choose from at this time of night and she navigated the Jeep into one. She locked the door, opened the window, and got out her identification, using her side mirror to see if the officer was approaching. She could barely see him because the spotlight on his vehicle had made a silhouette of his form but she noted his swagger and that he didn’t make the usual stop to write down her license plate number.
When he reached her window, the bright light slanted across his oversized, tinted glasses. It was impossible to see his eyes.
‘Ma’am.’
‘Evening, Officer.’ Steelie scanned his uniform for his badge. The way he was leaning hid most of his nametag – ‘Marron’ or ‘Marion’.
‘Do you know why I stopped you?’
‘No. Is there a problem?’ She was looking at his mouth since she couldn’t see his eyes. A light-colored moustache all but hid his upper lip.
‘One of your tail lights is out.’
‘Really? Which one?’
‘Step out of the vehicle, Ma’am.’
‘Don’t you want to check my license and registration?’
‘Please step out of the vehicle, ma’am.’ He took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest. ‘I can help you determine if it’s a fuse or a bulb. It’s a lot cheaper to fix if it’s a fuse.’
Warning bells were going off in Steelie’s mind but she couldn’t tell how much was Jayne’s paranoia infecting her and how much was her ex-Legal Aid bias against police but she was going to follow Legal Aid’s advice to its clients. ‘Can I see your ID first, please?’ She tried to smile. ‘Never can be too sure these days.’
‘No, ma’am, I guess you can’t.’ He came to the window and leaned his right arm on the door. He used his left hand to pull a vinyl badge envelope from his top pocket and flashed it quickly before replacing it.
Steelie barely made out a photo with some writing next to it. It had looked OK. She told herself to stop being paranoid and moved to unlock the door. Then she noticed his fingernails. They were long. They seemed too long for a cop. Her pulse quickened.
‘Sorry, could I see it closer, please?’
She wasn’t ready when he tried to open the door, and then reached through the window. He seemed to know the lock was low and forward and his hand scrabbled for it, banging Steelie’s knee. She screamed and grabbed for the ignition. She over-started the engine, which whined, then roared to life. Throwing the car into first gear, she slammed on the gas and popped the clutch. The car peeled out, the window frame slamming the cop’s elbow.
‘God dammit!’ he shouted, leaping back.
One of the Jeep’s wheels went directly over the concrete bumper at the front of the parking space and Steelie momentarily drove on the passenger-side wheels until the vehicle dropped back down. As soon as all four tires gained purchase, she was at the exit in an instant. Only the Jeep’s high clearance saved it from scraping heavily across the deep gutter where the driveway met the road but her head almost hit the ceiling when the car bounced across the intersection. As she raced down the nearest residential street, her heart pounded. She barely watched the road ahead as she scanned her rearview mirror, looking for chasing headlights.
When she halted in her own driveway minutes later, she only calmed down when she realized she wouldn’t be able to get her keys out of the ignition until she actually shut off the engine. A buzzer sounded as she opened her door and she whipped her head around to the street before recognizing the sound as her own car’s warning that the lights were still on. She walked to the back of the car, expecting to see one of the tail lights darkened. Both lights were working. She squeezed her eyes closed for a second, then took a last look around the street before she turned off the lights, pulled a car cover over the Jeep, and ran to her front door.
When Jayne saw the look on Steelie’s face, she knew not to ask about the ice cream but when Steelie double-locked the front door and pulled closed the living room curtains, Jayne sat up on the sofa. Steelie kept moving fast toward the rear of the house. Jayne first heard the slap of Venetian blinds as Steelie wrenched them closed at the kitchen window that overlooked the small back yard, then the sound of the fridge or freezer, followed by the microwave starting. When Jayne heard the bolt at the back door slide into place, she got up. She’d only known Steelie to throw that bolt when she was going out of town. She crossed to the kitchen as Steelie came in from the back hall and the microwave dinged.
Jayne asked nervously, ‘What’s going on?’
Steelie shook her head as she pulled a wax paper-wrapped parcel out of the microwave. She ate what Jayne recognized as a defrosted Krispy Kreme donut in three bites. Only then did she speak.
‘I’m either about to be arrested for assaulting a cop or I’ve just escaped being kidnapped by a total nutcase. I know,’ she looked at Jayne. ‘You’d think I’d be able to tell the difference.’
Jayne wrapped her arms around herself. ‘What happened?’
Steelie recounted the incident at the shopping center but she couldn’t do it without pacing to the front window periodically and peering out at the street through a chink in the curtains. Finally, she said, ‘At first I thought he was legit. But then there were those fingernails and I couldn’t see anything! And he didn’t want my ID! I mean, that’s so not like them. God, this sounds stupid now.’
Jayne sounded more confident than she felt. ‘No, it doesn’t. Cops are supposed to identify themselves properly, not wrench your car door open. It’s not like he stopped you after a high-speed chase.’
‘I should have known when he got out of the cruiser right away. Don’t they usually sit there for a couple minutes while they run your license plate through NCIC?’
‘I think so. But this was a tail light stop.’
‘Except it wasn’t.’
‘Wait, what?’
‘Sorry, I forgot that part.’ Steelie glanced out the front window again. ‘I checked. My tail lights are fine.’
‘Oh my God.’ Jayne came around to sit on the sofa. ‘What the hell is this? Why would a cop tell you to get out of your car to look at a tail light you would immediately see was just fine?’
‘Well, it would get me out of my car, wouldn’t it? And once there, I’m just another vic he can overpower.’
Jayne was shaking her head. ‘But if he assaults you, you could ID him later. It’s risky as hell.’
Steelie sat down next to her, arms folded across her chest. ‘Maybe it was a carjacking.’
‘In Atwater Village?’
‘Why not? Look at it. Late at night, deserted parking lot, some guy with a decommissioned police cruiser painted a dark color just waits for someone to pull in. Uses a fake uniform picked up at any Hollywood costume shop to get the person out of their vehicle on the fake pull. He hits ’em on the head or whatever once they’re out, and he gets to go off in their – presumably nicer – vehicle. Parts will be sold to fifteen shops all over town by the time you can call the real cops.’
‘Do you really believe that?’
Steelie was silent for a moment, thinking. ‘No. It’s an awful lot of trouble for your typical opportunist. So if he was a cop, he probably already has my license plate and he will come and get me . . .’
‘I hear another “and” in there.’
‘And . . . I was thinking about your place. The wire. What if it’s connected? Think about it, Jayne. We find some black box on your porch, in plant pots delivered by someone unknown. Wire is drilled into your house. We leave, you come here, I get pulled over by a fake cop who’s followed me into the parking lot.’