She nodded her understanding, and was ready when I stopped next to the cop with a lighted wand signaling me to do just that. I recognized him, and asked "What's the deal, Sarge? Somebody just rob a doughnut shop, or something?"
He recognized me, too, and laughed before answering "Nah, not that bad. That medical research outfit over on Figueroa had a breakin, and we're trying to catch some of the ones that got past their security. What're you doing here, Jim?"
"Just getting the lady home from work."
He gestured to where I hadn't dropped the meter flag and asked "Picking up a little money off the books?"
"Nah, just doing a favor for a friend of a friend. She just got off a late shift over by Helms and Industrial. Her old man has a broke leg and their car is tits-up until she can get a leak in the radiator fixed tomorrow. Instead of making someone else get out of a warm bed, I said I'd get her home when she had to work overtime tonight."
Nodding, he asked "Where you headed?"
"Olive and Elm. You said it was that medical place?"
"Yup."
"Figure it might have been some of those animal liberation types?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Way I hear it, sometimes they leave little 'presents' behind to screw things up when they hit some place. Hope your guys are watching out."
He considered that for a moment before telling me "Y'know, you're right. Might not hurt to remind 'em. Go ahead, Jim. Catch you later."
As I put my hack in gear, I answered "Catch a bad guy for me, Sarge", then carefully eased my way between the two patrol cars. As I was pulling away, I could see him talking to someone on his radio.
A block later, I asked Bonnie "Okay, now where am I really taking you?"
The address she gave me wasn't drastically off course from the direction I was headed, but I still gave it several more blocks before turning off the street I was on. As I was driving, Bonnie asked me "What's at those places you told him?"
"Helms and Industrial has a lot of small manufacturing outfits. That suit you're wearing doesn't have any loose cloth or anything to get sucked into a machine." She looked at the dark blue jumpsuit she was wearing, and nodded her understanding before I continued "The area around Olive and Elm is ass-deep to a tall giraffe in apartment complexes, and the street we were on was a perfectly reasonable way to get from your 'work' to 'home'."
After that, she didn't have anything else to say until I pulled up at the address she'd given me. It was a small house on a small lot, but neat, tidy, and looked to be in good repair. It took her a few seconds to realize we weren't moving; when she came out of whatever daze she was in, she told me "Thanks, Jim. I owe you more than I can say. Will you at least let me pay you for the ride, and maybe have a drink? I need somebody to talk to, and I think you're just the person."
I considered it for a moment before answering "Okay, I'll take you up on the drink. Don't worry about the ride; I was on my way home, anyway, and getting you here isn't much off of that."
She graced me with a smile, and got out. She waited until I'd shut down and locked my rig before leading the way to the front door. The outfit she had on was pretty damn form-fitting, and I could see that she had a particularly fine ass sitting atop a couple of nicely-shaped legs and from the way she moved – that she was not just fit, but graceful as well. It was nice watching her walk ahead of me.
The inside of her place looked to be fairly nice. It wasn't loaded down with antiques or anything, just simply furnished and decorated. The couch she directed me to was large and very comfortable; when I was seated, she told me "I'm going to go ahead and change out of this into something more comfortable. It won't take me but a minute. What would you like to drink?", followed by a list of the liquors she had on hand. I named my preference, and she said that sounded good to her, too. With a brief "I'll be right back…", she left. As I was sitting there, a couple of cats wandered in, and both came over to check me out. It didn't take long for one of them to take up station on my lap so she could purr at me while I rubbed one of her ears; the other sat on the arm of the couch where he found my chin-rubbing skills acceptable. We were still like that when Bonnie made her reappearance – wearing only a too-large football jersey and a pair of panties. I knew the jersey was all she was wearing up top by the faint swaying of her breasts as she moved; the panties were revealed when she sat at the other end of the couch after setting my drink on the end table, and tucked her legs underneath herself.
A clearly amused Bonnie told me "I see you've met Antony and Cleopatra."
"Yeah, they came in to see who the tourist was, and decided I was okay."
"Oh, Cleopatra likes pretty much everybody, but Antony's a little pickier. Actually, I'm surprised and impressed that he's letting you touch him."
"Okay, the surprised I can understand. But impressed?" I asked.
"Yeah, impressed. If Antony is willing to let you rub his chin like that, then it tells me a lot about you; most people don't like, or don't understand, cats enough to be able to relate to them. You do, and that's actually kind of rare."
I smiled as I told her "I'm owned by a cat at home" – she laughed – "by the name of Demosthenes, so I get plenty of instruction on how to please my betters."
She got a slightly puzzled look on her face and asked "Demosthenes? That sounds familiar… Greek, I think, but I can't remember exactly."
"Demosthenes was guy in Greek legend that wandered the countryside with a lit lantern, day or night, looking for an honest man."
"And has your Demosthenes found an honest man?" she asked, taking a sip of her drink and watching me over the rim of the glass.
"If he hasn't, it isn't because I don't try", I answered.
About that time, Antony decided that he needed some attention from her, and simply walked across me to get to where Bonnie was sitting – much to her amusement. With my hand free, I took a sip of my own drink, which turned out to be some damn fine scotch. When I set the glass down again, Bonnie asked "How is it that an honest man is willing to tell lies to a police officer?"
I considered what I wanted to say for a few moments before answering "You told me that you were involved with those animal rights types, but that you bailed out on them when they started trashing the place and leaving those whatever-they-were things around. The way I figured it, there wasn't any purpose to letting you get busted for the crap they were doing. Yeah, you went IN with them, but you also left when they went too far. I think that it would be a bigger injustice for you to get lumped in with whatever punishment they get, than it was to lie to the Sarge. If I was wrong about you, then you'll probably end up getting busted for something else later on. If I was right, then this was the wakeup call you needed to get your shit together. Either way, I don't think it's likely to happen again."
"Well, it was a wakeup call, and I am going to get my shit together, as you put it. I can only hope that those clowns have at least some honor, and don't get ME arrested, too, because they're mad I ran out on them."
"You said that it wasn't long between the time you decided to split, and when the security people turned up?"
"No, not even a couple of minutes, I don't think. Why?"
"They may decide that you just did a better job of hiding or getting away than they did. Or it may pop into their heads that you left because you knew security was coming – there's no telling. Whichever way it goes, you still need to figure out not just what you're going to do, but what you're willing to."
"What do you mean 'willing to do'?"
"I mean, if you decide you don't want to be part of their group any more, how far are you willing to go to keep it from happening? If they threaten you with something, what then? Do you give in, or are you going to 'fess up to the cops if necessary to put an end to it? That kind of thing."