Chapter 4

Hope left his office and he watched her round the corner into the passage as she headed for the front door. She had fished his mobile from his pocket and placed it on the desk in front of him so he could answer when she called him.

A few minutes later, his phone rang and he snatched it up, answering it.

“Hope, Flamingo?”

The call was cut off without any word from her on the other end.

Zane grabbed the keys to his cuffs and unlocked them, freeing himself. He ran to the front door of the station and looked outside. Hope was nowhere to be seen. He turned and ran back to the interrogation room where Brian was still cuffed and locked in.

He freed Brian who thanked him and rubbed his wrists to get his circulation going again.

“What the hell happened?” he asked Brian.

“That woman is more dangerous than you think,” Brian said defensively. “She pretended to fall off the chair and I fell for it. Then she hit me, grabbed my gun, and smacked me with it. That’s where I got this nasty blow,” Brian said touching his head gingerly. “Next thing I know she’s got my gun and has cuffed my hands to the chair. That’s when you came in. What happened to you?”

“She cuffed to my chair in the office and then made me take notes. None of it makes any damn sense. Then finally she left and told me I could unlock myself after she left and get my gun at the door. She’s one slippery customer.”

“I’ll say,” Brian agreed. “Say, let’s see the file and the notes she made you take.”

Zane hesitated for the briefest of moments and then made a decision.

“Funny thing is, she took the notes. At least I think so. When she was ready to leave, she took the file from me and took some papers out. I’ll have to check. Why don’t you go check on the other prisoners and I’ll go check on the file,” he lied.

“Okay,” Brian said and headed off to the cells. Zane headed to his office where he opened the file and removed the notes he had taken. He folded them and put them in his pocket.

It wasn’t long before Brian returned. “They’re all accounted for. She left them here. They probably weren’t very important. Have you got the notes?”

Zane shook his head. “Nope. She took them.”

“Well, you must remember what she told you?”

Zane frowned as if trying to piece it all together. “None of it made any sense. Her alias is Flamingo. She said she uses money from peddling drugs to help kids through school. When I told her that she was turning the children she was trying to help into addicts, she disagreed. She said a little weed never hurt anyone. She kept bragging about how I could never catch her. That’s pretty much it.”

Zane finished and looked at Brian. Brian seemed to consider what he had said and then shrugged.

“But look at her record,” Zane said holding the file out to Brian. Brian opened the file and studied the information Zane had printed.

“Wow, she’s been going a long time.”

“Indeed she has. But she’s never been sentenced. She always seems to escape somehow. Just like tonight. It’s like she’s got help.”

Brian frowned and touched the wound on his head, “I hope you don’t think I helped her.”

“Of course not,” Zane replied. “I suggest you get your cut looked at. Go on. Get yourself to the hospital. I’ll write up the report here as embarrassing as it is. What’s disappointing is that none of the other jurisdictions ever communicated anything to their neighbor jurisdictions about Hope. If they had, we might have been more alert.”

“I guess that since she’s never attacked or killed someone, never been sentenced but always escapes, she’s pretty low key on the radar. That would explain why the other jurisdictions never told us about her.”

“Yeah. Well, I’ll start calling the other jurisdictions and see what they can tell me. We need to make sure we’re communicating about her. Look how far she’s come. Just think how far she’ll go if we don’t stop her,” Zane said. “Now go on. Get yourself out of here and to a doctor.”

“Okay, thanks Chief. I’m sorry I failed you tonight.”

“Never mind. You didn’t fail okay?”

“Okay,” Brian said seeming a bit brighter. “I’ll go see a doctor now.”