C24 Chapter 24

Zane left the station at five. He greeted Brian and the rest of the officers and headed home. He stopped first at the supermarket to buy groceries. He had invited Amanda over for dinner and he needed to stock up to cook a decent dinner for them.

He made his way home and parked in the garage as usual. He entered the house and stopped in his tracks.

Hope was waiting for him. She sat in the living room where she had sat before. She had a gun trained on him.

“Come on in Chief,” Hope said calmly. “Don’t try to run.”

Zane closed the door and walked into his house.

“What the fuck do you want? After everything, do you even think you’re welcome at my house?”

Hope arched her eyebrows. “Hence the reason I am holding a gun and am not afraid to use it. I came to chat one last time Zane.”

She motioned for him to come into the living room and kneel on the floor.

“Take off your gun, nice and slow, and toss it over here.”

Zane hesitated. He knew if he gave her his gun this time it wouldn’t be like the last time.

“Do it!” she shouted.

Zane decided to comply. Slowly he removed his gun from its holster. He held it clear of himself, ejected the magazine, and then the round in the chamber. Then he placed the gun on the floor and kicked it over to her.

“Good man,” she said. She stooped and picked up the gun without taking her eyes off him.

She looked at him coldly saying nothing for a few moments and then she spoke.

“I’m not a bad person, Zane.”

“Could have fooled me,” Zane replied sarcastically.

Hope paused as she considered his comment and then she continued. “I have tried to warn you through everything I said including the messages I sent you.”

“And that absolves you of everything?”

She shook her head. “No. On the contrary, it absolves me of nothing but I don’t need to be absolved.”

“Why is that?” Zane asked.

“Because I’m not in trouble.”

“You must be on drugs.”

Hope smiled a wistful smile.

“Sit down Zane.”

Zane moved slowly and sat down on the sofa. “Good. Now listen. I’ve tried to warn you all along to get out. You can’t ... won’t win this. The battle’s already lost.”

“The hell it is ...,” Zane began.

“Shut up!” Hope said sharply.

Zane fell quiet.

“Do you know why I am doing this?”

“Nope and I don’t care.”

“I don’t have a choice. They have my daughter and have threatened to kill her if I don’t do as they say.”

“Why should I believe you?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Do you men need a fucking explanation for everything? They assured me that when I finish Hurstville, they will let my daughter go and we will be free. That’s what I am doing. But you? You’re in the way and it’s time to get rid of you.”

As she finished speaking Zane saw the flashing lights of a police cruisers pull up outside. He did not know why they had turned up at his house. Perhaps there had been another gang shooting and they hadn’t been able to get hold of him on his mobile.

“You were saying?” Zane asked. “You’re in deep shit now.”

Again she smiled sadly.

She watched him closely as she waited. Zane heard police at the door. They rang the bell and called out to him.

“I’m in the lounge. I’m being held at gunpoint.”

Then Hope called out, “The door’s open guys.”

Zane heard the door open and the flashing lights from the cruiser flashed through the open doorway turning the entrance hall into a blue and red disco. Brian came around the corner with Terry. They both carried guns.

“Drop it, Hope,” Terry replied.

“What? Why?”

“Orders,” Brian replied bluntly.

Hope sighed and put the gun’s safety on and then handed it to Brian butt first instead of dropping it. He took it and put it in his holster where he usually kept the gun he held in his hand.

“On the floor. Hands behind your back,” Brian ordered. They both lay down on the floor with their hands behind their back.

Brian and Terry cuffed each of them and then helped them up. Brian held up a piece of paper in front of Zane’s face. Zane knew it all too well. It was a search warrant signed by Judge Borth. He felt the queasiness in his stomach return. As Zane stood and was being led out to the cruiser, Donovan entered from Zane’s room.

“We found it!” he said with no small amount of excitement.

Brian and Terry pushed Zane and Hope ahead of them down the passage to Zane’s room. They entered and stopped just inside the doorway. On the bed, bricks of cocaine had been piled up. Brian and Terry both let out a low whistle as they looked at the stash.

“Holy shit!” Brian said in disbelief. “That’s a lot of prison time we’re looking at right there.”

Zane was silent. He ignored Brian and Terry but looked at Hope with utter disappointment. “You. Fucking. Bitch.”

“Whoa!” Brian said. “Now’s no time for a lover’s quarrel.”

“Screw you asshole,” Zane replied not taking his eyes from Hope.

Hope looked back at Zane. “I warned you but you didn’t listen. You think you can save the fucking world with your ego. Well, you can’t.”

Zane felt like blowing up and taking Hope and shaking her until he heard her neck snap. But there was nothing he could do now. They were turned around and marched from Zane’s bedroom to his living room and then out the front door.

Zane narrowed his eyes against the flashing lights of the cruisers in the dark. He was shown to Brian’s cruiser and helped to get in the back. Hope was put in the back of the car from the opposite side by Terry.

As Zane was helped to get in the car, he saw the local television news onsite and he heard the reporter making her report.

“... Chief Zane has just been arrested and placed in this car with his girlfriend, a wanted felon in six states. It appears that Chief Zane was providing his home as a hideout for Hope Ryder who has established drug trafficking operations in the city as well as in six prior states. It is believed that Chief Zane has been romantically linked to Hope Ryder for a while now and that he opened his house to give her a place to hide out from the law. After all, who would ever think of looking for a criminal in the house of the local police chief? The two have been romantically linked and we can show these images taken from the ongoing investigation into Chief Zane’s relationship with Ms. Ryder. The reporter held up some photos which showed Zane kissing Hope in his home.

The photos must have been taken by someone who had spied on them when they were together in his house.

“You set me up good and solid. I guess every time you were in this house was on orders from your boss. None of it was a coincidence.”

“That is not true. I had no idea that anyone was watching.”

“Then you must be plain fucking stupid. God knows I am.”

In the next instant, Brian climbed into the cruiser. “Let’s get you to the station,” he said happily.

Zane felt like tearing his head off his shoulders but bit his tongue instead. Brian started the cruiser and backed up slowly to make sure he avoided the spectators or any other police officers. As the car backed up, Zane looked out the rear window in disgust. In that instant, he saw her.

Amanda.

She stood looking at him through the window as the cruiser backed up. Their eyes met and he saw tears gather in her eyes. She shook her head in disbelief and disappointment saying nothing.

In that instant, Zane’s heart broke for her. He wondered what she must be thinking. He could see the hurt and disappointment on her face. He wanted to call out to her, reach out to her and tell her none of this was true. But he was afraid now. He was afraid that if he made it clear he knew her, she would be at risk. She would be used against him. Instead, he tried mouthing, “I’m sorry. I didn’t do it,” but he couldn’t be sure if she understood. She certainly gave no indication that she did.

The cruiser pulled away and they drove to the station in silence. When they arrived at the station, Brian took Hope inside first and then returned for Zane.

When Zane entered the station he looked around.

“Where’s Hope?” he asked.

“Who?”

“The girl who arrived with me? The girl who kicked your ass when we first arrested her. More like it pretended to kick your ass. You just brought her in before me.”

“Oh, she’s gone. Someone posted bail so we let her go.”

“You lying piece of shit!” Zane exclaimed struggling against his cuffs.

“Sticks and stones buddy,” Brian remarked with a smile on his face.

“You’re a piece of work aren’t you?” Zane asked.

Brian continued smiling. “I do what’s right man. I don’t know why you are on your high horse. You’re the one that’s aided and abetted a criminal, obstructed justice, committed crimes in possessing and supplying illegal substances. If I were you, I’d be a very worried man.”

“I’m just your fucking scapegoat you son of a bitch,” Zane spat. “I promise I’m going to take you down. You and all the shit that you work with. I thought we were friends. So many years and here we are. Being betrayed by you. It just goes to show. I should have known I couldn’t trust you.”

“It’s all too late now buddy,” Brian smiled. “Your career just went down in flames tonight. Tomorrow, you will be national news. There’s no coming back from this. You should know that.”

“You could have done it differently couldn’t you?”

“We can all do everything differently but we needed you out of the way quickly and this was the girl’s ingenious plan. You have to admit it sucks getting fucked by a woman like this. No-one’s going to believe you. You’re done.”