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Author of 38 Stories |
March 14th, 1994, a new arrival was coming in from New Jersey, M.E. Rinehart, she had been experienced in polic work for several years, she was sure she could handle any assignment given.
"Miss Rinehart, nice of you to have made it," Lt. Bixby greeted her.
"No problem sir," M.E. replied, "I've been through worse traffic that rush hour in downtown Florida. So what's the problem?"
"Well, I hear that you specialize in drug and domestic violence cases," Lt. Bixby started.
"That's right, so?"
"So what was your position at your last job? Sergeant? Deputy?...Sheriff?" Bixby laughed.
"Just a regular undercover officer, Lieutenant," M.E. answered.
"Hey boss!"
M.E. and Bixby turned to see an ornry young officer standing in the doorway, still wearing his sunglasses.
"Chapin."
"Sorry, Lieutenant boss, so, where's my new partner?"
"She's right here....Mary Elizabeth Rinehart, I'd like you to meet your new partner, Leo Chapin," Bixby introduced her.
"Wait a minute, she's my partner? Lieutenant, with all due respect, you didn't say you were sticking me with a girl," Leo said.
"Watch it," M.E. warned him.
"Excuse me, a broad," Leo corrected.
M.E. slapped him in the back of the head for that one.
"At the time, we weren't sure who we were getting, all we heard was it was an experienced teenager from Patterson, New Jersey," Bixby replied.
Leo turned to see his new 'partner', he wasn't too thrilled.
"You're just lucky you didn't call me a whore, otherwise you'd be in the ground by now with only your head sticking up through the floorboards," M.E. told him.
"How old are you?" Leo asked.
"Forget it, I'm not your type," M.E. replied.
"She's 17," Bixby told him.
"17? No wait a minute, you told me we were getting someone with experience," Leo said.
"I am experienced, I've practically been doing the officer's work for 6 years now, give me a badge and a nightstick and it won't be any different," M.E. told him.
"What about a gun?" Leo asked.
"Already got it."
Leo looked down as he saw M.E. pulled out a .44 magnum and pointed it at his torso.
"You mind flipping that somewhere else?" he asked.
"So Lieutenant, what's the assignment?" M.E. asked.
"Your first assignment will be to check out the alley on 31st Street," Bixby explained.
"Hold it, the Jump Street police checking out 31st Street's alley? Lieutenant, the professionals aren't finding anything over there, what makes you think we can?" Leo asked.
"What's at 31st Street?" M.E. asked.
"Mainly a bunch of superstition, everybody claims that alleyway's haunted by the ghosts of vagrants, however, we're interested in it because so many people have gone down there, and never come back. Some we find dead, others, we never find, like a former officer of ours, Hanson," Bixby said.
"Tom Hanson?" Leo asked.
"No, Jason Hanson, his brother," Bixby answered.
"I didn't know Tom had a brother," Leo said.
"Yeah, they didn't want people to know, after Tom left the Jump Street Police, Jason came in under an alias, filled in for him from then on, then one day a few months ago, he investigated a murder on 31st street, we never saw him again. Anyone goes down there, we check it out, can't find anything, like someone's moving everything around," Bixby explained.
"Definately sounds like a juvenile case to me, one question, the last time you saw Jason, what'd he look like?" M.E. asked.
"You ever see the film, Interview with a Vampire?" Bixby asked.
"Yeah, good movie, so what?" M.E. asked.
"So...try picturing Louie with a better complexion and modern clothes, that's him, although I doubt you can find him, everyone's assumed him dead by now," Bixby told her.
"Well, dead or not, I intend to find him," M.E. said.
As they headed out to their car, Leo thought of something.
"Mary Elizabeth..."
"M.E.," she replied.
"Whatever....this is either serial killers or it's ghosts, if the authorities can't figure out this whole thing, what makes you think we can?" Leo asked.
"Leo, think about it, Jump Street police pose as high school kids to catch juvenile delinquents in the act, whole thing starts when one of the greatest officer's brother takes over. While you were talking with Bixby, I checked the files on the people who disappeared at the alley for the last 3 months, most of them were about our ages. There would have to be someone who knew where to hide everything, including the bodies, the weapons, and possibly any evidence. Someone who knew their way around the streets, and other than vagrants, hobos and bag ladies, who knows the streets well enough to do that?" M.E. asked.
"Juveniles, I get it, the authorities and the FBI can't figure it out because they think like 30 and 40 year olds, but we can think like juvenile delinquents..."
"Cuz we ARE in our off hours," M.E. laughed, "so how old are you?"
"19..."
"Well, glad to work with you, I just hope you don't get car sick when you go at 70," M.E. said.
"What? What are you? Hold on, you're driving? Oh boy, I hope my insurance hasn't run out," Leo said.
"You better hope so, cuz when I go past the limit, I get careless," M.E. said.
M.E. stomped on the gas and they were out of there, heading over to 31st Street's infamous alley.