Abacus

“If you are found to have lied you will be charged with murder and will do serious jail time.” Randall waited for acknowledgement.
    Hoskings nodded. “I understand.” Fiddling with a paperclip he’d found on the desk, he blurted out, “But you know what… I loved her, she had a spell over me, I would do anything for her. She made me feel special, she was very sexual.”
    “I imagine she would be,” Rand all said, deliberately avoiding Jesse’s smirk. “But, Peter, it’s time to look after number one, because that’s what she’s doing right now. She is looking after number one, which is definitely not you.”
    * * *
    The end of a hectic day was closing, with both Cheung and Hoskings charged and processed. Cheung had been placed in a holding cell at the station, whilst Hoskings had been transported to jail to prevent collusion.
    Randall thought about his dalliance with Cheung. There were a number of questions, which troubled him. Firstly he didn’t know what Helen’s role was. She had asked him a couple of times how the investigation was going, which may have been a play to get inside information about the case. Then there was the threesome, which could have been an elaborate way of also getting to him.
    His thoughts also turned to the victim Briggs. Perhaps he too was involved in the group sex thing with Cheung and Helen. Perhaps he was killed to satisfy some sick perversion. This scenario made him particularly uneasy as he could have become the next victim.
    These thoughts aside, Randall had some unfinished work. He had been busting at the seams to give Jesse his side of the Cheung story, but they had been too busy. Seizing his opportunity, he called from his office, “Jesse, you got a second, mate?”
    Jesse walked into the F ishbowl and sat opposite his desk.
    “I want to clear things up about Cheung.” Jesse nodded. “I fucked her.”
    “I thought so.”
    “You know that nurse Hobbs and I went to see about that info from the psych ward?” Jesse nodded. “Well, I’ve been seeing her and she took me to some swingers’ joint where everyone was dressed up in masks. I didn’t know it was Cheung. She was dressed as cat woman, she looked tasty and we had a threesome.”
    Jesse smiled. “Are you fair dinkum, boss?” he said, laughing.
    “Unfortunately I am , Jesse. She gave me a cracking good blowjob too. I’ve always been a big fan of Batman, even as a kid, so a good-looking sort dressed as cat woman was my ultimate fantasy. I never stood a chance.”
    Jesse look ed out the window and laughed. “Why don’t these things happen to me?” he joked.
    “As mind- blowing as it was, well, well, it puts me in a bit of a situation now,” Randall said in a serious tone.
    “It won’t come out in c ourt, she’ll plead guilty, we’ve got too much on her,” Jesse said, trying his best to be upbeat.
    “Aside from t hat,” Randall said, supporting his head with his right hand. “I’m worried that Helen could be involved. It may have been a setup to find out more info about the investigation. Then there is the victim Briggs. He might have been in the same threesome situation but obviously with a different outcome to my experience.”
    Jesse leaned back in his chair and raised his eyebrows. “Shit, d idn’t think of that. Well, cat woman is still in the cell, why don’t you a have a little chat with her, off the record, and see what she says… she obviously likes you.”
    “Yeah, yeah , smart-ass,” Randall joked. “I’ll have to do that before she gets taken away in the van.” Randall stared at the pen he twirled between his fingers. “Are we right with the Cheung thing then? I mean, you know, the screw I had with her. What I mean is, you know it wasn’t something I planned and knew about, don’t you?”
    Jesse smiled. “I know, I know.”
    Randall reached down to his bar fridge, retrieved two stubbies of beer and cracked them open. He passed a beer to Jesse and took a huge scull of his until it was finished. “I’ve got to get rid of this terrible, terrible taste in my mouth.”
    Jess e’s face contorted as he thought about what Randall had just said. “Boss, who says the whip she used that night was the same one?”
    Randall knew that Jesse was trying to make good of something that was very, very bad. “You’re a good man , but it’s just the thought, mate. I would recommend the threesome thing to anyone, but as a rule, I would try to exclude psychopaths.” Randall got