New: To Serve and Protect - Page 2

"To Serve and Protect," Chapter 23
by c.w. cobblestone

Ken gripped the podium with one hand and smoothed his dress with the other.

"I'd like to thank the alumni for inviting me to speak at the 3rd Annual State University Transgender Club Fundraiser. I've had my own unique journey as a trans perso-n, and I appreciate being asked to share some of my experiences. Now, as some of you may know, I'm a graduate of State U, as is my partner at Glass Slipper Investigations, Rachel Coolidge."

"You mean the cop-lover?" a heckler yelled.

"Yeah, that's the bitch who loves fascists!" screamed a heavy-set audience member with green hair and a nose ring.

"You're not one of us," hollered the first trans activist. "You support Nazi cops."

Ken cleared his throat. "Come on, now, while there certainly are some bad cops, not all of them are—"

"ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS!!! DEFUND THE POLICE!!" yelled the portly TG. "Sounds like you're a cop-lover, too. COP-LOVER! COP-LOVER! COP-LOVER!!"

The audience took up the chant, drowning Ken out: "COP-LOVER! COP-LOVER! COP-LOVER! COP-LOVER!
COP-LOVER!"

After several futile attempts at giving his speech, Ken scurried out of the auditorium. The mob chased him to his car, and the sissy felt lucky to be able to slip into his Jetta and peel out of the parking lot. He glanced in the rearview mirror as the activists jumped up and down, celebrating their victory.

Ken gritted his teeth as he sped away from his alma mater, annoyed at his master for having ordered him to accept the university's invitation to speak to the Transgender Club. Parks had told his servant to market the agency by attending as many functions as possible while he was still in demand following the Channel 3 interview, which had gone viral online. Most of the events had been successful, and Ken's outreach efforts had indeed paid off with new referrals. As he drove back to Glass Slippers Investigations, however, Ken thought the university speech had been ill-advised, to say the least, and he planned to petition Parks to scale back the speaking engagements.

When he got to GSI headquarters downtown, Ken was still trying to figure out the best way to tactfully broach the subject — but he was jolted into another universe upon spotting the attractive woman sitting in his masters' luxurious office.

"S-Sandra?"

Ken's big sis-ter looked up and smirked. "Well, well, if it isn't my little Cinderella? It's been a while. Looks like Rachel and her boyfriend have made you into a permanent sissy — it's a perfect look for you, Cinderella. So ... how've you been? I haven't seen you since Mom's funeral."

"I ... I ... what are you doing here?"

Rachel frowned. "That's disrespectful."

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, I didn't—"

"Don't worry, Cinderella, it's just us here." Rachel smiled at Sandra but continued talking to her slave. "This is a special occasion — a visit from your sis-ter. We've already had a nice little chat and we've told each other everything, so we can break our rule today — you can call me mistress at the office, unless someone else comes in."

"Um, er, yes, Mistress."

Parks leaned back in his chair. "Go get your little notebook, Cindy-Poo. Your sis-ter has a job for us."

Ken scooted to his desk, grabbed his pad and returned to his masters' office, where he stood at attention waiting to take notes.

"So, Sandra, you were telling us a little bit about your situation earlier, but let's start from the beginning. You say your ex stole your inheritance money?"

Sandra scowled. "Yeah, the so-nofabitch drew out the whole $500,000 I had left and disappeared."

Parks nodded. "Do you know how he was able to access the account?"

"I think it was when I was in the shower ... he went through my safe and got the account number and password," Sandra said. "I know he was in my safe because I'd put a stack of bonds at the front and they were all messed up. By the time I saw that, though, the piece of sh-it was long gone with my money."

Parks drummed his fingers on his desk. "He must've had inside help at the bank, because they're supposed to notify the IRS for withdrawals over $10,000, and you'd have gotten a notification."

"I never got anything from the bank; a few days after Harland disappeared and wasn't answering my calls or texts, something told me to check my account, and sure enough, the entire $500k had been withdrawn. Then, I looked in my safe and saw someone had been in there, and I figured it was when I'd taken a shower and left him in the bedroom. That's the only time I can think of when he was in there alone long enough. I asked the bank's security people to look at video from when the money was taken out, but they claim there was a 'glitch,' and the video was lost."

"Yeah, that's an inside job for sure." Parks said. "That's actually good, though, because if we find out where the leak is at the bank, it should hopefully lead us to your ex. Otherwise, it might be a lot harder to find him. We'll start a skip trace on your ex and see what shakes out there. And I've got a buddy who does security for the feds who might have an inside track with getting info from the bank off the books. Tell me about this asshole ex of yours — is he the kind of guy who'd be able to cover his tracks? What line of work was he in?"

Sandra shrugged. "I mean, he told me he'd made a bunch of money in the stock market and that he was retired. He seemed to have money, that's the thing."

"But did he really have money?" Parks twirled his pen. "If you think back, maybe he had just enough to make it look like he had money. How long were you with this guy?"

"About three months."

"Yeah, a nice car's easy to rent for a few months if the end payoff's big enough. How early in your relationship did this dickhead find out about your inheritance money?"

"Gee, I dunno, I may have mentioned it a few weeks in."

"Where did you meet this guy?"

"On meetsingles.com. I didn't say anything about the money on there, or even during our first several dates, I'm sure of it."

Parks scratched his ear. "Yeah, but if this guy is the kind of scam artist I think he is, they can find out stuff fairly easily. I'm sure there was a probate hearing about your inheritance."

"Right, we had to go down to the county building to sign the papers," Sandra said, exchanging glances with her little brother as he scribbled in his littler notebook.

Parks nodded. "So, he probably found out about the money through probate records. The question is, how did he find out where your safe was? Or that you even had a safe?"

"I have no idea," Sandra said.

Ken raised his hand. "Um, excuse me ... may I speak?"

"I can't imagine why." Parks set his jaw. "What's so important you had to interrupt our meeting?"

"Well, I ... Sandra, I don't mean to sound disrespectful, but you always had a blind spot for the bad boys. Remember? Mom used to warn you about it all the time, and say it was going to eventually get you into trouble."

Sandra scowled. "So, what, you're gonna gloat now that you've got one over on me? Because I'm so stupid I let some guy run off with my inheritance? Is that it?"

Rachel's eyes flashed. "OMG, you little sissy! You are being way disrespectful, Cinderella!"

"No, Mistress, please ... Sandra, Mistress, Master, I'm so sorry ... I wasn't being disrespectful, I promise!" Ken turned to his sis-ter. "But you have to admit — you DO have that blind spot ... so maybe you told him about the safe when your guard was down."

Sandra mulled it over for a second and smirked. "Well, you little sh-it, I guess you DO know me, huh? Yeah, now that I think about it, I remember mentioning the safe to him — and, yes, it was right after sex. He said he wanted to buy me a diamond necklace and he asked if I had a cleaning lady or anyone else who came to the house because, if so, it wasn't the kind of thing I'd want to keep laying around. And I told him I'd just put it in my safe. Fuck. I can't believe I was that damned stupid. Mom was right — I DO have a weak spot."

Parks shook his head. "Now, don't beat yourself up too badly over it, Sandra — it sounds like this asshole is a professional. A good conman is able to wheedle information out of you without you even knowing about it. So, don't think it's a reflection on you at all, because it's not."

"Oh, no, Sandra's really smart," Ken gushed, trying to make up for having angered his sis-ter earlier. "She was the smartest girl in the whole school — straight A's almost every year."

Sandra scoffed. "Still a little suck-ass, I see. Brown-nosing won't get you anywhere, Cinderella. You still like to run your little sissy mouth — I can't believe you had the nerve to stand there and bring up what Mom used to tell me about my blind spot for the bad-boys!"

Ken clasped his hands. "Please, Sandra, I didn't mean to be disrespectful ... I would never do that. I was trying to help with the case."

"Help with the case, my ass." Sandra scowled. "I wish I had Ol' Blue with me right now; I'd give you a proper ass-whipping for old time's sake."

Parks set down his pen. "Well, you know, Sandra, it's already past 6 anyway, and there's really nothing we can do tonight to get started on this investigation. We'll jump on it first thing in the morning, but for now, why don't you follow us to the house, and we can grab some dinner ... and have a little fun?"

"Oh, yeah, a little fun sounds nice, actually." Sandra sneered at her younger brother. "You up for some fun, Cinderella? For old time's sake?"