We last read Chapter 16, in which Raven Tristan, tasked with getting information to use as leverage over Beth Harper, trails Beth but loses her outside of Harrisburg. Raven doesn’t realize Beth has turned into a secret drive and entered a hidden garage, where the stunning sports car of Sapphire Angel awaits her. Beth makes her transformation, becoming Sapphire Angel, and heads off to pay a stealth visit to Chief Biggins’ office at the Mountville police station, after hours. She hopes to find out what the chief is hiding about the shooting near the nuclear power plant.
This is the second story, so if you want to start from the very beginning, you can jump over to book 1, and begin with the Prologue of Sapphire Angel, Superheroine. Or to start at the beginning of book 2 (this story), click over to the Prologue of Power Play.
Thanks for reading!
Thirty minutes later, Sapphire Angel was navigating the country roads near Mountville, taking a circuitous route to stay out of sight. The grey of the car was gone, replaced by a shimmering sapphire blue that gleamed in the moonlight. Her night would start at Chief Biggins' office, where she hoped to learn the real reason for the investigating officer's suspension. From there she would head to the scene of the shooting. Actually, it was now the scene of two shootings. Joseph Snyder had been the first target, and she and Conner had been the second.
Conner. As she thought of him, she couldn't hold back a grin, and a tingle of... something. Her grin turned into a frown. He was growing on her, but he was still full of himself. The near-death event they shared was the only cause of her feelings. Nothing more.
As she went over her plans in her head, the blond heroine steered her car down the silent streets of Mountville. It was almost two in the morning and she didn't see a single person outside. The only movement was from a skinny white cat darting across the road ahead of her. It was so quiet she half expected ghostly apparitions to float up the street toward her.
She avoided the main road, turning into an alley and driving parallel to Main Street. She continued until she saw the crumbling brick of the police building ahead. Sapphire Angel guided her vehicle around potholes and came to a stop a block from the station, behind another decrepit building.
After turning off the ignition, she slid from her vehicle and approached the station. Beth felt alive and full of energy, as she always did while wearing her costume and necklace. She edged forward, scanning the police station for movement. One dim light shone from a window in the building, but she saw no movement.
At the end of the buildings, she darted across the parking to the station. Her boots tapped softly on the pavement, and the only other hint of her presence was the moonlight shimmering off her costume and hair. She tiptoed to the window from which the light emanated and peaked through the glass. Inside she saw a long room, containing a rectangular table, chairs, and a chalkboard. A lonely lamp in the corner lit the room.
Sapphire Angel turned and crept back toward the rear door, surveying her surroundings. She eased the screen door open, remembering how it scraped against the ground, and knelt at the lock of the wood door behind it. The superheroine slipped a small cylinder from her boot and held it to the lock. The device emitted a faint whirring noise for about twenty seconds, before the lock of the door made an audible click.
Sapphire Angel turned the handle and guided the interior door open, before inching the screen door closed behind her. She didn't look for alarms, having scanned for the telltale hardware during her earlier visit as Beth.
Once inside, she closed and locked the interior door behind her. She pressed another button on the cylinder to trigger a beam of light, which she aimed at the floor as she stepped into the room to the left. The secretary's office was just as she remembered it, including the musty smell.
Sapphire Angel walked past the desk and through Chief Biggins' open door. As she eyed the chief's desk in front of her, she sensed a menacing figure rising up to her left. She raised and spun, sinking into a defensive position, but exhaled as she looked upon the animal heads on the walls. After shaking her head and chastising herself, she turned and walked toward the desk, shining her light over the papers scattering its surface. The papers were subpoenas, criminal complaints, and other documents dealing with the sparse crime in this area. It contained nothing of interest to her.
Sapphire Angel turned her attention to the two metal filing cabinets on the right wall. They were standard issue metal cabinets, each containing three drawers. They were dented and warped, suggesting Chief Biggins had not been kind to them over the years.
The lissome woman reached out with a gloved hand and opened the top drawer of the left cabinet. It screeched too loudly for her liking, causing her to wince. Manilla folders crammed the drawer, each standing on edge with handwritten labels facing her.
She moved through the folders, skimming the labels. Sapphire Angel hoped to find information about David McGraw, the vacationing officer who had investigated the shooting near the Pegasus Club. She came up empty in the first drawer, and also in the middle drawer. Half way through the bottom drawer she found a folder labeled "David McGraw." She slid the folder from the drawer and took it to Biggins' desk, where she opened it atop his other papers.
As she flipped through the contents, Sapphire Angel let out a soft whistle. Buried among other routine documents, she found a memorandum entitled "Notice of Suspension." McGraw wasn't on vacation. Biggins had lied to her, just as she had suspected. She scanned the paper for details of the suspension, finding only that it was "for insubordination." She frowned, not only at the lack of information the notice gave her, but also at the lack of information it gave McGraw. Just how Biggins wanted it, she was sure. The header showed Biggins had sent it to McGraw on August 19, which was the same day as Beth's aborted meeting with Bud Tanner.
The rest of the folder contained little of interest, except for McGraw's job application, various certifications, and contact information. She looked around the room for a way to copy the documents, before remembering a photocopy machine in the secretary's office. Beth hurried to the machine and waited for it to start before making two copies of the folder contents.
When finished, Sapphire Angel powered down the copier and darted back to the cabinet. She returned the folder to its place and examined the remaining contents of the cabinet drawer, finding nothing else of interest. She closed the drawer and was about to move on to the second cabinet, when she heard the screech of the screen door, followed by voices. She tensed. She was not alone.
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Darn it! Hope she doesn’t get caught.....also, wouldn’t this count as breaking and entering? ......Meh. She’s the hero here, so I guess it’s fine.