Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 177

Jacko POV

Morning came too quickly for me; I woke up with Lucas in my arms. I loved waking with him snuggled in close to me, breathing in his strong, musky scent of man. He grumbled something about it being too early and tried to keep me in bed a little longer, but as a police officer, I had a job to do today, one I was not looking forward to, and at the same time, I was. It was a conundrum of sorts; it was always challenging to interrogate people you knew or thought you knew.

After a shower and breakfast, I left the house. Lucas stayed in bed, sleeping. He had a busy day today and would be home late. Three new clients, one woman, and two men, wanted personal training. There was something about them that felt off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It will be a physically demanding day for him. He likes to assess all new clients before assigning them to one of the personal trainers on his team. He will call me when he finishes, but I will pop in after work and do my training. I have been remiss lately about all that has been happening at work.

When I entered the precinct, the air was thick with tension. There was a flurry of activity around the booking station, voices echoing off the walls. My curiosity was piqued, and I wondered what caused such a commotion. 'What is going on?' I asked one of the younger officers.

'There was a large fight outside one of the tattoo parlors. We arrested everyone who was in the fight and put them in cells to cool off. Then the Sergeant wanted to get them interviewed.' Something was off about this. 'Where are you putting them?' I asked the sergeant.'

'Block B.

'No, send them to block D. I do not want anyone in block B. I ordered and waited near the doorway to ensure the prisoners were not headed to block B. Once they were escorted to block D, I headed to my office and organized things to interview Kitty.Enjoy this chapter for free and stay updated with the latest version on FindNovel.net. Don't miss out, visit it now. I had already had Margaret and Cindy charged and sent to the holding cells away from here. Only Kitty was still in a cell in this station. I wanted her away from here as soon as possible, too. My gut is telling me they are targets for the gang wars, and I do not want that to flow into my office.

The guys went and brought Kitty to the interview room, where we would video the whole interview and would like the girls. I would sit in but only ask questions if it got out of hand; they understood what I wanted them to ask. Kitty was grumpy, not at all happy to be there. She had no makeup on and looked every bit her age without it, and the outfit was not her color at all. According to her, she hated oranges. It went against her skin color; she would prefer a paler color, so let's not start on the food. She went on and on to whoever was in earshot, whether they wanted to listen or not.

'Please state your name and date of birth for the records please! Henry asked Kitty politely, and after complaining a bit about asking a lady her age, she stated her name and date of birth.

'What was your maiden name?' Again, Kitty argued but eventually gave it.

'Do you have any aliases?' There were more complaints before we got her other married name, which was her true-married name, and the one with Hank was more of an alias. 'How did the wedding club begin?'

'The first time I got married, it was a drunken night, and six ladies and six men got married. We were upset that we had not remembered it, so six months later, we got married again, but the fellas did not want to do it again; when one of the guys realized he was really married, he quickly got a divorce. However, the rest of us went back and found the same celebrant. He said he could have a fake marriage; everything looked real, but he needed ways not to register it. Later, we lured some friends to the man, and he fake- married some guys. We ended up blackmailing them, and it went from there. It was for fun and to see who we could con, and then it became an art, and it grew to huge proportions. All was working well for us; we had a large portfolio of names. That was until Peter got wind of it and took it out of our hands; he brought the syndicate into it and spoiled it for us women, added money laundering and women for hire, and all sorts of things, and I was in too deep to get out. One of the women is dead now; she died in a car accident, but it was a warning to the rest of us: if we wanted to live, we would do as we were told. I was not happy about that, but what could we do? I made sure to keep records of it all so if I ever needed something to fall back on.

'So you were part of the first lot of ladies? Along with Wendy?'

'Yes, I was in a different school but lived close enough to say the same neighborhood. We often met up, went to the mall together, and hung out with the same friends. Wendy, Cathy, Sonya, Helena, Marge, and I were there. Wendy was the brains behind most of it until the syndicate got involved. I was window dressing. Then, I made. Then, the pretty dresses fixed up the girls that got beaten up. Then I was told to fake marry a doctor, and that was when Hank came into the picture, poor Hank. He would never question the ladies. He knew I did volunteer work with battered women, which was a disguise so that I could bring in some of the worst cases to him. The real battered woman would shy away from him, but he was ever so gentle. I loved him in my own silly way. My husband demanded I fake marry him and live with him. It was hard to do at first, but we got there eventually!

'Who were you all married to?'

'Wendy was married to Congressman Bennett Sanderson, and Cathy was married to the now ex-Chief of Police. I don't remember his name, as he kept giving false ones, and it was hard to keep track of which one was real, and he was into kinky stuff. I felt back for Cathy. The only good thing about our first or real marriage was that we were not stuck with them. They refused to give us a divorce, all part of keeping control over us, but took other women for themselves, all quite sick, really, but what started out as fun as kids turned into something none of us girls ever dreamed of and, once those bastarrds were in, we had no way out. Sonya was married to Detective Gregory, and Helena was married to Judge Henderson. Poor Marge, she and her husband were killed in the accident, so it does not really matter what his name was. We ladies ended up trying to make the most of it, and I know we did not all get along once the syndicate got involved. But we tried to make the most out of it, and the money was good, a nice tidy sum, hidden away for when we could get away from this, but we never seemed to find a way out. It was a never-ending demand. When the syndicate boss let Peter take over this branch, we lost all hope, and the money no longer had its appeal. We started to meet up, looking for ways to get out of it. When my girls seemed to love being treated like queens, I was lost. I knew they loved it very much, and Peter dotted on them both, quite the opposite of how he treated Wendy's daughter. I know that every time Wendy had trouble, Cynthia would come to me for treatment. Peter would beat her up, and for every incident, Wendy did wrong. It was the only way to punish Wendy without arousing Bob's suspicions. Wendy was supposed to put Bob off the scent and keep him away from syndicate people, but Bob would not reveal too much, and that was not good enough for Peter. He wanted to know what was going on, and Cynthia suffered every time Wendy could not deliver!

'What about Margaret meeting Cynthia in the same school?' I wondered about that, too, as they lived in different cities. 'Wendy said Cynthia was having trouble at school, Bethany had jumped two school grades, and Cynthia was feeling bad for not being as smart, so Wendy and I rented a small apartment and set the two girls up to finish school together. It was only for the last year of high school, but they hit it off and started to be together all the time. When Cynthia returned to her home, Margaret went with her; Margaret went to college in the same city and rented a place not far away; they were too entrenched in the syndicate to be bothered with school, but they did enough to pass their degree and nothing more.

I had heard enough and left the room. I got a policewoman to make Kitty a cup of tea and went to our wedding room. I put more information on the board, and we better understood what was going on. What started off as school pranks turned into a huge business that the woman could not get out of. The more money they made, the more deeply entrenched they became, dragging their own daughters into the mix.

After her statement, I was having her shipped over to the other holding cells; things here were getting out of hand, with all these sudden people being arrested. Soon, they will have no choice but to put the overflow in this section.