money from Karl greatly helped her to afford a furnished apartment outside of NYC on a month to month lease. Kristen knew her way around New York. She had been there a few times before to visit acquaintances, including the disaster trip there with William.
Kristen was a true believer that you can’t look for love. It finds you. And sometimes it really is just out of the blue! “Police Blue!” And, this was the case with Doug Walsh, a Lieutenant with the New York City Police.
Kristen had decided to keep away from the rich men for now and check out someone completely different. She decided to go over to Rocco’s. It was a NYC Cop bar that she had been to many times before with a friend who was married to a cop. In those days, Kristen was strictly there to accompany her and had no interest in meeting anyone. Rocco’s was notorious for their late liquor license, and its attraction to all the yuppies that plowed out of the earlier bars when they closed and headed over there.
And when it was time for Rocco to close, he chased those civilians out of his bar, locked the door, and then would keep the bar going for any of the cops that remained, and for his favorite girls.
Earlier that night, Kristen’s friend had told her to check out a private “Shield Party” at Rocco’s. She had just had a baby and couldn't go with her. Kristen was on her own tonight. She parked her car at the curb and walked up the crumbling steps. Someone peeped through the spy hole in the front door and let her in. Once inside, she realized that it was Rocco himself.
Even though it was very late, it was not much of a party yet, and there were only about ten people in there. Half of them were from the Los Angeles police force for which the party was being thrown. They were in town for a police seminar and leaving in two days. They all seemed busy talking to each other and took no special notice of her. She sat at the end of the bar and started talking to Rocco.
As he handed her a beer, she noticed a uniformed NYC cop with enough insignia on his white shirt to indicate that he was a Lieutenant. He was sitting two seats from her hunched over his drink and not talking to the rest. Rocco looked at who she was gazing at, gave her a devilish grin, and then walked over in front of the lone cop and placed a shot and a beer in front of him. Rocco said “Doug, I would like you to meet Kristen.”
Doug turned his head slightly to the side to get a look at her. He smiled “Well, well, we’ve got ourselves a cop groupie.” Kristen laughed and thought to herself, “This is great. He’s onto me from the start.” She loved a man who could figure out her game. She smiled back as he shifted stools to sit right next to her shoulder to shoulder. She felt the electricity the minute his arm was resting next to hers and he smelled great!
Doug was 6’5 and all muscle. He was handsome and clean-shaven with dark blonde hair in a short military haircut. You could tell he was a cop from the old school. Kristen absolutely loved cops that acted like real macho men, not like the “Mama’s Boy” Illinois suburban cops that gave out tickets for speeding in 25 M.P.H. zones.
Doug was definitely a “Cop’s cop!” She would soon learn that he was someone who would never bore her and would always keep her guessing. Doug was acting sexy and said, “So, how come I’ve never seen you here before?” Kristen smugly replied, “I guess it’s because I am just visiting from Chicago.”
He gave a low chuckle, “Chi-Town. Oh, so you’re one of those bad girls from the Windy City. I’ve never been there, just been in NYC my whole life.” Kristen couldn’t help but add “I am also from Palm Beach.” Doug just lowered his eyebrows and gave her a blank look. He then ordered another shot and a beer and a super shot for Kristen. She could tell he was getting looser with each gulp. As she was talking to him, he was somewhat ornery and had a need to be in charge. Whenever she said anything that he did not agree with, he would challenge her, like it was a fight to the end.
After about an hour, Kristen started to feel that she didn’t like him after all. This was until he put a big arm around her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “Let’s get out of here. I’ve got a better place we can go over to in my precinct.” They went outside and decided that she would follow him in her car. She felt she would be safe, after all she did have her own vehicle and he was a policeman. He led her on a wild ride through the back streets of the city and into neighborhoods that got worse with every turn. He drove like a maniac, like he was taunting her to keep up with him. At least, he knew he couldn’t get arrested. The police were “above the law”, no matter whose turf they were on.
Finally, he came to a dead stop right in front of a precinct house. He parked, sticking his car halfway into the street. He exited carrying two beers, handed her one, and then held her arm while they went into the old cement bunker-like building. Since it was late at night, the office was somewhat deserted except for a white-haired officer seated at the desk. Doug left her standing there while he walked towards the back. It was kind of awkward. Kristen felt like she should be hiding her beer and kept it lowered at her side. Absorbed in his paperwork, the officer didn’t seem to care or even acknowledge her.
She heard a loud yelp of pain from the backroom. Doug scurried in, a little red in the face, and bustled back up to her. She said “What was that?” He nonchalantly replied that one of the arrestees was using a precinct phone without permission. He told her that he came up behind him and kicked him in the rear end, hard enough to knock him over the desk. Kristen looked shocked and felt uneasy. She guessed this activity happened all the time in the city. She knew it could be worse.
Doug turned to the other officer. “I want you to add theft of phone services to his sheet and don’t mention my name. I think I threw that guy’s brother out of a window in the projects once. They might remember me.” In the same breath he said, “Just kidding Kristen.” He then yelled towards the desk. “Hey! Where are the boys?” Without turning his head, the officer pointed to the side door. Doug rushed Kristen out and down the stairs into the squad car parking section. Towards the back, by the trees, she could barely make out a group of shadowy figures.
As they walked closer, she saw a large ice chest filled with beer and a party in full swing. One of the cars had two speakers on top and the music was blasting. It seemed like “anything goes” in this precinct.
She thought they were pretty gutsy to be outside drinking this late. She could tell by the group’s reaction as they approached, that it was obvious that Doug was their leader, and they all had respect for him. The ones that looked like rookies seemed nervous and almost in awe of him as he strode up to them.
Doug was immediately handed a beer and chairs were cleared for them to sit down. Kristen listened to all of them talk. They were very boisterous as they avidly exchanged their war stories. That’s all cops ever seemed to talk about, “the catch of the day”. After a while, some detectives arrived and they had girls with them who looked like dispatchers. They each gave Doug a pat on the back and reached into a cooler for a beer. One of them said, “Hey, Doug, I want to see that new tattoo you got with Joey last week.” Doug gave a sly smile at the girls. “Do you mean this one?” He pointed to a skull tattoo on his right arm. He waited a few seconds and then rolled the sleeve up to his shoulder to expose an Irish flag. “Do you mean this one?” Grinning some more, he then pointed to his crotch, “Or is it this one?” He unzipped his pants and pulled out his ample appendage exposing a long barreled neon blue gun covering the length of it. He then waggled it at the giggling dispatchers. “Do you girlies want to touch my loaded pistol?"
One of the girls actually leaned toward it and then retracted when she saw Kristen pretend to glare at her. Kristen then just looked away, shaking her head and laughing. “What a character!” She thought “I absolutely love this.” Doug stood there for another minute with it hanging out as he raised his bottle up high above his mouth and downed his beer. He cherished the attention. He then grabbed Kristen around the waist and said to the crowd “Let’s go to O’Donnell’s.” It was now 4:30 AM. Everyone walked out
and formed a raucous caravan to drive only two blocks away. They pulled up to a darkened bar. The door was unlocked and they all piled inside, falling over themselves. Some of the guys picked up the bartender, sat him on top of the bar and gave him a cigar. Then they walked in back of the bar to the coolers and grabbed a bunch of beers.
Kristen could tell that the bartender didn’t mind being under siege. All the drinks were “on the house” for the rest of the morning, whether he liked it or not. Doug grabbed a bottle of top shelf vodka, took a swig and put it in front of Kristen. The bartender poured her a glass of orange juice, filling only a fifth of the glass. Doug generously filled it the rest of the way with alcohol, picked it up, and told her to open her mouth. “Oh, please no Doug. It’s too late for me. I’ll get sick.” “Nonsense, I don’t want to drink alone” he demanded.
Kristen frowned, stood up, and left him to go outside. As she unlocked her car, he came up from behind her, pulled her arms back and handcuffed her. He then marched her back in. He sat her down, undid one cuff, and then locked it to the chair. He then took away her drink, grabbed himself some