Headhunter

had brought the Headhunter down. The man looked like such a fool.'

Both Corporals laughed.

As they had been promoted, this trip was a celebration. Bill Tipple-now a Sergeant — had been asked to come along, but he had begged off saying that Commercial Crime was hot on the tail of something big and he could not desert at the moment. 'By the time you two return,' he'd said, 'I'll probably be an Inspector.' The way things turned out, Rick Scarlett was pleased, for now they were alone.

The restaurant was a part of Pike Place Market, serving French cuisine at skyrocket prices. For a few extra bucks under the table the maitre d' (Parisian, of course) had seated them by a window where the view out over Elliott Bay was positively breathtaking. They were dining up on the second floor of a building constructed on stilts so that it jutted out over the edge of a bluff. Before the sun had set 'the mountains really had been out,' as the people of Seattle say. But now all that could be seen were the lights of the boats bobbing out on the water beyond the candle flame reflected in the glass. They had just finished dessert and a third bottle of wine.

'I wonder what he did with them, Kathy?' Rick Scarlett asked. His words were slightly slurred. He had consumed most of the alcohol.

'With what?' the woman replied.

'With the severed heads.'

'I have no idea. And I doubt we'll ever know.'

'Yeah,' Scarlett said. Then they both fell silent.

He motioned to a waiter and, when the man came over, ordered two Courvoisiers. As he turned back, once again — inadvertently — Scarlett looked the woman up and down. Spann was wearing a black dress cut low in the front and a simple string of pearls. Her hair was swept up on both sides of her head and pinned back. Scarlett's throat was dry by the time the cognac arrived.

'You know,' Spann said slowly, swirling the liquid around in the snifter and glancing out through the window, 'the thing I like most about the States is that the people are so overt. I mean sure there's a lot of shit in this country too, but the Americans are not afraid to bring it to the surface. I believe that takes guts: they're a lot more honest than we are.'

'Perhaps,' Scarlett said, and he looked down her cleavage.

Fifteen minutes later the bill arrived. Though Scarlett insisted on paying for the meal, Katherine Spann declined. 'Not my style,' she said. So they split it down the middle and then went outside.

Immediately the aromas of Pike Place Market assailed their senses of smell: the meat, the fish, the spice shops, the bakeries and the delis. Lingering above all these was the pungent sea-salt air, blowing up Puget Sound and tugging at their clothes. Just outside the restaurant Rick Scarlett tripped and fell. Spann broke his catapult motion and said: 'You've had too much to drink.'

'No way,' the man said, regaining balance. She looked at her watch.

'We better make for Sea-Tac,' Katherine Spann said. 'Let's hail a taxi or we're going to miss our plane.'

Scarlett didn't move. Instead he grabbed her by the arm. They were standing at the top of a wooden staircase that led to the street below. Stretched out before them was the black of Elliott Bay.

'I guess this must really be something for you, eh?'

'What do you mean?' Spann said. 'Do you always talk in riddles?'

'I mean what with you being a woman, and making Corporal and all. That's quite an achievement. You're one of the first.'

The woman shook her head as if in disappointment. 'Rick,' she said quietly, 'I'm the same age as you. I've been a cop just as long as you have. And you made Corporal too. What does being a woman have to do with this promotion?'

Scarlett shrugged his shoulders. 'You know what I mean.'

'No, Rick. I don't.'

'Look, Kathy. My father was a member of this Force back on the prairies. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be in the RCMP. That's how I come to be here.'

'So? I come to be here because…'

'Because of feminism and the liberation of women. It's written all over you.'

'Oh, is that so?'

'You bet. You thrive on besting men within a domain that has been traditionally male. For you it's a challenge, and I admire that.'

'Is that how you see it?'

'Yes, and so should you. If you don't recognize that, you're just being blind.'

'And just who am I talking to? Is this Rick Scarlett speaking? Or is it two bottles of Chateauneuf du Pape?'

'I'm not drunk.'

'I think you are.'

'Come on, Kathy, admit it. Be honest with yourself. Deep down inside you're just like the rest of us. You want power. And you like to get ahead. There's nothing wrong with that.'

'Come on. Rick, let's…'

'And you like to get fucked.'

Katherine Spann frowned and took a step away from him.

'Don't look so shocked. It's not against the law.'

Again the woman shook her head. 'Let's catch that plane.'

'Let's not, Kathy. Let's stay here and have a little fun. Believe me, it'll be worth it. I'll make sure of that.'

'Come on, Romeo. Let's go home.'

Scarlett gripped her tighter. He had yet to let go of her arm. 'Don't treat me like I'm some little kid.'

'Then quit acting like one. And let go of me.'

Scarlett dropped his arm as anger came into his eyes. 'Aren't we the cold one? Tell me, woman, just what does a guy have to do to get somewhere with you?'

'Shut it down, Rick. I've had a good time. Let's not spoil it.'

'Answer me! What's the matter? Don't you like men?'

'Rick,' she said slowly, beginning to clench her teeth. 'I work with you and you're a part of the job. I like you as a partner, but we can't be anything else. Can't you see that?'

'Don't be absurd. What does that matter? I won't tell anyone else.'

'That's not the point.'

'The point is, Kathy, that I am crazy about you. I have been ever since I first saw you standing at that bulletin board checking the assignments. You dominate my thoughts.'

'I said shut it down, Rick. I want to catch that plane. Are you coming or not?'

'You listen to me!' Scarlett almost shouted. 'Don't you turn your back on me. I won't have it! For two months now I've kept my feelings to myself. Business is business and I'm a professional too. Fine. Okay. But now the case is over. The Squad is disbanded. We'll be reposted and that's the end of that. But that doesn't alter the way I feel. Nothing can change that. I want you, Kathy! You drive me out of my mind!'

'I'm leaving, Rick,' she said. And Spann turned to go.

'Fuck you!' the man yelled. 'Don't hold your cunt so tight!' And with that he reached out with his good arm — the one without the stitches — and grabbed her breast.

Katherine Spann seized his hand, pried her body free of his grip and pushed him away. 'Do that again and I'll slug you,' she said. Her right hand balled in a fist. 'Now leave me alone. I don't fuck cops. That's incest, you ass!'

Rick Scarlett's face grew livid with drunken rage.

'You bitch!' he shouted. 'You tight-ass bitch! It's all a game to you, isn't it? All a fuckin' game! You dress up in the uniform and hold your back erect, masking it as protocol while you show off your tits! And look at you tonight! You hypocrite! Cut it any lower and that dress would show your snatch!'

'You child,' Spann said, and she turned on her heels and left him ranting in the night.