The Socratic Method

"Listen, Amanda, let's wait and I'll get a search warrant. I don't want to risk anything getting thrown out. Evidence tape the doors and you can search it later at the impound yard."

She looked up at me.

"I knew you might come in handy before this was done."

While she went to get the evidence tape out of her truck and started sealing the Blazer, I went over to check on Rufus the Doofus.

"Did you see that, man? That was police brutality! You're my witness!"

"What I saw was you resisting arrest and then losing a fight with a girl half your size. That's what I'm going to testify to if it comes to that."

I left him to his own thoughts.

The rest of the day was taken up with getting the Blazer towed, Rufus booked, and then writing the warrant application and finding a judge to sign it on a Saturday. I left Amanda and the evidence techs to do the actual search, knowing that I didn't want to be a possible witness to where stuff was found. I had intended to ask Amanda to have a celebratory drink with me when she finished, but she was so busy for so long that I gave up and went home.

Amanda was in my office first thing Monday. I poured her a cup of coffee and she grinned at me.

"A lot of the stuff we found in that Blazer is still at the lab, but we think we've got five separate dead owls that we can prove, depending on the DNA results. Plus his laptop, with a bunch of emails to his customers about animal parts he has for sale. We're going to be talking to them and probably getting more search warrants. Looks like it may lead us to the Koreans who buy up bear gall bladders for top dollar. I think we're breaking up a major wildlife trafficking operation here."

"Nice. Should I ask how you took down Rufus so fast?"

"We did a lot of judo at the Police Academy. As the instructor used to say, 'the amount of muscle you use isn't nearly as important as knowing how to use it.'"

"Anything on Socrates?"

"Since Socrates got away, there's probably no trace evidence in the Blazer. No ballistics, either- a bird's wing won't stop a rifle bullet. We may not pin that on him, but I think we can prove enough other crimes that it won't really matter."

"Where did he end up finally?"

"Turns out that most zoos have all the owls they want, and the wildlife rehab facilities are full too. I got permission from the Feds to keep him, at least for the time being. He lives at my house."

"How's that working out?"

"He's a smart bird, and good company since I live alone. My freezer's half full of dead rats and mice, but once I got used to that it's great."

She stopped in regularly over the next few weeks to update me and get help with search warrants. The US Attorney ended up taking over the case from my office, which was fine with me since the investigation had spread into at least two other states. It really wasn't a small-town case any more. Eventually most of his cohorts saw the writing on the wall and pleaded guilty to a slightly reduced charge. Rufus, though, refused to believe he could go to prison for an owl. The Feds ended up borrowing one of our courtrooms for the trial rather than ship all the witnesses to Portland.

Since it was a Federal case now, I wasn't involved in prosecuting it. Amanda, as the investigating officer, had to sit in on the whole thing and help keep track of the witnesses and evidence on top of her own testimony. She got in the habit of wandering into my office two floors down after court was done for the day to debrief and let me know what was going on. While she never unbent from her stiffly professional attitude, I found myself looking forward more and more to her visits. She was willing to listen to what was going on with my cases, too, and usually had a useful perspective on the facts. Every time I suggested that she have dinner or a drink with me after work hours, though, she said she didn't have time. After several weeks of trial, the jury convicted Rufus of everything he was charged with.

I went to court with Amanda for the sentencing. She brought Socrates along to be sure the judge understood the real impact of what the gang had done. Once it was all over, the judge was off the bench, and the marshals had led Rufus & Co. off to start their prison sentences, she perched Socrates on the back of a chair and hugged me, smiling. Hugging a woman who's wearing a duty belt and body armor is a lot like hugging a tree trunk, but I appreciated the thought.

"Thanks, Mike, you helped a lot. Did I tell you I'm in line for Wildlife Officer of the Year for this?"

"Hey, I was glad I could help."

No better time to try again.

"Can I take you out to dinner to celebrate?"

Her response was automatic.

"I really don't think that's a good idea."

She paused.

"On second thought, why not? Sounds like fun. I need to take Socrates home and get him settled, though. Can I meet you there?"

"Sure. Say Zarelli's about seven?"

"That's right in my neighborhood. Perfect."

I was waiting outside the restaurant when she arrived, and the look on my face must have showed my shock. She had swapped her uniform for high heels and a short, form fitting little red dress, and her hair hung in a soft chestnut cascade to her mostly bare shoulders. Nice shoulders, too- the muscle was there but not to the point that it ruined her smooth feminine curves. Speaking of curves, hers looked great out of a ballistic vest. The spaghetti straps of her dress framed a lovely cleavage; not huge but definitely there, high set and firm. Her face looked different too. Makeup, I realized as she got closer; like most men I only notice it when a woman wears too much, and it hadn't occurred to me that she never bothered to wear any while on duty. I don't know what she did, but it sure brought out her already pretty features. Amanda grinned at the look on my face and poked me in the ribs.

"What's got you looking like a jacklighted deer, handsome?"

Smiling? Flirting? What was this?

"Who are you, and what have you done with that tough cop I've been hanging out with?"

"Took her off with the duty belt. Just don't forget that I can still break your arm if you get too fresh."

She slid her arm through mine, confirming my initial impression that there was no way a bra would fit under that dress.

"You get us a table?"

"Uh, yeah, right this way."

I asked again as we reached the table.

"So, no gun tonight?"

She did a turn that a catwalk model would have envied.

"What do you think?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess concealing one would take some doing."

She leaned closer to me and whispered, just as I took a drink of water.

"If you're going to frisk me, though, I think you should at least buy me dinner first."

The next few minutes were occupied with her slapping my back and giggling as I coughed up the water I had taken down the wrong pipe. Eventually we got settled at the table.

"I don't know why civilians think it's so cool to carry a gun all the time. They should feel my back after carrying twenty pounds of gear and a seven pound ballistic vest for a ten hour shift."

"One of those things that looks a lot more exciting in the movies, I guess. Just like being a DA."

"There sure were some dull moments in that trial. I was struggling not to yawn in front of the jury."

"If you have to, at least do it while the defense lawyer is talking."

"I'll remember that next time... Hey, we're friends, right?"

"More than that if I have any say in it."

"You'd tell me if I was going overboard, wouldn't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I spend so much time being a cop in a uniform that I go a little nuts when I get a chance to just be a girl. I don't want to make a fool of myself here."

She started to get up.

"This is stupid. You ask me out for a nice dinner and I show up in this slutty dress, clown around, and generally destroy any respect you have for me. Can we just forget this whole thing and start fresh Monday?"

I grabbed her wrist. For a second I was afraid that she really was going to break my arm. I had no doubt that she could if she really wanted to, but I had been trying to get her here for a long time and wasn't letting this go that easily.

"Amanda, sit down."

She did.

"You did a hell of a job on that owl case. I've seen your dedication to your work, and I have a lot of respect for you as a cop. Tonight is the first chance I've gotten to see you as a woman, and you better believe that I like what I'm seeing. Slutty is the last thing you are. You're a beautiful woman who doesn't get to enjoy being a beautiful woman very often, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it tonight. Stop worrying and have fun. I promise I'm still going to like you on Monday."

She relaxed a little.

"You sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. Can we order now?"

She sat down and picked up a menu.

"They do a great tonno alla palermitana here."

"Sounds good."

By the end of dinner we had finished a bottle of very good Pinot Noir, and she was completely relaxed and giggly. The more I saw this side of her, the more I liked it.

"Walk me home?"

"Be glad to. Let's go."

The way to her house led through the city park. She had her arm through mine again, and we couldn't stop laughing as we strolled along. We paused on the bridge over the duck pond to look at the moon. She caught me looking at her instead of the sky, which wasn't hard since I couldn't resist.

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking about risking a broken arm to kiss you."

She frowned, but her eyes were still laughing.

"I was always told to balance the risk against the potential reward."

I pulled her into my arms. She came willingly enough, and the feel of her soft, warm lips and agile tongue left me dizzy. After a while we came up for air.

"Jerk!"

"What did I do?"

"I was starting to wonder if I was going to have to wrestle you down and handcuff you to get kissed tonight."

"If you might want a guy to kiss you, you shouldn't talk about breaking his arm if he tries it. Keep that handcuffing thing in mind, though. It might be fun later."

"Only if you're very good and very, very lucky."

I swallowed hard, she laughed at the look on my face, and it was so cute that I had to kiss her again. Then the world lit up around us.

"Hey, folks, the park's closed!"

I looked into the spotlight. Amanda had her head turned from the light and seemed to be trying to stuff her head inside the jacket of my suit.

"Sorry. Officer, we were just cutting through on the way home."

"Looked to me like you were doing a little more than that. Take it inside, OK?"

"You got it. Sorry."

"OK, then."

The light snapped off and I heard the patrol car move away. A muffled voice came from the area of my left armpit.

"Is he gone?"

"Yep."

She popped out of my jacket, straightened my tie, smoothed herself out a little, and grabbed my hand.

"Let's get out of here."

"Sure. What's wrong?"

"I know that guy, just like everyone in law enforcement in this county knows each other. If he had recognized me everyone would have known about it by tomorrow."

"Police aren't allowed to kiss DAs?"

"Cops are merciless about teasing each other. Let it get out that I was making out with some guy in public like a teenager, wearing this little dress, and I'll be getting volunteered for the hooker decoy detail forever."

"I hate to quit on that note."

"Who wants to quit? We just need to take it inside."

We got to her place in record time. I reached for her as soon as we got in the front door, but a loud hooting distracted her. She went over to a large cage that took up about half the living room.

"Hi, Socrates! Miss me, handsome? Want a mouse?"

Socrates did seem excited to see her. Made two of us. She stepped into the kitchen for a second and came back with something small that she handed to him.

"That better, big guy? Nice mousie?"

Socrates shifted a few times and retreated to the back of the cage, and Amanda wiped her hands on a handy towel. Then she came over and put her hands on my shoulders.

"Where were we?"

I wrapped my arms around her waist and demonstrated, and she remembered quickly. The hem of her dress was headed north when the hooting started again. She glanced over.

"Socrates, knock it off!"

He flapped and hooted some more.

"Damn it, I can't get into this with that bird looking at us like that. Come on."

He did look like a particularly strict judge I used to deal with, and the thought wasn't helping the mood. I let her pull me down the hall with no resistance. At the foot of her bed she stepped into my arms again.

"Finally, just us."

God, but that girl could kiss when she wanted to. I got a finger inside the top of her dress, found a sweet little nipple, and popped it out. She was starting to unbutton my shirt. I grabbed her hands.

"Amanda, slow down a second."

She pouted.

"What's wrong? This is fun!"

"It sure is, and I love where this is headed. I promised not to let you get carried away, though. You sure you want to do this tonight?"

What was I, insane? Trying to talk a sweet, gorgeous woman out of a night of passion? I knew this was about more than one night, though.

"You didn't realize that we've been building up to this for the last two months? You wouldn't be here if we didn't already know and like each other. I may be a little tipsy, but I don't do stupid things on first dates. I'm not like that."

"I know you aren't, and yeah, I have wanted this for a while now. I just thought you didn't like me."

"You were wrong as usual. Can we talk later? I should have known better than to go out with a damn lawyer. Wanting to talk, talk, talk when I can think of about a dozen better uses for your lips right now."

"Like this?"

"Mmm, exactly. That's a great idea. Oh God, that feels good. The zipper's on my side..."

Within seconds I had pulled the dress over her head, pushed her backwards onto the bed, pulled off my clothes and followed her. I propped myself on one elbow next to her and ran the other hand from her collarbone down her chest and tummy, managing to caress both breasts on the way, stopping at the waistband of her white cotton string bikini panties.

"Sorry, I didn't have time to place an order at Victoria's Secret."

My voice was hoarse.

"Believe me, you look sexy as hell. Not worth worrying about, though."

I pulled them off, exposing a neatly trimmed dark stripe.

"There, that's even better."

I started my lips following them same path as my hand. Just below her belly button she grabbed me and pulled me up to face her.

"Hey, I was going to-"

"I know what you were going to do, and I like the idea. We have all night to play around. I can't wait any longer to have you inside me."

The kiss didn't break as I shifted myself on top of her and she wrapped her long legs around my waist. She guided me to her dripping entrance, and I plunged into her in one long, smooth, ecstatic stroke. My God, it felt good. She winced a little, though.

"Hold still a second...God, you're big... It's been a long time..."

I never thought I was unusually big, but hell, if she thought so, who am I to argue?

"You OK? Need to stop?"

"Hell, no, I'm loving this... just give me a second..."

After a few seconds her hips started rocking, and I started a long, slow stroke.

"Oh, that's better... That's so good...God, this is nice...HARDER!"

Glad to oblige. Her mutters gradually turned to incoherent moans, growing louder and louder until she dug her nails into my shoulders, screamed my name, and had a massive orgasm that took me clean over the edge with her. After a few minutes of catching our breath and getting our bearings, I rolled to one side, pulling her with me so she had a leg still draped over my hips as she settled her head in the crook of my shoulder with me still inside her. I kissed her gently.

"My God, sweetheart, I never suspected you had it in you. That was amazing!"

"I keep my passionate side under wraps. That was pretty amazing."

"You comfortable?"

"More than comfortable."

We fell silent for a while, content to hold each other tightly. Eventually she looked up at me.

"What is that? You ready for round two already?"

"I guess so. Have I mentioned that you turn me on?"

"Glad to hear it."

She pushed me onto my back and rolled on top of me, still never breaking the connection. My face was buried in the silken fall of her hair as she flattened out and kissed me. Then she put her hands on my chest, pushed herself up, and started sliding up and down in little one inch strokes that made her pretty breasts bounce in very alluring ways. That gave me an idea, so I leaned up and sucked a nipple into my mouth, drawing a gasp from her. My hands were clutching her hips as she bounced faster and faster until damn, there it was again with a set of scratches on my chest to match the ones on my back. She collapsed onto my chest, gathering her hair to one side and settling her cheek in the hollow of my throat. I caressed her back for a while.

"Amanda, sweetheart? Amanda?"

Well, what do you know; she had gone to sleep just like that with me still inside her. Sure felt good to me, so I pulled the quilt up to cover both of us, wrapped my arms around her, and dozed off myself. She rolled off sometime during the night, but stayed securely wrapped in my arms.

I was alone in her bed when I woke up the next morning, so I pulled my boxers on and went in search of her. I jumped about a foot when I was greeted by a loud hoot as I went into the living room. I had forgotten about that damn owl.

"Morning, Socrates, you shithead."

I swear he was laughing at me. I found Amanda in the kitchen, hair still wet from the shower, wearing a t-shirt that barely covered her cute little rear end and nothing else that I could see.

"Morning, beautiful."

I reached for her and she stiffened and pulled back a little.

"Mike, we need to talk."

"That's not what I wanted to wake up to."

"Look, I like you a lot, and I don't regret anything we did last night. I don't need a lot of gossip about my personal life, though. Being a female officer is hard enough without that. I don't know if it's a good idea to get involved with a man who works with most of the same people I do."

"As far as I'm concerned what goes on between you and me stays between you and me. I want this thing to work out, but if it doesn't I don't need everyone we know looking over our shoulders any more than you do. Why don't we just keep it between ourselves until we decide we're ready to go public?"

"I guess we could do that."

She looked me over.

"Did I put those scratches on your chest?"

"You sure did, you little wildcat."

"Sorry. Guess I got carried away."

"Hey, never apologize to me for getting carried away in bed. That's half the fun."

"Well, let me kiss it and make it better."

She stepped forward and kissed my chest, giving me the chance to put my arms around her like I had wanted to do all morning. The kisses moved up to my mouth, and started getting serious. Eventually I grabbed her rear end and hoisted her onto the counter, stepping forward between her legs. She was giggling in my ear as I pushed her onto her back.

"What, no panties?"

"I didn't want to go looking for them and wake you up. You looked pretty cute asleep in my bed."

"Cute? I'll show you cute!"

Having her spread out on the counter gave me an idea, so I acted on it. She gasped as my tongue worked its way around and under her clitoral hood, finding and capturing the little pink nub.

"Oh my God, Mike! OH MY GOD! TAKE ME! TAKE ME NOW!"

I straightened up, grabbed her hips, propped her feet on my shoulders, and plunged into her. She was clutching the edge of the counter with both hands as I pounded into her, tossing her head around and moaning.