Ask Me No Questions and I'll Tell You No Lies

A light drizzle of rain fell from the night sky and Dennis Booker turned up the collar of his jacket in an effort to stay warm.  Pushing back his rain soaked hair, he cast an eye at his fellow Jump Street officer, Tom Hanson, who was loitering outside an adult movie store a block down the street.  To the casual observer, Tom appeared to be a homeless street kid prostituting the dangerous inner city streets.  Dressed in scuffed boots, ripped jeans, a red-checkered shirt and faded leather waistcoat, his damp hair hung over his face, obscuring his dark brown eyes.  However, Dennis knew that regardless of his appearance, anyone walking past would immediately see how attractive Hanson was.  Tom possessed a prettiness that was rare in men and if anyone had asked him, Dennis would have used the word beautiful to describe his fellow officer. 

As a bisexual, Booker had been instantly attracted to Tom when he transferred from Internal Affairs to the Jump Street program where Hanson was an undercover cop.  However, he and Tom had almost come to blows on their first assignment together and they now had a strained working relationship.  It was no secret around the Chapel that Tom disliked him.  The only time Hanson spoke to him was when Captain Fuller partnered them together on a case.  It saddened Booker as he thought that under different circumstances, he and Tom could have become friends.  He knew there was no hope of romance, Hanson was very obviously straight, but he would have liked to have the camaraderie that Tom and Doug shared.  Instead, his only real contact with Hanson came through his incessant teasing.  He knew it was childish, like a grade school kid pulling the pigtails of a girl he liked but he could not help it.  If he did not taunt Tom, there would be no connection between them at all and he wanted Hanson in his life, he needed Hanson in his life.  Tom’s aloofness drew him in and he knew he was becoming obsessed, which was unusual for him.  Since joining the force, he had never been close to any of his partners and he wondered if it was because he came off as overconfident and conceited.  He knew he gave off a tough, egotistical exterior but it was mostly a façade.  High school had been a nightmare and he had become the target of bullies because of his sexuality.  He had learned early on to put up a front and become the tough guy or risk being downtrodden forever.  Over the years, the dangerous, street smart, persona had taken over his personality and he found himself portraying the rough exterior even when there was no need to.  It was who he was now and he wondered if the real Dennis Booker even existed anymore.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, Booker wandered up and down the wet pavement whilst thinking about the case they were investigating.  Homeless teenage boys who lived on the streets and hustled for a living were turning up dead around the city, their bodies badly beaten and violently sexually assaulted.  Many more were reported as missing by their friends on the streets, the latest being a sixteen-year-old named Aaron Peterson.  The last reported sighting of Aaron was of him getting into a black BMW with tinted windows.  That had been two weeks ago and Booker, Hanson, Penhall, Ioki and Hoffs had been living on the streets posing as homeless teens for the last six days.  Doug and Judy had managed to integrate themselves in with Aaron’s street friends and they were currently living in various abandoned buildings around the city.  Ioki, Booker and Hanson were living at the YMCA.  For all the undercover officers, it had been an uncomfortable and sobering experience.  Their clothes were filthy and they had so far only managed to shower twice in the week that they had been on assignment.  They were lucky if they ate one meal a day and it was a gut wrenching reality check for them all.  To have to witness the homeless fighting to survive, day after day in a city that turned its back on them made them grateful for all that they had.

Looking up at the clock tower, Booker lit up a cigarette and walked over to where Tom was standing.  Arriving outside the adult movie store, he pushed back his dripping hair.  “Ready to call it a night?” he asked, exhaling a white plume of smoke into Hanson’s face as he spoke.

Tom scowled and wrinkled his nose as the acrid smell assaulted his nostrils.  When Booker grinned back in amusement, Hanson could feel his anger rising.  Never in his life had he met someone so arrogant, opinionated and smug, three traits that Hanson loathed in a person.  Even though he hated working with Booker, he never let it interfere with his job as a police officer.  He was proud to serve in the force, as his father had done before him and he would be damned if he would let someone like Dennis Booker prevent him from doing his job.

Pulling out a battered watch from his pocket, Hanson checked the time.  It was nearly 2 a.m. and they had been on the streets since the early hours of the previous morning.  Shoving his hands deep into his jeans pockets, he shrugged his shoulders against the cold.  “Yeah, let’s go,” he muttered and without waiting to see if Booker was following, he headed in the direction of the YMCA.