“The Beast” is a short story that shows how Emilia Cruz became the first female police detective in Acapulco. Previously featured in Huffpost’s Fiction50 showcase curated by Rita Wilson, as well as in MADE IN ACAPULCO, a collection of Detective Emilia Cruz short stories available as ebook, paperback and audiobook.
By Monday, the broken nose hardly hurt at all, although Emilia still looked like she was wearing purple goggles from the two black eyes that went along with it. She hauled out her body armor vest with POLICIA stenciled across the back and closed her locker door. Alma Rosa shut her own locker and the two women stared at each other for a long moment.
“Congratulations,” Alma Rosa said. She put her vest down on the bench.
Emilia nodded. “Thanks.”
Alma Rosa had been her second fight on Saturday. Emilia had forced the smaller woman to tap out in less than 30 seconds. The short fight meant that Emilia was still relatively fresh by the time she came up against Montez.
“No hard feelings,” Alma Rosa said. She held out her hand. “You won it fair. I never would have gotten past Montez.”
Emilia took her hand then pulled the other woman into an embrace. There weren’t that many female cops and even fewer good ones. Alma Rosa fell into that small group.
They picked up their vests and headed out of the locker room.
“Cruz!”
Emilia turned to see Montez charging down the hall. Alma Rosa grimaced and continued into the briefing room. At the beginning of every shift the roll was taken, assignments handed out, weapons were issued, and cops patted down to make sure they weren’t carrying anything that they could use to strike a deal with gang members or cartel sicarios.
“What are you doing here, Montez?” Emilia asked. She’d learned a little about each of the other cops who’d scored high enough on the detective’s exam to move to the hand-to-hand competition. Montez had a desk job in the administration building. Emilia’s station in central Acapulco was foreign territory for him.
He lifted a black metal briefcase. “Courier duty,” he said. “But I was hoping to run into you. What the fuck was going on with you on Saturday?”
“Sorry,” Emilia said. “I didn’t realize you’d tapped out.”
He didn’t look much the worse for wear; he was about her age, skin slightly pockmarked, short hair slicked back from a low forehead.
“I didn’t tap out,” Montez said, jamming himself in front of Emilia. “You were supposed to let up.”
Emilia blinked in surprise. “I was just supposed to let you win?”
Montez forced Emilia up against the wall. “They’re never going to give you that job. You should have let me take the competition. That way at least somebody could make detective this year. Now everybody’s screwed.”
“I got the highest score on the detective exam,” Emilia said, her voice taut. The blood pounded in her ears. “I won the hand-to-hand. So back off. Unless you want a rematch. Right here, right now.”
The door to the briefing room swung open and Sergeant Orozco stepped into the hallway, clipboard in hand.
“Cruz,” he said. “Need to speak with you.”
“Excuse me, mi sargento,” Montez said and rapidly walked away.
“You’re out of uniform, Cruz,” Sergeant Orozco said. One of the oldest uniformed cops, he had leathery skin and dark hooded eyes.
Emilia got her breathing under control and looked down at herself. She had on the blue shirt, navy pants, and gun belt that she’d worn six days a week for nearly ten years.
“You’re not going on shift looking like that,” el sargento went on. He pointed two fingers at her face but didn’t make eye contact. “Three days suspension without pay.”
Emilia caught herself before she asked if that’s how much he’d lost betting on Montez.
Her cousin Alvaro had warned her. A uniformed cop himself, Alvaro had helped her join the force and been her guide through the early years. They’d talked about what she could expect if she tried to become a detective, considered an elite position. Who would sabotage her efforts or take punitive action if she succeeded.
Even so, three days’ worth of salary was a serious loss and she felt it like a blow to the head. What made it worse was that she hadn’t expected the blow to come from Sergeant Orozco. El sargento had signed the supervisory recommendation required to take the detective exam. He’d even congratulated her first place score.
“On Thursday report to Lieutenant Inocente in the detectives unit,” Sergeant Orozco said. “Other building. I’m sending your file over today.”
Emilia nodded once. Back in the locker room she shucked off her uniform, put on her jeans and tee shirt, breathing fast through her mouth, eyes burning, refusing to cry.
I hope you enjoyed meeting Emilia Cruz. More of this story is on the way.
If you don’t want to wait, check out all the Detective Emilia Cruz books on Amazon.
All the best, Carmen
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