Book One: The Pink Cadillac - Chapter 1 - The Pink Cadillac

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon at Edward A. Thomas building, Police headquarters, Houston, Texas, in the final week of March.

Officer Samuel Theodore, a tall black police officer assigned to the auto theft division, sat in his cabin, holding the most recent edition of Cosmopolitan. He couldn’t take his gaze away from the bikini-clad chubby-bottomed cover girl. He was always drawn to fat-bottomed girls. He began to feel a sexual yearning rouse within him. He was not an aggressive person by nature, but rather a bashful one. He didn’t chase after his fantasies. Rather, he understood from his own experience that everything he required came to him on its own. That stimulating yearning brought up some unpleasant recollections from his past and filled him with shame. He had had a bad experience with his girl a year ago. The girl simply vanished from his life, as well as from the town. He stuffed the magazine into the drawer and tried to forget about it by tilting his head back in his chair and closing his eyes.

A glamorous blue-eyed young lady in her late twenties, wearing a yellow satin bustier corset dress, stepped out of a cab outside the police headquarters and entered the building. She inquired at the front desk. She was told to go to the third floor by the girl at reception. She climbed to the third floor in the lift.

When the lady knocked on the door of Officer Theo’s cabin, he was sitting with his eyes closed.

“Please come in,” Officer Theo said aloud.

“Good afternoon, Officer,” said the lady as she walked into the cabin.

“Good afternoon, ma’am. How may I assist you?” Officer Theo pointed his hand toward the chair in front of his desk, asking her to sit down. She sat down and informed the officer that she had come to file a complaint about the theft of her car about half an hour ago.

“I’m sorry for your loss, ma’am. Could you perhaps tell me where exactly it happened?”

“I was having lunch at the Lake Club, and when I came out, it was gone.”

“Okay. I need your driver’s license information, license plate number, and vehicle identification number to file the complaint. Please jot it down on paper.” Officer Theo approached her with a small notepad and a pen. She took the pen and scribbled down all of the necessary information. Officer Theo took the paper from her and began entering the data into his computer. When he retrieved the driver’s license information, the computer displayed the lady’s picture as well as her name—Scarlett Garcia.

“All right, Miss Garcia, now please tell me the specifics of your vehicle.”

“Please call me Scarlett. It’s a 10th-generation Cadillac Eldorado convertible. The color is pink.”

“It’s an older model. How come you’re still driving it?”

Scarlett was ready to respond when her phone began to ring inside her bag. She took the phone from her bag and disconnected the call.

“Actually, my late father owned this car. He used to tell me that he bought it soon after his marriage with my mother. He was in Florida at the time. Later, he relocated to Texas, where he grew his business. This was his first car. He bought several more vehicles after that, but this was his favorite. On my 25th birthday two years ago, he gave it to me as a gift.”

“Okay. As far as I’m aware, that car’s security features are fairly good. To pull this off, the thief must be extremely skilled.”

“Officer, I’ve become exceedingly distracted and absent-minded these days, I believe I left the keys in the ignition.”

Officer Theo inhaled deeply.

Scarlett’s phone rang once more, and she disconnected it again.

She explained that his boyfriend had called because she had texted him about the theft. Officer Theo offered her coffee, but she refused.

After the formalities were completed, Officer Theo asked for her mobile number so that she could be kept up to date on the status of her pink Cadillac. Scarlett gave Theo her phone number. As she turned to leave, Officer Theo closed his eyes again; he opened them after Scarlett had left the cabin.