Free Flesh & Blood by John Argus

blue blazer. Leah sat next to her, smiling, but Sara did not smile back.
    ‘Mbweni’s been playing God again,’ Leah whispered, and Sara nodded. ‘Is something wrong?’
    ‘Nothing,’ the girl said, not looking at Leah.
    Lieutenant Trask stood and moved behind the podium, and the muttered conversations went still.
    ‘As you all know, we’ve had a small break in the case,’ he started. ‘The startling similarity between the missing girls and the fact that none of them knew the other means our fellow must have some kind of access to a picture database, and that’s offered up a whole new area for us to investigate.’ He rubbed his hands and smiled grimly.
    ‘We’ll be looking into school and college databases first to see which ones contain pictures. Right now we know that many of them do. We’ll also be looking into such things as photography firms and organizations that develop film. We’ll also be checking the Internet. But we don’t know for a fact that our fellow only accesses one database. He could be trawling multiple systems, so we’ll want to check into the feasibility of that as well.’
    He leaned forward against the podium and scowled out at them.
    ‘There is more than sufficient information out there, more than enough evidence for us to determine who this fellow is,’ he said sternly. ‘You simply haven’t put it together yet.’
    ‘It went from we to us pretty quick,’ Leah muttered to Sara.
    ‘None of these girls have turned up anywhere yet,’ Trask continued, ‘and we believe they’re still being held. I want everyone to put in their best effort at solving these disappearances.’
    ‘As opposed to doing nothing, I suppose,’ Leah mumbled resentfully, so only she and Sara could hear.
    They were assigned to visit a group of Internet service providers to find out how easy it would be for outside people to get such records from schools and colleges. Everyone rose more or less at the same time, and it was only then that Leah noticed Sara was wearing a daringly short tartan skirt with her blazer, really showing off her slender legs.
    ‘Let’s go,’ the girl said brusquely, snatching up her purse and marching off before Leah could ask why she was wearing such a revealing skirt when on duty, but Leah noticed male heads turning in her wake as lecherous eyes followed her exit.
    Leah hurried to catch her up, and from behind, with her pigtails, blazer, and tartan pleated skirt, it looked very much like she was chasing a schoolgirl, although she suspected any school principle would send a girl home for wearing a skirt that short, and she could only wonder what Mbweni would think of it. It was probably, she thought, a silent show of rebellion against Mbweni, and she doubted it would be tolerated for long. She caught up with the petit girl, but Sara’s eyes remained fixed straight ahead as they reached the stairs and took them down to the car park.
    ‘I’ll drive,’ Leah said, and Sara didn’t reply. They got into the car and Leah turned to Sara, the tartan skirt high around her thighs and giving a glimpse of white silk panties.
    ‘Okay, what’s with the skirt?’ she asked.
    ‘There’s nothing wrong with my skirt,’ Sara replied, scowling.
    ‘It’s way too short,’ Leah argued. ‘And why the pigtails? Are you going undercover in a school or something?’
    ‘I not tell you how to do your hair, you not tell me how to do mine,’ the Asian girl snapped.
    ‘But you’re hardly looking very professional, that’s all I’m saying.’
    ‘So?’ Sara snapped uncompromisingly. ‘Why do that matter?’
    ‘It matters if you want people to treat you seriously as a police officer,’ Leah said in exasperation.
    ‘I not worried what people think,’ the girl stubbornly insisted.
    Leah shook her head, turned the ignition and headed for the street, but found her eyes flitting repeatedly to the sight of the Asian girl’s naked thighs and cheeky peep of her panties. They were lovely legs and