The Spencerville Police Department gave Rachel Velázquez a retirement party with a cake and a poster-size reproduction of Diego Velázquez’ painting Las Meninas, Ladies in Waiting. It was like the post card sized print she’d kept on her desk for eighteen years but bigger. She’d bragged to everyone that she was Diego’s descendant. She wasn’t. She had the print for another reason. She’d stare at it, imagine herself the king’s daughter at the center of the picture. Safe from any danger, flanked by her ladies in waiting, surrounded by her entourage.
She left with the Department’s best wishes, her City of Spencerville pension, and the $10,000 she’d received as a bribe for facilitating the purchase of a cybercrime forensic tool. The money soon went to vodka, lottery tickets, and drugs.
A year later, Officer Joe Coy showed up at her door, grim-faced and all business. He sat on Rachel’s sofa and she took the faded recliner across from the Las Meninas print hung above the television. She kept her eyes on it, herself the king’s daughter, safe, with her ladies in waiting and her entourage.
Joe got right to the point. “Rachel, remember when we bought that forensic tool? A few months before you left?”
“Sure.”
“The vendor tried to bribe a county official. We served a warrant on him this week.” Joe paused as if to give her a chance to speak. She didn’t. “The vendor wanted a deal in exchange for giving us the name of someone in our department who took a bribe from him.”
Rachel kept still, just stared at the print and waited for what was going to come next.
Joe asked, “Did you take a bribe from the vendor?”
“No!” Rachel finally looked at him, did her best to look hurt. “Of course, not. He’s lying if he says I did.”
“If you did, you know we’ll find out. It’ll be easier if you come clean up front.”
“Hell, Joe, I’m just an easy target because it was me dealt with him.”
Joe kept his eyes on her face. “We asked if he had proof, and he hemmed and hawed. At this point, if he gave us your name, it’d be just his word against yours. But we’d do the investigation.”
“It would be a black mark against the Department.” Rachel tried to resist the temptation to gloat.
Joe’s expression told her he’d caught on. “The Department’s position for now is not to act. But, Rachel?”
She didn’t move at all, kept her eyes on Las Meninas, waited.
“If you did it, we’ll find out. It’s just a matter of time.”
Rachel didn’t have enough money to run. All she could do now was wait for the inevitable. She wasn’t the king’s daughter. She wasn’t even as safe as the ladies in waiting.
She was just waiting.
*****
Richard Schreck is the author of over 30 non-fiction pieces and a former publication editor for a large professional association. “Las Meninas” explores a fictional world he is developing in Brain Game, a novel set in Baltimore and New Orleans. Brain Game background stories also appear in The Razor, Gargoyle, The Loch Raven Review, The Write Launch, and other literary magazines. See links to these stories at richardschreck.com and commentary at Instagram @richardschreckwriting.
