Stacy was really, really curious to see how people would react to seeing her roomie wearing a chastity belt. She got reactions, all right, although there was less said than Stacy had expected. There were a lot of whispers and pointing, but Laura just ignored them. Stacy figured she was probably used to it, of course, but it was still fun to watch. Somewhat surreal, too – an hour before she had no idea that chastity belts really existed, nor that there were people who liked wearing them. She had expected to have some strange and new experiences in college, meet some different people, but this was something she could never have foreseen!

After a while the two of them started back to their dorm room. Once they got out of the cafeteria, Stacy asked, “Laura, there’s one thing I’ve wondered about. Wearing your steel panties means that you can’t have sex if you want it, right? I’d think that would be frustrating for you.”

“If I want it is the important part,” she replied. “And there are times I want it bad, but I can have it with a little extra work, and it’s worked out really well.”

“But … how? You said you couldn’t take it off.”

“Not quite what I meant,” she grinned. “I can take it off whenever I want to. All I have to do is to call my dad and ask for the combination. Now that I’m at college, the guy will have to talk to him and ask for it.”

“You’re kidding! Your dad?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s worked well in the past.”

“Your dad?” Stacy repeated. “I don’t believe it!”

“Believe it,” Laura replied. “Look, Dad and Mom went through all the hassles with me after the rape, and they were very supportive, but frustrated over how they couldn’t help me much. When the idea of a chastity belt came up, I told them right up front that the one thing holding me back was that I felt like it was going to take having sex the right way to get over what had happened. It would be a little hard to do it if I was wearing a chastity belt.”

“Well yeah! No shit!”

“Dad just said it wasn’t a problem if I didn’t want it to be. ‘That’s easy,’ were the words he used. ‘Have the guy come and ask me for the key.’ So I asked him how I was ever supposed to find a guy who would do something like that. He said, ‘Trust me on this one, Laura. If a guy doesn’t have enough character and courage to come ask me, you don’t want to go to bed with him anyway.’”

“You know, you’re right, your dad is pretty damn cool. I can’t ever imagine my dad saying that. So did it work?”

“Just like a charm,” she grinned. “I know this guy, well, he’s not a boyfriend but a fuck buddy now, and I thought he might be able to get me over that issue. He about shit when I told him what the deal was, and he was just about having a heart attack when he asked Dad, even though I was standing right next to him. But you know what my dad said?”

“I’m almost scared to ask.”

“He asked me if that was what I wanted, and I told him it was. So Dad pulled the key from his pocket, handed it to my friend, and said, ‘Be nice, wear a condom, and have fun. Just lock her back up when you’re done and bring me the key.’ That was the old belt, not this one.”

“You’re right, your dad is just about the coolest one on the planet.”

“I think so too.”

“So what happened?”

“The usual thing. We went upstairs, he undressed me and unlocked my steel panties. It was no quickie – we went at it for several very good hours. He said he didn’t have a lot of experience, but he sure knew how to do me with his tongue, and he was into me several times over the course of the evening, with my folks right downstairs, of course.”

“My God. I can hardly believe it! So what happened then?”

“Well, finally it got so late he had to be going, so he locked me back into the chastity belt, and we went downstairs and gave the key back to Dad. My friend was ever so polite and thanked Dad for the use of the key. After he left, Dad asked me how it really had been. ‘Really good,’ I told him. ‘It was the experience I ought to have had the first time. He’s really pretty nice, and I tried to give him a good ride.’ We got together about once a month for the next year and a half. We always asked Dad for the key, and he always gave it to us. We had some really, and I mean really good times, and I was just as safe as I could be in my own bed.”

“Unbelievable,” Stacy shook her head. “Just downright unbelievable. I can’t imagine my folks ever going along with something like that, even if I’d gone through all the shit you did.”

“Like I said, they’d suffered along with me, and they were happy to help me work past it. If it was going to take going to bed with some guy to do it, well, they were willing to help. To be honest, I would never have believed it either, but they proved to be extremely cool people.”

“You are so lucky. I mean, you are so lucky!”

“In the end, I think you’re right, but I went through hell getting there.”

*   *   *

It was at the most a couple of hundred yards between the parking lot shuttle bus stop and the Spearfish Lake House. Given the parking situation on campus and at the house, it made sense to leave the vehicles in the big parking lot, a long-out-of-business big-box store a couple of miles away. The shuttle buses ran at least every fifteen minutes; one was on duty all the time, and there were more when traffic was expected to be heavy.

Jack and Vixen had just gotten off the shuttle bus and were headed back to the house from dropping off the Cherokee at the parking lot when they saw two girls coming their way, obviously heading to one of the dorms. While there were still relatively few students on the campus, more were arriving all the time, and the place looked like it was going to be busy by the weekend.

Jack, a typical male, after all, checked the two girls out, a bit surreptitiously as he had Vixen next to him. Of the two girls, one was tall and thin, and the other shorter, still pretty thin, but with a nice chest. Even though Vixen wasn’t big in that department, he didn’t mind – but it was still nice to look.

But something seemed strange about the taller girl. Jack didn’t want to stare, but whatever it was drew his attention. He was almost past her before he flashed on what it was – she had a wide metal band around her waist, with another one diving into her skirt. In the middle of the whole affair was a big padlock. That can’t be what it looks like, he thought, trying to not seem obvious as the two girls passed going the other way.

Once they were behind him, he couldn’t help but swing his head around to check her out from behind – and sure enough, she had a metal whale’s tail sticking up from the back of her skirt. It could only be one thing, even though he’d never actually seen one before.

Trying to be polite, he kept his mouth shut until they were several yards away. “Shit,” Vixen whispered. “Did you see that?”

“I sure did,” he whispered back. “Did that look to you like what it looked like to me?”

“No shit,” she replied. “A year ago, maybe a little more, I would have bet just about anything that my mother would have liked to have had me locked in one of those until she could pass the key to my husband after our wedding vows.”

“I’m sure glad she changed her mind on that.”

“Not as glad as I am,” Vixen shook her head. “Boy, there’s a girl who looks like she’s not going to be having much fun with her boyfriend.”

“Looks like it to me,” he agreed. “I guess we expected to see some strange sights and meet some strange people around this place.”

“True,” she replied. “But there’s one I never thought I’d see.”

*   *   *

Just about that time Cody was reporting for duty at the Hawthorne Police Station. It seemed somewhat strange to be seeing the place in daylight; since he was a new officer, and part-time at that, he worked the shifts no one else wanted, usually in the wee small hours of the morning.

He was already in uniform, well turned out as always, when he checked in with Sergeant John Claxton, who served as the daytime shift commander. Cody didn’t know the man very well – he’d only talked to him a couple times. “Good, you’re here,” the man said. “Chief Bascomb wants to talk to you.”

“What for?”

“Don’t know,” the sergeant shrugged. “All I know was that he wanted to see you.” He picked up the phone and dialed the chief, said “Chief, Archer is here … OK, will do,” and hung up the phone. “He’s in his office,” he told Cody. “You might as well go on back.”

Still wondering what this was all about, Cody went back to the chief’s office in the back of the building. As he walked into the office, Bascomb looked up from a stack of paperwork. “Good to see you, Archer,” he said. “Grab a seat. You’re not in trouble, but we have something we need to talk about.”

This was strange too; the few other times Cody had met with the heavy-set, fiftyish man he’d been standing on his feet in front of the desk. There was a chair beside the desk, so Cody sat down. “What’s this all about?” he asked.

“What it comes down to is that we have a problem, and you might be part of the solution,” Bascomb said. “You’re still a student over at the college, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Cody replied. “I should be there until this spring. I may possibly be in town longer, but I won’t know until I find out about law school.”

“That’s then, and this is now,” the chief said. “Look, the problem I’m having is about coverage over at the college. They literally don’t have shit for security over there, and I can’t believe it’s not going to be a problem sooner or later.”

“I think it’s a little on the thin side myself,” Cody agreed.

“More than a little,” Bascomb nodded. “Look, ever since the state got classes started there again, shit, ten years ago, I’ve gone round and round with that Thompson character about campus security. For some damn reason I don’t understand, he doesn’t want any kind of a security force for the school. He seems to be of the opinion that the students can take care of themselves. I think he’s full of shit, but he’s the one running the place, not me.”

“It seems strange to me, too,” Cody replied, trying to stay neutral.

“What’s worse, Thompson has a real hair up his ass about having police on campus. I mean, he doesn’t complain if a cop shows up for an accident or something like that, but just patrolling, well, if an officer is just wandering through and looking the place over, I’m likely to get a phone call about it. He doesn’t seem to realize that no matter how independent the college is, it’s still part of the city, and we have a responsibility for protection there also.”

“I knew that, and I’ve wondered about it.”

“Frankly, I think he’s full of shit, at least on that issue,” Chief Bascomb shook his head. “The simple fact of the matter is that we really need to have a presence over there. Maybe not all the time, though it would be better, but the kids really ought to see people wearing blue once in a while. They may be good students and dedicated to their studies, but they’re kids and kids can get full of shit. You probably know that better than I do.”

“The kids don’t seem to cause a lot of problems,” Cody submitted. “There isn’t much boozing or drug use going on, though I’m sure there has to be some. Based on my limited experience, trouble around students usually involves one or the other of the two.”

“Yeah, you’re right on that. But that’s not the only problem. You remember last spring, when that girl got raped over on Bancroft, going from the school to her apartment?”

“I remember. She never got a good description of the perp, just that he was a big white guy with bad breath. I worked around the edges of that a little but was never really involved.”

“The hell of it is that it isn’t the only incident,” Chief Bascomb said. “There were several other incidents back in March and April. Assault, attempted rape, stalking, but the M.O.s were so vague we never got a line on the perp. I still don’t have any idea if it was a student or a townie who saw a student as a target of opportunity. Worse, the descriptions are so fuzzy that we may not even be talking about the same person.”

“I didn’t hear about that. Or, at least if I did, I don’t remember it.”

“We weren’t exactly making headlines in the local paper out of the deal since everything was so unclear. The mayor and that Thompson character decided that we didn’t want to get people too alarmed about it. I thought at the time it was a mistake, and I’m even more positive about it now.”

“I can’t imagine why they would think that.”

“I can’t speak for Thompson, but the mayor is a politician and likes things to go smoothly. You know as well as I do that rapes are like murders in one respect: they’re almost always committed by someone the victim already knows. They may call it ‘date rape’ or something like that, but it’s still the same thing.”

“I’m very sensitive to the issue, and you know why.” He didn’t think he needed to mention that he’d rescued Jan from being raped by her father and her brother; it was known among the members of the department, if not talked about.

“Yeah, and you got stuck making the tough call on that one. Believe me, I talked to the police chief up in your home town about it before you were ever hired. But that’s neither here nor there, right now, except for knowing that you have good reason to be sensitive about it. But that gets me away from the point I was trying to make, which is the fact that the reports of the incidents stopped about the time school let out. Now, that could mean that the perp, or perps, is a student, or it could just mean that there was a lack of targets over at the college all summer. But now, college is getting under way again. I don’t know if the incidents are going to start up again, or what.”

“Good question,” Cody nodded, beginning to see Chief Bascomb’s thinking.

“I don’t think we should ignore it,” the chief replied. “Now, there’s a good chance they may not start up again. Or, if they do, they could be worse. Let’s face it, a guy often rapes a girl not just for the sex, but to force his will on her. Again, I know you know that, and not just from some damn textbook.”

“All too well,” Cody agreed, thinking back to a bad December day a few years before when he’d found Jan being raped by her father and her brother.

“Archer, what scares the hell out of me is that in cases like this, the perp discovers that he’s getting away with it, so next time he wants to raise the thrill level a little.”

“Again, I know it all too well,” Cody sighed. He hadn’t known about it at the time, but he’d found that out from Jan in the days after he’d rescued her. “It’s part of the reason I’m in uniform in the first place.”

“I knew that. Now, here’s the problem. We possibly have a serial rapist on the loose over around the school, although we don’t know for sure. On the other hand, we have a school administration that has a shit fit if they see someone in blue on campus. I think a little more blue needs to be seen over there, just to make sure that people know we aren’t ignoring the place. Since you’re a student, you’re the one person on the department who could show up in uniform and they can’t shit little green squealing worms over it.”

“I’m not sure I follow your reasoning. You’re telling me you want me to patrol the campus in uniform?”

“Not exactly. I want you to be a blue presence there once in a while, enough so people will know you’re a cop, even when they see you not in uniform.”

“It sounds like a good idea, Chief. But the fact remains that I’m still a student, and I have to attend classes. I can’t do much of the daytime presence you’re looking for.”

“Actually, what it does is make a hell of a good excuse for you to show up on campus in uniform,” Chief Bascomb smiled. “I mean, if you’re on duty during the day, and you have to go to class, there’s no reason you can’t tell people you had to take an hour off to do it, and you didn’t have time to change. Even that nitwit Thompson is able to understand that.”

“I see,” Cody smiled as he began to see what it was the chief was pushing for. “Even if I show up to class some other time not in uniform, people will still know I’m an officer.”

“Right, the presence will still be there, whether you’re in uniform or not. I’m not telling you to go looking for someone to bust, just be there. Once the word gets out, maybe that will keep a few heads down. Mostly, I just want people to know you’re there, and that may mean we won’t be getting any nasty phone calls from Thompson.”

“That could work.”

“I hope it’ll work since it’s the only way I can think of to increase presence over there without it looking like we are. Now, I want to do things a little different. I’m going to figure on you being on duty twenty-four hours a week. That’s up from the sixteen you have now. You’ll have to be the judge on how to do it, but I want you to be there, and on duty, at least part of the time in plain clothes. It’s not quite an undercover thing.”

“Except to Dr. Thompson,” Cody grinned.

“Well, yeah. He doesn’t have to see our duty logs, after all. But despite looking like you’re off duty, I want you to be at least minimally prepared to go on duty at any time. So carry your badge, your ID, and one of the little tactical radios. If something happens, you might be close enough to respond to an incident before we could get a car there.”

“That much of it makes sense, Chief.”

“I think so too,” Bascomb smiled. “But I also want you at least minimally armed, just in case.”

“That could be a problem,” Cody said thoughtfully. “Dr. Thompson gets really upset at the thought of guns on campus.”

“He sure does,” the chief grinned. “Over the years we’ve worked out an understanding that he can’t bitch too loud at a uniformed officer being armed. In telling you to be armed when not in uniform, we’re sort of skating around the edge of that understanding, but if at any time he discovers that you’re armed, you’re to tell him that you’re on plainclothes duty.”

“That might work,” Cody nodded uncomfortably. “I don’t know Dr. Thompson all that well, so there’s a chance might not work, though.”

“If it blows up into something, we may have to lay down the law about the school being in the city and armed officers on campus, plainclothes or not. That’ll turn into a pissing match I really don’t want to get into if I don’t have to, so just don’t get caught.”

“There is a problem with that,” Cody said. “Maybe in the winter I could conceal one of the department’s Glocks under a heavy coat or something, but there’s no way I could do it this time of year. My girlfriend has a P229 which is smaller, but it’s still not small enough.”

“Yeah,” the chief frowned. “That is something of a problem. You need something that’s more of a hideout piece, something you can put in a boot, or maybe in your computer case.” He frowned again and added, “Well, there’s one way around that. You’ve got a concealed carry permit, right?”

“I’ve had one for years. My girl does, too.”

“If you have your badge and an ID, it probably won’t be a problem, but it might be just as well.” The chief got up from his desk, and went to a cabinet along the wall. “Archer, have you got a dollar on you?”

“I’m sure I do.”

“I’m going to sell you this little piece for a buck with the understanding that you’ll sell it back to me when you leave the department,” Chief Bascomb said, reaching into the cabinet and pulling out a small box. He opened it, and pulled out a tiny pistol, perhaps half of the size of the Glock Cody had in his holster. “This was my grandfather’s, and I want it back, but it can be yours for a while if we run a legal transfer. That’ll solve a lot of paperwork problems. I carried it as a holdout piece for years. It’s older than you are, hell, it’s older than I am.”

Cody looked at the small weapon. “Yeah, it would make a great holdout,” he said. “I think I could hide it in my computer case easily enough. What is it?”

“It’s a .38 Smith Chief’s Special” the chief explained. “I’ll warn you right now, it’s small but it kicks like a mule since it doesn’t have much mass. There’s only five shots in the cylinder, and the accuracy, well, it’s not exactly a Glock, and it doesn’t have much range. If you have to use it, it’d be best if you’re right on top of whatever you’re shooting.”

“Do you mind if I take it out to the range and run a few rounds through it? I mean, I want to know what I’m dealing with.”

“You’d be a fool if you didn’t. I only have a few rounds for it and they’re older than hell, so you probably ought to go out to Johnson’s and get some fresh ammo. It isn’t all that great a gun, so you’ll want to be aware of the limitations. If you have to use it, make sure you get a really good hit, not just graze the extremities like you can with a .45 or something.”

“I’ll run a few rounds through it,” Cody promised. “But I’ll be just as happy if it stays in my computer case after that.”

“I know you would, Archer,” the chief smiled. “In fact, I think you have reason to know that better than anyone else on the department.”

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.