Page 359 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

“What happened?” the officer asked.

“Rabbit,” she said shortly. “Just sort of… darted across the road in front of me.”

The one man nodded. “That can happen, I suppose. You’re lucky it wasn’t a skunk.”

“This is a school night, isn’t it?” the second officer asked. “What are you doing all the way out here at this time of night?”

Her mouth twitched. “I’m looking for my father.”

“Out here? The closest town’s five miles away.”

“He’s a botanist,” Morgan supplied. “He’s been studying some of the local flora.”

“At ten o’clock at night?” the second officer asked, his tone dubious.

“He disappeared last week. No one’s seen or heard from him.”

“I’m beside myself with worry,” Audrey dead-panned.

Both officers looked at her.

So did Morgan. He cleared his throat. “She’s, uh… probably still a little shaky from the accident.” He put his arm around her shoulder. “It’s all the stress. And she’s tired. Worried. Missing her daddy, and all. You know little girls and their daddies.”

Finally, one of the officers said, “You need a lift back to town?”

“Yes, thank you. That would be very nice. Come along, Beth.” Taking hold of her arm, Morgan walked with her to the back of the squad car. Very low and close to her ear, he whispered, “It wouldn’t kill you to put a little effort into this, you know.”

“This is a Roger Corman movie,” she whispered back. “I don’t have to act if I don’t want to.”

“How badly do you want to get out of here?” he asked bluntly, holding the car door for her.

Audrey looked at the seat, then at him, and then sighed. Very gingerly, she crawled in to kneel on the seat, facing backwards out the rear window.

“Sit down,” Morgan said, sliding onto the seat beside her. “Try and look normal.”

“I can’t sit down.”

“You can, too. Now sit. Hurry up before they get in. If they see you like this, they’ll say something and that runs the risk of altering the script. We might have to redo the scene.”

“I can’t sit down,” Audrey huffed. “It hurts.”

“You want it to hurt even more?”

Scowling, Audrey turned on her knees and gradually lowered herself to actually sit on the seat. She wilted a little the instant her fanny made contact and, hissing a breath between her teeth, snarled, “Boy, I hope you get eaten next!”

Chapter Two

“And I mean that, too,” Audrey grumbled, pushing her hands against the car seat in an effort to get her weight up off her tender bottom. “I hope you get eaten by the biggest, hugest, meanest spider out there.”

She was careful to keep her voice down so the two police officers in the front seat wouldn’t hear her.

“It wouldn’t be the first time that happened, but I think you’re heading for disappointment, sweetheart.” Morgan grinned at her, although it didn’t quite touch his blue eyes, and with his head cocked sideways like it was, it was a look that appeared almost evil. “I’m the hero. I actually survive this film.”

She tsked with disgust and turned her head to look out the window just in time to see everything go from black and white to… well, a grayer form of slightly unfocused black and white.

Audrey blinked twice. “What just happened?”

“We’re between scenes,” Morgan said. “Mind if I ask you a question?”

---