ALCOHOL WARS [A PROHIBITION-ERA SHORT STORY]

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Marjorie had led the fight for an alcohol-free county, she had this godly driven hate for alcohol, "The devil's blood!" she would always call it, she often said it in a sharp bitter tone, it typically rolls off her tongue with her bottom lip quivering and a dark scowl on her face.

"Damn scoundrels poisoning the streets," She blurted.

I'm already used to her sudden outbursts by now, I knew that it was her wild train of thought that had driven her to yell out in a room filled with busy officials, I looked at her nodding in affirmation, her eyes wide with desperation, we've been tracking down a ring of bootleggers but it seems we're running around in circles. The last time we got a tip happened to be bogus, it only led us to a barn-yard and a scared shitless farmer who woke up to loud bangs on his door.

"We're gonna get'em chief," I spoke out in assurance, "We've tracked the supply chain coming in from the east side of the coast, they won't be able to hide for much longer"

"What about that note we found from our last raid," she responded.

"You mean the one you found tucked under the coat of that dead mobster"

"Yes... Joffrey, the blue note with a writing on it, I believe it says, Volare"

"It does sound Italian, hmmm... Because, what does that word mean then, fly? I don't think it has a bearing in this investigation"

She rubbed her chin in a pondering manner, trying to put the pieces together, we spent the next couple of hours combing through investigation notes, leads and cold trails, as the sun was setting, all the officials had started clocking out of the department, it was just me and the chief left still brainstorming.

"won't you go home to your wife, Joffrey?" she said jokingly.

"not when you're still around chief," I smiled.

I have always wondered how a woman ended up as a top-official in this line of work, although, Marjorie is not just any woman, she was the wife of a bootlegger and a drunk, it's believed that she often suffered abuse at the hand of her husband during his drunken rage.

In a twist of fate, the cruel man met his own end in a ghastly fire accident after he attempted to distill his own alcohol to sell from their home basement. She was the only one that made it out alive, unfortunately her only child did not, a tragic incident which led to her exposing all the network of bootleggers connected to her dead husband, her inside information was very instrumental in one of our most successful investigations, she eventually joined the force and quickly rose throughout the ranks.

We were still working late into the night when Marjorie got this worryingly bright idea.

"Let go check out the east-coast harbor," she said sharply, "I got a hunch"

"Chief, but it's kinda late for leg-work, why don't I take care of that while you go home and get some rest"

"You're a sweetheart Joffrey," she smiled, "but I'm taking the patrol car, you either come with or you can go home for the day"

I quickly got up, fastened my revolver and followed her as she walked sharply out the building.

***
We got to the harbor shortly afterward and looked around the premises, the chief, unsurprisingly has gone into a full inquisitive mode, with her bright torch combing every perimeter looking for anything suspicious.

"I think there are no activities here, chief, it's safe to say we can go back now"

She turned around almost agreeing with me until I saw her raised eyebrow, she had caught a glimpse of a boat at the docks.

"Hmmm... that is strange, a boat was not scheduled to land today," she whispered as she went closer to it.

"It's probably a maintenance boat or it's just passing by,"

"No... Joffrey, something is not right"

My heart was slowly rising as she shines the light on the boat slowly scanning every inch of it until she came across the boldly written name of the boat VOLARE

"This is it, Joeffry! it's from the same blue note we found earlier, this must be the smuggling boat..."

She turned around in excitement but she was met by my cocked revolver pointing at her, I shot straight through her as hot smoke escaped from my gun barrel. she looked in shock as her eye widens once again but this time with bitter anger and anguish.

I had always believed she was tough as any man but tonight as she slumps down in disbelief, she screamed like a scorned woman, the scream was loud and chilling to the bone as the ultimate betrayal dawned on her.

"Don't worry Marjorie, I didn't hit any vital organ," I said in a cold voice "Just apply pressure and you'll be alright."

"Y-You.... you better kill me now Joeffry, you better kill me or I'm coming for you!" with her lips quivering she shouted with every ounce of anger "I'M COMING FOR YOU JOEFFRY!"

I coldly walked past her as I mounted the boat to drive away and never be seen again, I gave her one final look as I drifted away, her blood-red eyes tried to pierce my stone cold heart but they couldn't, I worked for the mob and I've been an inside man in the police department and of course my name is not Joffrey.

This is a three part weekend freewrite organized by @mariannewest you can check out her blog for the daily prompts and rules. thanks for reading. this is my first freewrite after I went off steemit for a long while. I'm glad to be back :-)