Influence by Andrew Snadden Read Free Book Online Page A

the head teacher’s wrath away. Four years later and in college, Anaura, who was now more disciplined, had decided that he wanted to follow in his maternal grandfather's footsteps by becoming a copper. The decision was welcomed by his parents who were concerned that his sole obsession with becoming an England Rugby player was a little unrealistic and at the time, not for pay!
    Fast forward twenty four years, and two years shy of that in the Police Service, Anaura was now a forty two year old, six foot three man, with a smile as big as his frame. Although being in his early forties, Anaura had a fresh, youthful and lightly tanned complexion that gave the impression he was ten years younger than he really was. And after years of playing Rugby and fitness training, he had a developed powerful body to go with it. These combined attributes were not wasted on the fairer sex with women becoming dizzy in his presence. Whether it was his female colleagues or women in the street, everyone noticed him, something which made his wife of 13 years, Laura, proud but equally jealous at the same time.
    Other women's desires aside, what made Laura the most jealous was his relationship with the 'job', a mistress that her and their two children, Anya and William had to battle with to get their fair share of his attention. Yet in difference to this perceived devotion to his job, Anaura's family was everything to him, and had Laura ever asked him to quit or be posted to a quieter department, he would have done it a heartbeat. Laura being who she was though, would never ask him do that.
    On this night like so many others before, with most of his staff gone, Anaura sat behind his office desk in his usual tie-less, brightly coloured shirt and a black suit. This favoured tie-less look of Anaura's had managed to piss his superiors off on a number of occasions as it was seen as an unprofessional look. In spite of this he would continue to rock this look to wind up the ambitious rank ladder climbing snakes in command (as he referred to them) because it was one of his favourite hobbies. In Anaura's opinion a lot of the command ranked officers had joined the job to become political desk jockeys and not true coppers. It was an unreasonable opinion but in some people’s case, it was very true.
    Tie or no tie, Annaura believed that he looked smarter, stylish and more approachable than they ever could with their ties and uniforms. Although it wasn't just the lack of a tie that wound them up the most, it was the way that he would listen to their orders, and then do his own thing anyway in spite. Command may have agreed that he had some great ideas, but they would never have let him know that. The constant battle between him and 'them' was a pointless waste of time but it was far too much fun to stop.
    Anaura was just finishing up reading through some statements concerning a spate of drug related robberies, when he heard the voice of DC Jennifer Valera, an extremely attractive detective of Portuguese descent, coming from the doorway of his office. 
    “Goodnight boss” she purred, emphasising the 'night' part of the sentence in an attempt to make Anaura's brain think of nocturnal related 'activities'.
    In reply he pulled his genuine trademark smile and said bye in a warm deep voice that had a hint of his homelands accent which no one could ever place. Valera reciprocated with a cheeky smile and slowly turned around in the door way so that the shape of her pert backside could be seen through her pencil skirt prior to her leaving the Vice unit's office. Whenever she would carry out this 'ritual', Anaura would always laugh to himself, yeah she was stunning and had an amazing body but there was only one woman for him, and besides it all seemed like a big act with Valera. There was definitely more to her than she let on, a hidden vulnerability.
    Anaura's phone began to ring on the desk. Engrossed in his work he attempted to grab the phone without looking at it,