Surrender, by Dennis Clarke

“Hello! I know who you are; you’re detective inspector Robertson; but you don’t really know who I am. You think I’m a harmless old woman called Suzi Marginton, and that’s true enough as far as it goes; but you’ve probably also heard of me as Sheba, after the Queen of Sheba in the Bible. Yes, that’s right: I’m the person who supplies all the drugs in the town. Or rather, I used to. Surprised to see me? You’ve been after me for years, but you never even got close, did you? But now I’m here.

  “Let me explain. You’ll concede, won’t you, that we only ever traded cannabis and LSD: no harder stuff. And it was always clean; never cut with anything dangerous. Furthermore, we never used violence. This town was peaceful for years, wasn’t it? Bur now times have changed.

  “A new group’s trying to move in and take over. They call themselves the Elite. Sometimes they spell it backwards: ETILE. You’ll likely have seen this sprayed up on a wall, and wondered what it means; now I’m telling you. This mob pushes skunk, heroin, crack cocaine: anything you can name. And they’re a violent mob: there’ll be killings on our streets soon, if you don’t act quickly.

  “So I’m here to tell you this; and I want you to arrest me and lock me up. Because, right now, I reckon it’s the safest place for me to be.”