Jessica reminded herself to relax her throat muscles and breathe through her nose. But when Chong Jin continued to apply excessive force in pressing her head down, Jessica decided she had had enough. She was about to pinch his thigh when his activation pager beeped.

Chong Jin groaned. The pager, together with the key to the handcuff, was out of reach in a key dish on the dresser. He ruffled Jessica’s hair with his free hand and requested that she retrieve the pager. He almost jumped when Jessica suddenly gave a piercing screech.

“What happened?”

“My hair! Ouch!”

Jessica had shoulder-length curls. A tiny tuft near her ear had gotten entangled in the zipper. She was having great difficulty trying to extract herself.

“Just pull off my pants!” Chong Jin snapped. The insistent beeping of the pager was getting on his nerves.

Jessica grabbed hold of his belt loop and pulled hard. This time round, it was Chong Jin who shrieked in pain. The zipper had similarly ensnarled his pubic hair.

“Okay, okay, I have an idea.” Chong Jin tried hard to stay calm. “Reach for my sock drawer behind you. There is a Swiss Army knife in there somewhere. You can use it to snip off that bit of your hair that’s stuck.”

“I am not snipping off my hair!” Jessica protested.

“Alright, snip mine then,” Chong Jin conceded.

Although Jessica could not tell whose tuft she was handling when she manoeuvred the tiny pair of scissors above her head, she managed to set herself free. The moment Chong Jin disengaged himself from the handcuff, he slipped into his uniform top and shot out the door.

Jessica trotted into the bathroom to inspect the damage. There was indeed a tuft of hair near her left ear that had been snipped off. She was grousing to her reflection in the mirror when she heard her mobile phone ring. It was Chong Jin.

“Are my handcuffs on the bed?”

They were.

“Shit. You’ve got to bring them to me.”

“Where?”

“There’s a situation at Little India. Text me again when you get here. Keep the handcuffs out of sight. Love you.”

The last two words were terms of endearment Chong Jin used whenever they had a particularly rough session and he was feeling apologetic about the bruises or bite marks. Jessica wondered why he would use the term in the current context but there was no time to ponder. She knew he would be in trouble if his superiors discovered he was sans a piece of equipment.