Superbia (Book One of the Superbia Series) (3 page)

Frank looked at
his watch.
 
One hour and forty-five
minutes until it was time for another pill.
 
His stomach hurt.
 
Sweat gathered around
his brow and he quickly swiped it away.
 
“So how have things been around here?”

The Chief held up
a handful of legal documents.
 
“That scumbag’s
family is suing us.
 
Can you believe
that?
 
He killed Heck and tried to blow
your leg off and now his family is suing us in federal court.
 
What a world.”

“Us?” Frank
said.
 
“Am I being sued too?”

The Chief went
through the stack and pulled out a group of pages bound together by a thick
clip.
 
“Here’s your copy.
 
The department is paying for both of our
legal defenses, so you don’t have anything to worry about.
 
Unless we lose, of course.
 
Then they can come after us personally.
 
But that probably won’t happen.”

“Jesus,” Frank
said.
 
His name was listed above everyone
else’s as a defendant.
  
Criminal Negligence, Gross Misconduct,
and
Improper Application of Force
were written in parentheses beside his name.
 
“What happens if we lose?
 
I don’t
have any money to begin with.”

“They can take
your house and pension.
 
Listen, when you
shoot someone, they sue.
 
If you kill
them, their family sues.
 
All of a sudden
a high-school dropout with a six page rap sheet becomes a Mensa candidate who
was about to devote his life to the seminary.”
 
The Chief folded his hands behind his head and sat back, “I’ve got good
news though.
 
You are going into
detectives for a little while.”

“I am?”

“Ever since Aprille
went on leave, Vic’s been flying solo.
 
He’s buried with work, so I need you to go downstairs and help him get
caught up.
 
It’s only temporary, but you
know how things go.
 
Christ, Vic’s been
there in a ‘temporary’ capacity for over five years.”
 
  

The Chief’s smile
stayed glued to his face even as Frank did not return it.
 
“I was kind of looking forward to getting
back on the street, Chief.
 
Not that I don’t
appreciate the offer.”

“Everybody’s
afraid of something new, Frank.”
 
 

***

No one was
standing at the urinal.
 
Frank popped the
door open to the toilet stall and walked around to double-check the cramped
locker room area. He twisted the cap on the prescription bottle and shook two
pills into the palm of his hand, swallowing them dry.
 
It felt like they were stuck sideways in his
throat.
 
Even the station’s cold tap-water
was warm and it stunk like sulfur but Frank scooped it into his mouth and
gulped as much as he could.
 
This dose
was an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of schedule.
 
I’ll
readjust
, he thought.
 
 
I’ll
skip the ones before bed.
 
For real, this
time.

Frank wiped his
face off with a paper towel and straightened his tie.
 
The ache in his leg faded.
 
The bolts holding the shattered bones of his knee
together and the itching knot of skin where the surgeon had plugged the bullet hole’s
entry seemed to melt away.
 

The patrol room
was empty.
 
Frank made his way down the
hallway toward the back steps and braced himself on the handrail to ease down
them one by one.
 
He took the long
corridor back to the Detective office.
 
It was narrow and lined with loose tiles that squished under his
feet.
 
They were underground and the only
ventilation was from vents in the ceiling that appeared to be growing some new
type of black fungus.
 
The air was
swampy.
 
Unhealthy.
 
Frank muttered in disgust as he came to the
last door and stopped.
 

The lights were
off inside and the sound of snoring emanated from within like a bear
hibernating deep in his cave.
 
Frank
coughed into his hand and cleared his throat.
 
The sound of snoring stopped abruptly.
 
Frank pushed the door open slowly and knocked on it, standing in the
hallway while Ajax rubbed his eyes and scowled at him.
 
“Welcome back, Frank.
 
Nice to see you.
 
Close the door and go away.”
  

Frank flicked the
light switch on and said, “Good morning, sunshine!”
  

The office was a
small affair with two desks set side-by-side.
 
Case files stuffed with paperwork were scattered across both of their desktops.
 
Frank leaned on the spare one to take the
weight off his knee.
 
He looked around at
the maps and thumbtacked photocopies of mug shots that covered the walls.
 
There were bookshelves packed with medical
and scientific research journals for everything from human anatomy to
fingerprint classification manuals.
 

Framed awards and
diplomas from specialized investigative schools decorated the wall behind Vic.
 
The only thing displayed behind the empty
desk was a single framed photo that showed Vic and a pretty young female
squatting behind several kilos of cocaine.
 
Both were smiling.
 
The picture
was covered in dust.
  

“For your
information, I was out doing a trash pull at four o’clock this morning while
you were snug in your jammies,” Vic said.
 
“I’ve probably got to go back out tonight, so I was taking the time to
get some rest, if that’s okay with you.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s
okay with me,” Frank said.
 
“Do I get to
sleep too?”
 

“Is there
something you need, Frank?
 
You didn’t
have to walk all the way down here.
 
You
just could have called my desk.”

“I just wanted to
come say hi to my new partner and check out our office.”

“Very funny.
 
Seriously, what do you need?”

“I’m totally
serious.”

They locked eyes
for a minute until Vic said, “Get up.”

“But I just limped
all the way down here.”

“I’m going
upstairs, and this office needs to be secured if I’m not in it.
 
You can either come with me, or wait
outside.”

***

Vic was ten years
older than Frank, with a good forty pounds extra around the middle.
 
The detective huffed as they went up the
stairs, and Frank braced himself for the pain of walking back up, but the
medication was flowing through him so much at that point that it barely
registered.
 
He followed Vic toward the
Chief’s office, but Vic stopped him and said, “Stay here,” the walked in and shut
the door behind him.
 
.
 

Frank waited
outside in the hallway for a moment, catching curious glances from the clerical
staff at the front door.
 
He looked up at
the horseshoe and scowled.
 
“Screw this,”
he whispered and made his way back into the patrol room.
 

His old desk had
a stack of unfinished reports sitting on it.
 
They were the same ones he’d left there his last night on duty.
 
Now they had a note:

Officer O’Ryan,

Upon returning to work, you are to complete
these reports upon your returning to work.
 

Staff Sergeant Erinnyes
  

Frank shook his
head as he read and re-read the note, then shrugged and yanked the desk drawer
open to throw it inside.
 
All of his pens
were gone.
 
The sticky notes, paper
clips, and set of spare car keys to all of the patrol cars in the lot, were all
missing.
 
“You thieving pricks,” he shouted
at the empty cubicles.
 
He leaned back in
his chair and took a deep breath.
 
The
radio speaker directly over his desk crackled with reports of dogs barking and
parking complaints and alarms going off throughout the Township.
 
His knee was starting to hurt.
 
He looked at his watch again.
 
How
much longer?

He didn’t see Vic
come up behind him until the detective said, “All right, let’s go.”

Frank turned
around and looked up, “What if I don’t want to?”

“That would suit
me just fine, but the old man said otherwise and it’s his PD, so get up.”
 

Frank didn’t
move.
 
“You are very mean to me, Vic.
 
I can see why nobody wants to work with you.”

“People would
give their left nut in this police department just to know what I do, let alone
be a part of it.
 
Everybody wants to work
with me.”

“They wouldn’t if
they knew how mean you were.
 
I just got
back from being shot on duty, and all you’ve done is yell at me and make me
feel unwanted.
 
It was a huge effort for
me to even come in here today.
 
The only
thing I had to look forward to was starting a new adventure in criminal
investigations.”

“Whatever,” Vic
said.
 
He waited a moment, looking Frank
over.
 
“You being serious?”
 
 

Frank shrugged
and returned to his stack of reports.
 
“What do you care, mean guy?”

Vic said, “Forget
it.
 
You’re an idiot.
 
Stay here.”
 

“I’ll come down
if you apologize.”
 

“When hell
freezes over.”
 

Frank turned back
to his desk peeled off reports from the stack that he scribbled his initials on
and placed in a new stack.
 
He looked at
his watch again.
 
Screw it, he
thought.
 
He opened the pill bottle and
took two more pills.
 
The bottle was
already half gone and had only been filled the day before.
 
I need
to slow down
, he thought.
 
He closed
his eyes and sat in his chair, feeling the stress dissolving into a chemical
haze.
 
The intercom on his phone
buzzed.
 
“I’m not really good at the
whole apology thing.
 
I didn’t mean to
make you feel bad, though.”

“I guess that
will suffice.”

“So are you
coming down?”

“I guess.
 
It shouldn’t take me too long to limp back
down.”

“Good.
 
Let’s get to work.
 
And bring me a cup of coffee.
 
Cream and two Sweet `N Lows.”

***

Frank stopped
pouring coffee when he heard the breathing of a large mammal, like that of a
walrus waddling behind him.
 
He did not
have to turn to know who it was.
 
“Good
morning, Staff Sergeant.
 
Want some
coffee?”

“Black and
strong.”
  

“Just how you
like your men?” Frank murmured.
 
 

Staff Sergeant Erinnyes
put a mammoth hand on Frank’s shoulder and said, “I see you’re fitting into
your house duties rather nicely.
 
Glad to
know you’re getting a head start on your new primary assignment.”

Frank
laughed.
 
He turned around and handed the
Staff Sergeant his coffee.
 
“Don’t I
wish.
 
I don’t know which is worse, making
coffee, or having to work downstairs in defectives.”

Erinnyes looked
down at the two coffees in Frank’s hand.
 
“Come again?”

“This was my
first official order from Detective Ajax.”

Erinnyes’s bald
head reddened and he aimed a fat finger directly at Frank’s face, “You are
assigned to patrol, which places you under my command, not in the basement with
that trash-picker.
 
Unless I assign you
anywhere, you will sit at your desk and wait for me to decide what to do with
you.
 
Are we clear?”

Frank nodded and
said, “Crystal clear, sir.
 
Should I let
the Chief know you gave me a different order than he did, or is it okay as it
stands?”

A thick purple
vein popped out of the Staff Sergeant’s forehead and the area around it
darkened.
 
He managed to keep his voice
steady when he said, “I see.
 
Apparently
it’s more important to tell some dungeon dweller than the second-in-command of
the police department.
 
I will go and
verify the specificities of your assignment, Officer.
 
A word of advice.
 
Watch your back.
 
Ajax does not have a good track record with
his partners.
 
Always remember that he is
not your friend.”