Superbia (Book One of the Superbia Series) (5 page)

BOOK: Superbia (Book One of the Superbia Series)
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“Thank you, sir,”
Sal whispered meekly.
 
His eyes were swollen
and drool spilled out of his lower lip.
 
Frank
lifted the young man to his feet and walked both him and his mother to their
car.
 
He watched them leave, then turned
back to face the station lobby, but it was empty.
  

He headed for the
stairs, wincing the moment he put weight on his knee.
 
The pills were already wearing off, but he
didn’t have time to stop.
 
He hobbled and
hopped the rest of the way down the stairs, using the walls of the hallway as
props, until he was close enough to the detective’s office to shout, “You down
here, motherfucker?
 
Where the hell are
you?”
  

Vic looked up as
Frank came into the doorway and said, “How do you think that went?”

“How do I think
that went?
 
Where did you learn to
interview a suspect?
 
You put us in a
major jackpot on my first freaking day!”

Vic’s face turned
curious and he folded his hands behind his head.
 
“You serious?
 
How do you figure?”

“You manhandled
that kid, you screamed at him, you told him you were going to get him ass raped
in prison for a crime we cannot prove, and then you threw him out when he was
having a medical emergency!”

Vic considered
all of this for a moment.
 
“So?”

“So?
 
So, I’m already being sued in federal court, douchebag.
 
I don’t need to be involved in any more shit!”

Vic stamped his
finger on Lyssa’s letter and said, “That little girl killed herself off of what
those motherfuckers did to her.
 
Her
brother admitted to everything she accused him of!
 
Do you believe for one second that she wasn’t
lying about Sal?”

“So what?” Frank
said.
 
“We can’t arrest him.
 
You lied about that.”

“He doesn’t know
that.
 
But you’re right.
 
We can’t arrest him.
 
We both know that.
 
Aside from today, he will never have to face
any consequences for the role he played in Lyssa’s death.
 
So was I hard on him?
 
Yes.
 
Do you think I got my point across?”

“If the point is
that you are a nutcase, then yes.”

Vic shrugged and
said, “If your complaint is that he didn’t have a good time here, that he
didn’t enjoy the experience of having to talk to the police about a crime he
committed, then I fail to see the problem.
 
If you thought I was going to wipe his ass and make him feel all warm
and fuzzy, you’re in the wrong division.”

Frank used his
shirtsleeve to wipe the sweat off his face.
 
It came away soaked.
 
“Listen,
I’ve got to run upstairs for a second.
 
I
need to cool off.”

“Okay,” Vic
said.
 
“Hey, Frank?
 
Cream and two sweet and lows, please.”

Frank limped into
the hallway.
 
There was an open closet
door near the staircase.
 
He ducked
inside of it and closed the door behind him.
 
He reached into his pocket and shook several pills into his hand.
 
He threw them into his mouth and swallowed
them, having to keep swallowing saliva to get them down.
 
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes,
waiting for the pain to abate.
 
After a
few moments, he relaxed and went back down the hallway.
 

Vic frowned when
he came back in.
 
“That was quick.
 
Where’s my coffee?”

“I couldn’t make
it up there,” Frank said.
 
“My leg
started to hurt on the way so I came back.
 
Listen, I’m sorry for going off on you like that.
 
I’m just stressed out.”

Vic watched Frank
go back to his seat and sit down at his desk.
 
He continued to stare, even as Frank turned away and tried to
concentrate on setting up his new desk.
 

***

Frank stuck his
head into the Chief’s office to say goodnight, but it was empty.
 
A voice called out from the Staff Sergeant’s
office, “The Chief’s not in.
 
What do you
need?”
 

He walked down
the hallway and looked in on Erinnyes.
 
“Just
wanted to say goodnight.
 
I had a great
first day.
 
Thanks for the opportunity.”

“Make sure you keep
a uniform handy.
 
I talked to the Chief
today and there’s no reason to have you sitting around doing nothing when we
could use you on the street if they get backed up.”

“Oh,” Frank
said.
 
“Won’t that get in the way if we’re
in the middle of something?”

Erinnyes’s brow
wrinkled.
 
“Well, when that bridge
happens, we’ll cross it off, now won’t we?”
   

Frank cocked his
head as he tried to untangle that one.
 
“I
guess so.
 
See you tomorrow.”

“One more
thing.
 
Were you assigned a vehicle yet?”

“No.
 
I figured I’d use the second unmarked car.”

“Yes you may,” he
said, “But only when you are operating the speed timing device for traffic
enforcement.
 
Our numbers are
unacceptably low this month.
 
For
anything else, you are to use Car 6.”

“But that’s a
marked patrol car, sir.”

“Quite correct.
 
And since you are only a patrol officer who
is temporarily assigned elsewhere, that is your vehicle.”

“And what do I do
when that car is being used by someone else?”

Erinnyes leaned
back and folded his hands over his enormous belly.
 
“As I think about it, it occurs to me that
you might need to use an unmarked vehicle at times.
 
Should that occur, you are to call me
directly and request permission to use it.
 
That doesn’t mean anyone else who works in this police department,
including what passes for a detective around here.
 
That means me.”

“Or the Chief?”
Frank said.

Erinnyes smiled
thinly and said, “That goes without saying.”

“Whatever works,
boss,” Frank said.
 
He hurried out of the
station and was barely into the parking lot when he started unscrewing the cap
on his prescription bottle.
 
His
cellphone buzzed.
 
He picked it up and
saw that it was Vic sending him a text message:
 
Meet me behind the old Banner
Building at 0300.
 
We’re pulling garbage,
so dress appropriately.

He put back his
phone just as a marked patrol car came pulling into the parking lot.
 
Officer Iolaus backed into his parking space
and got out of his car, carrying his plastic lunch pail, smiling at Frank.
 
“Shift’s over, buddy,” Iolaus said.
 
“Sometimes, I can’t believe they really pay
me to do this.
 
You can have all that
defective shit.
 
It’s just me in my
little world, driving around the township.”

Frank nodded as Iolaus
kept walking past, going into the station.
 
He poured whatever was left in the bottle into his hand and swallowed
the pills without counting them.
 
 

***

The school bus
produced a mechanical stop sign, flashing red lights to stop traffic at the
intersection in every direction.
 
Vic
watched the first few kids come out of the bus, carrying colorful school bags,
laughing and pushing each other.
 
Jason
was behind them, waiting to get down from the lowest step.
 
“Hey bud,” Vic said.
 

“Dad?
 
What are you doing here?”

“I was in the
neighborhood.
 
Thought I’d walk you home.
 
Is that okay?”

“Sure,” Jason
said.
 
“I didn’t think I was going to see
you until Wednesday.”
 

“I didn’t want to
wait.
 
How are things in the house?”

“Good.”
 

“Mom’s being nice
to you and your sister?”

“Dad,” Jason
sighed.
 
“She’s always nice to us.”

They came to the
house and Vic stopped at the end of the driveway, sticking his hands in his
pockets.
 
“I’m not supposed to go in when
your mom’s not there.”
 

“I know,” Jason
said.

“You going to be
all right by yourself until she gets home?”

“Yeah, I’ll just
do my homework and grab a snack.”

“Okay.”
 
Vic cleared his throat and said, “I
lied.
 
Something happened today that made
me want to come see you.”
 

“Was it bad?”

“Not too bad,”
Vic said.
 
“That’s the hardest part about
not being at home.
 
Seeing you guys every
day gives me something to hold onto.
 
Without you, I think I’d run screaming into a loony bin.”
 

“Like Ulysses,”
Jason said.

“Who?”

“We read about
him in school.
 
He was the captain of a
ship in Greece that was passing by the island of the Sirens. Their song made
sailors go insane and jump into the water to their death, so Ulysses made all
of his men stuff their ears with wax.
 
The he had them tie him to the mast and ordered them to ignore him no
matter what happened.”

“So did he get to
hear their song?”

Jason nodded and
said, “It drove him insane, but he was tied up too tightly to hurt
himself.”
 

Vic looked at his
son and said, “You’re one of those nerdy kids I used to beat up in the lunch
room, aren’t you?”

Jason laughed,
“Lucky for me you got fat!”

4. Detective Ajax
raised his hand to shield his eyes from Frank’s approaching headlights.
 
He was dressed in all black with gloves and a
hat.
 
He looked like a chubby cat
burglar.
 
Vic put down his hand as Frank
pulled up; staring in amazement at the marked police vehicle Frank was
driving.
 
“Tell me this is a joke,
Frank.”

“What?”

“Tell me you did
not show up to conduct a clandestine operation in a marked goddamn police car.”

Frank smacked the
steering wheel with the palm of his hand, “The hell I didn’t, Vic!
 
I drove this because this is what I was
ordered to drive by the goddamn Staff Sergeant.
 
He gave me a direct order not to touch an unmarked car unless I receive
his express permission first.
 
Of course,
he told me that right after he said I need to keep a uniform handy so I can go
direct traffic when the real cops are too busy.”

Vic gritted his
teeth and kicked the car’s front tire.
 
“That meddling asshole!
 
He hates
that somebody’s out here doing police work.
 
I am so sick of his shit!”

Frank got out of
the car, looking around in the darkness.
 
“Calm down.”

“I won’t calm
down!
 
I’m out here at three in the
morning with a goddamn gimp who can barely walk down the stairs to my office
and drives around in a marked police car!
 
I give up.
 
Screw the trash
pull.
 
Screw this place.
 
Screw everything.
 
Just go home.”

Frank folded his
arms and leaned back against his car, letting Vic pace back and forth while
taking deep breaths.
 
“I was thinking
that we could leave my car here where no one can see it.
 
I can jump in with you, and we can go play in
the trash as much as you want.”

“It’s a two car
operation, Frank.
 
We’re going to be
taking a lot of trash.”

“Okay,” Frank
said.
 
“But on the street we have a
saying that goes: Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.
 
Or did you forget that?”

Vic stopped
pacing and said, “No, I didn’t forget that.
 
I live that.
 
I freaking wrote
that.
 
You study it now because I
invented it.”

“I’m pretty sure
it was around before you.
 
My dad used to
say it.”

Vic walked over
to his car and stood at the door, waiting for Frank.
 
“Your dad used to say it because I said it to
him first.”

“You were, like,
ten years old.”

“I was a ten year
old police genius, Frank.
 
I’m actually
the reincarnation of six other police geniuses, and I carry the wisdom of all
of them in me, like Cop Buddha.”

Frank patted Vic’s
belly and said, “Now it all makes sense.”

Vic laughed and
started the car.
 
They pulled out of the
parking lot and he said, “Listen, I meant ‘gimp’ in the nicest possible way.”

“Is that an
apology?” Frank said.

“Shut up.”

BOOK: Superbia (Book One of the Superbia Series)
12.3Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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