“Falco, you’re sure all this went down the way you said it did?” Paulson asked.
“It’s all in the report, Captain,” I replied, wondering if my nose was growing longer. “Really, Captain, I read the perp’s rap sheet. Who is going to take the word of a two-bit thief and a pathological liar over a decorated cop?”
Paulson looked at my eyes as if trying to run down some mental polygraph on me. Finally, he looked away, “Yeah, right,” he said. “Just keep your eyes and ears open.”
Paulson left. I looked at Hicks. She was talking to Rybolt and McNeil. Shawna stood next to me, leaning over, allowing her right breast to press against my left bicep. I could smell her fragrance, which may have smelled really good had she not applied it with a garden hose.
“You know she’s my girl, right?” she said. “I’d do anything for her.”
I nodded, “I know.”
“So, tell me, do I need to be worried about this?” she asked.
I shook my head, “No, of course not.”
“Good,” she replied.
“Can I have a word alone with Falco?” I heard a familiar voice say.
It was my mentor, Nico Mayson.
“Sure, Nico,” Shawna said. “I need to get movin’ anyway. You take care, Falco, and tell Hicks to call me.”
I nodded at Shawna as Nico slapped my shoulder, “Quite an eventful first day, I hear,” he said. “Congratulations on the collar. I heard all about it and the captain sent me your report. Damn good work, Falco.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Personally, I attribute it to good mentorship.”
“I also heard from one of the boys that Hicks was getting pretty affectionate with you last night at the Yakety Sax. That true?”
“Everyone was just blowing off steam, Nico.”
“That same guy told me he saw you two heading up the elevator together. Hicks lives there, right? Did you two blow off a little more than steam upstairs?”
“No, Nico,” I said. “It didn’t happen. We were feeling no pain, that’s for sure. We got close, really close, but it didn’t happen.”
That of course, was all true. I simply left out the part that I didn’t have a condom and she dropped kicked me for it, leaving him to believe that we may have actually used some real judgment and allowed cooler heads to prevail.
“You can share anything with me, right Falco?” Nico said. “I’m on your side. You know that, right?”
“Sure, Nico, I do know that.”
“Anything you want to tell me? Anything missing from the report, maybe?”
“No, Nico,” I said, lying once again to someone who I shouldn’t be lying to, ever.
He shook his head, “You know, Falco, Hicks is a good cop, actually a great cop. She could ride with me anytime.”
“Me too,” I agreed.
“I know how you are, Falco, and I know your style. I also know Hicks’s style. You two could make a great team. Just remember something. This partnership is not just about her showing you the ropes. It’s a two-way street. She could learn a great deal from you, too.”
“Like what?”
“Like every reaction to a tense situation does not have to involve brute force. Good cops use their brains as well as their muscle. And also, that every minor infraction does not need to be covered up. She needs to know we are all human, and we all make mistakes, even cops.”
I let out a breath, realizing I had already failed in that department. In my zeal as the new guy trying to be accepted I went along with Hicks to cover up the warning shot and enabled her embellishment on the use of force with the perp, things I’d never done before.
“I’ll remember that,” I said.
“If you two are going to be a team, it also means you need to keep out of her pants, too,” Nico added. “We both know she is not your boom, anyway.”
I looked at him quizzically, “How would you know that?”
“I know shit,” he jibed. “Tell me, Falco. I know damn well you didn’t follow her up the elevator last night to see the stunning view from her balcony. When whatever happened between you two fizzled, did you drive home with a burning desire that you just had to have her? Did you stay awake all night wondering if you should get dressed and run back and knock on her door?”
“No. I didn’t,” I admitted
In fact, Nico was correct. I actually spent more time in bed worrying about a homeless woman who never even spoke with me. I’d never even gotten a clear view of her face.
He smiled and slapped me on the back, “See there, Falco. No boom. Trust me on this. Hicks is a good cop. Keep your dick in your pants while you’re around her. You can’t have too many people like her on your side. Keep her close . . . just not too close. Feel me?”
I nodded.
“Have a good day,” Falco. “Be extra careful out there. Call me if you need me.”
Hicks approached me as Nico left.
“Are we ready to hit the road, Falco?” she asked. She didn’t have a smile on her face, nor did she look particularly uncomfortable speaking to me. I tried to mirror her demeanor.
“I’m ready,” I replied.
“Good, because there is a school assembly at Brentwood High this morning,” she said. “They found a handgun in a student’s locker a couple of weeks ago and the parents are all up in arms wondering what they intend to do to tighten security. The captain wants our cruiser outside, nice and visible, just in case the conversation becomes heated.”
“Sounds like a scintillating first assignment,” I said. “Do we have time to get a McMuffin and coffee on the way.”
She looked at her watch, “Sure. I could use one, too. I’m buying, and I’m driving.”
Forty minutes later, Hicks parked the cruiser in the far corner of the high school parking lot. The squad car was easily visible to the students and parents through the gym’s windows, but far enough away to not be too intimidating. It also served a nice secondary purpose of being too far away for anyone to make out that Hicks and I inside were munching on egg McMuffins and sipping piping hot coffee.
We watched the cars stream into the lot. The parents and students seemed to be filing into the gym in an orderly fashion. Hicks and I initially kept our conversation to McMuffins, guns in schools and the potential of an investigation ordered by the Chief of Police. She was very curious as to what the captain had been talking about with Shawna and me. I assured her that the captain was just encouraging us to support her and keep an eye out for her. Satisfied, she finally turned the conversation to the elephant in the room, or the squad car, in this case.
______________________
CHAPTER TWELVE
______________________
HICKS
“So, about last night . . .” I began. “I had too much to drink and . . .”
“You know,” he interrupted. “We don’t have to go there, if you don’t want to.”
“Really? Because I kind of think we should talk about it.”
“That’s a fundamental difference between men and women,” he noted. “Women want to talk awkward moments through, and men want to pretend they didn’t happen.”
“So, you agree it was awkward?” I asked.
“Of course, it was awkward,” he replied. “That doesn’t mean it needs to be awkward going forward.”
“So, you think last night was a mistake?” I asked.
“A mistake we didn’t actually go through with,” he chimed in.
I nearly interrupted him but decided to let it go. I had the man’s dick in my mouth. In what world is that not considered not ‘going through with it,’ I wondered? Falco’s world, obviously. The world of a man who probably didn’t know the names of half the women he’d fucked.
“We’re partners, Hicks,” he continued, “and in case you didn’t notice, we got off to a pretty good start yesterday. You had my back on the whole warning shot thing. I’d be pushing papers at the station right now if you didn’t work me through that. I had visions of my Metro care
er being one and done.”
“And you saved my life yesterday,” I added. “You’re right. I think we could make a pretty good team, but there is a fundamental issue here we have to deal with.”
“Which is?”
“We’re attracted to each other,” I continued. “Don’t deny it. I saw you looking at my tits all day long, yesterday.”
“I’m sorry about that,” he said.
“I’m not,” I told him. “I thought it was hot. Last night I wanted you more than any other man in my life. I almost came when I first held your cock in my hand.”
Falco sighed, “But what happened, the way it turned out . . . this gives us a second chance. If we had slept together last night, you know what it would have led to, right?”
I nodded, “Yeah, and we both know how it would have ended. It’s how relationships like this always end.”
“So, let’s figure out how to avoid it, Hicks,” he said. “I like having you as a partner.”
“And I like being your partner,” I added. “Ok, I’ll try if you try.”
“I’d like to make it work,” he said.
“So, tell me, Falco, what is it with you and women, anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re extraordinarily handsome, and I know you know that, but you also have one of those personalities that sucks women in,” I admitted.
“I don’t know about that,” he replied. His tone seemed genuine.
“Hell, Shawna just about creamed her pants two minutes after meeting you,” I said. “I wasn’t too far behind her. How do you do that?”
He chuckled, “I don’t know for sure. When I was a teenager I was shy . . . like awkwardly shy.”
“Around girls?”
“Yeah. I don’t know why I was so bashful,” he continued. “Even as a youngster, girls naturally gravitated toward me, and I wanted them too, but I could never work up the courage to talk to them. It took a long time for me to work my way out of it. It was a long, painful process with a lot of road bumps along the way, but when I finally did come around, I went overboard.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “You know, in the academy, I noticed you never really talked about your past.”
“That’s because I had a major . . . traumatizing event . . . in my life. To this day, I can’t really talk about it. To be honest, I blocked most of it out. It’s all a blur now. It changed me, hardened me, desensitized me . . . I went into therapy. I almost never think about it anymore, and even when I do, the details are fuzzy.”
“What happened after that?”
“I hardened. I went from being a shy, bashful kid who wanted to vomit every time a girl smiled at him to an over-confident, uncaring womanizer,” he said. “I don’t know which was worse.”
“I don’t follow,” I told him.
“I mean, I pretty much wanted to fuck every woman I met,” he said, “but I never wanted to see any of them afterward once I got them in the sack.”
“Damn, Falco, do I need to be worried?” I asked.
“No, of course not. It’s not like that, now. I’ve been working on it but it’s been a long journey. I had to face what I was doing. For the longest time, I never gave consideration to how my fuck em’ and forget em’ mentality made women feel. I screwed up more than a few women emotionally. I’m really ashamed of it.”
“What did you do to change?” I asked him.
“I tried to swing that pendulum back to the middle,” he said, “and it was working . . . well, before last night. Prior to last night, I hadn’t had sex in four months. It was hard at first, but I was becoming ok with it.”
“Have you ever had a lasting relationship?” I asked him.
“One woman in Franklin,” he said, “after college. High school girl’s track coach. I’d dated her for six months.”
“Wow, six whole months? What went wrong?” I wondered.
“I went wrong,” he said. “I got bored, and as I’ve recently come to realize, she wasn’t my boom.”
“You’ve been talking to Nico,” I said. “I know the ‘boom’ term well.”
“So, Hicks, do you have a boom?”
“Obviously not,” she admitted. “I’m dating a guy now, but I’m breaking it off. He just doesn’t do it for me, you know?”
Falco nodded.
“So, no boom for me, not even with you," I continued. "I don’t want to inflate that big fucking ego more than it already is, but you are the hottest guy I’d met in years, maybe ever, but when it didn’t pan out and you went home . . . I was actually ok with it.”
He smiled and chuckled, “Me too. That should tell us something. So, are we good Hicks?”
I smiled at him, “Yeah, we’re good. Fair warning though, I’m an adrenaline junkie. Days like yesterday get my juices flowing, so I can’t guarantee that when we land another big collar I’m not going to want to take out my aggression on that Louisville Slugger of yours. I’ll just need a gentle reminder from you.”
“Fair enough,” he told me.
The rest of the day was smooth and uneventful, a welcome break from the day before. Falco and I answered a couple of domestic disturbance calls, handed out a half-dozen citations for traffic violations, and even arrested a fifty-five-year-old woman for shoplifting—boring. But for me, for today, boring was good.
Falco and I got into a groove and whatever awkwardness we’d felt from the evening before seemed to melt away during the course of the day.
______________________
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
______________________
FALCO
I changed in the men’s locker and downloaded the nothingness of my day with Nico.
“You can’t have the big score every day,” Nico told me. “You know as well as I do, good police work is often dull and unexciting. How’d it go with Hicks today?”
“We talked it through,” I said. “We both agreed that forming an intimate relationship would be a mistake. It was a little awkward at first, but as the day went on, it got comfortable again.”
“And you’re sure she means what she says?” Nico asked.
“Yeah, why?”
He shrugged, “I’m just saying be careful, that’s all. She’s probably still in a vulnerable state.”
“Noted,” I said.
“Good,” Nico replied. “As you know, she had to give me a report on you, too.”
“And?”
“And . . . all good. She thinks you’re a damn good cop. Keep up the good work, Falco.”
As I drove home, I began to wonder if my typical day in Metro was more like yesterday or today, because today was a snoozer. I was really happy that things seemed to be smoothed over with Hicks, because I really did respect her and enjoyed being her partner.
I stopped off at the grocery store and picked up the ingredients for a Bibb Salad: smoked bacon, cherry tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles and dressing, candied pecans, and some fresh bread to make garlic toast. It was a long standing but expensive tradition of mine to shop for dinner on the way home.
Hicks and I were both off the next day, which seemed odd, but it was just the way the schedule worked. We were going to have to work both Saturday and Sunday, but I didn’t really care.
My cell phone rang. I looked at the display. The caller ID screen said, ‘Antioch Pipe and Tobacco.’ I remembered seeing that business during the course of my drive in the last two days but wondered who the hell from there would have my personal cell number. I answered.
“Is this Officer Falco?” a scratchy female voice called out.
“Yes, who is this?” I inquired.
“This is Sally, from hobo’s palace,” she replied.
“Why are you calling from a smoke shop?”
“I know the owner,” she said. “He lets me use the phone when I really need to.”
“What can I do for you?" I asked.
“Well, that quiet girl you were looking for,” she began. “I saw her walking by. She looked
to me like she was in pretty rough shape.”
“Where’d you see her?”
“Walking down Hickory Hollow Boulevard, just parallel to the overpass,” she said.
“What made you think she was in rough shape?” I asked.
“She was walking kinda funny.”
“How long ago was this?” I asked.
“About fifteen minutes ago,” she replied. “She was heading north.”
“Thanks, Sally, take care of yourself.”
I pulled out of the grocery store parking lot and headed toward hobo’s palace, turning north on Hickory Hollow Boulevard.
It took only a few minutes to spot her. I could see her brightly-colored sneakers from a block away. She was walking along the right side of the road. Her wool hat was pulled low, down to her eyes. I pulled alongside her.
Sally was right. She was limping. She was fully dressed but not appropriate for the weather. Her arms were folded as she limped down the road. I rolled down the window and called to her, “Excuse me, miss,” I said.
My voice startled her. She quickened her pace. I sped up a little bit and called to her again, “Are you alright?”
She again did not answer, only tried to quicken her retreat faster, trying her best to trot, though whatever was hindering her walk was not allowing it. I tried again.
“I am the police officer you met yesterday at hobo’s palace,” I said. “Someone stole your coat and I was asking you about it, remember? Sally was there.”
I saw her pause momentarily. She still did not look my way. After a few seconds she started moving again. I followed, “Miss, it’s obvious you are hurt. You may need medical attention. You are also underdressed for the weather. Why don’t you let me take you to the hospital?”
She gave no indication of acknowledgement, just continued to move.
“Miss, I can arrest you for vagrancy, take you to the station and book you, or you can let me take you to the hospital,” I said. “Either way, I’m not going to let you spend the night outdoors again in your shirtsleeves. So . . . what’s it going to be?”
She stopped and turned toward me for the first time, looking downward as if trying to hide her face. I leaned over and opened the door of my Ford Focus and flashed my badge, just to make sure she knew I was the real deal.
Until Falco_Happily Ever Alpha Page 6
