Hard Job

by Jeffery Craig

  “Well, I don’t know. It’s a big decision and I’d have to think about it. After all, the Homicide Unit is a big step up from working burglaries and white collar crimes.” Jones paused for effect, and a split second later said, “I’ve thought about it, and my answer is yes, Reightman.” When she gave him a tiny fractional smile to reward his class clown theatrics, he asked her seriously, “Would you really make a recommendation to Kelly?”

  “Yes, but don’t get your hopes up too high,” she warned. “He might have someone else in mind. I’ll raise it with him the first of next week though, now that I know you wouldn’t consider it cruel and unusual punishment to be stuck with me.”

  “I know it wouldn’t be a done deal until the Chief agreed and the paperwork went through, but I appreciate the vote of confidence.” He gave her a look of gratitude and then looked back down at the desk. “You know what? I think I’ll just head over to the supply closet and grab a few things I need if I’m expected to get any work done. I’ll move the rest of my stuff over in the next few days – if you think it’d be alright.”

  Reightman shrugged. “You might as well have your own stuff over here where you can get to it. The worst thing that can happen is you’d have to move everything back.”

  “Good point. Can I bring you anything?”

  “Nope, I think I’m all set for supplies.”

  Jones walked away and Reightman took another sip of her tea. Kelly would probably accept her recommendation and she thought Jones was a good choice. She’d liked his cocky attitude and he’d been a big help over the last several days – filling in wherever needed. She just hoped she wasn’t just missing Jackson and making her recommendation too soon, but time would tell.

  Jones returned a few minutes later with his arms laden down with enough office supplies to outfit the entire floor. He laughed at her expression. “They were having a two for one sale over in the supply closet and I thought I’d load up while the prices were good. Gotta’ love a sale!”

  He proceeded to organize things to his satisfaction and she looked over her list of outstanding items. “Hey, Jones, what did Goldbleum have to say? Was there any video?”

  Jones rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated breath. “I have to tell you that Mr. Goldbleum is a real piece of work. First of all, there’s no video. He has his system set to record over the existing tape every hour. He says it’s cheaper and he’s not made out of gold. Personally, I think the old man probably has the first nickel he ever made – from back in 1901.”

  “That’s a disappointment. Was he able to provide any sort of description?”

  “Yes, if you can call it that. Let me read it to you.” Jones pulled a folded piece of paper from his front pocket. “He said the woman was average height, not heavy, and had hair of average length. When I asked him what color her hair was, he said he didn’t remember and he never remembered things like that – unless it was some kind of weird color, like that those crazy kids are wearing now days. When I asked him about her eye color, he said he had no idea, just – wait for it – average.” He looked up and saw her grimace at the useless description. “He was more helpful when I asked about the items she was trying to sell, but still wasn’t able to be real specific. He said she had a load of pretty impressive jewelry – all kinds of stones and some nice pearls. He was particularly interested in one pendant she had with her. He said it was a really big rock, a diamond, from what I gather. He made her an offer, but she said she couldn’t let it go for that. He gave her the names of a couple of other places to try, although he figures she’ll be disappointed with their offers as well.”

  “Did he share the names of the places he recommended?”

  “Yes, I have them and will swing by each of them later today. I’ll also check out all the other pawn shops in town just on the off chance someone may have taken a couple of items off her hands. We might get lucky. We just might get lucky and stumble on to something.”

  “It’s probably worth a shot. I just wish he’d been able to give you a better description of the woman – and the jewels.” Reightman didn’t bother to hide the disappointment she felt.

  “Me too. I thought we were on to something. Instead, I get to spend several hours driving all over town asking pawnshop owners if an average woman came in trying to sell some nice pearls and a ‘big rock.’ Still, I think it’s worth a shot.”

  Reightman sighed and pulled the purse from her drawer. “I need to drive down to Capital Street and check on Toby Bailey and Mitchell. It’s been a few days since I’ve had more than a brief update, and I want to see how things are working out with our impromptu bodyguard program.”

  “Mitchell’s been assigned to keep Bailey safe?” Jones asked. Reightman recognized a surprised note in his voice and wondered what it signified

  “Actually, Mitchell volunteered and he seemed like the best – if not only – choice. He’s been on the job since Tuesday evening.” She was curious about the expression on his face. “You seem surprised and…something else. I can’t read your expressions yet, so you might as well just tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “Well, I think Mitchell is a fine cop, and deserves a chance to prove himself. I was glad to see the Chief decided to keep him on plain clothes detail. I’ve gotten to know him pretty well over the last couple of weeks and like what I’ve seen. But…oh never mind, it’s probably nothing.”

  “Come on, Jones – out with it.”

  “Mitchell would be an ideal choice for this sort of duty in most cases. But….oh, what the hell….Mitchell’s a homosexual.”

  “Mitchell’s gay?” When Jones nodded affirmatively, Reightman thought over her reaction to the new information. “I’m a little surprised, I guess. I’ve never given much thought to what his preference in that area may or may not be. Truthfully, it doesn’t matter to me how he lives his personal life as long as he does his job.”

  “I feel exactly the same way, Reightman. In this instance, however, Mr. Bailey is also gay. With them thrown together like this, I worry things might become a little too personal – if you catch my drift. Potentially dangerous situations can lead to all kinds of things which wouldn’t happen otherwise.”

  “Sounds like you speak from experience, Jones.”

  “Not really.” Reightman wondered if his response was a little too quick for it to be the whole truth. After a minute, he added, “I just wouldn’t want to see the two of them get hurt, or to have some kind of physical attraction compromise Mitchell’s role.”

  Reightman considered what he said and gave a weary sigh. “Thanks for telling me about this, Jones. I don’t think Mitchell would step over the line, but I will have a cautioning word with him.” She turned to leave and then stopped. “Jones, as a favor – keep Mitchell’s orientation to yourself. A lot of people around here aren’t as open minded as you and me and I’d really hate to see anyone give him a hard time about this.”

  “I wouldn’t have even said anything to you if it wasn’t something I thought you needed to be aware of. I’ve no desire to see anyone dish out a bunch of ignorant, prejudiced crap to the kid.”

  “Thanks, Jones, I appreciate it. I guess I should have asked, but do you want to come along?”

  “Thanks for the offer. Any other time I would – even though I’ve been warned about your driving, I think it’d be best for me to try to track down the mystery woman with the boat load of jewels for sale.”

  “I’ll have you know I ‘m a perfectly good driver! Whoever told you otherwise is just trying to give me a bad rep.”

  He laughed at her mock glare. “See you later, Detective Reightman.”

  “See you later, Detective Jones.” She left him sitting at the cleaned and restocked desk which was now his, and would stay his, if she had anything to say about it

  Reightman thought she’d find Toby and Mitchell at the spa since Toby was working to get everything ready for the reopening tomorrow. She checked in with the uniformed detail before walking through the
door to Time Out. As she’d anticipated, Toby was finishing up the paint in the backroom and Mitchell was stationed in the hallway near the door, leaning up against the wall. He straightened when he saw her headed his way.

  “Good afternoon, ma’am,” he greeted her with a smile on his face. “I thought maybe you’d forgotten all about us.”

  “Not a chance of that, Mitchell, although to be honest, I thought for sure I’d have made it down here to check on you before now. The last few days have been harder than I’d expected. I appreciate the reports you’ve been sending though, and you seem to have things pretty well under control.”

  “Thank you, Detective.” Mitchell cleared his throat and added, “I was sorry I had to miss Detective Jackson’s service, but after talking it over with Mr. Bailey, we decided it was best to stay in the area. I know he was disappointed, but we agreed the closer we stayed to home base, the less chance there was something might go wrong.”

  “I appreciate that, Mitchell, and I think you and Mr. Bailey made the right choice. I know you thought highly of Detective Jackson, but believe me, he would’ve not only understood your decision, but he also would have approved.”

  Reightman continued down the hall and entered the back treatment room, noticing Toby had changed the color scheme to deeper greens and rich gold tones. “He probably wants a change, so he’s less reminded of the events which had happened in this room,” Reightman thought, knowing it was going to be hard for him regardless. “I see you’re pretty close to finishing, Toby.”

  “Yeah, I’m almost done in here and I think we’ll be as ready as we can be for tomorrow. I know for sure that the staff will be glad to get back to work full time.”

  “Are you ready, Toby? I mean, personally ready?”

  He stood up and wadded the used painter’s tape he’d removed from the molding into a small ball. “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure. We do need to get this place up and running again – the bills aren’t going to magically pay themselves.” He looked around the room, checking out his handiwork and then shrugged. “But frankly, I’m not real excited about the business right now.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I hope I get my excitement back. I’ve tried to schedule things over the next week or so in such a way I won’t be using this room very much and that’ll help.” He threw the tape into a nearby wastebasket and added, “I know you understand….about things being hard.”

  “Yes, I do understand, and you’re right – it’s hard. You’ll get through it though, even if it’s only one day at a time. Eventually, every single one of those days adds up and you realize you’re going to make it after all.”

  “That’s almost exactly what Grams told me last night. If the two smartest women I know – three, if you count Madame Zhou, who had similar advice – tell me it gets better with time, then it must be true.”

  “I’m honored to be in such august company. Those other two ladies have been through far more than I have.” She walked around the room, looking at the changes. “This room looks good, Toby.” She turned back to him. “How are the bookings for the reopening looking?”

  He made a small moue of distaste. “Not nearly as well as they should be. It’ll be a while before things get back to the level they were before all this happened. I’ll keep plugging away though, and as long as nothing else goes wrong, we’ll survive until it rebounds.”

  “I have every confidence things will work out. You’ll make it work.

  “I hope you’re right,” he said and then changed the subject. “Any news you can share with me, Detective – about the investigation?”

  “We’re working on a few leads, but these things take time – especially if we’re trying to be as careful as possible, and covering everything twice to make sure we don’t miss anything.” When she saw his disappointed face, she decided to just tell him the truth. “Toby, we aren’t making the progress I thought we would. Truthfully, we’re running into one dead end after another and I’m about out of ideas. I wish I had better news – as much as you’re wishing the same, I bet. But we’ve both been through too much together since Geri was found for me to not be up-front with you about our progress.”

  He’d been watching her face intently as she spoke, and was satisfied by what he saw in her expression. “I appreciate you told me the truth, Detective Reightman. I am disappointed there hasn’t been some kind of big break, but I trust everyone working on this is doing their best.” In effort to break the solemn mood, he added, “If I didn’t think you were, I’d unleash Madame Zhou.”

  “All I ask is that you give me warning before you do, so I can get out of town!” Reightman laughed. “Seriously, she’s amazing. I don’t think Tuesday would’ve gone nearly as well if she wasn’t such a tiger.”

  “I think you mean dragon,” he corrected with a grin. “Tuesday did wear her out, though. I haven’t seen her since then, although I’ve talked to her on the phone a couple of times.”

  “I saw her yesterday and although she did seem tired, I think she’ll be fine. After all, she has enough mysterious herbs and potions over at that shop of hers to jump start anyone, no matter how tired they’re feeling.” She took one more look around the room at his handiwork. “I like the new colors – good choice. But now it’s time for me to let you get back to work. I need to have a word or two with Officer Mitchell before I go, but I won’t keep him too long.”

  “Thanks for stopping by, Detective Melba.” He grinned at the look she gave him. “You can pretend, but I know you like it when I call you that.”

  “I still haven’t decided,” she retorted, although he was right. “Good luck with tomorrow, Toby – keep your chin up. And if you have any ideas that might help us make progress, let me know and I’ll seriously consider them.” She walked out into the hallway and over to the young officer on duty. “Hey, Mitchell, you think you can spare me a second or two?”

  He walked down the hall toward the room where Toby was working. “If you think it’ll be okay to leave him alone, Detective Reightman.”

  “We’re just going down the hall a few steps, or maybe,” she opened the door to the other treatment room, “we can step in here.” Once they were in the room – with the door slightly open on Mitchell’s insistence – Reightman studied his face. “How are things going?”

  “I think things are going fine, ma’am. I haven’t seen anything suspicious during the last couple of days. I would’ve said something to you if I had.”

  “I know you would have, and I’m glad to know there hasn’t been anything you thought warranted reporting.” She thought about how she should approach the real topic she wanted to discuss with him. “How are things between you and Mr. Bailey?”

  Mitchell was confused by her question. “I think everything’s fine. We seem to be getting along and he hasn’t been any trouble at all. He isn’t thrilled about having someone assigned to him twenty-four hours a day, but I think we’re making it work.” A small worried frown creased his forehead. “Why do you ask, Detective? Did he say something?”

  “No, and if there was a problem I know him well enough to be absolutely certain he’d have said something.” Reightman noted the relief which appeared on Mitchell’s face and forced herself to come to the point. “I hate to ask this, but I need to, Mitchell. There isn’t anything of a personal nature going on between the two of you is there?”

  It took a minute for him to understand what she was asking. “Someone told you about me, didn’t they?” Reightman couldn’t decide if he sounded worried, or angry.

  “Someone did mention your orientation to me.” Before he could interrupt, she continued, “And I don’t give a damn who you’re attracted to or what rings your bell, as long as it doesn’t affect your ability to perform you duties. Mr. Bailey is a personable and attractive young man and–”

  “Yes, he is, Detective Reightman,” Mitchell cut in before she could finish. “I like him, but I don’t think I like him. After the last three days it would be like…hitting on
my best friend.”

  Reightman gave an internal sigh of relief. Mitchell’s earnestness appeared to be totally genuine. “Thanks for reassuring me, Mitchell. I really didn’t think there was anything inappropriate going on. If you were attracted to him, and weren’t assigned to keep him safe, I’d be all for you two seeing each other or – whatever.” Her next words were more difficult for her, as she’d never been in the position she was in now – that of giving a young officer the benefit of her, and Sam’s, limited wisdom. “Let me just share something for you to think about, Mitchell. What you do with it is your decision, but you might find it helpful, somewhere down the line.”

  “Any advice that you’re willing to share is appreciated, ma’am,’ Mitchell said, although his voice and expression were now somewhat guarded.

  “I’ll try to make it short and sweet. In a nutshell, sometimes it’s hard to avoid forming attachments with people involved in the cases we investigate.”

  “Like you and Mr. Bailey, you mean?”

  “Touché, Mitchell.” Reightman thought. “Yes, in a way. Much like you, for some reason I associate Mr. Bailey with a best friend, or a brother I never had.” When Mitchell nodded, she continued, “It’s important to try and remain as objective as possible – especially when the situation is a dangerous one. That means we sometimes have to step back from the person involved, even if our instincts tell us to do otherwise. It’s fine to like Mr. Bailey, but if possible – and it might not be – try to hold off on forming any kind of attachment, even one of friendship. It’ll help keep you focused and might prevent you from hurting too badly if something terrible happens.”

  “Nothing’s going to happen to Toby Bailey if I can help it, Detective.”

  “I hope you’re right, Mitchell. I felt exactly the same about Detective Jackson, but ultimately I wasn’t able to stop the person who killed him.”