On the streets of... #4

She said yes! Well, actually, she said no, as in, "No, I don't have dinner plans, but we could grab a bite after work if that's what you meant." and that was the most amazing "no" I've ever got from a woman. And I’ve got many of them, I should know.

'There is this new restaurant Downtown, it's supposed to be…'

'O'Malley's Pub, on Blueberry Hill. Great steak and burgers and cops drinks for free. Do you know it?' she cut in.

'Sure,' I nodded. Every cop knew it. It was the old guard's favourite spot, you couldn't throw a stone without hitting someone who should have been retired from the force long ago.

'Say, around seven?' she asked. 'Here,' she got out a calling card and put it into the breast pocket of my shirt. 'Call me if you can't make it.'

She patted my pocket and my chest with it and it felt like a slight electric shock.

I completely forgot that I'm gonna need calling cards, by the way. What an idiot…

'That's a date,' I said and she nodded with a smile I was willing to die for. She wanted to say something else, but the ugly reality attacked us in the form of her father, who walked in and said "Morning" to the group.

They couldn't deny that they were related. Frederick McRoy had the same green eyes and red hair as his daughter. He even had freckles. The guy looked like a jovial uncle in uniform. People usually aren't got to be police captains for being nice, though, so I've had my doubts.

'Okay, so… Welcome to the 67th precinct,' he said from behind his pulpit. 'My name is Captain McRoy and I'm your commanding officer. I know that this is an unusual situation, all of us were torn away from our regular teams and it is really bad. I know that some of you feel like we were thrown away. Exiled here to work on the cases nobody else is willing to.'

I was expecting a lifting speech about what being a police means. I did not expect what the Captain said next.

'All of that, true. We are fucked. They put us into this shithole which will go down on us sooner than later, with a worst-than-ridiculous budget, with a bunch of newbies and a buttload of cold cases other precincts were happy to get rid of. They set us up to fail, and no doubt, we will fail. We didn't have any special training to deal with magic. We've got the cars other precincts passed down to us because they were too old or crappy. The youngest computer in the building is five years old. We have no real experience, no environment, and no skills. So believe you me, we are going to fail. But when we do, I'm gonna leave the shitshow with the lowest unsolved-case ratio possible, so I can get a real precinct to command. To that end, I'm gonna need you all to ask this question from yourselves about every case you get, cold or new: "Why is this my case?" You know the law: a case is ours if the crime was committed by using magic, or by something magical. If a vampire bites someone, it's ours. If he shot someone, you are gonna send the case file right back from wherever it came from. Break-in by a sorcerer? I don't care who did it or what is missing, the first thing you are gonna determine is whether he used magic or not. If not, bye-bye case. Everyone I catch working on a case that could have been passed, going on a one-week unpaid vacation. Am I understood?'

I looked at the woman beside me and she shrugged.

'He is right, you know,' she whispered. 'This is going to be a catastrophe, no matter what. We might as well try and come out of it looking good.'

A smart man would probably not start an argument with the woman he wanted to date, especially if said woman was the daughter of his boss. By now you know that I’m not one of those, right?

'Yes, but don't you think that we should make actual, real police work a priority?' I asked.

Those breathtaking emerald eyes sparkled at me.

'Don't you think the city and the government should do everything in their power to help us with that? Look around in this place, Pete. My old man is right, it's a shithole.'

She had a point. I wanted to answer but I heard my name.

'Yes, Sir!' I said.

'Your new partner is gonna be Detective Gregory Rourke. Rourke, show your hand.'

I looked around. An older man a few chairs from me with curly brown hair and wide shoulders lifted his hand. His long face looked like a rough sketch of an actual human face but in a good way. I mean, the way that some women could actually find attractive in its roughness.

'Sir, a word,' he said. His voice was surprisingly gentle given his tough appearance.

'What?' barked McRoy.

'With all due respect, sir, I don't do partners. Especially not newbies. If I wanted to deal with an incompetent idiot clinging to every one of my words, I would get a dog. Or another kid.'

I laughed before I realised that I'm laughing at myself. McRoy (the prettier one) looked at me with her eyebrow raised, so I shrugged.

'I see,' nodded the captain. 'Now, listen to me, my friend. I don't give a shit about what you do or what you don't do. From now on you are either doing what I say or you can check if the mall is looking for a new security guard. Are we clear?'

'Crystal clear, sir,' Rourke said, but if I were McRoy, I wouldn't have trusted him.

If I were me, which I unfortunately was, I would have been sure that I'm about to have a very long day.

I had no idea.