The next day was more of the same, though the sun was starting to come back out; Brandt watched the Carter house while Weyand and Osborn returned to ‘finish hanging the drywall’ – in reality, they were still working on their other cases in VR, and occasionally making noises appropriate to hanging drywall, including, that day, periodically running Carter’s power saw.
This time, however, they waited until Carter and Peterson arrived home in their personal vehicle. Carter opened the garage door in VR and pulled in next to the drywall van; Osborn and Weyand met them in the garage while the door was still open, allowing their spy to get a good view of the couple talking to the ‘contractors,’ then Carter shook hands with the two men. Weyand and Osborn climbed into the van as Peterson went on into the house proper through the garage, and Carter watched as the drywall van headed down the drive and onto the street.
Then he closed the garage door, disappearing from Brandt’s sight.
A Big Bada-Boom
The next morning, Director Carter swung by Detective Ashton’s office once more, and once again Ashton came to the door to greet him.
“Hey there, Lee,” he said, taking the older man’s hand, as they studiously ignored the subtle attempts of several of the nearby bullpen cops to listen in on the conversation. “What’s up? You need Investigations for something?”
“Nah. Nothing big or anything. Nor yet official, even. Maia and I were just wondering if you and Cally had any plans for tomorrow night.”
“Um, no, not that I’m aware of. Let me ping her in VR real quick and make sure…”
“Okay.”
Ashton developed a distant expression on his face as he went into VR to contact his wife. Moments later, his face was alert and aware once more, and he turned his attention back to his supervisor.
“No, we’re free. What’s on the schedule now?”
“That little dinner party we postponed on account of the plumbing leak,” Carter explained. “Everything’s repaired now, and we can show you both around the new house.”
“Aha! That sounds great; we’ve been looking forward to it. Do you need us to bring anything? Appetizer, dessert, a side dish?”
“No, we’re good on all that. Maia said you could bring a bottle of a good chardonnay if you want to. Oh, and she was wondering if Cally would share her recipe for that meatloaf she made the other night. Not that she has to bring one, just the recipe, if she’s willing.”
“I’ll be sure to tell her, but I’m certain she would,” Ashton said. “All of her recipes like that are just the family stuff that has developed over the years. Her dad is from an old French family. Obviously it’s a long way back, and the actual French on Earth may not make it anywhere like the way she and her family do…”
“If they don’t, they’re stupid,” Carter said with a laugh. He ignored Lieutenant Bill Carr as the other man wandered by, ostensibly headed for the water cooler. “For a plain ol’ meatloaf, that thing was delicious. And talk about, um, I guess you could call it comfort food, maybe – well, it was the absolute bomb. Maia swears I talked about it half the night, once we got back home. Including, so she declares, in my sleep!”
“Yeah, I gotta admit, I eat really damn well since we got married,” Ashton acknowledged with a chuckle, picking up on the cue and casually nodding a greeting at Carr as he returned to his desk in the adjacent bullpen with a cup of water. “I’ve definitely had to up my game in the gym.”
“I’ll bet. Eating like that all the time, a body could get pudgy in a damn hurry. So we can expect you both after work tomorrow night?”
“Sure thing, Lee. Give us time to go home and get cleaned up and changed after work, and we’ll be over. Oh, be sure to pop me the address so I can plug it into the maps-app in the car.”
“Wait. You got a car?”
“Yup. After you told us all about the one you purchased over dinner the other night, Cal and I discussed it and decided it was really a damn good idea. So we headed out the next evening, after work, and bought one ourselves. It isn’t nearly as big or fancy, though; it’s kind of an economy model, and only holds us two, so it’s a ‘mini,’ as the car sales people call ‘em. But it serves the purpose, and allows us to come and go as we please.” Ashton grinned. “But we’re still getting used to it. Even for a lower-end model, it’s got more bells and whistles than you can count.”
“Exactly, and ain’t it the truth? I didn’t have any idea you were considering that, Nick.”
“Well, it seemed like a reasonable notion, and right now we can afford it, so we decided to go for it. But like I said, we’re still getting used to it. So don’t forget to give me the address! It’ll take us probably ten minutes just to figure out how to tell it where we want to go!”
“Right! Will do. So around six or six-thirty?”
“That should do it, yeah. Make it six-thirty so we don’t have to rush in traffic. Never mind if we have trouble with the maps app.”
“Got it. I’ll tell Maia.”
And Carter headed back to his office, as Ashton went back to his desk.
Moments later, from one of the offices just outside the bullpen, a message was sent.
To: PBrandt, JHennig
Subject: dinner party
Scheduled for tomorrow night at 6:30 in the evening. Set your alerts for dinner at 7:30.
T.B.
Moments
