“Good. And I know what you mean about looking into her eyes; she was that sort of person. So now, if someone tries to get you to suborn yourself, just say no. But more, come tell me. Especially come tell me if they’re in the department, but in or out of it, we need to know so we can tidy things up.”
“Got it. This is going to be a straight department from now on, isn’t it?”
“That’s the intent, Mr. Peabody. I think if anyone can do it, Lee Carter can.”
“No more having to watch my back from the people I work with...”
“Exactly.”
“Emily,” Peabody said then, sitting up straight. “Emily’s back on the table.”
“What? Emily? I… I’m afraid I don’t understand...?”
“It’s a long story,” Peabody said, rueful.
“I have time to listen,” Ashton said, with the ghost of a smile. “I scheduled plenty of time to work with you on all this, because I knew you’d be upset, and I couldn’t blame you. In all seriousness, I’m here to help, Mr. Peabody. Let me.”
“Okay, you asked for it...”
“Yes, I see now,” Ashton said with a full smile, nearly a full hour of Peabody’s confidences later. “I think I recognize the name; I may have read some of her stuff.”
“Really?”
“Yes. My mother gave me her love for a good mystery, which is one reason why I’m doing what I’m doing,” Ashton explained. “And I’ve stayed a fan of a good mystery story, ever since.”
“Does your mother still read them?”
“Oh. Um, I’m afraid my mother and father died about a year before I graduated the Academy, Mr. Peabody.”
“Oh. I’m...I’m sorry.”
“That’s all right. It’s been some few years back, now. More, I’m about to get married, so I’m not alone any more. You’d be surprised how much that seems to help; I sure was.”
“I envy you that.”
“Patience, patience. And yes, Lee Carter and I plan a department that will be far safer for our people than that backstabbing snake pit you used to work in, Peabody. And yes, I understand that it was already like that when you came aboard, and you did your best to do what needed doing within the confines of what you had to work with...and so did I, for that matter. I just managed to piss ‘em off, and you didn’t, I guess. But yes, a new department means that, if your old girlfriend is available and still interested, then very soon, I think you can go to her with your head held high and try again.”
“That...sounds like a life I could enjoy,” Peabody said with a wistful smile. “You’re a little like Empress Ilithyia. The more I hear you talk, the more I think I like this whole thing.” He paused and sighed. “I still wish I had my old rank back. But I get it. I need to earn Chief Carter’s trust. I need to earn your trust.”
“Well, for now,” Ashton amended. “I fully expect that, once Lee has someone with the appropriate experience and rank to run the division, most likely brought in from a sector someplace, I’ll be stepping back into the rank of detectives.”
“I think he’d be foolish to let you do that,” Peabody decided. “You have the skill and understanding already, Detective Ashton. I’m impressed. I couldn’t have handled this meeting, this situation, better myself, and I do have a couple years of experience at the job.”
“Thank you, Mr. Peabody,” Ashton said, nodding in acceptance of the compliment. “Believe me, I’ve been trying hard.”
“It shows. And I think, more, you might have natural talent at it. Is there anything else, sir?”
“No, Peabody, I think that’s all for now.”
“Thank you, sir. I promise you, I’ll do my damnedest.”
And Peabody rose from the visitor’s chair, reaching out to shake Ashton’s hand, before he departed the office, headed for the investigators’ bullpen.
Mergers
A few months later, in the Empress Adannaya I Memorial Botanical Gardens on the outskirts of Imperial City, under flowering trees that boasted every shade of pink from pale white-pink to deep fuchsia, Dominick Xavier Ashton and Callista Elena Ames were wed.
The groom was smartly attired in his Imperial Police dress uniform, with navy trousers and stand-collared tunic, the Throne of Sintar encircled with a laurel wreath on his left breast, and two gold pips on each side of the collar. White dress gloves clad his hands.
The bride – who had had the option of wearing her own Imperial City Police dress uniform – chose to wear a simple white gown in a vaguely Classical Greek style, fastened at the shoulders and belted loosely at the waist with golden cord. The dress fell from the belt to the ground, where pink-tipped toes peeped out, clad in gold sandals. Cherry and pink magnolia blossoms were woven into her hair, and she carried several sprigs of blooming cherry around a large central deep-rose magnolia blossom.
Alexandre and Laura Ames, together, led their daughter to meet her groom; Lee Carter and Maia Peterson stood with Nick in the place of his parents. Friends and colleagues surrounded them, and Nick’s Aunt Bea and Uncle Joe had traveled from Flanders to be there for the ceremony.
When once they stood face to face, Cally shifted her bouquet to her right hand and held out her left; Nick took it in his right hand and looked into her eyes.
“I, Dominick Xavier Ashton, take you, Callista Elena Ames, to be my lawfully wedded wife…” he murmured the ancient words of matrimony.
It didn’t take long. Soon both had given their vows and the matter was done; family, friends, and colleagues congratulated the couple as they all trooped to the big pavilion – which was nearby, but out of sight behind a huge bank of flowering rhododendrons
