“Look, Jason. I just want you to know you deserve whatever happiness comes your way.”
His brow creases. “Okay….um, where is this going?”
“Never mind, I’m just tired and stressed out.” Stressed out and tired is putting it delicately, but actually, this conversation was starting to get weird fast.
“No, Devi. Come on, what are you getting at?”
Shit looks like I done opened can of awkward soup.
“I guess, what I am trying to say, is if you’re banging her, there is no shame in that.”
“We’re not doing that. We’re just hanging out.” His voice defensive.
Lying bastard.
“Man, you lost your family. No one here is going to begrudge you a grief bang. However, just a heads up, if you two become a couple, they will send you to different districts. That being said, she’s a good catch for you.”
He lets out a laugh. “We’re not dating.” He groans.
“Okay. Well tell Frank I’m heading home, I need a shower and a ton of booze.”
“Devi, Halloween is today. What are you doing later?”
“Well, if nobody is murdered, I usually stay home, get drunk, and watch horror films.”
“Well, I thought this year maybe me you and Ingrid could go out to dinner.” He’s not fooling me with his act, I can see it in his eyes; he is still hurting.
“Thanks, but I don’t like being the third wheel.” I shoot a suggestive wink at him. “You two enjoy each other.”
I climb into my car. Last thing I want is to have dinner with the people I lied to. It would be as comfortable as submerging my bare feet in boiling water. Driving down the dark city streets with my window down, the bleak air draws my smoke into the night sky. So this is how I start over in a New City? I go from adulterous cop in Miami to Charlatan cop in Tampa. I seem to just be moving up in the world.
I step into my apartment and find Gill sitting on my couch in blue jeans, and a Tampa Bay Lightning jersey. Her freckled face lights up. “Yo, Devi. I figured we’d celebrate your victory with some weed and bourbon.”
“Thanks, Gill, but I’m not in a very celebratory mood. I just want to get a shower and get fucked up, pass out.”
She turns her head to the side. “Devi, I’ve known you a long time, and I can tell when something is wrong with you.” She smiles. “Come on, lets hit these joints, and I’ll listen to ya whine.”
I lock the door and head over to the couch, sitting down next to her. She hands me a joint. “Okay, that’s one for you and now one for me.”
“Sit tight, and I’ll get us some bourbon while you tell me what’s up.”
I lay my gun on the coffee table along with my badge, which feels like a worthless piece of metal. I slip my shoes and socks off. “You know that case I was on?”
“Yeah, I heard about it on TV. They’re calling you a hero,” she says, changes the channel to the news, and it shows me storming back in the station. “That reporter was an ass bag, Devi. Totally uncalled for.”
“This whole case was one big bag of shit.”
“What do you mean?” She hands me my drink.
“I mean, I didn’t kill Drake. He’s still alive and well on his way back to the UK. The long nights. The lack of sleep, all of it for nothing.”
“How’d the hell did he swing that bullshit?”
“Turns out Drake is a big shit Government assassin working for the UK and US Government in a joint operation. The assholes forced me to drop the case and do this little song and dance you saw on the news. But hey, it’s all good, right? A known arms dealer was killed, but to hell with the kids hurray score one for America!”
Her eyes widen with shock. “Damn, girl. I am so sorry they fucked you like that,” she says, taking a hit from her joint.
“Yeah. Worst of all, Jason’s family will never know real justice because the powers that be, decided children's lives are irrelevant in the big picture. Its bullshit like this is why I don’t even break my neck to go out and vote anymore.”
“Devi, I’m not trying to tell you how to feel, but there is a silver lining to all this.”
“What is it? I didn’t die?” I take a hit from my joint and bust into a coughing fit.
“No. Drake is off the streets and not just off the streets he’s out of the country. Whether you got to put him in cuffs or put him in the ground, it doesn’t matter he is gone.”
“What am I supposed to tell Jason if he ever finds out the truth?”
“Then, you tell him the truth in return.”
The truth, the truth will be a poison pill to him.
I take a sip of scotch and hit the joint again. “I hope he never finds out. He’s already on edge as it is, Gill. If he ever finds out what really happened, it will destroy him.”
“Devi, sometimes the truth is like a wet paper bag; the bottom will eventually fall out.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.”
She pours us another drink. “Come on, let’s raise a toast to your big win.”
“No, that’s okay; you don’t have to do that.”
“Ugh, Devi, get over it.”
She did bring free booze and weed, guess I can muster enough cheer for that. “You’re right. Fuck it.” I raise a toast, touching her glass. It’s going to take more than just ‘Fuck it’ to get me through this, glad she brought the medicine.
“To, Detective Devora Lobos AKA Super Cop.” After we finish the bottle of scotch and smoke nearly a pound of grass,
