Toni
I hadn’t heard from Evan in months. When we’d worked together at the forty second, we’d done several stings, but when I left it sort of ended things. We’d partnered up on several undercover cases, but Evan had been assigned to a case involving several drug rings on the local college campuses. When he called me last week, I figured it was just to catch up but today he actually had some intel that he thought would help. He was right. When he went out with his contacts after class the other night, he witnessed a robbery that my precinct had caught. He couldn’t be a witness, for obvious reasons, but he knew where we could get some camera footage. I agreed to meet him, so here we were, standing outside my building.
“I can’t believe you scored a gig on campus,” I laughed as I shook my head at him. Evan had always looked young for his age, but with his shaggy brown hair and jeans he looked like the epitome of the college guy.
“Yeah, yeah,” he chuckled. “It’s not as cush as you think. Here’s the name of the place you want to go to to grab security tapes,” he handed me a small piece of paper. “I really gotta get back. I’m going to get to meet a distributor tonight. It’s been small potatoes for weeks now, but I’m finally making some headway.”
“Nice,” I took the paper. “So the campus job helped?” Evan had been trying to find an in for a while, but had overheard a few guys talking about exchanges and getting a foot in the door by doing work study.
“Yeah, who would have thought that a gig in the mall bookstore would be a connection,” he shrugged. “It’s all about who you know. Listen, I really gotta get out of here. If I get spotted, you’ll have to arrest me, and then that creates a whole new set of problems. Tell that man of yours to man up and tell the captain, and you owe me a drink when I finally close this asshole down.”
“Will do,” I rose up on my tiptoes and hugged him. Evan was so tall it was a struggle to reach his shoulders. As I pulled away, I heard an engine rev, but it pulled away before I could turn around. Evan waved and disappeared between the buildings, and I rushed back to my car to go and get a subpoena for this security camera that may just close Burkhardt’s case.
ooooooooo
I ended up staying at the station until late. I sent Mark a text letting him know that I had to work late, and wouldn’t be able to meet up with him at all that night. It didn’t seem to bother him because I never got an answer to my text.
I ended up working until well after one a.m. before I shut down my computer and went to lie down on a cot in the bunk room. I was awoken by arguing in the squad room and what sounded like Mark.
I rubbed my eyes as I sat up and looked at the clock. It was after seven in the morning, and I was stiff and rumpled from wearing the same clothes as the day before. I’d been able to get a judge to sign off on the warrant for the camera tapes, and we’d collected them last night. I’d stayed and helped Matt and Seth, the two detectives on the case, go over the footage until we found what we were looking for. I was tired, but we now had enough evidence for an arrest thanks to Evan’s intel.
“What’s going on?” I rubbed the sleep from my eyes as I shuffled into the squad room. I hadn’t had my coffee yet, and really didn’t want to deal with this. Evan was standing by Seth’s desk and Mark was sneering at him from a few feet away.
“I asked you a question,” he growled at Evan and my eyes pinged between the two, suddenly causing me to be very awake.
“Hey!” I slammed my hands on my hips as I tapped my foot.
Mark’s head turned in my direction as his eyes shot daggers at me, “Is he why you didn’t come home last night?” he pointed at Evan as he now sneered at me.
My mouth dropped open as I felt it begin to redden. Every pair of eyes in the squad room swung to stare at me. I took a few breaths as I tried to control myself before marching closer to him. “Excuse me?” I hissed.
“I think I was pretty clear. Let me make it clearer. Have you been with him the whole time? Was I a joke to you? Or is he a recent development?” He crossed his arms over his chest as he glared at me.
I don’t really remember what happened before I felt the sting on my palm. It burned, and Mark ended up with a red handprint on his left cheek. “Fuck you!” I yelled as I turned to walk away. I didn’t need this, and Joe wasn’t in yet. I was going home to shower.
“You already did, sweetheart,” he called, causing my back to straighten and my feet to stumble. I would not cry. I would not cry. I kept chanting it as I rushed out of the station, down the front steps, and into my car. Fuck him and everything he’s made me feel. I didn’t ask for any of it, and I didn’t need it.