“Austin, do you have a minute?”

Austin lifted his head from where he was slouched over the report he was writing. He had been trying to write the report, anyway. He kept getting distracted by thoughts of Lucas. A little more than a week had passed since their date. They texted constantly throughout the day, though their schedules hadn’t quite crossed in the right way for them to be able to go for another full date. That being said, they had met for lunch twice.

“Sure, Lieutenant,” he said. He straightened up and saved his progress on the report, then withdrew his USB stick from the computer. “What do you need?”

“I finally have some news for you regarding your reports. Remember that?” The Lieutenant glanced around, taking note of the other officers in the room. All of them seemed not to be paying any attention, but Austin knew they would be very interested in what was being said. Discretion was the name of the game here.

“Yes, I remember.”

“Good.” She smiled and gestured for him to follow her. “Come with me.”

Austin followed along behind her like an obedient rookie. He expected her to take him into a quiet hallway, or a vacant office. Instead, she led him all the way to the Chief of Police’s office.

He balked at the entrance. “Am I in trouble or something?”

“Quite the opposite,” she said. “Why don’t you just come inside and see instead of wasting time by standing out here?”

Austin stuck his tongue out at her. She made a grabbing gesture at his mouth, then opened the door and stepped inside.

Her playfulness was baffling to him. She must have been in a really, really good mood. He wasn’t sure whether to be scared or enthusiastic about what was going to come next.

He stepped through the doorway and into the Chief’s office, which was a place he hadn’t been in months. As clueless as the Chief could be, detached oddly from some situations and scenarios, he was still an important figure who had done valiant things in his life. Not many people got to see him or interact directly with him.

Even being in his presence made a regular cop feel like a student in the face of a school principal.

The Chief sat behind his enormous, polished desk, but he wasn’t alone. There were four senior officers present, two on each side. Austin noticed they had taken the comfiest chairs, leaving the few scruffier ones.

“Sit down,” Chief Jenks said. He nodded towards one of the scruffy chairs.

Austin took one of the available chairs and expected Valerie Heart to do the same, but instead she stayed standing.

Chief Jenks leaned forward over the top of his desk. Austin expected the Chief would get down to the nitty-gritty right away.

“Valerie, shut the damn door and quit hovering. This isn’t a war meeting.”

Lieutenant Heart obediently shut the door, but she didn’t sit down quite yet. “Shouldn’t I guard the door?”

I’ve never heard her ask someone what she should do before.

“Guard the door from what?” Chief Jenks snorted. “Some lazybones come to bug me about vacation time? Sit down. You’re making all of us uncomfortable. These old men might remember their manners and be forced to stand with you. You wouldn’t want to do that to them, would you?”

Austin watched as the Lieutenant pursed her lips, then went over and took the only remaining chair. He wondered if she hadn’t wanted to sit because it would put her on the same level as him. Before the Chief, they were all equals.

The room, large as it was for an office in a police station, felt very small with seven people in it.

Chief Jenks reached over to a stack of papers on one corner of his desk. He held them up, tapping them gently on the desk to bring them into a neat and orderly formation. “Now, then. Since we’re all seated, the meeting can begin. Austin, do you know what these are?”

Feeling a little stupid, Austin took a stab at it. “My reports that Lieutenant Heart passed around?”

“Correct. I want to say some things about these reports. First and foremost, thank you for actually doing them on time. It makes things easier on the rest of us.” The Chief smiled, though there was little warmth in it. Not for the first time, Austin realized how close he had come to being a complete failure. “Secondly, your beginning reports were a complete and utter wreck. They are nearly unreadable. They are the police equivalent of a “What I Did This Summer” essay. Trash. We all managed to force our way through them.”

“But, at about this point…” The Chief fumbled with the papers, separating them into two different stacks. He set his hand on the larger stack. “You improved. But again here…” He separated the larger stack in two again. “These are intermittently passable and simply awful. For some of them, it’s almost like you weren’t entirely here. In the future, I would like to see only passable reports from you. Eventually, I hope they will become good.”

Austin nodded. He was pretty sure he knew the difference between the good and the bad. There were the moments when his mind wandered, and all he could do was think of Lucas, remember Lucas, think about what Lucas was doing right this moment. He needed to get ahold of himself. Their budding relationship and his work had to remain separate. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now we’ve gotten that out of the way, and I have been reassured you will become the best report-maker in this entire station, we can get down to the real meat of the matter.” Chief Jenks brought all the reports back into a single stack, then tapped them on the desk again to straighten them. “All of us in this room have read your reports and taken all the various information into account. We have thought long and hard about this. In the end, we have decided that there is something much more serious going on here in this city than a couple bookkeeping errors.

“You have quite efficiently outlined suspicious connections in regards to the dates of these errors. They all occur within very small, intermittent time frames. There is almost an organization to them, as if these companies were all getting their ill-gotten supplies at more or less the same time. I’m only putting into short form what you outlined for several pages.”

Austin’s cheeks burned a little. He understood why all of these corrections to his work were happening in front of other people. It was incentive to get better, to do better, and also a warning that he should have been better than this by now. He wasn’t out of hot water just yet. “I’ll be more brief next time, then.”

“Oh, no. Please, provide as much information and reasoning as you can in your reports. I would ask that you be a little more organized, but this is fine the way it is. Do as they used to tell you in school and show your work. Don’t just give me the answer.”

“I was in a remedial math class, sir,” Austin said, laughing.

“It shows.”

Several of the senior officers chuckled. They clearly agreed.

“Moving on. We are of a mind that you have provided more than enough of a reason in these reports for us to consider this a serious matter. A full investigation will be launched. However, you will not be leading it.”

The news was like an ice pick to the heart, a quick jab of disappointment and pain. For all his hard work, he still hadn’t done good enough.

“As much as we would like to trust you with that responsibility, we feel that you haven’t quite earned it. One right doesn’t fix a few years’ worth of wrongs.” Chief Jenks didn’t look sorry in the least. Neither did the Lieutenant or any of the four senior officers in the room.

Somehow, their stoicism actually helped Austin not feel as bad. They weren’t pitying him. They weren’t doing this to punish him or keep him in his place. They had clearly thought this through and had only reached this conclusion after a lot of thought and deliberation. They had weighed the facts, and the fact was that he had done good this time, but not good enough to make up for his terrible cop work in the past.

“That being said,” Lieutenant Heart said, speaking up for the first time since she had been forced to sit down. “Your dedication does show. You have thus far gone above and beyond what was expected from you. To this end, we are going to keep you on the investigation team. You will be working alongside these officers gathered in the room today.”

“If you continue to keep working hard, maybe you will have a chance to let your leadership skills shine.”

Austin lifted his head. This wasn’t what he had wanted, but it was more than he ever could have asked for. He couldn’t wait to tell Lucas about everything that had transpired here. “I’ve realized my mistakes,” he said. “I want to keep getting better. For my own good and the good of the force.”

Chief Jenks nodded. No doubt he had heard similar statements before from other cops who had been doing a terrible job. Austin hoped to be able to live up to his own words. “Good. So, you understand that your minor involvement in the investigation may result in you having to tolerate days where it’s just business as usual.”

“I do.”

“Then, good.” The Chief pushed back slightly in his chair and looked around the room. “I’ve said my piece. Are there are further remarks or statements to be made?”

No one said anything.

“Then get your asses out of my office. It’s time for my nap.”

There was a scattering of polite laughter, but everyone knew the Chief was being serious.

Austin headed over to the door and pulled it open, then held it for everyone else to walk through. He expected no thanks and received none. That wasn’t why he was doing this. He was trying to read the badges of the senior officers as they passed, so he would know their names for the future. Though he’d been on the force for a considerable amount of time, he hadn’t interacted with everyone. He hadn’t cared to. That might come back and bite him in the ass now if he wasn’t careful.

The senior officers had rather normal names. They were Mike, Oscar, Walter, and Sam. Though they were all clearly different men, with different builds and hair color, they all seemed to blend together in his mind until they were but a single entity. Perhaps that was because of their age, the grizzled looks on their faces, the flecks of gray in their eyebrows, the wrinkles at the corners of their mouths and eyes.

Perhaps it was because they had all spent so much time together, being senior officers of more or less the same age.

Oscar turned to Austin as he headed out through the door. “Investigative meeting in my office in 15 minutes. Don’t be late. The door will be locked after that, and anyone on the outside ain’t allowed in.”

“I won’t be late.”

“Pah,” Oscar said, a haughty sound of derision.

Austin’s spine prickled with anger, but he held it at bay with the knowledge that he pretty much deserved to be treated in this manner.

Given 15 minutes of free time, he decided the best thing to do would be to grab another cup of coffee and pretend to drink it while looking over his current report.

He drained the last dregs of bitter brew from the pot and then left it sitting empty. On his way out of the break room, he spotted an open box of doughnuts, which had already been picked through by others. Circular rings of chocolate and scatterings of sprinkles on the bottom of the box told him that the more interesting doughnuts had already been taken.

That was fine with him. He liked doughnuts, but he had always been partial to the simple ones. Give him a simple glazed, or one covered in cinnamon-sugar. Give him a cake doughnut with no frosting.

Taking one, he ate it on the way back to the communal office and licked his fingers while waiting for a slow computer to register that he had stuck his USB into it. Opening the appropriate file, he skimmed through the first couple lines.

That was as far as he could get. He had to stop. It was a terrible, terrible report. It was bad and disjointed. The sentences were fragmented, and he had repeated himself several times already.

It was because he’d been thinking about Lucas.

Sighing, Austin rested his chin on his hand and gazed at the mess of a report. He didn’t want to have to face the fact, but it seemed unavoidable to him now.

If Lucas was in his thoughts so much, doing this to him, then didn’t that mean he was falling back in love? The idea was terrifying, but Austin couldn’t see any other options right now. He and Lucas were spending time together after so long apart, but it was like version 2.0 of their previous relationship, rather than an entirely new one. They hadn’t had to build their connection from the ground up. They didn’t have to rediscover each other. They didn’t have to deal with all the small talk, all the boring parts. All that had already been said and done. They were only expanding upon what had come before, deepening it with their new discoveries about themselves and each other.

Austin looked at his computer screen. This was more than lust.

Could it be love?

He was still troubling over that, wondering what it would mean for their relationship, if Lucas felt the same way, when it was time for him to go to Oscar’s office. Having never actually been to his office before, he had to search for it and was nearly late.

Mike, Oscar, and Walter were already in the room. Sam was nowhere to be found.

“Go on and shut and lock the door,” Oscar said.

Austin reached out to obey, then hesitated. “Shouldn’t we wait for him?”

Mike laughed. He was a very large, husky man, and his uniform did little to conceal that his huskiness was developing into extra fat around his middle. “No. Shut it. Lock it. And don’t worry, we do this all the time.”

Austin obeyed, then came over to where the other three had gathered around Oscar’s desk. They were all standing.

Oscar was busy lining up pieces of printed computer paper on top of the desk. There were at least a dozen faces on these papers, some of which were actual photographs, while others looked to be sketches. All of the faces belonged to males, and they had a distinctly rough appearance that connected them all despite their wide differences.

Like the senior officers, Austin realized. Whoever these men were, they were united by organization or similar life experiences.

Oscar lifted his head, then pointed at all the papers. “I took the liberty of doing some digging. These are all men who live in the general area of the Everglades and its surrounding cities. They have either been indicated in similar crimes as the destruction of reservation land—those are the ones with mug shots—or are suspected to be involved in some way.”

‘They all look like swamp people,” Austin murmured, realizing now what connection they all had. Their faces were lean, raw, wild. They looked hardened, aged before their time.

Nodding approvingly, Oscar said, “Most swamp folks just want to be left alone. They’re extremely protective of their land. But these ones…Well, who better to destroy a forest than someone who knows its ins and outs like the back of their own hand?”

Mike touched one of the photographs. “I saw him on the news once. Nasty bastard. Isn’t he supposed to be serving a sentence?”

“Got off on good behavior.”

Almost as if they had synchronized this on purpose, all three men went, “Pah!”

“Memorize these faces, gentlemen,” Oscar said. “If any of them show up in our fair city, we need to be able to know it. I have also compiled some basic reports on each individual, based on criminal records. Read them. Memorize them. They are your new bible. Do your own research. Knowledge is power.”

Austin accepted the file which was handed to him. The cover was glossy and pristine, professional and also minimal. When he opened it, the reports were all organized, with overview sections at the end of each.

He closed it and held it against his chest like it was a child. He could hardly believe this. The rookie who slacked off and abused his authority was holding an official investigation file in his hand. Wonders never ceased.

Before anyone could say anything else, the doorknob suddenly jiggled like crazy. Then, someone pounded on the door from the outside.

“Hey!” Sam shouted, muffled and indignant. “Open up, you fuckers!”

Walter sauntered up to the door and tapped on it very lightly with his knuckles. “Hello, sorry. Very important meeting going on in here. Only people who came on time are allowed.”

Sam replied with a threat, though no one in the room took him seriously.

Watching this, the camaraderie between these four men, Austin found himself feeling torn.

He was the odd one out, the man who didn’t belong.

He was included. He was part of this investigation, part of this police force. He might not have had a pack behind him, but he had men and women connected by duty, who he could rely on all the same.

Maybe it was time he stopped acting like such a lone wolf.