arrive. Although Keegan had never been to this particular bar, it wasn’t unlike any other he’d been in before.
It was dimly lit with a long dark wooden bar with a couple of dozen matching bar stools in the front. The dining room was separated from the bar by a five foot tall partition; a dark brown wood on the bottom and stained glass for the top two feet. The walls were decorated with Irish flags, assorted beer and alcohol advertisements, photos of the Irish countryside, and Irish street signs in both English and Gaelic.
“Over here, Tim!”
Keegan recognized the voice of Cathy Quinn immediately. She waved her arm at him from the far end of the bar. He saw her standing with three of the other cops in their squad. As he got closer, he decided Cathy looked really good tonight—probably better than he had ever seen her before. She wore black skinny jeans which hugged her shapely form nicely and a light green button down shirt; the top three buttons undone, revealing a white halter top underneath. Her shoulder length red hair had a bounce to it that Keegan had never seen before as it was always restricted to a tight bun at work. And then there were her eyes—Keegan was sure there was a sparkle in her green eyes as he got close enough to see them.
Keegan felt there was a strong attraction between the two of them, but neither had yet to act on it beyond some harmless flirting. Maybe things would change; at least Keegan hoped they would. This would be the first time they would be together—albeit with their entire squad—in a social setting outside of work.
Friday nights were near impossible to get off for the rookies without a real good reason, but this Friday was different. Earlier in the day, Timothy Keegan had been awarded a ‘ Cop of the Month ’ award for his arrest almost two months earlier. While it was the first arrest of Keegan’s career, to many cops it would have been the best collar of their career. The arrest closed out a violent robbery pattern in which the perpetrator had shot one person and during the arrest had even attempted to shoot Keegan.
It had been such a noteworthy arrest that the precinct commanding officer, Inspector James Enton, decided—with a bit of persuasion from their training sergeant—that it would be a good opportunity to allow the entire team of rookies to attend the Cop of the Month luncheon. Galvin had made his pitch to Enton that allowing the rookies to see how well the cops are received from the community in which they serve would be an invaluable lesson for them.
Keegan met the others at the far end of the bar. He leaned in giving Cathy Quinn a quick hug and a peck on the cheek, taking in her perfume as he did. He then shook hands with Andre Thomas, his partner during the arrest which he’d been honored for, and the other cops who were standing there.
No sooner did Keegan say his hellos than did Andre Thomas point at the front door. “Sarge is here!”
The rest of the group turned to welcome Tommy Galvin as he made his way to the end of the bar. Galvin hung his navy blue, 113 Precinct Alumni jacket on the back of a bar stool as they waited for the rest of the team to arrive. The group of off duty cops talked amongst themselves over the next twenty minutes until the entire squad was present.
Once they were, Galvin reached into the pocket of his blue jeans producing a small roll of cash. He smiled as he began, “It may’ve taken us nearly two months to get together on a Friday night outside of work, but here we are. And as promised, I would like to present one hundred and twenty dollars to the winner of our little bet.”
Timothy Keegan could do no more than smile and shake his head. He looked at Cathy Quinn; she began to turn red from embarrassment. Her smile, however, was electric, felt Keegan. Galvin handed the roll of money over to Quinn as he continued, “Cathy, congratulations on having the first collar in our squad…only fifteen minutes before Tim made
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