Read Online The Blood Detail (Vigil) by Arvin Loudermilk - Free Book Online Page B

rundown of the evening’s planned events in the conference room, and then Beth and I left the building in our stand-in black and white and headed north toward my old beat. We were to remain on major thoroughfares until told differently. Three follow cars would have us in their sights at all times. These assigned teams were good at remaining invisible, too. I never saw a single trace of their presence the entire night.
    Before we left, I brought up the possibility of running into unrelated trouble. We were going to be in a police vehicle after all—and people in need tended to approach patrolmen when they encountered them on the streets. No one believed that such a chance existed, since we were only taking staged calls. Yet a half hour into our patrolling, an elderly woman flagged us down outside of her squat little home. I rolled my window down and greeted her. The woman approached the vehicle and told me she smelled gas and wanted one of us to go inside the home to see if we could smell it too. I couldn’t do it myself because I was still officially suspended, according to Castellano’s latest proclamation—although I did have special dispensation to be assisting the Detail. Assisting the public was another matter altogether. I suggested Beth go in and do it as rapidly as possible, but she did not feel good about leaving me alone, so she radioed for assistance. As we waited for said assistance to arrive, the old woman grew more and more impatient. Her pets were inside and she needed our help—wasn’t that what police people were supposed to do? Unable to leave the vehicle, I felt helpless, primarily because the woman was not wrong in her assessment. Three minutes after the call went in, Mac and Racine pulled up behind our squad car, and waved us onward. We wished the lady luck and pulled back into traffic. The woman gave no acknowledgment. She was too wrapped up in the explanation of her plight to her handsome new savior.
    “You see. I told them we would run into some kind of trouble,” I said. “But did they listen to me?”
    Beth slid into the left turn lane at the intersection. The light was going from yellow to red as she said, “The bigwigs assume the world operates only in the manner they wish it to. They do not care about such things as reality. Life is only about what they want or need. And let’s not forget, it’s been a long time since any of them have been out on patrol. The chances of a decent sense of recall from that group of lightweights is way, way out of the realm of possibility.”
    I grinned. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
    The light shifted to green and Beth turned southbound.
    “Mac sure was looking good today,” she said.
    “Was he? I didn’t really notice. I could only see him out of the corner of my eye.”
    “I hate to pry, but what’s going on with the two of you? You’ve thrown the whole office into a tizzy. Our usually tough-minded co-workers have transformed into these gossiping little teenagers.”
    I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know it had become such a big thing. “He’s a good looking guy, I guess. And he’s made it clear he’s got feelings for me. I’m just not sure if it’s mutual. I’m not one of those sickening kind of girls whose life revolves around finding a husband. The idea of that bores me. I just want to do the job.”
    I could tell that Beth was as caught up in the soap opera of it all as much as anyone else. When she talked about Mac and me, her eyes went all dreamy.
    “I always thought Mac looked like that movie star. I can’t think of the guy’s name he reminds me of.” She patted the wheel and twisted in her seat as she tried to force herself to recall.
    “Greg Tonell,” I said. “We saw one of his movies last night. It was incredibly stupid. But Mac likes the guy, probably because he resembles him so much.”
    Beth’s head bounced up and down. “That’s it… yeah. That’s who I was thinking of. He looks almost exactly