[Detective Thursdays] Egg on Your Face
#5 of Detective Thursdays
Nine A.M. that morning found me, still a bit damp around the edges thanks to the rain, at Camela's on Fifth and Bay. I gave Uki the day off. I sat at the dinner's counter, a cup of deep red tea steaming in front of me. The dinner still looks like the seventies, with its single long window, a window that only shows dense downtown sprawl now. A TV hangs in a corner the news droning out of it. The place is nearly empty with only a pair of Blue Tick Hounds from the state office sitting in a booth near the door. They look like hell, must have just gotten off the graveyard.
The doorbell chimes as someone pulls it open and steps in from the pouring rain outside. I watch them in the mirror over the counter. They hang a hat and coat next to mine. The face of a familiar bloodhound looks at me. I can see the smile in the commissioner's eyes, though the rest of his expression says otherwise.
He waves to Lou and gives the sign for the usual. The gorilla waves back and walks over with the coffee pot. "I thought I told you..." He starts in as he sits down next to me. Ah, old times.
"Yeah, I know I shouldn't have gone alone. But-"
"But nothing!" He slams his fist on the old oak counter, just missing his steaming coffee. "If that bullet had been even half an inch over you'd be dead and you know it!" He affixed me with the glare; the same glare I used on Uki, the glare of the elder partner. I turn to face the stare and the old dog's appearance strikes me as I look at him. His muzzle and ears are shot with grey and the bags under his eyes look horrendous. Had he looked that bad yesterday afternoon?
"You look so old." The glare softened a step. "Tell me you don't stay up every night thinking about me."
The old hound ruffled his jowls as he burst into laughter. "Thinking about you? Tanu, I've got thousands to worry about, I'm lucky to get an hour's sleep anymore. I would kill almost to be out of that chair and back on the streets." He turned back and stared through the window into the kitchen.
For a while we both sat silently, each in our own thoughts, though likely in the same memories. Lou drops a plate of eggs in front of me and a stack of pancakes in front of the hound. I look at the hound as I salt them. "Jim, did we make a difference?"
He didn't answer immediately, his attention seemingly on cutting his 'cakes. He took a bite and chewed slowly before looking me in the eye. "I'd like to think so. I have to think so. Else, what was the point of it all?"
We eat silently, the sound of the increasing rain drowning out the TV's news. I wonder how the department is going to handle my discovery. "So what's the plan with the ship?"
"Washington's sending a team. Likely it'll be taken out of our hands, national security and all that."
"Oh." I set my fork on an empty plate and pick my tea up. The hound drops a wadded five and some coins on the counter and stands up. "I'd say you rest today Tanu, the team will be here tomorrow. Likely you'll be needed on hand. Take the day off, go to the hospital, and for lands sake don't do anything stupid."
He put his hat back on, pulled his coat tight and stepped back out into the storm. Maybe he was right, maybe a day off would do me some good.
May 5 Response to PoetTigress' Thursday Prompt. theme was 'the egg'.