Felicio

Partners in Law

Detective Lang

I was sitting on the couch with a beer in my hand. Some trash was on the television but I wasn't really paying attention. My mind was too focused on other things. Sometimes I wondered what I was doing with my life. I looked around at my empty house and could hear the echoes of my wife. There was a time when this house wasn't just a shell, when it was alive with the sounds of laughter and love, but now it was just like me. Empty, old, and had seen better days. Had I made a mistake? I'd given my life to the force. Being a cop had meant the world to me when I was younger. It was the only thing I wanted to be but now...it had cost me everything. The badge had lost its gleam. I thought I could clean up this town but it only seemed to be getting dirtier by the day. The Shaw corporation was going to swallow up everything and we were all powerless to stop it. There were some moments when I just wanted to pack it all in and go open a farm somewhere in the country and leave this city behind, but deep down I knew I couldn't. This city had sucked away everything I had, and I was too long in the tooth to try anything else.

There was a knock at the door. At first I thought I was hearing things because nobody ever came around, but whoever it was knocked again. My suspicions were aroused by the fact that I had been digging around the Shaw corporation. I picked up my gun just in case they had sent anyone around to silence me, then I cracked the door open. I opened it fully when I saw that it was Mary.

“No wonder you don't have any friends if that's the way you open the door,” she said, clocking the gun. She pushed past me. The smell of pepperoni pizza filled the air. I realized I had forgotten to eat dinner. “This place is a mess,” she said, putting the pizza on the coffee table. She then went to the kitchen and pulled out a beer from the fridge, cracked it open, and took my place on the couch. This all happened so quickly I had barely had a chance to close the door. I put the gun away and ipcked up a slice, nodding to her with gratitude.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. She shrugged and swallowed a mouthful of beer before she answered.

“I know you've been caught up in everything and we've been working together long enough for me to know that you often forget things like eating. If you're not going to take care of yourself someone is going to have to, and it might as well be me.”

“You should be taking care of a man your own age, someone who still has his best years ahead of him,” I said. Mary rolled her eyes and laughed. She was so pretty, so young. There were a hundred other places she should have been rather than with me, but I wasn't going to turn her away now.

“Guess I have a thing for sob stories,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. Mary wolfed down the pizza and the beer. I chuckled to myself and went along with it. There was little else I could do. The pizza was good though, and apparently it was just what my stomach wanted.

“So is this how you spend all your evenings?” she said, looking around at the empty house.

“Pretty much,” I replied. Mary shook her head. “Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.”

We settled into a rhythm of conversation that was punctuated with swigs of beer and the chewing of pizza. The television provided background noise and I had to admit that it was good to have some company for a change. The beers went by one by one and soon enough the pizza box was empty. I had an old carton of ice cream in the fridge so we tucked into that, sharing a spoon. We were partners but we'd never been this close. My alcohol-soaked brain started to see her not as a partner or a cop but a woman. I'd been lonely too long and I told myself that I was being a stupid old man, that she wasn't really looking at me with those deep dark eyes of hers, that her skin wasn't so soft, that she wasn't really running her tongue sensually along her lips...suddenly my body felt very heavy. She sidled towards me. I could feel the heat of her body against mine. She was so soft and warm, so beautiful, too beautiful for a man like me. But then she moved forward and I felt her warm breath rush over my lips then all of a sudden our mouths were locked and the heat rose between us. Our arms draped around each other. We fumbled and groped and laughed. I could smell the alcohol on her breath as I felt her hair fall over my face and I lost myself in her scent. My hands ran under her clothes. Her eager fingers unbuckled my belt and soon enough we were rolling around on the floor, caught in a blaze of passion. I felt young again for the first time in years as I lost myself in the heady ethereal pleasure. I groaned and grunted and while our bodies were entwined I could forget about the ruins of my home and my life. I could feel the fire of being alive, of what it is to be connected to another person. My fingers clutched at her body and the echoes of her moans reverberated against my ears, and just as suddenly as it had begun it was all over.

We lay there, our bodies glistening with sweat, chests panting. Her hair was matted to her face. Instantly I regretted it, although I wasn't about to give that away to her. The worst thing you could do to a woman was show her you regretted sleeping with her. This was unprofessional and almost immoral. I was old enough to be her father, give or a take a few years. Mary wore a broad grin though and let her arms fall above her head against the floor. She twisted her body this way and that, letting the last lingering remnants of pleasure flow through her body. I almost turned my eyes away. Almost.

I went to the kitchen and got another beer, then quickly got dressed again although she had already claimed my shirt as her own. I almost took it away from her because when she left it would still smell of her, and I'd have to be reminded of this moment, of all the things I couldn't have. I handed a beer to her and she thanked me for it.

“Oh god, you have no idea how long I've been waiting for that,” she said. I grunted in response. “So what made you join the force in the first place?” I smirked. Now we were getting personal.

“My father actually.”

“So you're like me?!” her face lit up with excitement.

“The opposite actually. My father was a low-down dirty rat. You name it, he was into it. He was a hustler, a pimp, a mugger. He had a rap sheet as long as my arm. He came and went from our house like a drifter. I always thought my mom was a fool for letting him come back. When I was old enough I asked her why, and she said it was because she loved him. I never really understood that but I wasn't about to argue with her. But I knew that men like my father shouldn't be allowed to be free. I'd seen first hand what effect people like him had on families like mine. I promised myself that I wasn't going to turn out like him, no matter what, so instead of becoming a criminal I became the man who put them away.”

“Did you ever see your father, after you became a cop?”

“I kept an eye out for him but I never actually spoke to him again. He died before that could happen. Shot in an alley. Nobody knows why and the murdered was never found. It was about as good an end as he could hope for.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Don't be. The stupid thing is that as much as I told myself I wouldn't be like him I still pushed my family away.”

“That's not your fault. It just a hazard of the job. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself.” She tried to get closer to me again. I let her. “But there's one thing I don't understand. Why are you so hard on Felicio? And don't tell me it's because he's not going through the proper channels. I know you. You hate red tape as much as anyone. I'm not saying I support him exactly but at least his intentions are good. So what's the secret? Just between you and me. I promise it won't leave this room.”

I sighed heavily and I knew she wasn't going to take anything but the truth as an answer. “If you must know it's because he reminds me too much of myself. He thinks he can take on this city single-handed but he doesn't know what's in store for him. He doesn't know how it's going to take everything he has and even that won't be enough. And he has to do it all alone. He doesn't even have the police force to back him up. I'd just like to talk with him, to tell him that it isn't worth it. I have no idea who is behind that mask but whoever he is, he's making a big mistake.”

Mary put her head on my shoulder. I leaned mine back and took a long breath. It had taken a lot for me to admit that to her. I hated to admit that there was any common ground between me and that masked man but there it was. From the first moment I'd heard about him I knew that he was on a path of destruction and there was nothing I could do about it.

“You shouldn't worry about him so much. He's making his own decisions and he'll deal with the consequences.”

“Is that like how you're making your own decisions?”

“You mean tonight?”

“I do.”

Mary shrugged and ran her hand across my stomach. It was so easy to let her be close to me. It made me think about when I was younger. She had her whole life ahead of her. She shouldn't be wasting it with me.

“This isn't a mistake. It takes a special kind of person to understand what it takes to be a cop. You and I...I know we have a lot of differences but we have a lot in common as well. We spend all our time together and it just...it made sense to me. It's time you let your walls down Alan.” She ran her fingers under my chin and before I knew it her lips were upon mine again. I wanted to resist, to push her away and tell her that this was all a mistake. Just like Felicio I was sure that she was throwing her life away with me but I had been alone for so long that I wanted to feel the tenderness of the human touch, so I pushed my doubts aside and wrapped my hands around her waist and pulled her onto my lap. Somewhere out there Felicio was probably patrolling the streets, alone under the stars, but on this night at least I was not going to be alone.