Taking the Highway

IT WAS CALLED THE sweating chair. Other members of Andre’s squad would sit across from the captain and drip. They’d emerge from her office with damp foreheads and upper lips, rubbing sweat from the back of their necks with moist palms. One rookie had left the captain’s office visibly shaking.

Andre sat with one ankle thrown over the opposite knee, his arms casually at his side, powder dry. Just as at the fourthing stop, confidence stood out.

Captain Evans tilted her head so far forward that her chin practically touched her chest. She looked at him with the intensity of a nun scolding a third-grader. Listening. Judging. Andre sat easy, refusing to feel like a child. Let her judge. He knew he was right.

He had just finished presenting his reasons for acquiring the two homicide cases from Downriver. The murders showed different methodologies, which made them look unrelated, but all the victims had been fourths. He had stressed the need to keep it out of the media. If it were picked up by news spinners, it could go viral in seconds. The quicker he could consolidate the cases, the quicker he could quietly solve them, but the detective from Downriver, Sofia Gao—

Then came the look that had dampened the underarms of even the bravest detectives. “Sergeant, do I understand you have already talked to the suburban forces about this? Because you know, and I know you know, such a request has to originate with me.”

Andre put on a smile and innocent eyebrows. “Come on, Captain. I would never make a request without your permission. I was trying to save you a headache by feeling out the other detective about her caseload. Most people would be happy to get some work off their desks.”

“So that’s why you went there yesterday? To feel her out?”

“I was hoping.” He kept his expression neutral. “I think Sergeant Gao is going to fight us on this.”

“Ah, it’s us, now, is it?” Captain Evans shook her head, a hundred tiny braids swinging from side to side. “So you didn’t tell her I was already in motion on this? You didn’t tell her you were calling as a courtesy to give her a head’s up?”

“Where would you get that idea?”

Captain Evans switched the view of her comscreen so that Andre could see the head and shoulders of a lovely but angry woman. Nothing to do but wave. “Oh. Hi, Sergeant.”

Even with the volume low, Andre could hear a cold stream of uncomplimentary syllables from the holographic image as the captain lowered her forehead to her palm.

“Sofia, I’ll be calling you back in a very short while.” The stage went off and the captain straightened the pot of ivy on her desk, a plant that only needed adjusting when she wasn’t happy. “LaCroix, what am I going to do with you?”

“That looks bad.”

“It looks worse. How did you get the particulars of her cases without her knowing?”

Yikes. “I pulled them from the open file database with meticulous searches.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay. Okay.” He sighed. “I used a downloaded Illudium Q36 and falsified a generic blanket-pass . . . with your . . . signature—I know, I know—” He held up his hands. “I’m in trouble for peeking into Downriver’s case logs, but this was just a shortcut to narrow my search. I didn’t want to bother you with anything if there wasn’t anything to bother with.” And with any luck, we can leave Elway out of this.

“Then you continued to misrepresent me and my intentions without even a forged signature by telling Sofia Gao—”

“She was going on and on about how I was going to hand my cases over to her. She hadn’t even put together that they were fourths. She just happened to get them both as unrelated homicides and she’s the lowest on the ladder over there.”

“You are off the bottom of my ladder and headed for the woodshed.” The captain pressed her fingertips onto the desk as if they were supporting her entire weight. “You do not get to short-circuit procedure whenever it gets in the way. If someone is preying on fourths—” She held up a hand to forestall him. “Yes, I said ‘if.’ You’ve made some interesting points, but you have other cases to clear and a few dead hitchhikers shouldn’t take precedence over them.”

Andre slammed a fist onto the desk. “That’s the problem right there. Fourths aren’t important. As long as you get to work on time and it doesn’t cost too much, who cares?”

Captain Evans stood up, leaned over, and very slowly, very deliberately, moved his hand from her desk to his lap. “You’re quite involved with—”

“Damn right I’m involved! I work as a fourth.”

“Mmm hmm. Save it, Mr. LaCroix.” The captain didn’t come to Andre’s shoulder, but she was suddenly towering over him. “I’ve been trying to get your attention ever since you came to my department. I’ve been waiting for you to get on fire for a case. I don’t want it to be this one.”

The way she nodded, brows raised as if daring him to answer implied questions, made the arguments he prepared so carefully feel woefully inadequate. A traitorous drop of sweat broke free and oozed down his back.

“Because it’s for the wrong reasons,” she added.

“What reasons would you like?”

“If you had listened to me a year ago, and dropped this questionable profession, it would make things clearer for me, and a damn sight clearer for you too. Now it’s up to me to decide whether you have a conflict of professional interest.”

“The police union supports—”

“I am not talking about your legal right to be a paid rider. I’m talking about the lack of priorities you have shown me time-and-again. Are you the detective on this case or a fourth with a shield and gun?”

Andre wanted to thump the desk again, but settled for striking the palm of his left hand with the heel of his right. “Nobody else would connect these dead men. Nobody else would even look.”

“You looked. You found. Gold star for the day. Then you tried to screw over a colleague so you could work on something that sounds a little more interesting than your other cases.”

“That’s not—”

“Shut up and let me do the thinking.” The captain fiddled with the buttons on her holostage. “I will kick your request upstairs, through proper channels. Package what you have. Maybe the word of a real fourth will make it more compelling.” The backhanded compliment was matched with an ironic glint in her eye. “Don’t think for one minute I’m going to reassign your other cases.”

“No. Of course not.” Andre threaded his fingers together.

The captain readjusted her potted plant, moving it the same few centimeters. She considered him over the top of it.

Andre shifted in his chair. Now what?

“Sergeant, when was the last time you were on the target range?”

“We’re required to shoot once a week.”

“Uh-huh. I didn’t ask you about the requirement. I asked you when you last showed your sorry face there.” She clicked through menus on her holo.

Andre felt fresh dampness on his neck and underarms. Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look.

“It says here you last logged into the range fifteen days ago.”

“I can shoot, Captain.”

“Prove it. Range. This week.” The potted plant took another two-centimeter journey. “You do good work when you’re on the job. Just make sure that you’re on the job you’re given. Dismissed.”