It was one of those days where the end of summer felt so far away. The sun was shining, but the breeze off the water kept the temperature cool. The boat soared over the lake until 40 mph felt like it was fast enough to leave the world behind. Kid Rock played over the stereo and the little blonde girl with the wind whipping through her hair smiled like she would never know the world could be hard. It was beautiful. It was uplifting. For those few hours, we were free.
Source: Elevate
“It’s nice,” Kevin said as he stretched his legs out in front of him. He’d been my partner on the force for fifteen years before I had retired. “It’s nice that she’s following in your footsteps. Honoring what you’ve done.”
I stared down into my mug of beer and laughed. “She’s not honoring shit,” I sighed. “If she’s paying homage to anything, it’s to my mistakes. She’s not out to follow in my footsteps. She wants to prove that she can do it better.”
Frank watched me, small eyes squinting in consternation. “What in the hell are you doing now?”
“We’re splitting up, right? If we’re going to meet up again at a specific time, we should synchronize our watches,” I said as if it were obvious, loosening the little latch on the narrow band of my watch so I could match mine up to my mentor’s.
“Jesus Christ, girl. Use your damned phone like a normal person,” he snorted and rolled his eyes up toward his forehead. I knew the blood was rushing to my cheeks as I could see the look of absolute bewilderment on his face.
“It’s a deep, emotional response. A gut reaction, so to speak,” the man grinned a little, looking over the top of his glasses at me.
“You think?” I couldn’t help but feel queasy, though I refused to give him the satisfaction of showing it. The medical examiner chuckled as he stood up straight and stripped off his gloves before moving to the sink too scrub his hands.
“Misopedia, is my opinion. Something this violent, this destructive. How’d you get attached to this case again?” He looked at me shrewdly and it took all of my willpower not to flush and sweat. To breathe normally.
“Is it unusual for a private investigator to be investigating something?” I asked vaguely. “That, though,” I pointed to the child’s corpse, “is definitely not what I’m investigating.”
squadofsquids 