Heat Check

Cal desperately searched her face for any sign that she’d made him somehow, but mostly Anita just seemed disappointed they weren’t going to get much credit for finding a shell casing. He felt for her, they’d both just wasted a half day, chasing evidence that the department already had at its disposal. Relieved, he climbed back up the staircase, trailing a few yards after his partner.

By the time Cal got back to the car, Anita was already inside. As he popped open the door handle and slid into the leather bucket passenger’s seat, a sense of ease finally swept over him. For once, his partner’s incessant need to involve the pair in unnecessary, mundane work had paid off – although certainly not in a way she had intended! It was all Cal could do to wipe the smile off his face as he shifted into his seat, several thousand dollars richer and with nobody else on the planet any wiser.

His moment of triumph was short-lived however. As soon as he climbed in the car, Cal could tell that something had gone very wrong. Anita sat silently in the driver’s seat with her hands resting on the steering wheel; the keys were in the ignition, but the engine remained off. She stared straight ahead for what seemed like an uncomfortably long time, before finally exhaling slowly and turning a fierce gaze towards him.

“So when were you going to mention the money you found Detective Newsome? You know, the stack of fifty dollar bills under the bed, back by the window just poking out from under the frame. Two elastics, one on either end, stop me if this is ringing any bells son…”

Cal’s stomach lurched in shock and horror as the sheer depth of the shithole he’d just climbed into became rapidly apparent. Eyes wide with terror, he simply stared ahead out of the car window in complete silence. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the idea that he’d become the textbook portrait of a guilty perp dawned on him, but now was certainly not the time to explore that bitter irony.

Agonizing seconds passed as Anita’s accusation hung in the air like a brick sailing towards a window. In that moment he knew that he should say something, but figuring out precisely what was beyond Cal’s mental capacity for the time being. His mind reeled with dozens of half-formed questions, each asked hurriedly in fractions of a moment. How did she know? Had someone set him up? Weren’t they here working backup on the Ray Mitchell murder from yesterday evening? When brick finally collided with glass, all Cal could muster up was one question.

“What about the casing I saw you put in the bag, was that just an excuse to get me to search the den myself?”

“Yes” she replied with a chill in her tone, “the empty you saw me putting away was one of mine from the range last week. If you’d read the report Jerry submitted this afternoon, you’d have known they recovered the fifth casing already. It was over in the dining room. You’d also know all about the window evidence Forensics found at ten this morning. Of course, we both know you didn’t bother to read that report.”

“Where did the money come from then?” he asked wearily.

“I borrowed it from Property yesterday afternoon, it’s from the Jefferson Avenue coke bust last week” Anita said quietly.

Cal sighed and slumped backward in the chair.

“So why then?” he said. “Are you Internal Affairs, are you working a Vice case or something? What the fuck put you guys on to me anyways? I’ve been squeaky clean for most of my career for fuck’s sake and anyone who’s been watching me should damn well know it!”

For the briefest of moments, Anita’s face flashed a pained expression.

“There’s nobody else Cal, I did this and it was you who put me onto you” she answered sadly.

“But, why then? I don’t understand” he asked softly, still in the throes of shock and confusion.

Scowling, Anita turned back to stare out the car window again.

“You’re smart Cal, you’re talented and you’ve got the kinda hard luck story they fall all over themselves for at the Academy. But you’re also sloppy, overconfident and as we’ve just learned, immoral as fuck” she snapped.

Cal started to interject, but the seething anger in his partner’s eyes quickly dissuaded him.

“You work this job like it’s just another stepping stone in the ongoing Cinderella story that is your life” she continued. “Well I got news for you Detective Newsome, some of us aren’t trying to work their way up the chain of command as fast as possible. Some of us are happy right where we are, working murders and trying not to get killed by a selfish fucking rookie who cuts corners constantly!”

Cal just stared at the roof of the car and said nothing as his partner lit into him verbally. Frankly, there was nothing to say. In one idiotic move he’d destroyed everything he worked for his entire life thus far. He really didn’t care if Anita thought he was a good cop, but she’d just caught him red-handed removing evidence from the scene of a homicide. His only hope for redemption lay in the fact that she’d planted the evidence in the first place.

Even in the throes of panic, Cal knew that a Union lawyer would probably be able to construct a bare-bones entrapment argument to save his job. That wouldn’t stop the resulting black mark on his record from completely destroying his aspirations as a career man in the DPD however. Everything he’d worked for, literally his entirely life was essentially over and Cal Newsome knew deep inside that it was his own damn fault. Lost in his own despair, it took him several moments to realize that Anita was no longer speaking.

“So, are you going to turn me in to Captain Keegan then?” Cal asked somberly.

“No Detective Newsome, I’m not” she responded without malice.

“You’re too young to be completely corrupt yet, and you wouldn’t be the first police officer in this busted up city to pocket money from an investigation…” her voice trailed off sadly.

Shocked, Cal snapped upright in his seat and blurted out “but… why then? I simply don’t get it.”

“You didn’t let me finish” snapped Anita sharply.

“I did it because I wanted to know what kind of partner the Department saddled me with. Your hotshot persona may fool college chicks at the bar Blondie, but all I saw was a dickhead who was gonna get me killed some day. Furthermore, I’m only going to let you get away with this under two conditions” she continued.

“First, you need to immediately give me that stack of money back before I get someone in Property into some serious trouble.”

Cal winced openly and pulled the cash out of his pocket. The money somehow seemed much heavier now than when he had first picked it up inside the house. He’d long since abandoned all hope of keeping it, but in ensuring turmoil the stack of bills in his pocket had slipped his mind completely. Still, even in the moment of his undoing, surrendering that kind of money wasn’t entirely effortless and it took him a few seconds to actually hand it over. His heart sank slightly as his partner pulled out an envelope and sealed the money away for safe keeping.

“What’s the second condition” he asked morosely, still trying to figure out precisely why he wasn’t already on his way to a private cell in a nearby jail.

“The second condition is that you immediately apply for a transfer, preferably out of Homicide and definitely as far away as fucking possible from me Cal” Anita snarled.

As she turned to face him again, Cal knew that his soon to be former partner was deadly serious.

“You’re going to tell Keegan that we just don’t work well together, that Homicide isn’t your cup of tea and I’m going to back up your story when he asks me. You’re going to make the request so I don’t end up with a black mark on my record. Then, you’re going to skip along your merry way towards a Captain’s rank in some other department and I don’t have to risk my life by ratting out another cop or working with a guy who doesn’t even read investigation notes. Does that work for you, Detective Newsome?” she asked bitterly while starting the engine.

“That works fine for me, Detective Jackson” Cal answered flatly, simply looking down at his shoes in stunned disbelief. A strange mixture of exhaustion and relief began to course through his body as the adrenaline drained from his system.

“Good, now get the fuck out my car rookie – you’re walking back to work this afternoon.”

Cal stepped out of the car without saying a word, closing the door politely behind him.

As Anita sped away, he started to walk along the old, broken sidewalk of Bagley road. The sun was beaming high in the sky, cutting through the Motown smog like golden fingers from the heavens. It was about a twenty block walk to the station from here and Cal had a lot to think about before he got back to the office. Looking ahead along the road, he could see hot air shimmering just above the asphalt in the blazing sun. Some might call the sweltering heat of a Detroit summer unbearable but Cal didn’t mind so much. It was home, he thought, and at least the walk would give him a chance to break in those new fucking Oxfords he’d never felt comfortable wearing.

• Nina Illingworth