Stephanie Steele

Bang!

Chief Edwards slammed his office door. Once again Steele found herself standing like a naughty school girl in front of the head master. It didn’t faze her. She’d been here many times before and to be honest it wasn’t going to be the last.

“Did you see who took her? Just give me anything Steele. Redeem yourself here, because by God you need it right now!” His face was flushed, the blood vessel in his forehead bulging again. This time he wasn’t covered in sweat and he’d changed his shirt which was free from stains. The drop in temperature in the office meant the air con had been fixed. Yep, no time at all!

“Must’ve just missed them.”

Edwards kicked a chair over. She’d seen him pissed off before but this was way above being pissed. “Or maybe they saw you coming and made a run for it.” He screamed. “Maybe if you’d done as you were told Detective Frank would have caught them.”

“I doubt it.” There was a sarcastic tinge to her voice.

Her come back almost burst that blood vessel. It was damn near to popping. “Don’t give me your lip Steele. I’m about this far away from sticking you in a cell.” He held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart to emphasise what he meant.

“The noise he made coming in, whoever was there, would’ve heard him coming ten blocks away.” Steele hurled back at him. “He’s not exactly subtle is he?” This seemed to take the heat off her a little. Perhaps he’d forgotten her penchant for lack of subtlety.

Edwards paced as he held a hand on his bald patch. “So now we have no witness, no leads, no clues. Zippo.” He turned to face Steele again. “Because of your blatant disregard for orders we’ve lost our star witness. I outta throw your ass in jail.” He bellowed in her face.

“There is something.” Steele calmly said, hoping to take the sting out of him. She reached for the computer still wedged in the back of her pants. Coincidentally, the same picture she’d seen on her computer was on display in a glass cabinet directly behind Steele. The one where Steele was receiving her commendation. Ironic. Here she was being congratulated by the mayor of the city for her police work and at the same time being threatened with jail by the chief of police. From hero to zero and perfectly summed up in this one vignette.

“What? Spit it out. If there’s anything that can lead us to Leon, I wanna to know.”

Steele’s hand held the computer but she didn’t produce it for Edwards. Something told her not to. Intuition? Her human upgrade warning her this was the wrong hand to deal right now. She released her grip on the computer and pretended to fiddle with her belt. “We’ve got the drawing Mia made. We can release it to the press.”

He shook his head. “I’m putting this one on the back burner for the time being. We’ve other cases need attention.” He said matter-of-factly.

Now it was Steele’s turn to lose it. “Someone killed the father to stop him talking. Whoever it was probably took Mia.” She hurled at him. “She’ll be the next body you find in some back alley if we don’t do anything.”

Edwards scooped Mia’s picture from his desk and slapped it in Steele’s hand. “This childish drawing looks like half the guys in this station.” He shouted back at her. “You want me to bring them in for questioning?” By now everyone in the outer office was watching the show, wanting to see how it was going to end.

“So you’re gonna do nothing?” Steele roared back, her steps towards him intimidating.

Edwards backed off a pace. He was used to her insubordination, but this time she was overstepping the mark. “I want you out of this office. In fact take a vacation as far away from me as possible.”

“Droids don’t need a vacation. That’s why we were made. Remember?”

“What do I care? Just go somewhere that’s not here.”

Steele turned to look out the window. Everyone in the outer office who was standing still watching the argument suddenly began busying themselves again. Steele knew she was out of order talking to Edwards this way. Something occurred to her. She wanted an answer but in his present state she didn’t expect to get it from him.

“You’re right.” She started in a calmer manner, lowering her voice. Admitting defeat may plicate him and get her answer. The answer to how come she got there before Frank and the other uniforms? If the call had gone out as she was leaving the office the nearest cruiser to Steele’s apartment would’ve been dispatched to pick up Mia. There was no way she could’ve got there before them if the call had been made straight away. Conclusion – the call had been delayed. Why? “I’m just in the way.” She went to leave but stopped at the door as if she’d just thought of something. “One thing. Did you make the call to Frank to pick Mia up?” She made it sound unimportant.

“What am I, a secretary?” He said plonking himself behind his desk. “I told Nixon to do it.”

Steele exited Edward’s office and quietly closed the door. She stood there with her back to the door staring at Nixon across the room, her eyes boring into the back of her pretty head. Was her intuition right? Did Nixon delay calling Frank to pick up Mia? Or even worse, had she tipped someone off so they could get to Mia before anyone else arrived? Had someone overheard the call and made the tip off? She scanned the room looking at everyone, trying to find the one person avoiding looking at her. But they were all avoiding looking at her. Not one of them made eye contact.

She didn’t want to believe it, but right now her suspicion fell on Nixon. She had made that call. She had made the decision to delay that call. Why? Steele needed to find out.