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Sirens and lights whirled from the police station as I made my way inside. Now that the board had voted on what our first official case was, which involved figuring out why petrylle were disappearing without a trace, it felt to me that the job I’d been hired to do was finally at hand.
When I’d called my boss shortly after the vote, she’d been ecstatic that were moving forward with our first order of business. She was less excited when I’d told her about the missing petrylle.
“Please tell me you’re on that.” Cassandra Tate sighed.
I’d been working for Cassandra for my entire time I’d been elected into the House.
Being Speaker Of The House meant that she’d been fundamental in making sure that ORBIT happened, and she’d recommended me for the freshly formed position of Director of Orb Affairs.
While I’d never been on the receiving end of her ire, I didn’t want to start now.
“Absolutely, Madam Speaker,” I cleared my throat. “As soon as you give the okay, the board and I are already working on our next plans of action.”
“Good. I’ll make a call down to the station and get the best officer I can to work with you on this. Call me with updates whenever you have any.”
And that was how I’d winded up walking inside the closest police station.
Cassandra had texted me after we got off the phone, telling me exactly who to ask for.
She’d already had someone in mind and wanted us to have an officer assigned to the case of the missing petrylle so that it could be tended to asap.
I pushed through the front doors and made my way to the front desk. Before I could even open my mouth to tell the nice lady at the front desk why I was there, I heard a gruff “Watson,” thrown in my direction, my head whipping around until I found the culprit stalking toward me.
The man pounding his booted heels in my direction was a stocky man, built like an absolute tank and twice as terrifying.
He kept his brown hair short and militaristic, which did nothing in softening his features.
He was dirt and grit made human, a snarl seemingly to permanently paint his lips as his dark eyes found me.
His dark skin glistened and made him harsh but beautiful in the unforgiving lighting the police station had to offer.
“Detective Hudson Rowe,” He held out his hand and I shook it more out of fear if I didn’t than out of politeness. “I’m the one assigned to the Orb case Cassandra called about. I recognize you from TV.”
More fear swelled within me at the fact that the detective was on a first name basis with my boss.
“Oh, well, nice to meet you, detective.” I tried to smile, but his refusal to do so made me swallow mine into the void. “I wish it were under better circumstances.”
“Likewise,” he scoffed. “My office is back here, follow me.”
Hudson Rowe led me down a dimly lit hallway, with interrogation rooms littering both sides.
Once we reached the end of the hallway, we turned right to a more open office setting, like a general office cubical setup at a typical office job or some type of call center.
His office was in the corner, which alleviated some of my anxiety.
But when he gestured for me to sit down on the opposing side of his desk, my nerves returned to me like the long-lost other sock that never usually reappeared.
On his desk was a cute picture of him and a woman of a similar age to us with long flowing blonde hair, both the detective and the woman wearing mirrored smiles. I got the inclination that this might have been one of the only times he’d smiled in his life.
“You have a beautiful wife,” When he gave me a glare that told me he was caught off guard, I gestured to the photo but he snatched it off the desk and quickly pulled open a drawer and placed the picture frame inside.
I added, “Ahh, ex-wife then? Sorry, but I get it. I’m divorced too.
” I was hoping we could connect on some level and I could finally ease into some sort of comfortability.
“She wasn’t my ex-wife,” Hudson growled. “She died.”
Fucking hell, I was striking out repeatedly with this guy. “I’m so sorry—”
He held up a hand, but gave me the slightest nod that told me it was fine. “Let’s just talk about the case, Mr. Watson.”
Glad for the shift in topic, I took the opportunity to explain to him what had transpired within the petrylle community and what I had everyone working on to gather more details that would help us build a case.
When I was finished extracting every detail from my brain and delivering them to him with, if I did say so myself, expert precision, the great detective leaned back in his chair, folding his arms behind his head.
“That’s it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean is that all you have to go off of? You don’t even have the list of all the petrylle that have been taken, their various places of residence, nothing.”
I stirred uneasy in my chair. “Not to overstep my place, detective, but isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”
An irritated grunt fell between his chapped lips, and he sat forward in his desk chair.
“My job , Mr. Watson, is to help . Not do everything for you. On top of getting assigned to this case from my boss because he has direct ties with Cassandra Tate, I have three other active cases that also need my attention. I can’t just drop everything.
I know this board of yours is new and you’re figuring it out as you go, but I can’t be the manpower.
I’m supposed to be the man of the law you bring evidence to.
This is your work that I’m helping with, not the other way around. ”
My first reaction to his words was pure irate fire, furious over the fact that he was being so stale and uncooperative in this matter.
But as the reality of what Detective Hudson Rowe said reverberated inside my skull, I realized that he was right.
It was my job to find out the details, to gather the evidence with the help of the rest of the board and organize everything we had for the detective.
While he was working with us, that was it.
With us. Not for us. He was more of a liaison than the steerer of the ship. That job was reserved for me.
Setting aside the mild panic that thought brought up, I nodded and gave the detective a somber expression. “You’re right. I apologize, detective, for forgetting your role in all of this, as well as mine. I’m sorry for making you think or feel otherwise.”
The tiniest beginnings of a smile jerked the corner of Hudson’s lip upward.
“None taken.” He brought his computer to a more alert status and started typing in the information I’d given him so he could accumulate what we had so for.
“Why don’t we meet in a couple days, after you and the board have had enough time to scrounge for details? How does that sound?”
“That sounds very generous, thank you. ”
I’d take as much as possible. I knew this wasn’t going to be a blink and we’d find the missing petrylle thing, no matter how badly I wanted it to be that simple. And we weren’t seasoned detectives like Hudson Rowe. We were just a bunch of people trying to figure it out on the fly, like he’d said.
Hudson slid me a card from the obscured part of his desk, a business card with all his ways of contact littered over them. “Let’s say Thursday morning. My personal cell is on the back. Call me when you think you have enough for me to help build the case.”
“Thank you, detective.” I said, taking the card from him. “I really do appreciate you getting involved in the protection and safety of Orbs.”
“Just doing my job,” He scoffed, but he shook his head before adding, “The way I see it, it doesn’t matter what we all are.
Orbs, humans, we’re all people. And the constitution says ‘We The People’.
I wouldn’t have agreed to serve my community if it didn’t include all beings that deserve rights under the law. ”
This notion from him surprised me, a look of revelation catching me off guard even on my own face. I gave him a warm smile. Perhaps the detective and I were going to get along just fine. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“I’ll look forward to your call.” Hudson stood up and offered me his hand to shake.
“Thanks again.”
I gripped his hand and shook it with vigor before making my way out of the police station.
Now if only I could get through the new sudden cataclysmic crash that I had to compile as much information on the missing petrylle as I could in the next seventy-two hours.