What Might Be
Maggie’s World
“Why are we doing
this again?” Stephan asked.
Maggie looked at
him with a wry smile. The evening breeze
blew his dark hair and the sun set in a cacophony of orange and red at his
back. They sat in weathered wooden
chairs atop a three story building adjacent to the police station. A small canopy, and their own efforts,
concealed them from any eyes in the building that might stray over to the
inconspicuous rooftop.
“Drake told me to,”
she said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. “You mean you’re not finding this amusing?”
He shook his
head. “You always amuse me, Maggie. I just didn’t know we were staking out the
most boring cop in the history of mankind.”
Laughing softly,
Maggie couldn’t help but agree. Reed Hackman seemed to be a work-a-holic
of the utmost proportions, and they had obviously caught him on a slow
day. He’d arrived before seven, left on
one call that took him to a burglary scene, and otherwise spent the entire day
in the police headquarters. He was
probably inside filing out reams of paperwork.
Whatever he was doing, it made for uneventful spying.
“Look on the bright
side,” she told Stephan, “you could be in jail.”
He laughed. “Those cops wanted nothing to do with me,” he
said.
After her morgue
mission the day before, Maggie had gone to the aid of her friend after he
created a diversion to get her into the building. However, he hadn’t needed any rescuing. Stephan had sobered up immediately when the
act was no longer necessary and sweet talked the policemen into letting him
go. He had a way with words. Plus, they saw him often enough that they
probably didn’t want to bother with him any more than necessary, and certainly
not for something so minor as disturbing the peace.
Stephan was the
least of her worries. Maggie’s mind
turned to her father, and his recent state of mind. She wouldn’t say it was deteriorating,
really, but she did worry. He’d been
nicer to her in the last few months than she recalled him being in his entire
life. He’d seemed to settle into a
businessman’s world, and to some degree believed the façade he presented to the
public. She knew him to be a very
different person, and she feared when the real Warin
Drake would come back.
Jeremiah needed to
fear that as well. It wouldn’t be beyond
Drake to kill the whole lot of that gang.
It might take a lot of explaining to make the outward ramifications go
away, but she’d known Drake to eliminate people without a care.
“What are you
thinking about?” Stephan asked, his attention drawn away from the street below.
“Drake. He’s
scaring me,” she said.
Stephan
shrugged. “Don’t let him get to
you. You might not believe it, but he
cares for you.”
“I don’t doubt
that, at least to some degree, but it’s not me that I’m afraid for. It’s everyone else.” She shook her dark hair, the soft ends
hitting her shoulders like cobwebs. “I
feel like something is about to happen.”
Stephan turned
toward her, his usual jester expression gone.
“Maybe it is. Don’t discount what
you feel.”
“I don’t want anything
big to happen. I don’t hate the way
things are right now.”
“Maybe we need to
do something to keep things the same,” Stephan said.
Maggie had thought
and thought about what she should do.
Most of her wanted to run away and hide.
The rest tried to think of something practical. “We need to get rid of these murder
investigations and Jeremiah. You have a
magic pill for that?”
“Hmmmm,” he said, furrowing his brow in thought. “That’s a tough one.” Stephan leaned back into the hard planks of
his chair. “Let’s frame Jeremiah for the
murders.”
Laughing, Maggie
slapped Stephan’s knee. “Good
thought. How do you propose we do that?”
Stephan paused for
a few moments. “Well, there are two murders
and the police think they’re linked to Drake because of the manner of death and
the ties to the Family. But that could
easily link them to Jeremiah’s bunch as well.
What we need to do is give the police another body to find, make the
death similar to the other two, and leave some definitive evidence pointing to
Jeremiah.”
Maggie frowned,
thinking, but she couldn’t come up with a reason why Stephan’s plan was not
brilliant. Other than
the killing someone thing, of course.
“Hah! You like that idea, don’t you? I’m the shit!” Stephan said, pinching a
section of cloth on his shoulder and pulling it out as if he were popping a
suspender.
“You’re something,”
she said, shoving his shoulder. “I’ll
have to think about that.”
“Don’t think too
long. The sooner the police have
something else to think about, the sooner they’ll stop thinking about Drake.”
Maggie knew he was
right. Providing another murder victim
to Reed would divert his attention if done right. They could target another one of Jeremiah’s
thugs and get another criminal off the street.
It could be a win-win situation.
She just wished the idea of it didn’t turn her stomach so.
“What if we could
get Jeremiah to actually kill his own guys?” Maggie asked.
Stephan thought for
a moment and smiled. “That would be even
better. How could we manage that?”
“We need to
convince him that he has traitors in his camp.
I’m sure he’d have no hesitation about cleaning up a mess like that,”
Maggie said.
Stephan
nodded. “I could sweet talk some of his
guys into helping us.”
“I know you
can.” Maggie smiled wider, liking this
new plan even more. Stephan had a
special ability to convince the weak minded to do his bidding. She had no doubt that many of Jeremiah’s men
were not strong of the brain.
“Do we have a plan,
then?” Stephan asked.
Looking down at the
street below, Maggie nodded. “I think we
do.”
***
Having been left
alone to stalk her prey by Stephan, Maggie had been thinking a lot. She hated it when she thought too much. It gave her time to ponder about the problems
in her life, and to long for what she didn’t have. At least when she was in the office working,
there was inventory to count and customers to assist. Days at the store were generally busy. Spying on Reed Hackman
was boring work.
The store was being
minded today and indefinitely by other members of the Drake Family. She only hoped that they weren’t compromising
on prices or being too persistent and driving customers away. In the end it didn’t matter, but she had
pride in the store and wanted it to continue to do well.
Maggie shifted behind
the tree providing her cover and came to attention when she saw Reed emerge
from between two parked cars. She’d
followed him from the police station into the inner parts of the city. She guessed that he was going out for lunch
and she’d been right. He was walking
into a small café that she’d never noticed before.
She knew that she
was taking her stalking trade to a higher, much more dangerous level, but she
couldn’t help herself. Simply watching
Reed go about his daily chores gave her enough insight to know that while he
was working on the murder cases, he wasn’t making any monumental connections. More than that, though, observing his life
from a far made her want to be a part of it all the more, even in some small
way. She had almost hoped when beginning
this assignment that she would see Reed taking under-the-table bribes or
kicking puppies in the street so that she could dismiss the romanticized notion
of the man that had rooted itself in her head.
Of course, she’d seen none of that.
Reed seemed to be a hard working policeman who was dedicated to the city
more than he was to his own personal pleasure.
Maggie stepped from
behind her tree covering and followed Reed into the café. It had glass windows across the front showing
the quaint interior that probably hadn’t changed since the fifties. The small space had a counter in the middle
with stools lining it. Against the glass
wall sat several booths. Every seating
surface was covered in dull red vinyl.
Though the years had dimmed the surface, no large tears marred the
surfaces.
Most of the seats
were occupied with
She stopped beside
his booth, silent for a moment. “Reed,
is that you?” she asked.
His green eyes
moved from the menu to her face.
“Maggie, how are you?”
Smiling, she
shifted on her feet. “I’m fine. Just stopping in for some
lunch.”
“So am I.” Reed pointed to the other side of his
booth. “Please join me,” he said.
Maggie beamed from
inside out, and silently cursed herself at the same time. This was what she wanted, and what she didn’t
need. Nonetheless, she sat down and
picked up the menu from the table top.
“What’s good here?” she asked.
“Oh,
anything. I like their homestyle
stuff. Too fattening, but it tastes
good.”
Maggie focused
herself on the menu and picked out a dish.
A moment later, an older waitress wearing a pink uniform took their
orders. After she took the menus away
and hollered their selections at the fry cook, Maggie and Reed were left
staring at each other. The Officer was
wearing his normal ensemble of tan slacks and blue jacket. He wore his sandy blond hair spiked and
gelled. He had a definite pattern and
practice to how he kept himself. Reed
did not dress to impress, but he looked just fine in his modest taste.
“You’re a little
out of your way today, aren’t you?” Reed asked.
He crossed his hands in front of his body on the table.
The café was at
least two miles from her store. Reed’s
detective instincts apparently never slept.
“Yeah, I was doing some business for my father on the docks
earlier. I saw this place on my way
back.”
“And you were lucky
enough to find me here,” he said with a coy smile.
“Very lucky,” she
answered. Maggie wanted to ask Reed a
million questions about himself, but she didn’t know if she should, or where to
start. She decided to begin with the
only thing she knew they had in common. “So, any developments in your investigation?”
Reed tensed
momentarily. “Um, no. We’re still working on it, though.”
“I’m sure there’ll
be a breakthrough soon,” she said. “How
did you get into this kind of work?”
Chuckling to
himself, Reed took a sip of his water before answering. “Every little boy wants to be a policeman, I
guess. It just never went away for me.”
“Did you start in
He shook his
head. “Nah, I’m not a native, though I
love it here. I began in the FBI out of
college. It took me a few years to find
my way down here.”
Maggie envisioned
the life of an FBI agent to be much more glamorous and exciting than a common
detective in the Big Easy, which meant looking into a lot of domestic issues,
drug deals gone wrong, and burglaries.
The job change seemed like a step down to her.
“Wow, the FBI must
have been exciting,” she said.
“It was a great
job. I loved it there.”
She waited for
elaboration, but he didn’t offer any. It
was going to be hard to form the bond with him that she wanted if he didn’t
have any better social skills than she did.
“What brought you down here?”
“Oh, I just needed
a change in scenery at the time. NOPD
needed officers,” he said.
“Do you ever think
about going back?” she asked.
Reed thought for a
moment, his eyebrows drawing together in a knot. “Not much.
This has become my home and I’m comfortable here. I’d definitely miss it if I left.”
“That’s good to
know,” she said.
The Detective
looked surprised. “Really?”
Maggie fought off a
wave of embarrassment that wanted to rush blood to her cheeks. “Sure.
It’s nice to know we have good police officers minding our streets. I’d feel less safe if you left,” she
said. For all the complications it
caused in her life, she actually meant it.
At the moment, it felt like Reed was protecting her from her family.
“Thanks. It’s nice to hear when a citizen has faith in
the force.”
Their food came and
the waitress stayed at their table for an inordinate amount of time talking to
Reed about the weather. Their casual
interaction made it clear that this was a café he frequented, and the staff
there liked him. They probably felt
extra-secure too, knowing that Reed was on their side.
Maggie and Reed’s
after meal conversation turned to the weather as well, and other light topics
that meant nothing in the scheme of life.
Before he could get up, she declared that she needed to go back to the
store to do inventory. She left him with
a quiet goodbye and didn’t look back as she walked out of the hole-in-the-wall
eatery. From a safe distance away once
outside, behind another big oak, she watched him get in his car and head back
to the station.