Down Home Feeling

Reed’s Realm

Reed flipped on the lights to his office and walked behind his desk. He pushed the chair back and sat down. Part of his brain was still swimming in a daze, trying to digest the information Dr. Fox presented to him. The other part of his head was just throbbing with splitting pain.

Reed reached over turned on his computer to check his e-mail, as he did almost every morning. Computers made a lot of things easier and the department saved a lot of money being able to toss a lot of paper out of the window. But that now meant that several e-mail checks had to be done through out the day to insure that no announcements or important bits of information went by unnoticed. At least that was how it was supposed to work. In Reed’s case, he checked his e-mail once in the morning and he never took the time to really read all the messages. He scanned who sent the messages and the subject. If a message didn’t catch his eye, the sender was likely out of luck.

This morning one e-mail caught his attention almost immediately. It was the message from his FBI buddy Joe. Reed took no time in clicking the mouse and opening the message. It read:

Reed,

I am very sorry that it has taken me so long to get back in touch with you. No, I didn’t forget about you and the information that you asked about. I did come up with a few hits that might be of some interest to you. I made copies of all the information that I found and I have sent it in a packet to your office.

I know what you are asking. How did he get my work address? How did he get my e-mail address? What can I say. I work for the freaking FBI! That and it was posted on the NOPD webpage.

Well I hope what I have sent helps, and if it does, watch your ass because there is some pretty heavy shit in some of those reports.

Let me know if I can help anymore. By the way you owe me dinner for all this.

Take Care,

Joe

Reed was glad to hear from Joe, a friend he should have kept in better touch with, and in all honesty, until he saw the message from him, it had almost slipped his mind that he had talked to his friend about the murders. Reed spun around in his chair away from his computer to face the front of his desk. His mind wondered what kind of information Joe was able to find and if it would indeed shed some more much needed light onto this case.

Reed opened the top left drawer of his desk and started to rummaging through the collection of junk that was within it, looking for travel bottle of aspirin that he was hoping was still inside. His search was interrupted by the sound of his cell phone ringing. He reached over and pulled his phone out the holder that was attached at his belt and flipped the phone open.

“Hackman. Homicide,” he stated.

“Hey Boss,” the voice said in return.

“Martin,” Reed said, sitting up in his chair after recognizing the voice of his friend. “It is great hearing from you, man. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing okay. Just really bored out of my mind,” Martin answered.

“Awe, them nurses not taking care of you anymore,” Reed said with a laugh.

“Actually, they aren’t anymore because I’m home,” he responded.

“You’re home! That’s great news. I had no idea that you were getting to go home yet.”

“Yeah, I really lucked out because the bullet missed everything that could have really ruined my day,” Martin spoke. “I really had someone looking over me, that’s for sure.”

Reed leaned back in his chair with a smile on his face. “You can say that again,” he replied. “Say, do you know when they’re going to let you to come back to work?”

“It’s funny that you brought that up because that’s why I called,” Martin explained. “I was hoping you had something for me right now.”

“Are you kidding me, Martin?” he asked.

Martin responded quickly. “No, man, I’m not kidding. You have to help me, man. I just can’t sit here at home on my ass. I’m going nuts. There has to be something that I can do. Please tell me that you have something for me,” Martin pleaded.

Reed leaned up in his chair but said nothing.

“Are you still there, Boss?” Martin asked.

A few more seconds went by. “Yeah, I’m still here. Look, I actually do have something that you can do. It’s not the most exciting work, but it will get you off the couch. We have to keep this under wraps, though. If the Chief knew I was putting you on active assignment, he would shit and then bust me down to patrol,” Reed said.

“I will stay so low to the ground the Chief would have to dig a hole to see me,” Martin stated. “So what’s the job?”

“Are you sitting down?” Reed asked.

Reed then filled Martin in on the break in at the corners office and the burnt remains of what used to be their biggest lead. Martin could not believe that it had happened either. Reed went on to give Martin a short summary of Dr. Fox’s findings. He expressed how important it was to keep Dr. Fox on board and then shared her fears that the people that broke in and torched Willings would come back looking to silence her because she was the doctor of record. Her death would leave Willings a mystery.

“That’s where you come in, Martin. I would like for you to go up and stay close to Dr. Fox and provide her with some protection and a little peace of mind so she can concentrate on her work during the day,” Reed said.

“What about at night?” Martin asked.

“There will be a patrol car assigned to her at night for a while,” Reed explained. “I just need you at the office.”

“I can do that no problem. When do I start?” Martin asked.

“You can start whenever you feel like you’re up to it. There’s no rush,” Reed answered. “I think you should take a few more days, if you ask me.”

“Good thing I didn’t ask,” Martin returned. “I’ll be at her office in the morning.”

“Okay, I’ll give her a call so she’ll know you’re coming, but remember if it’s too soon, just go home,” Reed said.

Martin didn’t say anything.

“You hear me, Martin?” Reed asked in a louder voice.

“I got it. I got it. I hear you loud and clear, Boss,” Martin responded. He paused a moment to find the right words to say to his friend. “I can’t thank you enough,” Martin said.

Reed drew in a deep breath and let it out. “You don’t need to thank me. Just be careful,” he asked of Martin.

“Will do,” the younger cop returned.

“Alright, well, I’ll talk to you later,” Reed said, then flipped his phone closed.

Reed sat and looked down at his phone for a moment. After a few minutes of still trying to make sense of all the events of the day, he reached over and slid the phone back into the holster at his side. Everything was still too hard to put together in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more his head pounded.

Reed shook off his heavy thoughts and decided that he needed some fresh air and a bite to eat, so he made his way down stairs. Reed stopped at the first level, passed the receptionist, and went out to his car. The weather was nice and there was a small family owned café that was just down the street not too far away that made one of the best home brew cups of coffee this side of the Mississippi River.

Reed drove carefully, but quickly to the café and went in, finding his favorite booth empty. There were a lot of things that Reed liked about the little place. For starters, it was a locally owned place and Reed always preferred them over chain restaurants. The second thing that he liked was the feeling you got when you walked in the door. It was almost like stepping into an episode of Happy Days. The front of the café was the bar area lined with stools for people to sit and eat. You could see through the space above the back counter and watch the food being cooked. Booths lined the windows, leaving a walk space between them and the stools. Each table was covered with a vinyl red and white checkered table cloth.

In the middle of lunch hour, the place was packed, mainly with businessmen from around the neighborhood. There were no single seats left at the bar, and Reed liked a booth when he didn’t feel like he was taking up too much space, so he took a spot by the windows in the third booth from the door.

He reached over and pulled out the menu that rested behind the napkin holder on the edge of the table nearest the window. He wasn’t for sure what he was going to order. He only knew that he wanted coffee. People periodically passed by him, and he paid no mind as he tried to decide which of his favorites to order. It took him a moment to realize that one person walking by had stopped beside his booth.

“Reed is that you?” a familiar voice asked.

Reed looked up from his menu and could hardly believe his eyes. “Maggie, how are you?” he responded with a smile.

“I’m fine. Just stopping in for some lunch,” she said, returning the favor of a smile.

“So am I.” Reed replied while pointing at the other side of the booth. “Please join me.”

For a moment, Reed wondered if he had made a mistake, but all those doubts were washed away when Maggie sat down. She said nothing at first, and simply looked at him with her beautiful brown eyes. Even though no words were spoken, it wasn’t an awkward moment.

Finally Maggie looked over and picked up a menu. Reed once again lifted up his to study.

“What’s good here?” she asked.

“Oh, anything. I like their home-style stuff. Too fattening, but it tastes good,” Reed said with a laugh.

After a few moments, a waitress came by and took there orders. She reminded Reed of Flo at Mel’s diner as she yelled out their selections to the cook behind the stove at the back of the bar. All she needed was some chewing gum and to tell a few people to “Kiss my grits!” and it would have been perfect. However, after yelling out their order, she continued on her way, refilling a few coffee mugs along the path.

Reed focused his attention back on Maggie. This time, there was a little awkward pause between them. He only sat and smiled, as she did. His mind seemed to race with so many things that he might want to say to her when she wasn’t around, and now that she was only about three feet away looking right into his eyes, he was coming up empty.

Knowing that he needed to say something, he let his instincts take over and he asked the first thing that flew into his mind. “You’re a little out of your way today, aren’t you?” He crossed his hands in front of his body on the table, but would have rather moved his hands up to cover up his face.

What the hell kind of question was that you dumbass? Why don’t you shine an interrogation light on her? Reed thought to himself.

“Yeah, I was doing some business for my father on the docks earlier. I saw this place on my way back,” she replied.

“And you were lucky enough to find me here,” he returned with another smile trying to move past the official tone of his first question.

“Very lucky,” she responded. Maggie looked down for a moment and paused before finally asking. “So, any developments in your investigation?”

Reed wasn’t shocked that she asked about the case, but in the back of his mind he was hoping that she wouldn’t. The thought of not being truthful to her wasn’t one that he liked, but he knew that he could not speak about the developments that had come into light in the past 24 hours.

“Um, no. We’re still working on it, though,” Reed answered.

Reed watched her to see what her reaction would be. He was unsure if she would believe him.

“I’m sure there’ll be a breakthrough soon,” she said. “How did you get into this kind of work?”

Reed could not help but laugh at the question as he took a sip of his water. “Every little boy wants to be a policeman, I guess. It just never went away for me,” he answered.

“Did you start in New Orleans?” she asked.

Reed had not found himself talking about his personal life in such a long time it almost felt foreign to him, especially with a woman.

“Nah, I’m not a native,” Reed said, shaking his head. “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.”

“Wow, the FBI must have been exciting,” she said.

“It was a great job. I loved it there,” he added. Reed focused his efforts to not show any emotions. He didn’t jump into details because he didn’t really want to talk about his ex-wife with the only person he has felt an attraction to since their separation.

“What brought you down here?” Maggie asked, still pursuing the topic to Reed’s dismay.

“Oh, I just needed a change in scenery at the time. NOPD needed officers,” he said, knowing that she could tell that there was more to the story that he wasn’t going to offer up.

“Do you ever think about going back?” she asked.

Hindsight being 20/20, Reed might have made a different choice had he knew then what he knew now. However, he was not going to live a life of regret. He truthfully loved working and living in New Orleans.

“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.

“Really,” Reed asked a bit surprised.

For the first time he was kind of confused at the conversation. He suddenly realized that he was the one being interrogated. That was definitely new territory for him. What made it even more difficult for him to focus was that it was evident that some of the locked doors of his feelings were being explored, and those were doors that a part of him felt would never be opened again.

“Sure. It’s nice to know we have good police officers minding our streets. I’d feel less safe if you left,” she said trying to mask her true intentions, but the redness that filled her cheeks told the real truth.

Reed didn’t want to embarrass her further, so with a smile he only offered up, “Thanks. It’s nice to hear when a citizen has faith in the force.”

Maggie seemed to find great relief in the fact that the waitress arrived with their orders. Reed wanted to focus his attention on Maggie, but the waitress hindered that by talking to him for a few moments. Reed liked coming to the café to eat. They had good food and they were always very nice to him. They always gave him a discount on his food. They were some of the people within the community that Reed thought about when he read, To Serve and Protect. So even though he really wanted her to leave after bringing the food, he felt an obligation to continue to talk to her while he and Maggie began to eat their lunch.

Reed was happy to be able to focus back on Maggie after the waitress left to go serve more customers. Reed enjoyed the time with Maggie. Their conversation was very light, and that was what Reed preferred for the most part. There was, however, a part of him that looked into her eyes and wanted to really open up to her. He didn’t act on those feelings. He couldn’t and he knew he shouldn’t. Instead, he just enjoyed their chat. He found himself memorizing her smile and the way her entire face lit up when she graced him with one.

After they finished their meal, they chatted for a few more minutes before Maggie stood up and said that she had to get back to work. She left him only with a soft good bye before walking out of the café.

Reed sat there for a moment watching her leave before getting up himself and making his way back to his car and headquarters.