"Come on, Cap, you know the guy had it coming," Vince protested, standing in front of the desk of Captain Winn Hockings. "He... he took a swing at me."
"Come on Vince! You know that's not gonna cut it around here." Captain Hockings was in charge of the police detectives in the little town of Akron. Yeah, all five of them. "Next you're gonna tell me that Sanders will vouch for you."
"I'm sure she will..." They both knew Sanders was his partner, so of course she would. That's what partners do.
"Cut the shit, Reed. You're lucky Morales isn't pressing charges... yet!" He looked at the tall, young detective, angry yet understanding. He was a lowly detective, too, at one point. He knew that bad guys did sometimes deserve to be hit. Vince was just unlucky enough to have left a shiner, evidence of his abuse of the so called suspect.
Vince still stood his ground, waiting for the Captain to decide his fate for the near future. There was a stack of manila folders on his desk, case files yet to be distributed. Hockings grabbed one and tossed it to Vince. It slid to the edge of his desk and miraculously stopped without spilling over. Vince picked it up and scanned it.
"Whoa," he whistled. "Joey Venza finally got caught with his hands dirty?" Joey was one of the area's biggest crime bosses. He was into just about every criminal enterprise there was. They all knew he was dirty. But none of them could ever catch him.
"Yeah, it looks like he did. Claire Gregory stumbled in on a murder and is the only witness... and the only evidence we have against Venza. We need her to testify."
"Ok... nothing hard about that Cap, a couple beat cops can handle it... at least there's nothing a detective is needed for," Vince said, regretting it the moment it came out of his mouth.
Lieutenant Hockings leaned back in his chair, smiling, his hands raised and resting on the back of his head. Vince knew there was something diabolical going on in his head. "There's one thing you're needed for right now, Reed. Babysitting."
Vince's jaw dropped as he just stood there, staring at him, not knowing what to do or say. "Babysitting? Some college kid? Come on, Cap..." He started to protest, but the Captain quickly cut him off.
"Don't 'come on' me, Reed. You need some time to sit and stew and get out of the limelight until Morales is processed. And besides, Gregory is needed to testify. We can't let Venza get to her."
Vince shook his head, running his hand through his hair to push the loose strands back into place. He knew the Captain was right. It would keep him out of immediate trouble in case Morales decided to press charges and Vince knew that if he could do even one little thing that would put the great Joey Venza behind bars, then so be it.
"Where is she?" he asked at last, tossing the folder back onto the desk.
"Sitting in the office next door," Hockings said laughing. "Waiting for you. I had Carmichael get some food, clothing, and toiletries. They're in the car."
Vince looked out into the bullpen of desks out front and saw his partner, Detective Jennifer Sanders, sitting at her desk, watching the interchange between them through the glass. She knew Vince didn't look pleased, but knew it wasn't so bad either. She was good at reading him.
She watched Vince leave the office, keeping the door open as Captain Hockings rose from his desk and followed him out. Vince called her over with a twist of his wrist and walked to the office next door. They knocked, walking in the door with barely a pause, and a pretty little blonde girl turned towards them. She was sitting in one of the chairs, biting her nails. She was obviously very nervous and scared.
Vince was a little surprised. She looked older than twenty two. And she looked pretty damn good in her jeans and black blouse. Her cleavage was proudly displayed against the ruffles in the material.
"Miss Gregory," Vince said, putting his hand out to shake hers. "I'm Detective Vince Reed and this is my partner Detective Jennifer Sanders." She took his hand and shook it gently. It seemed so small in comparison to his, almost lost in it. She was just a kid. A scared kid. And a very, very important one. Jenn extended her hand and shook Claire's too.
"Nice to meet you," she said weakly. She was certainly not used to this kind of attention.
"We're going to take you somewhere safe where we can lay low for a while," Vince said. "It should only be for forty eight hours or so." He looked at Jenn who shook her head slightly. He could tell she wasn't too pleased with the assignment. He'd fill her in on the details later.
"Where are we going?" Claire asked, picking up her stuff.
"We have a safe house a little outside of town," he said. "It should do for a few days."
"Then what?" she asked, looking at Jenn. She looked so lost and helpless. She needed someone to watch over her.
Jennifer put a hand on her shoulder, trying to reassure her. "Once the guy's caught and in custody, you can go back to your normal life." Vince looked at Claire and then at Jenn. He knew that what she said was normally true, but with Joey Venza and his team of thugs and lawyers, it was going to be a long road. And likely a dangerous one.
Jenn grabbed some paperwork from her desk and led the way as they walked out of the squad room and down to the car. She helped Clair settle into the back seat while Vince moved around to the front, jumping behind the wheel. Jenn joined him and he started the car and drove out of the parking garage towards the highway.
"So what's the case?" Jenn asked before they hit the first traffic light.
Vince turned to her and smiled. "Joey Venza," he said.
"Are you shitting me?" she smiled back in disbelief.
"He killed someone and Claire witnessed it." He glanced in the rear view mirror to see if she was paying attention to them. Luckily she wasn't.
