100 Things 3/100: The Things We Do
Title: The Things We Do
Fandom: Original Fiction
Rating: Gen
Orientation: Gen
Word Count: 943
Prompt: For Dark Bingo Fill: “Prostitution”
“Rinzo, Deitz, you’re going over to the Third for a month to cover. They’re still down six detectives from that shootout back in May. Bring me your open case paperwork, I’ll see it gets distributed,” Sergeant Sillman finished the morning briefing and dismissed everyone.
The Third? Lou felt a wave of ice cold fear wash over her at the news. The one precinct in the city she avoided like the plague and she and her partner were being sent down there for a month? This was a nightmare. Stiffly, she walked to the coffee machine and refreshed her mug, idly stirring in cream and sugar as she wandered back to her desk.
“Lou? Earth to Lou. Hey, Rinzo!” The sharp voice of her partner, Al made her look up. “You’re a million miles away, care to share? I could use something to distract me today.”
She shook her head; this was something she could never share with anyone. “Nah, just thinking about school.” At least they wouldn’t be walking a beat. If she was lucky, she wouldn’t have to spend much time walking around the old neighborhood. She might never run into anyone she had known back then.
~*~
Luck was not with Lou. The first case Captain Dalton handed them was a homicide down on Fourth and Melman. The cheap, by-the-hour flophouse where the victim had been strangled was one of the ones Lou had frequently used back in the day. She was certain that by the end of the day, Al was going to know about her past. The question was, was he a good enough partner and friend to not bring it to the Captain?
She breathed a sigh of relief that the clerk at the desk was a stranger. But when one of the vic’s friends told them she frequently used a sleazy local bar to hookup, Lou felt a ball of cold ice start to form in her stomach. The Flamingo. Why did it have to be the Flamingo. It was as if fate was conspiring to force her to admit to her past. Maybe it was time to pay the piper for the questionable choices of her youth.
“Hey, Lulu! Is that you girl? Whoo, you looking fine and fancy these days,” Sam, the owner/bartender called out as she and Al entered the dimly lit Flamingo. “Haven’t seen you in years, honey, where you been?”
Al gave her a weird look, then fell back a step, allowing her to take the lead in this round of questioning. “Hiya Sam, I got a new gig uptown when I graduated. How have you been?” Tinny music started up behind them and Lou cringed, knowing that someone had probably just taken the stage. She had noticed that there were now three poles on the stage, where there had once been only one.
“Can’t complain. What brings you around?”
She unzipped her leather jacket and tugged out her badge, which she wore on a cord around her neck. “We’re looking into a homicide. Do you know a girl named Missy Johnson?”
Sam blinked in surprise, glanced over at Al and then back at Lou. Sam had always been a pretty stand up guy. “Missy? Yeah, she did some fill in work here when we were busy. Waitressed some, tried the stage a few times, but girl had no rhythm or moves. Is she dead?”
Lou nodded as she slipped her badge back inside her jacket. “Did you notice anything odd, anyone she might have been with?” She asked Sam the usual questions, and she and Al made notes. By the time they left, they had a few leads to follow up on. They walked back to where they had left their car.
Her partner waited until they were inside the car before saying a word. He reached over and grabbed Lou’s hand when she slipped the key in the ignition and moved to turn it. “Wait. Come clean, Lou. We’ve been partners for two years. Lulu?”
She bowed her head, resting her forehead on the steering wheel as she clutched it with one hand. Al squeezed the hand he still held when she didn’t answer him right away. “I grew up down here; my Grandma raised me when my Mom ran off. My dad died when I was fifteen. I wanted to go to college. I wanted to get out of here and I knew the only way to do it was school. I worked in places like The Flamingo while I was going to community college.” She took a deep shuddering breath. “Sometimes I took side jobs or parties, if the money was good.”
His hand fell away from hers and Al was quiet for a while. Lou was afraid to look up, worried at what she would see on his face. Two years of hard-won respect down the drain because of a stupid temporary reassignment.
“We all have things in our pasts that we’re ashamed of, Lou. I don’t know who that Lulu kid might have been, but it sounds like she worked her ass off any way she could to get out of this dump. You’re a damned good detective and the best partner I ever had.”
She glanced up and saw that Al was leaning over, trying to look into her face. He didn’t look disgusted or angry. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I’d sure hate to have to break someone new in. I’m hungry, where’s a decent place to get some lunch around here?”
Relieved that everything seemed to be okay between them, she started the car and said, “There’s a pretty decent falafel place on Sixth.”
The End Originally posted at http://rinkafic.dreamwidth.org/