Paint the town red

Chapter XXI

Monday morning in our precinct turned out to be unusually busy: officers rushed back and forth, the foremen checked all the machines for malfunctions several times, even Frederick decided to come to the people. When I saw the boss, he was in high spirits, so I calmly approached him to say hello and discuss the issues that concern me.

"Fred, what's going on?"

"What? These lazy asses have finally started to move."

"I don't understand."

"Let's go to the office, I'll tell you there."

I nodded, Fred gave me a fatherly hug and led me to his office. I hope nothing bad happened, because this kind of activity rarely happens for nothing.

As soon as we entered his office, he went to his desk, and I sat down on the chair near the desk. Fred leaned back in his chair and looked at me.

"See, what the simple phrase "we'll have a check" does to people?"

"Wait, wait. Fred, what kind of check?"

"The most ordinary. Charles, you are like a son to me, so I'll tell you a secret: Christian, my old friend, is coming to us."

I thought about it for a moment, and then I remembered who we were talking about: Christian Horner is the former chief of the station, whose place Frederick took when he decided to retire. He is not so old, but some professions can retire much earlier than others. That's what he took advantage of.

"And what does Christian have to do with it?"

"Everyone knows who he is and what kind of character he has, so I asked him to come to us with a "check", but in fact just to visit his old station."

"I mean, do we all have to work harder?"

He nodded, and I laughed softly - all I needed was more tension, yeap. It's a good thing it's a fake check, but everyone doesn't need to know about it.

I stayed in Fred's office for a while, we discussed some issues, I told him about the progress of our case, and, of course, asked about my suspension. He replied that he had really thought about it, but didn't want to suspend me from the case yet, because even my suspension doesn't guarantee that the killer won't come after me for the hit. Besides, after that message, he even thought about assigning me a couple of officers just in case.

Honestly, I was encouraged by the fact that I can continue to quietly do my business and not think about suspension. So after talking to Fred, I went straight to the office, I need to tell my partner about this.

When I entered the office, Max was already sitting at his desk, and Liam was sitting next to mine. I was surprised by his visit, but then I remembered that we had agreed to continue working with screening out possible suspects.

After greeting both Max and Liam, I sat down at my desk and turned on my computer. While I was getting the documents and Friday's sketches out of my desk drawer, I told Max about the essence of the matter and our successes in it. I handed my partner our notes, and he took a quick look at them, and then he gave them back to me.

"Can I... uh, can I help you?"

"No, we're doing fine together."

Liam said, and judging by the look on Max's face, that answer, or the guy's sarcastic tone, he didn't like it.

"Actually, I wasn't asking you."

"I do this job, too, which means I have a right to an opinion."

"Maybe you should stick your opinion in your..."