He had learned never to bring the job home with him.
What he saw on a daily basis was not the kind of thing that could be discussed at a dinner table. People at parties sometimes tried to get him to open up about his job but he would just smile tightly and change the subject. They usually got the message and gave up trying. Those that didn't got short thrift and were told shortly to mind their own business.
Some of them put him down as a dry, humorless character, but usually they were the ones who didn't know him well. He could let down his hair with the best of them but his undercover years had made him cautious and wary. He was only truly comfortable with people who weren't pushy and other cops.
Suzy had never pushed him into talking about his
life as a cop. Perhaps that was why they were so good together. It wasn't just bed where they were good, though there was that too.
It wasn't just his years as a cop that he wanted to
shield but his military career too. He was a fond advocate of that saying: What goes on tour, stays on tour. He believed in keeping his mouth shut. There were too many bad memories from Iraq. He was a man who hated war.
But he was also a man who felt that every man should experience it, if only to decide it wasn't for them. It was only when you were up close and personal to the bloody thing that you fully understood the ugliness of it.
The experience had both marred and moulded him.
He had returned from Iraq a completely different man to the one who had gone out.
Yet, whenever he looked at his country's flag he was
able to put aside all the negatives and feel an enormous pride.
It was the kind of patriotism that might win the day.
Time would tell.
YOU ARE READING
MANO
ActionThere's a new cop in Hawaii, and he doesn't take prisoners. The tale is a post 911 piece and concerns the hunt for an ISIS terrorist cell intent on carrying out a dirty bomb attack on the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbour. The group is led by...
