Over the Darkened Landscape - By Derryl Murphy Page 0,33

his cheeks. He turned his head and looked out his window, pretended he was watching for perps as he cracked open his soda. “Nothing,” he answered, then took a sip.

“Nothing my ass. I can’t say I know what you’re feeling, Mike, since I grew up here. But I’ve met a couple of people who came out of Templeton, and they’ve told me how weird it is for the first little while. I can only imagine.”

He grunted and took another swig; watched this city of age go by, and wondered at it.

*

For the remaining three hours of their shift, life remained uneventful, the presence of their car serving as a check for anyone thinking of pulling any stunts. Twenty minutes before the end of their shift, all available units were called to an address near the Line with Templeton.

Simone looked over at Mike. He felt a lurching in his stomach, knew he wasn’t ready to get that close to the Line so soon after having to cross over. But he forced a smile and nodded at her, then turned on the lights as Simone shrugged her shoulders and stepped on the gas. But before they’d gone a block, a second call instructed them to come in to the precinct to see the captain.

“Come in, both of you,” he said, when they got to his office. “Close the door and have a seat.”

Captain Munro was even more amazing to Mike. Almost no hair, a huge gut, wrinkles and age spots lining his face, he was everything that Mike had always thought he would never be. Was this how he’d end up on this side of the Line?

“There’s been a murder,” said the captain. “Derek Hayes.”

“Jesus,” said Simone. She looked over at Mike, but he just shrugged. The name meant nothing to him. “Very rich guy, sometimes seems like he owns—owned—half the town. To say nothing of all his other interests around the world.”

“Ah,” said Mike, nodding. He looked back to Captain Munro. “So what does this have to do with us?”

“Well,” said the captain, “mostly it just has to do with you, Gordini, although Perez will continue to back you up. Hayes was found dead inside Templeton; beaten to death.”

Mike leaned forward. “Inside Templeton. What, you mean just over the Line?”

Munro shook his head. “Nope. He was down on fifty-fourth, near the clocktower.”

“Holy shit,” said Simone.

Mike leaned back and nodded, feeling a little nervous now, then asked, “Why are you telling us?”

The captain steepled his fingers and for a long moment stared over them at Mike. “The mayor had a little chat with the chief,” he finally said. “Hayes, as you might imagine, was a go-to guy for political contributions, and already his lawyer and his corporate partners are making noises about wanting this solved now. So the mayor wants someone from our force in there to make sure that the investigation goes the way it should. To say nothing of the fact that we don’t know if we can trust whatever they have for investigators over there.”

Ice-water shock ran down Mike’s spine. He closed his eyes for a second to regain control, heard Simone say, “No way, Captain. We can’t do that!”

“Who said anything about you, Perez? You’ll be staying here on this side, giving backup when the time comes.” He looked back to Mike. “You understand what’s up?”

Mike nodded, too stunned to speak. He’d only been out of Templeton for just over three months now, and after training and then only two days on the street, here he was being asked—no, told—to go back in. “I’ll age,” he managed to croak.

“You have an advantage, Gordini, you know that. You’re only just out, so it isn’t going to hit you as hard. And even though you were forced to leave, I’m told that the way things work your recent departure should actually help retard the process.”

“It gets worse each time you go back, though.” He winced at how whiny the plea sounded.

Munro’s deep voice sounded hoarse now, but he ignored Mike, just carried on. “We’ll provide for you, of course. The only way you can go in there is as a full detective; there’s no way anyone would accept just a beat cop working on this case. And we’re only asking that you do the most basic investigations while in Templeton. Most of your work will be done on this side of the Line, with our full support.”

Mike leaned his elbows on his thighs and sat there, quiet, first looking at