Unpleasant Surprises

Nina

Nina Patel swift walked down a smooth grey wood laminate hallway, her high heels clicking in a timed pattern. Her black silk blouse and pencil skirt were professional yet offering a gentle grace to her curves. She was a truly breathtaking woman with long luxurious black hair and she carried herself with perfect confidence. Nina gave a curt but acknowledging nod to a freckled, mop haired and slightly disheveled uniform officer fumbling at the commercial printing station. He smiled back broadly and then stared at her briefly as she passed. The sound of paper being devoured horribly by machine followed and the officer let out a quiet string of curses as he fought to retrieve his work.

Nina rolled her eyes and chuckled silently to herself as she reached the big office at the end of the hall. The door was an opaque glass with the lettering “Commissioner D. Caufield” etched into it. D stood for Dale and today the door was closed.

Nina hesitated for a moment and then knocked. She could hear the muffled tones of the commissioner speaking followed by a less familiar male voice.

There was a scraping of chair legs against the floor and then the door opened to the hulking form of Martin Lysenko. He smirked at her and chirped “We were just talking about you Patel.” Lysenko was a human brick wall. There was no other way to describe him. He had dark brown hair and strong chiseled facial attributes. Recently promoted and out of uniform he wore nothing but suits worthy of a cliché hit man. Martin’s eyes were ice blue and unreadable but his joking nature made him appear not to take anything too seriously, including the job.

Nina returned a forced smile and pushed down an inner cringe. She could not stand this man at all.

“Oh? I hope in a good way gentlemen.”

Commissioner Caufield briefly gave her a sheepish smile and then it slid away to make room for an impassive business expression. Caufield was an attractive but intense looking middle aged man. He had a bit of a pronounced chin and graying receding soft brown hair. His eyes held a thousand stories he would never tell. They were almost a pecan tone of hazel and could offer either sudden ferocity or sweet twinkling warmth.

“Inspector Patel. Please join us and take a seat. I have something to discuss with the both of you.”

Nina darted a wry glance at the commissioner and then sank into the nearby chair, smoothing her skirt, crossing her legs and being perfectly pleasant “Yes Sir.”

Martin raised an eyebrow but then looked at the commissioner with focused attention.

Commissioner Caufield leaned forward; interlocking the fingers of his hands on the desk and began “Inspector Patel has been the handler for a certain client in a case where one of the perpetrators has a parole hearing coming up…and I have to say, his chances look damned good.”

 He gazed pointedly at Nina and she nodded back warily. Where was he going with this? Why tell Martin Lysenko?

The gaze shifted to Martin “Before you came on board with us you were integral in the incarceration of Michael Morgan.”

Martin rubbed one of his bear paw sized hands roughly across his chin and looked gravely at Nina “You’re protecting Amber Price? Shit…..”

Nina shifted uncomfortably. Working under D: 28, officers didn’t usually discuss details with each other unless specifically partnered on a case file. She did not like where this was going right now.

Commissioner Caufield replied before she could confirm or deny “That’s correct. And I’d like you two to work together. This is a vulnerable time for any member of the program and you both know many aspects of the history here. We never initiated an identity change for Amber. The location changes seemed to eventually evade the rest of his cronies that were a problem after the trial. We didn’t expect the sentence to be so short. It seems Michael Morgan has been a model prisoner and responded brilliantly to rehabilitation.”

Martin scoffed “I call bullshit. He could play nice when he thought it might get him something.”

Nina inhaled slowly, taking in and accepting this unexpected change in her assignment and then audibly exhaled “Alright. I will check in with her today. She did know the release date for Morgan so she was planning to stay pretty low key.”

Commissioner Caufield slid a file folder across the desk to Martin “Great. Take Inspector Lysenko with you when you have a meeting place set. This should fill in some blanks for the short term. Thank you both for coming down. I know you’ll both do your best with this situation.”