Chapter 18

the Calm before...

Danny had just finished reading his third article about Brad and Jennifer’s

Hollywood divorce when he started to slip into sleep. It had been too long

since his head had seen a pillow and even the tension of an upcoming IA

interview wasn’t enough to keep him awake.

No sooner had his eyes closed when Garland poked his head around the

corner.

"Danny, Tank’s ready to talk to you now."

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 Danny hoisted himself up and started walking down the hall next to

Garland.

"What’s all this shit about Smitty? What’s the DC so pissed about?"

Garland rubbed his chin and thought about answering.

"I’ll let Tank fill you in. It’s his baby, I’m just riding shotgun on this one."

As they arrived at Chad’s room Tank was just exiting. He motioned to

Danny and Garland.

"Come on guys. I’m gonna get some coffee. We can talk in the cafeteria."

Danny glanced back at Chad’s door. He guessed he’d have to put off their

reunion until a later time.

The three officers made small talk as they stood in line waiting to pay for

their beverages. They discussed the latest from the rumor mill…who was

screwing who, who got fucked out of a promotion and for what reason, how

they thought the upcoming contract talks were going to lay out, the usual

crap.

The group went to a table in the farthest corner of the room. As they sat

down, Tank pulled a small tape recorder from his pocket and sat it on the

table. Danny eyed it warily.

"Usually I’d talk to you in my office. But I figured as long as we’re all

here…You have the right to a union rep, you want one?"

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 "The question is," Danny asked "do I need one?"

"Come on Danny, you know I can’t advise you either way on that."

"Not as a member of IA, but what about as my friend?"

Danny stared hard at Tank, then at Garland. They both averted their eyes.

Danny had his answer.

"I think I’ll see you in your office…with my rep. Don’t take it personally."

Tank shot back a shit eating grin.

"As your friend…I won’t."

After the three of them had parted company, Danny went back up to

Chad’s room but the bulldog of a ward nurse refused to allow him to pass,

saying that Chad was still too weak to take visitors. There was also no sign

of Claire. He figured she must have slipped out the back entrance. Having

been thwarted in his attempt to find out what IA was sniffing around about,

he decided there was no reason for him to stick around.

Danny cruised through the streets about twenty miles an hour faster than

he should have. Tension seemed to be a weight in his heel.

He pulled up in front of the Municipal Building and headed inside. He

strode past the reception desk, gave a quick wave to the officer there and

headed toward the elevators. He didn’t recognize the officer sitting at the

desk. She must have been a new person so she wouldn’t have the

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information Danny was seeking.

He exited the elevator on the second floor and headed for the officer report

room hoping to find someone there. As luck would have it Anne Leopold

was just finishing up some paperwork when Danny walked in.

"Hey Anne, long time, no see!"

"Danny, how the hell are you?" she asked rising to her feet. She walked

over to him and gave him a big hug. Her body felt nice against his.

He’d always had a thing for her since they worked together a couple of

years ago. It was only for a week but Danny knew there was some heat

there. He felt it whenever their eyes met, a definite sexual tension. The big

stumbling block in all of this was that Anne was the wife of Rick Leopold,

one of Danny’s best friends on the department.

There were other officers who would screw anything with a pulse. It

wouldn’t matter to them if it was another cop’s wife. Danny knew that was

bad juju. One of these days your life might just depend on that guy whose

wife you were putting the wood to. Who could blame him if he looked the

other way, or stopped for coffee on his way to back you up?

So needless to say Danny just admired Anne from afar, but if she and Rick

ever split…

"How’s the shoulder feeling?" she asked rubbing him gently.

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 "Good as new, one hundred percent! Hey Anne, you might be able to help

me. Do you know anyone who just came out of IA whose brain I might be

able to pick?"

"I try to steer clear of those guys, but there is a girl from my class that did

time in IA about two years ago. She works out of the South Station now. Her

name is Nikki Caulder…nice girl."

"No shit! Nikki did a tour in IA?"

"You know Nikki?" Anne asked.

"Yeah, she was part of our team during the whole Willie Pate deal. She

never talks about it?"

"Not with me. The rumor mill had her seeing a counselor, which may all

be bullshit though. Why, what’s up?"

"I’m going to be in the hot seat soon and I was hoping for some pointers."

"Who’s doing your interview?" she asked leaning forward, cupping her

chin in her hand.

"Tank Mitchell."

"You’re in good hands. Tank’s a straight shooter. You won’t have to

worry about him putting the screws to you."

"There’s no bad blood between us which is always a good thing."

"You’ll come through it okay." Anne said, clipping her paperwork back on

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to her clip board. "Take it easy big guy."

As she stood to leave the room she leaned over and kissed him on the

cheek.

"Why did she have to do that?" he thought to himself. "She smelled

fantastic!"

Once Danny’s head stopped swimming he called over to the

communications building.

"Hi, this is Officer Sullivan. Can you tell me if Nikki Caulder is working

tonight?"

He could hear the tapping of computer keys as the dispatcher ran through

the unit histories.

"We don’t show her working tonight, sorry."

"No problem. Thanks for checking."

His next stop would be the desk for a quick check of the rolodex.

He could get Nikki’s address and phone number from there. If she lived

close, he would stop by…if not he would call.

Just as Danny had hoped, Nikki was only a fifteen minute drive from the

building. He looked forward to seeing her again. Hopefully she would open

up to him a little bit and share what she had been thinking. Since they had

both been through the whole unpleasant Willie thing together, maybe he

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could offer her some comfort a counselor couldn’t. And just maybe she

could help him deal with his nightmares.

As he stood on her front step, he had to suppress the urge to turn on his

heel and run. All of a sudden he felt apprehensive but he didn’t quite know

why. He forced his arm forward and rang the bell.

Nikki opened the door a couple of inches and squinted through the crack.

Once she saw who it was, she unlatched the chain and opened the door the

rest of the way.

"Danny, what brings you here at this hour?"

As soon as the phrase "At this hour" sunk in, Danny looked at his watch. It

was four thirty in the morning.

"Christ Nikki, I’m sorry. I completely lost track of the time! I came here

from the hospital. Chad’s snapped out of his coma!"

"Danny that’s great! How’s he doing?"

"I don’t know. I didn’t get a chance to see him yet. When I got to the

hospital IA was talking to him and Claire. Deputy Chief O’Neil was there

too. It got kind of ugly."

Danny sat Nikki down and ran through the whole story, about Chad

walking in on the DC and Doobie Flowers, about Terrence O’Neil roughing

up Dickie Lawford, about all the shit Kenny had told him. Nikki stared at

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him in disbelief.

"I need some coffee." She said, rubbing her eyes. "You want some?"

"Yeah if you’re having. Instant is fine with me."

"I don’t touch that crap. It’s either fresh brewed or nothing, so it’ll be a

little while."

"I can wait." Danny said, sinking back into the oversized cushions of her

couch.

As Nikki went to the cupboard to get the coffee filters she caught a

glimpse of herself in the window of her china cabinet.

"Oh man, I look like hell!" she said pushing down the large cowlick in her

hair.

Danny looked at the long tan legs beneath the short t-shirt that said ‘Up

against the wall and spread ‘em!’ If that was hell…you could sign him up!

After she put the coffee on to drip she walked down the hall. When she re-

emerged she was wearing a long terry cloth robe. Danny was VERY

disappointed!

"Cream or sugar?" she asked, walking to the refrigerator.

"Yeah, a lot of both." He replied

Nikki sat the cup on a coaster in front of him and curled up in the chair

facing him.

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 "So now you have an IA interview to look forward to." she said, picking

up where they left off.

"Yeah, I was hoping you could help me with that. I was talking to Anne

Leopold downtown and she told me you were in IA for a while."

"That was the longest nine months of my career."

"Do you still keep in touch with anyone that’s still up there?"

Nikki was eying him suspiciously.

"Is that all you came over here for Sullivan…to pump me for some

information?"

"Gee, it sounds kinda ugly when you put it like that." he said, feeling just a

little like a shithead. "But that’s just a small part of it."

Danny felt himself back pedaling now, trying to regain his reputation as

the nice guy that he really was.

"I heard through the grapevine that you were seeing a counselor, that you

were having a rough time dealing with the shooting."

Nikki curled into a tighter ball, almost a fetal position, resting her chin on

her knees.

"I’ve been having nightmares. The counselor prescribed some sleeping

pills and we’ve been talking. It seems to be helping. How are you holding

up?"

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 Danny sipped his coffee.

"I’ve been having nightmares too, but I’ve been self-medicating. Nothing

serious, just Nyquil…and lots of it."

"You should talk to a counselor. You’d be surprised how much better just

talking can make you feel."

Danny decided not to tell Nikki about his almost visit to the counselor. He

just smiled a half smile and said "Maybe I’ll look into it."

He drained his cup of coffee and looked into Nikki’s eyes.

"Look, if you need to talk, gimme a call. Nobody knows better than us

what went down that night. Lord knows I could use somebody to talk to every once

in awhile."

"You can count on hearing from me." she said rising to give him a hug.

She felt a thousand times better than Anne as she pressed against him. She

leaned closer and whispered in his ear.

"I’ll keep my ears open and let you know if I find anything out in IA."

"Bless you my child."

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