There's nothing worse (better?) than just settling down to sleep, when the opening of a new story hits. Choices, choices. Do I get up, turn on the computer and stay up all night (again, usually it's answering email) to write it? Or do I go to sleep and hope I can remember it in the morning? I decided on the latter, as I had had less than eight hours sleep in the previous two days (nothing like going to bed at midnight, knowing perfectly well that the alarm starts to ring at 0415). It took me nearly two hours to finally fall asleep. The opening just kept going around and around in my brain. As you can see, I did remember it. I wonder where it will take me this time? I seem to be stuck on Mondays. That's OK. I've been having Mondays all this week. It's the first full five day work week I've had since before Thanksgiving. Three day weekend coming up for Martin Luther King's birthday. Next week is only a three day work week. I can handle that. :) As usual, the standard disclaimers apply. The characters are not mine, they are not real, I make no money at this. This is just my usual daily exercise of my overactive imagination. I thought it was supposed to shrink as you got older. Not in my case, it seems to be getting worse. Your gain. :)
Just An Ordinary Day
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It had started out like any other Monday morning. The first one up had used most of the hot water, the second had yelled his outrage when the water turned cold. Breakfast had consisted of scrambled eggs, toast, coffee, and orange juice. Typical.
Blair had gone to the university to teach a class and put in his office hours. Perfectly ordinary.
Jim had gone to the station and was working on his piled up paperwork. Nothing unusual in that, either.
Blair had come into the station to join Jim after lunch, as usual when his office hours were in the morning.
Simon had, as was perfectly normal, called the two men into his office to assign them a case. Nothing strange about that. Even the case was ordinary, a drug related murder.
Arriving at the scene of the crime, Jim cautioned Blair to stay back, as there was a lot of blood involved. Blair willing complied, as he had never become immune to the horrors man could inflict upon other men.
Blair kept up a steady monologue to help Jim keep grounded, so he wouldn't zone out on any one sense. The forensics team arrived, including the annoying Cassie, who, as usual, tried to play detective. Jim managed to keep from arguing with her. It was difficult, but he managed it. Jim traced the murder weapon by scent. It was a switch-blade and he found it by following the smell of blood. Cassie had watched him, bothering Blair, trying to make him tell her what was going on, what was Jim doing? Blair, annoyed, told her he was doing his job. He was detecting. Cassie was not amused. When Jim shouted for them, Blair and Cassie came running.
He'd found the murder weapon. Clasped in the cold, lifeless hand of the killer.
The second dead body was quickly identified as another drug dealer, who had died due to gunshot wounds. Going back to the first body, the gun was found beneath the body of the first drug dealer.
It was pretty obvious what had happened. The two dealers met, had an argument. One had pulled a knife, the other a gun. The one with the knife was faster, as there was more damage to the knifing victim. The gunshot victim had tried to run, but had died from his wounds barely a hundred yards from the scene of the fight. Both men had bled to death.
The only question remaining was, were there any drugs involved? After the bodies had been removed, Jim asked Cassie to check for any drug residue on either body. She agreed, reluctantly. Wondering why. Jim told her the two men were drug dealers. Usually when two drug dealers killed each other, there was usually drugs involved. Where were the drugs? Cassie agreed, and left to start on her job, forensics.
Glad to have gotten Cassie to go away and leave him to his own work, Jim started at the place where the first man had been found, working in ever widening circles, searching for any clue to the presence of a third person. He paused in his search and crouched over a partial footprint on the ground. He compared the direction the footprint pointed with the crime scene. Deciding it was unrelated, he rose and continued his search. Blair was following him closely, maintaining physical as well as verbal contact with his sentinel. Blair spotted something off to one side, he pointed it out to his partner, who immediately went to investigate. The item was a battered little duffel bag. Filled with money, and drugs. Whoever had snatched it form the crime scene had panicked and dropped their loot. Finding signs of the person was easy. In his frenzy he had dropped his wallet along with the stolen duffel bag.
Jim and Blair exchanged grins, and burst out laughing at how easy this was going to be. They simply went to the guys address and knocked at the door. When the man saw Jim's badge, he simply held out his hands for the cuffs, not even trying to run.
They ended up not charging the man with any crime. He had been walking home from work, taking a short cut through the fields, when he had heard two men arguing. He heard one scream, followed closely by a gunshot. He went cautiously toward where he had heard the noises coming from, and found the first dead man, the duffel bag full of narcotics, and a pile of cash. Realizing that the man was dead, he had looked around, not seen anyone, grabbed up the cash and drugs, and run. He hadn't gone very far, when his conscience had gotten the better of him and he had thrown the duffel away, not realizing at the time that his wallet had fallen to the ground, as well. He had gone to a pay phone, and called in the dead body report.
Captain Banks had put the fear of God in the man. Letting him know that it was only the fact that no one else had come across the drugs and money, that he wasn't being charged with a crime. The poor man was nearly beside himself in fear of the enormous captain.
Blair and Jim, watching from the viewing room next door, exchanged smiles and laughter.
Jim conned Blair into typing the reports, as usual. The grad student did so, willingly, as Jim had offered to take them out for dinner at their favourite Mexican place, his treat.
Just another day in the life of a Sentinel and his Guide.
It was a most unusual day. A warm day in Cascade, Washington, without one single cloud in the sky.
Well, that's it. Just a quickie. This was a new experience for me. I decided to write an entire story without dialogue. It was an interesting exercise in communication without voice. I hope it worked. TAE