by Mike Ryan
“So, uhh, did you have something in mind that you wanted?”
“For what?” Mia asked, pretending to be clueless.
Recker cleared his throat before continuing. “Well, it kind of sounded like you had, you know, something in mind when you asked that question.”
“What question?”
“About how busy we were.”
“Oh, that question.”
Recker faked a smile of his own. “Yeah. That one.”
“No, not particularly. What makes you think I had something in mind?”
“Umm, I dunno, maybe because you never really ask that since you know how quickly things can change.”
“Oh, don’t I?”
“No, you don’t.”
“Oh. Well, I guess I was just making conversation.”
Recker finished his food then pushed his plate away. “No. You don’t just make conversation like that about my work. You always have specific things in mind if you do inquire about it. So, I know it’s not just making conversation. You don’t do that. So, go ahead and spill it. What’s on your mind?”
Mia wiggled her mouth around and scrunched her nose at him, not liking that he figured her out. “So, do you think you know me so well because of what you do or because we’ve been living together for a while now?”
Recker smiled. “Probably a bit of both.”
Mia grinned at him again, not knowing exactly how to say what was on her mind. She was almost sure he’d rebuff everything she’d say anyway. But she held out hope if she phrased it just right, that maybe, just maybe, he might consider it. “So, umm, you know, I was thinking…”
Recker thought it was funny how she was stumbling over her words and having trouble getting started. He figured it wasn’t too serious or else she would have just come out and say it. “Thinking’s usually a good start.”
The comment drew one of Mia’s playful stares. “Funny.”
Recker laughed. “Just come out with it. Whatever’s on your mind, just say it.”
“OK. Well you know I have some vacation time coming up I need to use.”
“Yeah?”
“Well, I was thinking about using some of it soon.”
Recker shrugged, still not seeing what she was getting at. “OK. Yeah, sounds like a good idea. You could use the time off.”
Mia smiled again, thinking it was cute how he was a world-class CIA operator and could track down any criminal he set out to get, but he couldn’t figure out what she was hinting at. “Well, I was kind of hoping to get away somewhere. You know, like get out of the area for a week, actually go somewhere, like a beach or something. Some place like that.”
“Oh,” Recker said, not sure how he felt about it. He was a little surprised she wanted to go away by herself, but he didn’t want to stand in her way either if she felt she needed some alone time.
Mia could see by the look in his face that he didn’t exactly approve of the idea. “What? What is it?”
“Nothing.”
“Yes, it’s something. I can tell. I can always tell.”
“Well, I don’t want to sound like a jealous, obsessive boyfriend or anything.”
Mia scrunched her eyebrows together, having no idea where his line of thinking was going. “But?”
“No but,” Recker said. “You should if that’s what you want.”
“What I want?”
“Yeah. I mean, I’d obviously miss you and wouldn’t want to be away from you, but if you feel you need to go away for a week or so, then I think it’s a good idea and you should.”
Mia closed her eyes and sighed. She put her hand up to her face and rubbed her forehead, thinking this was not how she pictured it going in her mind when she initially thought of this conversation.
“Uhh, no, no, you don’t understand. I wasn’t planning on going by myself.”
“Oh?” Recker asked, thinking he’d seen this scene play out in several movies. It was usually right about now the bombshell was dropped on an unsuspecting partner, having to pick up the pieces after being dumped for someone else. Mia could see in his eyes he was starting to have questions, other things going through his mind.
“No, no, nothing like that,” she quickly reassured him. “I love you. I would never dream of doing something like that.”
A sense of relief lifted off Recker’s shoulders. “Then what are you saying?”
“I’m trying to say I want to go on vacation...with you. Us. You and me.”
“Us?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.” Recker turned his head away slightly and looked toward the floor.
That wasn’t quite the response Mia had counted on. It wasn’t even an objection. “What? What does that mean?”
“What’s what mean?” Recker said, turning his head back to her.
“Oh. You said ‘oh.’ What does that mean?”
Recker shrugged. “I don’t know. Just an oh.”
“You don’t just say oh.”
“I don’t?”
Mia shook her head. “No.”
“Oh.”
They stayed silent for a minute as Mia waited for a response. But as Recker’s eyes danced around the room, she wasn’t sure if he was thinking about it or not. She even suspected he might have even forgotten the question.
“Mike?”
“Hmm?”
“What do you think?”
“About what?” Recker asked.
At this point, Mia wasn’t sure if he was actually being this absent minded or if he was purposely trying to avoid answering the question. It wouldn’t have been the first time he completely tried to push a subject to the side he didn’t want to talk about. It was sometimes his way of trying to let someone down easy, by not talking about whatever the subject was.
Mia then laughed, believing that’s exactly what he was doing. “No, you’re not gonna play that game with me this time.”
“What? What game?”
“The avoid answering a question game, then talk about something else in the hopes I’ll eventually move on to something else. That way you don’t actually have to talk about what you don’t wanna talk about.”
Recker tried not to crack a smile. “Is that what I’m doing?”
Mia put her finger in the air. “That’s exactly what you’re doing and I’m not letting you get away with it. Not this time.”
Recker shrugged. “OK.”
“So, can we talk about what I said?”
“Which was?”
Mia rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. “The part where I asked about us going on vacation...together.”
“Oh...that.”
“Yes...that.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been on a vacation,” Recker said.
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
“I wouldn’t know what to do?”
Mia looked at him in a disbelieving fashion. “You’re not a robot, Mike. You just go somewhere, have a good time, relax, leave your worries behind, that’s pretty much it. I think you can handle it. And, oh yeah...you don’t have to shoot anybody.”
“Not shoot anyone? That sounds depressing. Sure you’re not sending me to some hospital or something?”
“Really?”
Recker laughed. “I dunno. Did you have some place specific in mind?”
“Not really. I just would really like for us to get away somewhere and have a romantic week together. Where we don’t have to worry about hospitals, or guns, or cases, or work, or anything. Just the two of us. We could go to the shore or the mountains. Anywhere’s really fine with me.”
Even though Mia was excited by the proposition of them going away, she could tell her partner was not quite as enthused. He didn’t have the same glow on his face as she did.
“Isn’t that one of the reasons you guys brought Chris on?” Mia asked. “So he could take some of the pressure and responsibilities off you, so you had a little more time to relax. I mean, if you work every day, eventually you’re gonna
explode. Everyone needs some down time. You gotta unwind every now and then.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“What’s the matter? Don’t you wanna go somewhere with me?”
Recker gave her a face. “You know it’s not that.”
“Then, what is it? What are you hesitating about?”
“I don’t know. I guess I hate change. Anything out of the routine makes me feel out of my element.”
“I’m not asking you to go away forever,” Mia said. “Just for a week. And it doesn’t even have to be right now. Maybe in a few weeks, next month, the month after. I would just like to know we have something together that’s outside of all this.”
Recker got up and walked around the table. He took Mia’s hand as he brought her up to her feet and put his arms around her. “We do have something outside all this.”
Mia couldn’t help but look somewhat disappointed, figuring her vacation idea was never going to happen. Recker gently caressed her chin, then tilted her head up so she’d look at him. He then kissed her lips and scooped her up in his arms, her legs straddling around his midsection and crossing together around his back.
“I’ll talk to David about it,” Recker said, finally getting a smile across his girlfriend’s face.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Recker then walked into the living room, Mia still glued to his arms. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“What are you doing?” Mia asked.
Recker gave her a flirty stare and smile. “Telling him I’m gonna be late.”
4
Recker sauntered into the office, ready to get down to work after taking some extra time with Mia. He drew a crooked look from Jones as he did.
“So glad you could make it and join us this morning,” Jones sarcastically said, eyeing him up and down.
“Well, I know how much you struggle to keep things together without me being here, so I figured I owed it to you and the team to show up.”
Though Recker was smiling after his quip, Jones simply rolled his eyes, not wanting to admit he found it humorous. “Well, you look...refreshed.”
“Oh, don’t start this again.”
A wry smile came across Jones’ face as he turned back to his computer, figuring he wouldn’t tease his partner too much this time. Sensing their bantering was done, Recker looked around the office and wondered where Haley was.
“Where’s Chris?”
“While you were home in bed getting your groove on, we had something come up,” Jones said, still not able to resist jabbing at him again. “He’s out taking care of it right now.”
“Anything serious?”
“Nothing too bad.”
“Should I roll on it as backup?” Recker asked.
“I do not believe that will be necessary. It’s a simple robbery attempt. One or two guys max. Chris should be able to handle it relatively easily. Neither guy has an extensive criminal history or are particularly violent.”
“Newbies, huh?”
“I suppose one could say that,” Jones replied. “Besides, you have something else you need to deal with.”
“I do?”
Jones wrote some things down on a piece of paper, copying them from the screen, then turned and handed it to Recker. “Yes, you do.”
“What’s this?” Recker asked as he read it.
“What does it look like? A name and an address.”
“But for what?”
“I have tracked down the man Vincent’s supplier dealt with.”
“Huh? Vincent said he’d already dealt with him and was convinced he knew nothing more about it.”
“Yes, the supplier,” Jones said. “But his supplier gave him a name and phone number of someone who didn’t exist, remember?”
“Yeah, Vincent said it was a dead end.”
“Yes, for him, it was a dead end. For me, it was not.”
“What’d you get?”
“Well I’ve traced that fake name and number to another fake name and number, which led to another fake name and another...”
“I kind of get the point,” Recker said, not really wanting to listen to the same thing repeatedly.
“Oh, well, anyway, everything led me to that name and number there,” Jones replied, pointing to the paper.
“Donald Little. What do you know about him?”
“From what I can gather, he’s a rather shrewd businessman. And while I have not had the chance to delve too deep into his background, I can say he has several questionable things on his record. And I don’t mean record as in criminal, of which he has none.”
“He’s just into some shady stuff.”
“Precisely. But he does have some rather loose connections to several criminal organizations, as well as individuals with no organization ties, which leads me to believe he is someone who may play on the outskirts of the enterprises themselves.”
“He’s a guy who sets things up,” Recker said. “But doesn’t get his hands dirty himself.”
“From the looks of it.”
“So, what does this guy do for a living? On paper, anyway.”
“Private consulting.”
Recker couldn’t help but laugh. “If that isn’t cover for doing shady stuff and screaming you’re involved in illegal stuff, then I don’t know what is.”
“Yes, well, the odds are good. But we won’t know unless you pay him a visit and talk to him.”
“And what if he doesn’t feel like talking?”
“We both know you can be… persuasive.”
“You think this guy is directly involved in this?” Recker asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t say he definitely knows the parameters of what’s going on, but I think it’s safe to assume he knows the players in the game.”
“This his house or his office?”
“As far as I can make out, he doesn’t have an office.”
“This guy’s as dirty as it gets. I don’t even need to see anything else.”
“Well if this is his home, does he have protection?”
“Tough to say,” Jones answered. “I have not uncovered definitive proof in either direction as to whether that is the case. To err on the side of caution, I would suggest assuming there are one or two.”
“When you want me to head out?”
“No time like the present.”
Recker went to his cabinet and removed a couple of weapons for his chat with Little, expecting it wouldn’t be quite so pleasant of a time. After grabbing his guns, he started to leave the office, walking past Jones. Just as Recker got to the door, his mind turned to Mia for some reason. He started thinking of what they had talked about that morning. He kept staring at the door, wondering if he should mention something to Jones.
Though Jones wasn’t specifically watching what Recker was doing, he did notice he walked past his desk after grabbing his guns. Without saying another word or having any more questions, Jones assumed he was leaving. With not hearing the door close, Jones stopped working and turned around, observing Recker standing there. It appeared to him Recker was just looking at the door. Thinking it was strange, Jones watched him for a minute, wondering what he was up to. After a couple minutes, Jones couldn’t take the suspense any more.
“Is there something wrong with the door?”
“No, looks all right,” Recker answered.
“Then why have you been staring at it for five minutes?”
“It hasn’t been five minutes.”
“OK. Let’s call it three and a half. Are you OK?”
“Yeah, fine.”
“Then why are you inspecting the door?”
“I’m not inspecting it,” Recker replied. “Just thinking.”
“Perhaps you would like to share?”
Recker sighed, not really wanting to come out with it, but also didn’t want to keep it bottled up inside for a while. He figured it was best to just say it and get it over with. He turned around and w
alked back over to the desk. Jones studied his face and automatically knew what it entailed. While he didn’t know the specifics, he knew that face. He’d seen it before. It was that face Recker had when Mia said something that was troubling him. Something he didn’t want to think about but was now forced to. Jones didn’t even wait for Recker to begin.
“So, what was it Mia said that is bothering you?”
Recker looked puzzled as he sat on the corner of the desk. “What makes you think she said something that’s bothering me?”
“Please, Mike, I’ve seen that look from you before. It’s obviously not something work related. Whenever you have a problem with Mia, you get a particular kind of look on your face.”
“I do?”
“It’s unmistakable.”
“I’m gonna have to work on that.”
“I’m quite certain whatever you do won’t have the desired effect that you are looking for,” Jones said.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Jones smiled, but then turned his attention back to the issue at hand. “Anyway, enough kidding around, what is it you are having a problem with.”
Recker rubbed the back of his head as he thought of how best to say it. “Mia sprung something on me this morning.”
Jones’ eyes almost bulged out of its sockets as he imagined what it could have been. He was already fearing the worst. “She’s not, umm, you know...”
Recker leaned in closer to him to try to figure out what he was trying to say. “What?”
“You know,” Jones said, putting his hand on his stomach and making a circular motion.
Recker quickly denied the assumption. “Oh, no, no, no… no, nothing like that.”
Jones looked relieved and wiped his forehead, even though there was no perspiration on it. “Thank heavens.”
“Why would you even think such a thing?”
“Well you were being somewhat secretive. Seemed like the thing to think.”
“Oh,” Recker said, then pretended to be offended. “What would be so bad about that?”
“Well nothing...”
“What, you don’t think I could be a father?”
“It’s not that...”
“You think I’m not capable of having a child?”
“No, that’s not what...”
“What, because we’re not married yet?”