Lewis couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more going on at the office than his team was telling him. Since closing the Patterson case, they’d not gotten any major assignments. True, Sergeant Noble and the other detectives had explained the politics of the situation to him but there had to be more to it than that. Maybe when Lieutenant Masters returned things would speed up to a more acceptable level. He hated it when things were slow. Granted, there were times when a lull was nice but it wasn’t good to be sitting around under- or un-utilized while all the other detectives and departments were busy handling cases. It hurt the unit’s morale and it caused the rest of the precinct to lose respect towards them. Of course, it did not help that the detectives in the unit all seemed to have advanced degrees beyond the expected criminal justice or criminology diplomas. Lewis himself had done a double major in criminal justice and computer science but he knew that James Noble put him to shame. What he was coming to learn was that the rest of the team did as well. Yann might be the only one who only had three degrees and he was working his way through at least another one at the moment. In the month since Lewis had arrived, he’d observed that the others had managed to read no less than an average of three books per day.
So why were they shoved off in a cubbyhole of an office, virtually ignored, and not given many cases? When they were handed something, they worked through it quickly and with a ruthless efficiency that stunned even him. In any other city, their department would be held up as an example to be emulated. Even if the individuals comprising the unit were difficult to work with, that would be ignored in favor of the fact that they were incredibly good at what they did. Their personality quirks would be tolerated so long as they kept closing cases that other departments stumbled over.
He glanced at his watch. It was nearly half-past noon. The rest of the team had already left to get their own lunch at the pizzeria they favored on Fridays. The past few weeks, Lewis had joined them. This week, however, he was meeting with the person responsible for convincing him to apply for the position when it came up. His old captain from Dallas had seen that he wasn’t happy and had managed to piss off his direct superiors, shutting down any hope of being promoted no matter how hard he worked. So, when word had come through the grapevine that Lieutenant Masters was looking for someone with his qualifications and personality, Captain Gonzales had encouraged him to put in for it. Lewis shoved his notebooks and tablet in his messenger bag, grabbed his bottle of water, and left to make his appointment.
The restaurant was a short drive away and, luckily for him, the traffic wasn’t too bad. Arriving only a few minutes late, Lewis ducked inside the steak-house and glanced past the hostess’s station towards the bar. He grinned with relief when Gonzales hefted a tall glass of beer towards him and waved him over. Settling into the booth across from his former CO, Lewis took a menu from the waiter with a quick thanks, studied it for a second before making his choice and setting it aside, and then met the other man’s welcoming gaze with a troubled look of his own.
“Como estas?” Gonzales chuckled. “You’re looking as worried as ever.”
“It could be going a lot better, boss,” Lewis said frankly. “I think the entire precinct hates the unit I’m in. It doesn’t help that I walked in the first day thinking I was taking over for the LT and they’d already decided that their own Sergeant, Jim Noble, would be running the team instead. He hasn’t given me too much grief over it, though.”
“Yeah. They probably do and Jim’s a good guy. Alex and he don’t really give two shits about who’s in charge. That’s part of why their department catches hell like it does. Have you met Alex yet?”
“No. Lieutenant Masters has been out all month.”
“Well, meeting her is an experience.”
“Excuse me? Her?”
“Yeah. Alexandra Masters. Rookie, are you all right? You’re white even for a white guy right now,” the captain said.
“They’ve been calling her Al or Alex. I assumed…”
“Ah, gotcha. Nope. Alex is a woman. One hell of a woman, too. Of course, you’ll forget she’s a señora about three minutes after she starts talking because she don’t talk like any woman or act like any woman I’ve ever known. But she is female. That’s probably why she’s the LT instead of Jim. Could be pure merit, though,” he shrugged. “Woman’s sharp.”
“Did you know this was going to be a bum assignment when you told me to apply?” Lewis asked. “C’mon, Julio. Play it straight with me,” he said flatly. The captain sighed and started to answer but they were interrupted by the waiter returning to take their orders. They gave them and the captain asked for another round of beers. When the drinks arrived and it looked like they were going to be left alone for a while, Julio took a deep breath and nodded.
“I knew that the higher-ups here didn’t much care for the team Alex leads. But, it’s not completely a bum assignment. Listen to me, kid,” he said, cutting off Lewis before the man could interrupt him. “Yeah, the top guys here are jerking them around. But with you here, there’s a chance you can help them turn it around. Problem is, according to you, Alex has been out for a whole month. I don’t know what’s up with that because that woman is textbook workaholic. Jimmy Noble, though…he hates the Nola chief. Well, maybe ‘hate’ isn’t the right word. Noble’s too cold to hate anyone. Despise is more like it for him.”
“Do you know him well?”
“I guest-lectured a few classes he and Alex were in when they were doing their undergraduate degrees. It was weird having a couple of kids in my class who could barely drive. They stuck together, though. Kind of had to, I guess. Both of them were just fifteen and already half-way through undergrad double majors. Three years later they moved in together during grad school and a few years after that they were both hired on in Baton Rouge. Those two are practically joined at the hip. If you get on the wrong side of one of them, you’ll be on the wrong side of the other.”
“So they play favorites?” Lewis asked, his stomach sinking.
“Not so much. Alex will knock the shit out of Jim if she thinks he needs it and he’ll cut her down if he thinks she’s earned it. But they know each other in ways that even the most veteran partners don’t.”
“Were they ever…?”
“Well, they did get married in grad school so they could live together in the married student housing and keep their scholarships,” Julio chuckled. “I doubt that they ever did anything romantic — I doubt it even occurred to them to try it. They just don’t think like that. You’ll see how it is when she comes back. They’re like…reflections of each other.”
There was a lull in the conversation when the food arrived and both men dug in. Over the meal, they talked about coworkers back in Dallas, cases they remembered, history they shared. Lewis waved off the offer of another beer — he had to return to the office after lunch — but did sit for a few minutes chatting. “Why, boss?” he asked, coming back to the original question.
“Why do they hate your unit so much?” Gonzales guessed. Lewis nodded. “Rookie, it’s never easy for regular folks to deal with being around geniuses. Me, I’m used to it. My father and big brother are brainiacs. But for most people, folks like you and your team are either a source of awe best viewed from a distance or a source of constant irritation. Y’all break shit up. You rip and tear things down and you don’t care about how we’ve always done things. You only care about if the answer is the right one. And, well…that’s good. Really, we should be trying to make sure we’re getting the right answers and going after the actual perps. But Jim and Alex and the others…they’re bad at explaining themselves. They stepped all over the fire marshal’s toes up at Oxford. Now, they were right and they could prove it in the lab but that didn’t matter at all. Their science didn’t get them very far because they don’t have the art of dealing with people. You do, Rookie. That’s why Alex was looking for someone like you.”
“I obviously don’t have much art there,” Lewis muttered. “Otherwise I’d still be in Dallas instead of sitting on my hands here.”
“Kid, trust me, compared to the rest of the guys with you, you’ve got people skills. And the people here in New Orleans are actually good with weird. This is the best place for you. Tell you what, though. If you’re still treading water in six months, give me a call. I can pull some strings and see about getting you into Quantico. The Fed sure as hell won’t care if you’re smart. They’ll like it. It’s the blue collars who get their noses bent out of shape when you start talking over their heads too far.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, sir,” Lewis sighed.
“And here’s another piece of advice for you,” the captain added as he pulled out his wallet. “On the house. You’ve been trying to figure these guys out. I’ll bet they’ve been trying to decide if they can trust you or not. Nola’s probably been wanting to get some dirt on them to try to run them out of the city if they can. Or, at the very least, collar them up even tighter. And you smart guys don’t like it when someone puts you in chains — you always find a way to slip out of them. If I were you, I’d just tell Jimmy and the others straight out that you’re not a rat and that you’re with them. And I’d go make my introductions to Alex this weekend, too. Find out why she’s been out if you can. If she’s not at her place, check Jim’s.”
“Thanks, boss,” Lewis nodded as he pulled some cash out of his own wallet to cover his half of the bill and the tip. The two men rose from their seats and clasped hands, shaking them firmly. Gonzales smiled up at his protege with real warmth and good humor. “I’ll get used to it, I suppose.”
“Give yourself some time, Rookie. And just remember that these people are all rough edges. But they’ll be easier on you than Tiffany was.” Lewis flinched and Gonzales laughed. “We all have to learn that lesson once, kid. Take care of yourself, son. Let me know how it works out for you.”
“I will, boss,” Lewis promised, his face burning with scarlet flush of angry embarrassment. “You take care, too.”
~*~*~*~
Jim eyed Lewis sharply when the man rushed back into the office well after lunch. They usually were only allotted a half-hour for their lunch break but considering that none of them took it during the week, Jim let them off the hook on Fridays and they all went out for pizza as a team. Lewis had excused himself from it this week saying he had a friend from Dallas visiting him. However, he’d run over the normal one-hour break by an extra hour. Jim had half-thought that he might just be planning to take the balance of the afternoon off. It wouldn’t have been an issue — God knew that they had absolutely nothing to do lately. Jim had sent pointed complaints to the detective’s union and to the police chief but he knew they would be ignored. Still, anything even slightly out-of-character had his hackles raised. Until they knew exactly what plans the higher-ups had for spying on them now that Jim had thwarted their eavesdropping scheme, no one was going to rest easy.
“Sir?” Lewis said politely, walking over to the break area where Jim was sitting. He had turned on the PS3 and loaded up Diablo III since there were no cases to work on. The rest of the team were either logging time doing World of Warcraft dungeon runs or playing Star Trek: Online. “Do you have any plans this evening?”
“Al, Lil, and I were going to play Call of Duty.”
“I’m more of a Halo guy myself.”
“We’ve been looking for a fourth. Come over and we can see what you’re made of,” Jim offered.
“Good. It will give us a chance to talk and clear up a few things. I think you may be working under a few false assumptions and I’d like to clear them up but in an environment where there’s no chance for lines to be crossed,” Lewis added, glancing over at the mandatory office telephones. Jim raised his eyebrows, intrigued. Perhaps he had misread the new guy. “Would Lieutenant Masters like me to bring her anything?” Jim gave him a small, wry grin.
“Just the name of the man who told you she is a she,” he said as the rest of the team groaned. “There’s been a bet going over what your reaction would be when you found out.”
“Well, I was expecting a guy… I have no issues with the LT being a female, though.”
“That’s too bad, actually. We could have made a fortune off selling tickets to your beatdown if you had,” Jim muttered. “Pass me something to write my address down on. We’ll be expecting you at 7:30 sharp. I’ll hope you’re in the mood for Thai food tonight because that’s what Al is planning to order.”
“I’ll bring the antacid,” Lewis said dryly, “and the No More Tears for when I get done wiping the floor with you in Halo.”
“Uh-oh,” Yann hooted from across the room, “looks like newbie here thinks he’s going to beat the Dream Team. Or are you going to pair up with cher Madame Noble at long last?”
“Shit,” Jim muttered. “Guys versus Girls?”
“Two hundred on the girls!” Jonah shouted.
“Same here,” David agreed.
“What are we betting on?” Sam asked, plucking an earphone away and looking around in confusion. “Whatever it is, my money is on Jim.”
“How much?” Yann asked with a sly grin.
“One-fifty.”
“I will bank for one hundred on the boy’s team,” Yann said. “And I will pay you both fifty dollars to not tell Alex that I am betting against her and the sweet Lilian.”
“Oh, shit,” Sam groaned, “Jim versus Alex? Can I change my bet?”
“Nope,” Yann laughed. “The match will be viewable on the team’s Twitch.tv channel. Louis — do not cost me my money, bonhomme, eh?” Lewis gaped at his coworkers before he started laughing until his ribs ached.