“But I’ve got a brand-new partner who’s probably going to be moving down here from Baltimore, and she’s got little kids, and I can’t leave her high and dry.”
“That’s very good of you, Agent Decker. Very loyal.”
“I’m not a real agent, Kasimira, and I sure as hell don’t play one on TV. Just make it Decker.”
“Okay,Decker. I think Agent White is lucky to have you as a partner.”
“Funny, I was feeling pretty lucky to have her.”
She took out a card and slid it across. “If you ever change your mind, or just want to talk. And if you’re ever back down in Florida, please look me up.”
“I have to admit, I was almost getting used to that sand thing.”
They shook hands and he saw her out. He went back to the table and finished his beer while he looked down at her card. He glanced over at the trash can, rose, and lifted out the torn-up letter from the Cognitive Institute.
He slowly and methodically pieced it back together, just like he would any case he was working on. He still remembered what it said, and yet he reread every word twice over.
He popped another beer, placed it in a paper bag, put on his jacket, and walked out of the apartment. There was a bench down by the river where he liked to sit and just watch the water flow and the occasional boat pass by.
The letter from the Institute had predicted a great deal of change coming his way, at least in the way his brain functioned. That might be good, or that might be bad, he had no way of knowing. And neither, really, did they.
My superpower served me well on this case, even if it all dropped into place near the end. Better late than never.
And then his thoughts turned to his old partner.
Mary Lancaster didn’t have the best memory, but she had all the other attributes of a good detective. She actually read people better than Decker ever could. And her instincts had become so refined over time that her deductions sometimes had been truly eye-popping. A great many people thought she was just the tugboat sidekick to Decker’s ocean liner. But the fact was, Mary Lancaster had more than held her own with him and everyone else. And she had taught Decker a lot.
And I will miss the woman every minute of every day. Because she understood me better than anyone other than my wife. And she was my friend.
As Decker stared out at the water, he began to wonder what his new partner’s kids looked like. Whether they took after their mom. And he thought of Donte, the child she had lost. And whether White’s mother would actually like him when they met. And whether she really was a good cook. And what the next case they would work on might be about. And about how Freddie White might become just as good a friend to him as Mary Lancaster had been.
And me to her.
Just regular stuff that people thought about every day.
That was the thing about life. You actually had to spend time living it.
Or else what the hell did any of it really matter?
So he sat there with his beer and his thoughts and watched the river cruise on by.