#graegrape

Lynne paced the room, her gaze catching on Kamila at each pass. The poor girl was pressed into the couch arm with knees drawn to her chest in as tight a ball as she could be. At every pass, Lynne knew she should stop and sit with her or say or do something.

She wanted to pull at her hair; what could she do? What could she possibly say to this? No little girl should have to sit through her own mother’s funeral.

A knock at the door caused her to freeze in her tracks and treat the offence to a blank stare. She wasn’t in any mood to deal with anyone, and who could be coming now? Maybe a neighbour needed something, but couldn’t they go to another apartment? If she waited maybe they’d go away.

Another knock then, “Lyyyne baby, are you in?”

Detective Cabanela. She scrambled for the door and flung it open causing it to bounce off the wall in her haste.

“Theeere you are.”

 “Ah, sorry, I… um.”  She gestured to the apartment. “Do you want to come in?”

She stepped back, he followed, and she rather more carefully closed the door.

“Can I get you anything?”

“That’s my liiine.” A flicker of a smile and then it was gone. She wasn’t used to seeing him look grim—one more thing wrong with this day.

She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t…” With a nod to the kitchen she hurried over to it, hoping he had followed. Put a little distance between them and Kamila.

Thankfully he had and she spun around to face him once more.

“Why me?”

“You trust Jowd.”

“Of course I do!”

“Jowd trusts you. It’s a simple equation, baby.”

“But… but I don’t know what I’m doing.”

He flashed a grin at her and for just a moment things almost felt normal. “Neither did he at first. You’ll do great, baby! You just keep holdin’ on for now.”

“And it’ll be over soon?”

“You can count on it. We can’t leave him rottin’ in jail foreeever, after all, can we? Nooow then.”

Cabanela spun away to approach Kamila and join her on the couch. Lynne watched as he said something quietly she couldn’t hear. Kamila nodded, something else was said followed by a more vigorous head shake. Then she reached out to hug him. He returned the hug. When they broke apart, Cabanela with a flourish, pulled out a colourful wrapped candy. Kamila took it, her mouth twitching briefly into an-almost smile even as she drew her knees back up to her chest.

Cabanela rose to his feet, gave Kamila’s shoulder a squeeze and started making for the door. 

“Are you going already?” Lynne asked.

“Things to dooo, baby. If you need anythin’ you give me a riiing.”

“I will,” Lynne said and then he was gone out the door.

She approached Kamila. “What’s that he gave you?”

Kamila toyed with the wrapper. “Chocolate.”

Sometimes she wondered if he had an endless supply of them. Her gaze caught on something white resting on the couch cushion.

What was this? An envelope rested on the couch cushions where he had sat, and her name was written in flourishing script. In confusion she lifted it and peered inside to find a wad of money. She blinked at it and glanced back toward the door. This wasn’t necessary—no, who was she kidding? Anything was helpful right now, but he could have at least let her thank him.

And now Lynne was back to staring helplessly around the apartment. Her gaze fell on the sink full of dishes she’d been neglecting. Right, that was something she could do here. Responsibility and all that.

She scrubbed furiously at a plate. This wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair! With a puff of breath, she managed to resist throwing a cup into the sink; the last thing she needed was broken dishes as well. She started to reach for the plug before stopping to let the water warm her hands while she stared at the soap foam. It was going to get better. It had to.

--

He looked tired. It wasn’t something Lynne thought she would ever think about Cabanela, but there the thought was in all its strangeness. She wasn’t sure if she could articulate what made her think so, but facing each other now in front of the station, after she’d nearly slammed into him, lost in her own thoughts, there was just something heavy about him.

It didn’t show in the smile he gave her. “Eeeasy there, baby.”

“Sorry!”

And it seemed their interaction would end right there as he started to dance up the few shallow steps to the main entrance before she blurted out a “Wait!”

He pirouetted and as she watched him stand practically en pointe, she wondered if she’d simply misread him, but were those faint shadows around his eyes?

She didn’t give herself time to think through the question before she asked it. “Would you like to come to dinner later? I’ll just be ordering in, but I’m sure Kamila would love to see you!” When was the last time she’d have seen him? He’d made some brief stops those first months and not since.

“That sounds looovely, but work calls I’m afraid.”

Lynne frowned. She’d seen him from a distance this morning when she’d gotten in and she was certain she’d spotted him last night at his desk as she was leaving too. She’d almost suspect he’d stayed all night, but even he had to sleep sometime, right? Starting to formulate some kind of protest, she was too late. He’d already spun back and was giving her a cheery wave.

“Paaass on my regards.” Then he was gone with a swish of his coat through the doors.

She needs more than that, Lynne thought and tried to not to think the next thought, so do I…

Oh, what was she thinking? He was the precinct’s star detective and she was just a rookie police officer. Of course he’d been too busy and even more so if the gossip was to be believed—his sights set on Inspector.

She shook herself as she set off–that wasn't right either. He was busy, yeah, but this was probably just some bad timing. Never mind him, she’d see to it that she and Kamila had a great evening anyway.

--

There were three groups Lynne came to notice: those who didn’t seem to care, those who made her wrinkle her nose at how they tried to grease their way into his good books, no doubt hoping to use him as leverage for themselves, well, except the few she was pretty sure were crushing on him, but she wasn't about to touch that one, and finally, those who had her rolling her eyes in entirely different ways for what she saw as nothing more than jealousy.  

Such as the snippets of conversation she was overhearing now from a nearby pair of detectives.

“Give it up,” one said. “The mighty detective doesn’t have time for the little fish. We won’t help him climb the ladder.”

Two groaned. “I was hoping to transfer to the Special Investigations Unit, but if that arrogant ass gets command?”

“Hey, careful now. Such words might stain that precious coat. We can’t have that.”

“The horror. Hey.” Two dropped his voice. “Think it’s all legit? All those solved cases?”

Lynne rose and as she passed them by she said casually over her shoulder, “Don’t worry. With those kind of deductions the SIU is a long way off.” 

Nonsense that probably didn’t warrant a response and he hardly needed defending, but she still smiled a little to herself as she left the pair behind. Sometimes you just had to get in there.

She only wished she didn’t keep hearing such things in what felt like an ever-expanding ripple.

Detective Cabanela only cared about power.

Sneaking rumours of falsified evidence. She had to laugh at that. He would never and nothing ever came of those whispered suspicions only proving her right and the idiots wrong.

But power?

No, there had to be more to it than just that. She knew him.

Didn’t she? 

--

“Did you hear? Cabanela made Inspector!”

Jowd sounded amused. “Did he now? He always was ambitious.”

Lynne gripped the phone tighter. “You didn’t know? He still hasn’t come to see you? Or call you?”

“What business does he have with a murderer?” He chuckled. “And I’m hardly the one our new Inspector should be seen with.”

“But you’re not,” Lynne said, an automatic refrain by now that landed on deaf ears as always.

“You should know by now a good detective follows the evidence.”

“Sometimes the evidence is wrong!”

“And sometimes it’s right. Follow his lead.”

“What and abandon you?”

“That’s right!” Jowd said cheerfully.

Lynne resisted hurling the phone at the wall. “That’s not happening,” she said instead. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Detective Jowd.” And hung up before he could protest that as well.

“What did you say about Cabanela?” Kamila asked.

Lynne hesitated.

Kamila picked at her skirt and added, “You said abandon. But, he wouldn’t. He used to always come visit when…when mom was alive. He wouldn’t just leave dad.”

“Yeah…” Lynne said slowly before shaking her head. “No, you’re right. I’m sure he has a good reason.” Being the Inspector couldn’t be more important than his best friend or the people he cared about. There had to be a reason.

--

Lynne stretched and covered a huge yawn squeezing her eyes shut as she did so. When she opened them she found herself staring at a steaming cup placed on her desk and she followed the offering arm up to Inspector Cabanela.

“Workin’ late, baby?”

Like he was one to talk. She waved at her papers. “Studying actually. I figure any advantage I can take to get my badge, right? Get the right environment and all.”

His eyes sparkled. “Employin’ some tactics, hm?”

“It can’t hurt!”

“If you run into anything stumpin’ you, give me a shouuut.”

“Thanks! Oh, and thanks for the coffee. I could use the boost.”

“That baaadge is as good as yours, baby.”

“That’s the hope,” she said. It had to be. It would be, it would be.

“You can rely on iiit.”

He started to turn away when she abruptly leaned forward. 

“Inspector?”

He partially turned back and she found herself frozen staring up at him and realizing she didn’t know what she actually wanted to say. To invite him over again sometime as if this time it might work—Missile as adorable as he was, was unlikely to provide that last needed incentive. To all go out somewhere together instead? To demand why he never came to see her or Kamila? To demand why he never called or visited Jowd? To ask why. Just why? Why the Inspector? Why the distance? Was it really just power and ambition?

“Nothing, sorry.”

His gaze was sharp and she reached for her coffee, suddenly feeling unfamiliarly awkward. However, he didn’t say anything more and turned away with a cheerful wave.

“Good niiight, baby.”

Lynne stared at her strewn papers. His goals were a mystery, but she still had her own to tend to.

--

Lynne clenched her fists. As tempting as it was to slam his desk, that wasn’t going to help her cause now. “But I can help now! You said it would be soon! That was years ago!”

Inspector Cabanela leaned back in his seat looking as unfazed as when she’d charged in, her new badge a comforting weight in her coat, and let out some of her plans and expected… expected more than nothing.

“Things chaaange, baby.

“Like you abandoning him?”

“And what buuusiness, pray tell, would I have with a convicted murderer?”

“You can’t really believe it.”

“The evidence and his own word are against him, baby.”

“Maybe the evidence is wrong! And he…” She hunched her shoulders. Over and over, it was the one sticking point in every theory she could craft, in every phone call she made to him. “He has to have a reason…” For lying. To all of them. For leaving Kamila and her.

Cabanela leaned forward to pull in paperwork. The dismissiveness roiled off him, though he still caught her eye as he said, “A closed case is for historians. You’ve got your jooob, Detective Lynne, stick to it.”

She opened her mouth before a rebuttal fully formed then snapped it shut. Spinning on her heel she marched out of his office without another word.

Stick to the job. Is that all he had for her? Unless… but no… did he? Too long ago, standing in her kitchen, she would have believed it. Do her job, find the truth, find His truth. Now though? The Inspector was, well, the Inspector now. As much as she rolled her eyes at the gossip there was no denying that he had changed. Had grown distant, harder even… How often did she even see him anymore?

Then again, was it her fault if she happened to interpret his meaning in a different way than he had intended? And maybe it was his intent after all. Besides, it wasn’t as though he was her direct commander anyway. She glanced back at his office door. She was a detective, and she would do her job.

I’ll prove it to you both. No matter what.

--

The junkyard was behind her and Lynne finally paused to take a breath. Dying could really take it out of a girl. That and a thickening mystery and a time-limit, and oh gods she really needed to get moving if she didn’t want to keep Kamila waiting.

And the time-limit.

The much-tighter-than-she-expected time-limit. She quickened her pace. How could no one tell her! How could he be so cold about it! She’d defended the Inspector—'he’s not like that’—was that even true anymore? He said he didn’t suspect her, but here she was on the run from both assassins and the police—police who should have been on her side, who should have been on His side. Here she was relying on a stranger—a ghost!—to hopefully help her out further. Add that mystery to her tasks as well. Of course she’d at least keep an ear out for anything that might help; she could do that much for him.

If she didn’t get killed or arrested again. Mind, if she did die, maybe he’d turn up again, which was more than she felt she could say for anyone else right now.

For now, all she could do was plunge into the darkening night. Alone.

--

If the job of urgency was to override everything else Lynne knew she was giving it one hell of a big job. Fear of what would happen if she didn’t make it. She had to. She couldn’t not make it now. Not after coming so far.

Fury and disgust at the Inspector. Was everything said about him really true? Had she been the fool for ever trusting him?  Anger at Detective Jowd for cutting her off when the Inspector deserved every word. Relief and delight at seeing Detective Jowd right there in the flesh and not executed at all. And then there was the unease under everything that her goal was in the very place she’d avoided for the last ten years.

But urgency overcomes all and so she hurried on in a hunt for a music box and answers at last. She kept her trust, she wouldn’t abandon those who needed her unlike some people. 

--

It was cramped and there was a chance they could be caught at any moment yet for the first time in Lynne wasn’t sure how long anymore, a tension started to ease. She was at Detective Jowd’s side; things were still bad, but they were getting better and they would catch up and save Kamila.

She’d been wrong and couldn’t be happier to be so. Inspector Cabanela hadn’t given up at all. She couldn’t shake the disturbing image of him sprawled over that chair in a battered impression of a dirty rag, and the pang of guilt she felt when she overhead him speaking, but the relief was very real. 

Then again, he hadn't exactly helped his cause. They would have words when this was all over. She wasn’t about to let him get off free and if she had to use him being stuck in a hospital to get him to really talk for once, so be it. If she had to drag Jowd with her, she'd do that too. The thought Cabanela would leave them for all real this time didn't bear thinking about. They were all going to make it and they would all be together. A family…