Part 5: Toast

Dennis Richard O'Reilly

"New moon last night," the Commander says after making Detective Blisflix sit through a full minute of silence. "You got any more bright ideas?" He doesn't wait for a reply. He reads from the sheet of paper he's holding. "New moon, new moon, new moon, then a month off. Vacation maybe?" Blisflix starts to speak, but the Commander continues. "New moon. What do you know?"

Blisflix waits for the Commander to say more. The Commander looks up from the paper and repeats, "What do you know?"

"He broke his pattern, twice," Blisflix says. "But it's the same guy. Last month, we had surveillance on all five of the seven other names on the list who still live in the city. Something spooked him. He comes back this month and hits a bad guy not on the list." The detective starts to reach for his collar but stops himself. He wonders where his boss Jaime Villa Lobos is.

"You just told me what I already know," the Commander says evenly. "Are you saying I know as much about this as you do?"

Blisflix replies just as evenly. "We're looking into how the shooter got the victim's name." The detective stops himself from saying the name he knows the Commander is currently reading from the paper in his hands: Ronald Groat, repeat sex offender, not-so-recently paroled. "No physical evidence yet, but we're still looking." He's gonna can my ass, thinks Blisflix. I got nothin'.

But when the Commander speaks, he sounds calm, almost apologetic. "We've got 28 days, right? Or 28 nights more correctly? Something like that?" He puts the paper on his desk. "I leave at six. I want an update before then. Let Villa Lobos handle the press."

That's where he is, thinks Blisflix. Better him than me. "Will do, sir," he says as he stands and leaves the Commander's office. As he walks back to his cubicle, Blisflix thinks, if I don't have something by 5:45, I'm toast.

Part 6: Mrs. Pellegrini