HE WALKED UP the station steps. It was cold. The streetlights were shutting off one by one. Déjà vu, Nathan thought.
“Detective Byrne! I’ve been waiting for this. Good to see you back. A week without you and we’re losing ground. The criminals are taking over.” Manny saluted him and pushed the sign-in book in front of him. “Look who’s been coming by every morning.”
“You called me Nate out at the accident.”
“Your imagination. I’d never be so disrespectful. Come on, look.”
Nathan glanced down at the ledger. “You told them you were my partner so they’d let you ride in the ambulance. You can’t fool me. Wait a minute—Henry?”
“Absolutely. He showed up while you were in the hospital. Ames found him wandering over near where the river turns, that part of the woods, you know, up on the eastern side of the park. Henry said he’d fallen in the river and thought he was going to drown, and then managed to grab something and pull himself to shore. According to him, that’s all he remembers. Until Ames found him. Which, by the way, makes Ames something of a celebrity just now. He went out there for two days after your accident looking and looking, and then old Henry pops up, dirty as a pig in mud, and so happy to see someone he nearly fell in the river again. He came in here to make sure his pal Morris got set free, there being in fact no dead body to worry about, and then afterwards kept coming in to see Ames, who I think he’s adopted.”
“Have I mentioned you talk too much, Manny?”
“Never,” he said, smiling. “Captain wants to see you, first thing, soon as you come in the door.”
“I won’t tell him you kept me waiting,” Nathan said as he headed down the corridor. He couldn’t shake the feeling that what he was doing he had not only done before, but would do again, over and over. As if he was one of those hamsters running on that horrific wheel while the poor thing kept trying to get somewhere else. They must go insane.
“Nathan! Good to see you!” Oberson grabbed his arm as Nathan walked into his office. There was no plant dying on the windowsill, he noted.
“Back to normal, I hear. Good. Good. Henry’s all safe and sound. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy that made Emily. It just sent her over the moon. Here, take a seat.”
Nathan stared at him. In his best times, Oberson was low-keyed. This excitement of his wasn’t normal.
“You wanted to see me?”
“Yes, yes. It’s somewhat irregular, but I think very suitable. I think you’ll agree.”
The captain went around to his own comfortable chair and sat down, laying his hands flat on the desk.
“We’ve had some interesting visitors. They want to see you. Better yet, they want you to show them how a real police station should be run.”
Nathan looked back at him, uncomprehending.
“Who are they? What do you mean? I don’t run the station, you do.”
“Ah, there’s the best part. They’re looking for someone to help run their station in Canyon City, up north. You know, where I have my summer house.”
Canyon City? A town with a population of 600. He knew the place, saw it when he’d had to interrupt the captain’s vacation. No cell phones worked up there so he’d driven up with his former partner Aaron Caulfield three summers before, when they thought they had a serial killer on their hands. They didn’t, as it turned out. It was just a sick hoax.
YOU ARE READING
The Magic Hour
Mystery / Thriller"It was not exactly dark, but a kind of twilight or gloaming. There were neither windows nor candles, and he could not make out where the twilight came from, if not through the walls and roof." -Childe Rowland "T...
