Long Shadows

Chapter 4

The letter waiting for Decker was from the Cognitive Institute in Chicago, or CI as Decker and everyone else there referred to it.

He had gone there the month before for some routine tests, which they had done on him annually ever since he had been there as a patient after his football injury.

He put his suitcase down inside the door of his apartment, and tore open the letter with his thick finger.

It was several pages long, which surprised him. Usually, they were much shorter. But usually there was nothing really to tell him. This time was different.

He sat down and read it through twice, though his perfect memory had already imprinted all of the contents in his mind forever.

He slowly tore the pages into strips and threw them into the trash can.

Well... okay.

His phone buzzed. He looked at the text and groaned.

He was to come to the Washington Field Office immediately, or so commanded his superior at the Bureau. He glanced once at the trash can where the destroyed letter rested and then grabbed his car keys and walked out the door.

“Amos Decker, meet your new partner, Special Agent Frederica White,” said John Talbott in a voice that sounded like a game show host introducing a new prize.

The massive Decker looked all the way down at the five-foot-three-inch Black woman, and she looked back up the mountain at him. It was unclear which one was more surprised by this announcement.

“New partner?” said Decker, glancing at Talbott, who had taken over for Ross Bogart. “I didn’t ask for a new partner. Alex—”

“Special Agent Jamison is not coming back, or at least not anytime soon. And so we have transferred in Agent White from Baltimore to work with you.”

White had never taken her eyes off Decker. Her expression was unreadable. She was in her midthirties, lean and wiry, packing about 105 pounds on her petite frame. Her caramel-colored hair was cut to FBI regulation length and held in place with a pair of tortoiseshell barrettes.

Decker noted the small hole in her left nostril for a stud, although FBI regulations forbade the wearing of any such item while on duty. At the end of her right jacket cuff he could just make out a greenish mark protruding from under the cloth.

A tat.

She had on two-inch zipper boots that lifted her within a foot of his height. No stilettos for FBI agents, despite what the TV cop shows had their female actors wear. Black jacket and slacks, white shirt, buttoned to the top. No cleavage — ditto on the TV shows. Thin lips, green flinty eyes, slender dark eyebrows atop them, a sharp-edged nose, high cheekbones, jutting chin — the woman was all sharp edges.

“You can shake hands, you two,” said Talbott encouragingly.

The two did not shake hands. They just stood there like they were afraid one was trying to get the jump on the other.

Talbott, a man waiting for the full pension and the exit door that came with it, smiled deeply, and said in a fake cheery voice, “I’ll just leave you two to get to know each other better.”

The door closed behind him.

“I didn’t ask for this either, just so you know,” said White.

“Then why are you here?”

She gave him the full hiked-eyebrows treatment. The hole in the side of her nostril quivered with something, maybe suppressed energy or rage.

“I was unaware I had a choice since the Bureau signs my paycheck. But I didn’t know I would be partnering with you until thirty seconds ago.”

“Then we have that in common,” said Decker. “But I don’t want to work with a new partner.”

“So you have a choice?” she said.

“Apparently not.”

“I know Alex Jamison. She’s a good agent. She told me things about you.”

“Why? You said you didn’t know you were partnering with me until just now.”

“Word gets around, Decker. Don’t think there’s another one like you in the Bureau.”

“What did she tell you?”

“Between me and her. By the way, I go by Freddie, just in case you were wondering.”

“Is this enough getting to know each other? Because I’ve had my fill,” he said.

“Good enough for me, but if we walk out of here now Talbott will just make us have lunch together or something, and I doubt you want that.”

Decker edged over to the window and looked out on a cloudy day, his thoughts just as muddled. He detested change, and here he was being hit by it on all sides. He could either leave the Bureau or endure a new partner named Frederica/Freddie. Which scenario would be worse? He didn’t know.

“I heard about your old partner back in Ohio. That was a real tragedy. My sympathies,” added White. She sounded sincere.

Decker didn’t turn around. “She was a good cop. She didn’t deserve to go out that way.”

“Does anybody?”

“I can think of a few.”

“Anything you want to know about me?”

He turned to her, mildly intrigued, and said, “What do you think is important?”

“I’m divorced. Got two kids. My mother lives with us, helps to take care of them. I grew up in Philly. I had three brothers, and I have one sister.”

“Had?”

“One brother died by gunshot during a shootout with another gang, and one’s in prison until he’s an old man. My oldest brother is an attorney and works for the Public Defender’s Office in Boston. My sister has her own tech business and lives in Palo Alto in a house worth more than I will ever make in my life.”

“You always this open with strangers?”

“You’re my partner. You have to have my back and I yours. Okay, to finish my personal highlight reel, I went to Howard University for my undergrad. Got my master’s from Georgetown. Joined the Bureau thirteen years ago. I’ve fired my gun twice in the line of duty. I’m small but I hit above my weight and I bite really hard. Got a double black belt in karate not because I love martial arts, but because I hate getting my ass kicked, both physically and symbolically. I do not tolerate idiots or laziness or bullshit, and I encounter way more of all three than I need to right here at the Bureau. I like to know where I stand at all times. As a person of color and a woman on top of that, I find it a necessity to my future well-being, and that of my family. And nothing is more important to me than that.”

“How old are your kids?”

“Nine and twelve. Daughter and son, respectively. Calvin, named after my father. And Jacqueline, but she goes by Jacky.”

“Do you share custody with your ex?”

“I was still carrying Jacky when my ex decided marriage and fatherhood were not for him. I have full and permanent custody. Calvin doesn’t even remember his father and that’s a damn good thing.”

“You still live in Baltimore?”

“I was working in Baltimore until this morning.”

“Plan to move here?”

“If I can afford anything down here, which I doubt unless I want to live in the nosebleed seats. And I’ll wait and see. Sometimes new assignments don’t stick.”

“Yeah, sometimes they don’t.” Decker said a silent prayer on that one.

“What about you?”

“What about me what?” he said.

“Anything to share?”

“If you spoke to Alex, you know all you need to know about me.”

“But nobody tells it as good as the person himself.”

“I don’t tell anything remotely good about myself or anybody else.”

White took this shot and fired off one of her own. “You know, you’re smaller than I would have thought.”

He looked down at her. “I’m a wall, only not one you lean on.”

“It’s just that Alex made you out to be nine feet tall and eight hundred pounds. Compared to that description, you’re sort of shrimpy. I can’t help feeling disappointed. But nevertheless, are we good to go, partner?”

Decker said with all due candidness, “At this point, I don’t really give a shit.”

“You always this way with the people you work with?”

“Initially, yeah.”

“Well, let’s work quickly through initially then.”

Decker looked her over. “I’m sure you’re a fine agent. I have nothing against you. But change like this is not my thing. And I’ve had more of it in my life than most people.”

She glanced up at his head. “Football player? Cleveland Browns? I hate the Browns. I’m an Eagles girl through and through. Hate the Baltimore Ravens, too, and that’s all I see now.”

“I don’t really follow football anymore.”

She glanced at his head once more. “Yeah, I guess I can understand that.”

The door opened and there stood Talbott. His features grim, he did not seem remotely like the cheerful man from a few minutes ago.

“You two have your first case. You’re heading to Florida. Right now.”

“What happened?” said Decker.

“A federal judge and her bodyguard. They’re both dead.”