Out of the Black - Lee Doty [43]
Now this was disturbing. What was wrong with him? He felt like he'd just woken in the middle of a chess match he'd been playing like checkers... checkmate, Mr. Bannon.
"So, anything else you can tell us?" Good Cop said, putting away his tablet.
Dazed, Ping thought. He couldn't mention Ahmed's girlfriend yet- she was a cop and he wanted to do more checking before involving IA. Also, Ping had trouble picturing Ahmed or her as a part of a criminal conspiracy. "No... 'oops' pretty much covers it."
"Well, I guess we're done here." Good Cop said too quickly. Bad Cop was smiling broadly and giving Ping the thumbs-up every time he could catch Ping's eye. These guys knew something. They understood his bizarre behavior. The Captain looked like he was going to make Ping walk the plank, but the two agents were ready to leave. Ready to leave because they understood this, didn't need to queon him further... realized he couldn't help them anymore?
The Captain's face was tight with surprised and gathering anger. Ping battened down his hatches and prepared for the onslaught of the storm.
Bad Cop was looking from Ping to the Captain, getting ready to enjoy the show. When Good Cop stood up to leave, Bad Cop held up a finger, "What's the hurry? I'd like to see how this turns out." He flashed Ping the thumbs-up again.
Good Cop shot his partner a glance somewhere between stern and indulgent. "Thank you for your time Detective Bannon." he said with a smug grin coloring his tone. Bad Cop kept the thumbs-up going and added, "If we need more help, we'll give you a call."
Ping hated these guys. The door closed behind them.
"Crap with corn Bannon!" Captain Hafiz shouted, "What were you thinking!"
The smaller objects on the desk jumped and shivered as Hafiz repeatedly used the desktop for emphasis during his tirade.
***
The normal thirty-minute commute seemed to take hours. She couldn't get into any of the books or movies on her tablet, so Anne stared out the window. At times the train seemed to be moving backwards.
Downtown, she hurried through the park belt surrounding the Chicago River on her way to the hospital. She loved this part of her walk, her favorite part was the flower gardens, but this time of year there were too many bees for her liking. She had always been frightened of nature's creatures, fearing that they mostly wanted to make her a part of their food chain. 'Eaten by bees', now that was a realistic fear- just another little offering at the Fear-God's altar.
She had called from the train to let the lab know she was both alive, and going to be late. She'd given her boss the most bogus-sounding tale of illness-induced slumber. In the end, she got the usual polite acceptance. Her coworkers were always understanding about being a bit late.
Of course, in her mind, the kindness of her coworkers wasn't due to an easy-going nature or kind motivations. She imagined them pitying her. 'Oh, that poor Anne, we've got to be sensitive to her disability. She's got special needs and special challenges we need to appreciate.' She could picture their condescending faces as they discussed her obesity, '...perhaps she needs to rest more frequently when walking, or maybe the elevator in her building has a weight capacity that keeps her waiting for an empty car.'
Of course, none of this was fair. They probably were just kind, easy-going people. But Anne couldn't shake the picture of them talking about her tripping over the fat rolls on her ankles or some such... "Eeeow!"
A bee, probably on his way home after an early-evening nectar binge, flew into her forehead, its buzz interrupted by a slight tick as it bounced off of her skin. She only let out a small scream, but the flailing of her hands about her head was entirely involuntary. In the middle of her flailing, the buzzing stopped. Maybe she'd hit it?
Ninja hands, she thought, partially recovering her composure. She looked about, embarrassed. The park was mostly empty, but there were a few people close enough to stare at the jumpy fat woman.
She tried an