Page 2 of Dirty Cops Next Door

“Good morning, how may I help you?” A woman with garishly dyed red hair and large green glasses stared out from a Dutch door. She leaned on the half of the door that was open, her large frame hiding the other half tucked away behind her.

“I’m Eric Wallace’s sister, Toni Wallace. His guardian. You wanted me to bring these papers in.” I waited for her to take them, thinking that would be the end of it.

“Oh, we’ve been waiting for you. We had some trouble getting Eric’s records from his old school and need you to sign another form. Now, where did I put that…” She wandered off, tapping her chin as she looked around the room filled with three desks and another closed off office.

I started to tap my foot when five minutes passed, watching the lower hand tick around the large clock on the wall. I was going to be late.

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to print it off again!” she said, her mid-western accent flavoring her words. “Oh, here it is in the tray where I left it! Silly me!”

She fluttered her eyelashes as she came back to me and handed me the paper. I tried to hold my temper down and not let it show as I scratched a pen over the paper.

“Is that all? I need to get to work.” I gave her a smile, hoping that was it.

“I think so. We’ll give Eric a guide, just another student to help him find his way around, and send home any other papers we might need you to fill out. Eric’s only going to be a few weeks behind the other students so he should catch up quite quickly. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of your brother. Welcome to New Hope, Ms. Wallace.” She gave me a rather simpering smile before she dismissed me from her mind and turned to Eric.

I didn’t want to interrupt so gave him a wave and left the school. Most of the students were beginning to move into the building, slamming lockers, dropping books, yelling across hallways at each other.

I remembered it all from my own days of quietly wandering the hallways, trying to keep my head down and out of trouble while I finished high school. I left, my heels clicking on the tiles and then thudding as the tiles turned to concrete steps.

I drove the five blocks to the newspaper’s office and pulled in. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed my things, adjusted my hair once more, ignored the flash of my blue eyes, and left my car in the parking lot. Time to face the music, I guess. Prove my writing skills. Or whatever it was they were going to have me doing.

I walked into the building, an old brick-fronted structure with three floors and a basement. I didn’t know which floor I needed to be on! I panicked for a minute before a woman with kind eyes and a laughing smile came my way.

“You must be Toni. I’m Barbara. I’ll be your editor. Let me show you around, okay?” She held her hand out and I took it gratefully, the shake quick, concise, and to the point. I had a feeling her handshake pre-empted much of Barbara’s personality.

“You’ll be working on the second floor, but I’ll show you what’s down here.”

She proceeded to give me the grand tour, showing me the printing room, the break room, and cubicle offices.

It was a large paper for a town, but I knew its readership was spread all over the county.

“So why am I upstairs?” I asked as we left the land of cubicles and headed up to the second floor, which seemed to be nothing more than a long hallway with doors on each side.

“I’m going to be your mentor during your first few months and my office is up here, so I want you close at hand. It’s quieter, and I won’t be far away if you need help. My office is the door just across from this one.”

She opened the door and the sight took my breath away. A wall of glass showcased the town just outside the window. A tall desk, a computer, and a few filing cabinets filled the rest of the room. There was a landline phone, a new smartphone, and a few other devices on the desk. It seemed kind of backward here in that you worked your way out of the cushy office to downstairs where the noisy cubicles were. Odd.

“You’ve already been issued a company phone and a few other things. You know the rules with that equipment, right? Only company business?” She waited until I nodded, her brown eyes still smiling. “Right, well, other than a few bits of paperwork we need to go over, I guess we can get to work.”

She handed me a stack of papers to fill out, mainly insurance forms and company policies, and then sat down with me to discuss my role.

“Right now, we’re going to have you doing small articles, announcements, things like that. As we get to know you and how you write, we’ll move you onto bigger articles. Today, I need you to go to the police station and interview the chief about the policemen’s ball that’s going to be held this weekend. You’ll also need to get an interview with the director of the event, Marsha Johnson. I need that story in the morning. Any questions?”

I’d done an internship with a small paper in my hometown but not one as big as this. I’d expected to be thrown to the wolves, but an article due tomorrow? I’d only been in town for a week, I didn’t even know where the police station was! I glanced at the phone hoping it had some kind of GPS software, or a map at least!

“Don’t panic, the station isn’t hard to find, it’s just down the street here. And Marsha won’t be far away. She’s been hounding the chief all week over last minute details. You might even luck out and get them both at the same time. Oh, one more thing. I’ve programmed all the numbers for people you may need to call whilst working here. You can scroll through and have a look. Are you good?”

“Yeah, I’m, uh, I’m good.” I gave her a smile that I’m certain was a bit watery but held up.

“Good, I like the work you’ve been credited for, Wallace, and you look like a smart woman. We’ll get on as long as you don’t let me down. Okay?”

She was at the door now, her smart, light gray suit clinging to her long legs.

“I hope to keep you a happy lady, Barbara.” I nodded in affirmation, before I went behind my desk and settled into my chair.

I’d sat with her in one of the two chairs in front of my desk as we’d gone over the papers and talked. It just hadn’t felt right to sit behind the desk and leave her on that side. She’d given me a pleased smile and got on with it. Now I was behind my desk. My desk! I took a picture of it with my phone, wanting to share it with Eric. He wouldn’t be able to turn his phone on until lunch, our rule, but he’d get a kick out of this too.

Life had been cruel to both of us, and times had been hard, but we had each other. He’d never complained when we had to go without or screamed at me for not being able to buy him expensive shoes. He’d tried to sell his baseball card collection while I was in school so I could buy myself a dress for graduation. I’d finally found one at a consignment shop, but his gesture had simultaneously broken and healed my heart.

My brother and I had a bond many siblings could not and would not share. We’d faced the toughest of times together, and nothing could break that bond. He was always the first one I thought of when something happened, good or bad. I thought of sharing the news when it was good, and how excited he would be, and I tried to protect him and lessen the blow when it was bad. I knew he did the same for me, even at such a young age.

Setting the phone down, I hit a button on the computer screen and sighed, it was an operating system I was familiar with. I began to click on icons and saw there was a note on one side. Apparently, emails had been set up for me with generated passwords. I was to delete the note after putting the passwords somewhere safe. I sent the entire note to myself in an email so I could access it from all of my devices.

I then figured out how to turn the phone on and found the navigation app. Just as Barbara had said, the police station was only a couple of blocks down the road. Putting my new phone in my handbag, I left the office and closed the door. My office!

For a moment, I couldn’t stop the grin spreading over my face. I’d worked hard to get to this point, and now my dreams had come true. I’d finished school with honors, and Eric was well on his way to graduation. My work with him was almost finished, although as orphans, I didn’t think I’d ever be quite finished with the maternal role I’d assumed.