I was cold. The Tenth Street Bridge on a November night was warmer than Room B in that old stone cop shop.
The door buzzed and Det. Harper shuffled into the room carrying files and an evidence bag that held the knife that killed Mrs. Rennor. I recognized the bulldog that followed him in.
“Juneau,” I said. The young cop watched me with a stony glare, like I was about to take a shit on the floor.
“You two have history?” Harper asked.
Juneau shrugged. “Rousted Griffin a couple weeks ago. Vagrancy.”
I gave the young bull the stink-eye, but held my tongue a second too long. I didn’t like Juneau being here. But what was my move? If I kept quiet, I’d be back on the street by morning, maybe a little roughed up, but breathing. If I opened my mouth, I might buy myself a cot in a holding cell—and a knife in the ribs down the line. Either way, I wasn’t sleeping warm tonight.
I jerked my chin at Juneau. “He has to be here?”
Harper’s eyes narrowed.
“You got a problem with Constable Juneau’s presence here?”
I shrugged. “I’ll tell you who has—had a problem with him. Mrs. Rennor.”
Juneau shifted uncomfortably. The fluorescents made his face look sick. Harper leveled his steel-cold eyes on Juneau.
“I lodged a police brutality complaint against Juneau two weeks ago. Mrs. Rennor added her name to the report. She saw the whole thing.”
Harper’s head snapped toward Juneau. “Funny. No record of that in the system.”
I laughed. “Now you’re getting it.”
Juneau let out a thin, shaky laugh. “That old bum—he don’t know what he’s talking about.”
I shook my head. The fool. “I was behind Mrs. Rennor’s tower under some trash bags, keepin’ warm. A guy wearin’ a black mask booked around the corner, knife in his hand. He tore off the mask, wrapped it around the knife, an’ jammed it up the drainpipe.”
Juneau’s face twisted with every word I said. Harper's hand drifted toward the holster on his hip.
“I saw you,” I said. “From them trash bags. Blood all over your hand.”
Juneau lunged across the table at me, and I scrambled for the exit. Harper and Juneau went down hard, chairs clattering across the floor. Harper had him belly down and cuffed before I made the door.
~~~~~~~
© Kevin M. Coleman, 2023
Photo Credit to Midjourney.