By Aiki Damilola
There are certain things in life that are
mistakes but you don’t really know they are mistakes because the only to
recognize a mistake is to make that mistake and say, “Yup, that was a mistake”.
That was the way Ben Wright felt about his
assignment to the Miami Police Headquarters. All you need is one mistake and,
bam!, your ass is hauled out by the powers that be. In Ben’s case, his mistake
was doing a good job; maybe he’d done too good a job. The brass higher up had
noticed him and they had concluded that his talents were being wasted in the
Grapelands Heights Substation. And now he was being paid for his hard work with
a transfer to HQ as a replacement detective.
Detective Ben Wright pulled into the parking
lot in front of the sprawling Miami Police Headquarters building. The only
available space was between a blue-white patrol car and a white Chevrolet. He
guided his Chrysler into the marked area. Detective Ben Wright wasn’t much of a
drinking man. That phase of his life had died prematurely when a medical doctor
who also happened to be his girlfriend had told him that the only trip he would
go on while mixing his medication with booze was to the mortician’s slab
downstairs.
Contrary to media depiction, Miami is not one
giant beach populated by bikini-clad blondes, sunshine, and teenage
pregnancies. Since moving into his apartment at Hialeah two days ago, he had
had a nagging feeling that he was being watched. If there was anything his
years on patrol had taught him, it was how to discern danger way faster than
the average citizen.
That was the problem. He could not pick up any
hint of danger. He only had this funny feeling that there were two of him.
Without much to go by, he chalked it up to the change in environment.
The green dials on the dashboard clock changed
to 07:50 am. He was five minutes early. Detective Ben Wright prided himself on
punctuality. He stepped out of the car into the early morning Miami
sunlight.
The uniformed cop at the receptionist’s desk
checked her appointments log and was satisfied to see ‘Detective Wright Ben’
first on the list. She smiled and told him Chief Peterson’s office was
upstairs, last room straight down the hall.
Even from the transparent screen fixed on the
plexiglass door, Ben could tell by the brightly interior that the office had a
wonderful view.
He
knocked briskly and a voice told him to “come in”... continue reading
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