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November 7, 2016

1843 Hours

The detectives looked around the perimeter of the funeral house for anything out of the ordinary. The scenery was quite fitting for a funeral. It was about mid-Fall, and the orange and sunburnt leaves were flowing down from the dying trees. Resting themselves on the ground as it was its own little resting place. It was cloudy, but not cloudy enough so the sun was blocked. Glimmers of the sun’s rays casted through the clouds; illuminating the area in a nice, yellowish tint.

The area where the brothers stood looking around was behind the funeral home owned by Maxima Corporation. The AC unit was located back there with the brothers, accompanied by broken glass, an H&H sign, a pathway that wasn’t finished, and random miscellaneous junk here and there.

James looked down to find some crumpled paper, and he kicked it around. Deciding, “Why not?” They’ve been standing there for an hour so far, and he didn’t know how longer this client was going to take.

The client himself was a mystery to the detectives. He did give his name, but to Dan only. Dan wouldn’t tell James due to “confidentiality reasons”, which was bull to James; however, Dan didn’t get the description of his person. If he showed up right now, James would bet his liver that Dan would pull out a gun on him. The only reason why they agreed to the client’s confidentiality, hang out for an hour behind a funeral home, while the funeral was going on, and to keep it on a down-low they were detectives was because the client had money. And lots of it.

Six digits to be exact.

They haven’t had a payout like this in a year. The last job with this much money was government related. A mass murderer was loose, but the FBI was too busy dealing with foreign affairs spread across the West coast. Dan had connections with the FBI, and landed them that case. A month later, the case ended on a coincidence; the culprit was in the same diner as Dan a Sunday morning, and some hobo pointed the murderer out to be some divine angel. Dan looked at the commotion, and realized who the guy was. The money lasted them a few days in Vegas, and a sweet little apartment complex back in Ohio.

James loved the aspect of earning money, but his brother was a little different. Dan loved the job, and it didn’t matter what the pay was, he would do it. Despite that, James’ brother is really lazy. He loves being a detective with all of his heart, but there are some cases he would deem “unworthy” of him to even think about. And James had a suspicion his brother would shut this case down, considering Dan was already questioning it in the car.

“But why keep the name hidden from us?” Dan asked in the car. Hours of silence, and this is the first thing that comes out of Dan’s mouth. James gladly turned down Dan’s Spice Girls’ CD to answer him.

“One. You know the name.”

“Because I forced it out of him over the phone!”

“And two. Maybe he didn’t want two detectives shouting out his name. You know that would definitely cause suspicion on some level.” James said.

“But why would he not describe himself?” Dan asked. “Not even a t-shirt description!”

“This is a funeral; he’s most likely wearing a suit and tie or something. And maybe he didn’t want people noticing us looking for a specific someone?” James replied. “He probably didn’t want his friends and family to notice two shady characters in trench coats tailing him.”

“But why-”

“Dan. Shut up. It’s going to be okay!” James exclaimed, a little exasperated of explaining the simple scenarios that could happen. Dan just sighed in frustration and mumbled something along the lines of “you shut up…” Dan turned on the CD again, and Wannabe came on. Dan skipped the song, and sat back to relax.

James looked around the corner one more time. A few people were here and there talking to themselves, but none of them looked towards the back. They were 85% sure that no one knew two detectives were waiting for someone to come meet them behind a funeral home. James sighed loudly before speaking out loud.

“Where is this guy?” James asked his brother, who was peeping around the other corner on the opposite side of the building. He seemed dedicated to hugging that corner, watching for any suspicious movement up ahead.

“Well James, if I knew, I’m pretty sure we would be talking to him!” Dan exclaimed sarcastically.

“No need for sarcasm, I was just wondering,” James said, a little butt hurt. Dan, even though he couldn’t see James’ face, knew he was pouting. Dan just sighed through his nose. He knew James got butt hurt about sarcasm, yet Dan couldn’t help the amount of sarcastic comments coming from him.. It just came naturally to him, and he can’t find a way to stop it. Dan thought, on many occasions, talking to James about “toughening up”, but he had a suspicion that wouldn’t do anything but make matters worse in the subject.

“I’m sorry,” Dan apologized, “he said he’ll be here after everyone went inside.” James nodded his head curtly, accepting the apology. Dan didn’t have to turn around to know that James accepted. He always does.

“Is everyone inside?” James remarked. “ I can’t see from this angle.” Whatever people James saw earlier were now gone. This caused James to be anxious, as he assumed everyone is inside now. Everyone inside means meeting this mysterious client. He looked around the corner as to double check himself. “Yeah, can’t see anyone. But the people that were there, are not there. So hopefully they’re inside, right?” James asked Dan, hoping for the answer he wanted.

“Not all of them. There’s a few stragglers behind, but they seem to be going in no-” Dan was cut off by a sudden yelp from behind. He turned around quickly, and found James on the ground groaning with his eyes closed. Looking up from James, Dan saw a burly man towering his fallen brother. Dan’s hand quickly went for his gun under his trench coat, but the man held up his hands like he was pleading for the detective to freeze.

“Who are you?” Dan asked with furrowed eyebrows. James was getting up, rubbing his butt.

Could this be our client? Dan thought. It doesn’t matter. He knocked over my brother.

“Stupid H&H signs…” James muttered as he calmly walked behind Dan, not noticing his brother had his gun on the ready.

“Again, I’ll repeat. Who are y-”

“My name is George!” The man exclaimed. Dan immediately recognized the name as the client they were being paid by, yet his hand will still on the hidden gun. Dan looked at James out of the corner of his eyes, then returned his attention to George.

“Why did you knock my partner down?” Dan asked, jumping to conclusions.

“I di-” George was about to protect himself, but James waved his hand, cutting George off.

“Sorry to this man, but my brother is really stubborn. He would’ve taken your word with a grain of salt.” James then looked at Dan. “He came up behind me, and tapped my shoulder. I simply fell from the sudden surprise.”

“Oh.” Dan said. He took his hand off the gun, and returned back to his refualr stature. He looked over at James and asked, “So, then you were being a wuss?”

“Hey! No, I wasn’t! He just simply…” James became flustered as the realization kicked in about what actually happened. He was a wuss, but he wasn’t going to admit that to his own brother. “H-He surprised me. That’s all.”

“Oh okay then,” Dan said sarcastically, and turned to George. He immediately regretted replying to James sarcastically, considering he had to apologize for it later anyways. “So George, what can we do?”

George wiped the tears, which he gathered during the brother’s short conversation, from his eyes using his sleeves.

“Okay,” George said. He looked like he was going to talk, but then he paused for a second. That second turned into a full minute of George’s blank face before he broke down crying.

“Oh, Jesus,” Dan commented. James quickly went from behind Dan to George’s side. James then draped his arm around George’s neck, and pulled him close. It looked like James was side-hugging the client as awkwardly as possible. It seemed to work though, as George leaned into James for comfort.

Better than me. Dan thought. He would’ve just kept getting angry for the inconvenience of George crying throughout the interview they would have.

Almost talking to himself, Dan whispered, “You got to be fuc-“

“Watch your tongue!” James said as he consoled George. Dan merely rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, waiting for this wussy fest to end.

What is he to the deceased anyways? Some creepy uncle that was never around? Dan thought as he looked at George. George was dressed up fancy, but his facial hair was a mess. A stubble that was too long to be a stubble, but it wasn’t a beard either. His hair was gelled, but you could tell it was always a mess from a few mishaps here and there. Dan wrinkled his nose, he could smell the booze from seven feet away. A heavy drinker it seems, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of person to drink alochol all the time. At least as far as Dan could tell. He probably started recently when the deceased seemed to die. Just a hunch, but Dan is never off with his hunches.

It took a while, and a few impatient sighs from Dan, but George finally shrugged James off, and straightened himself up.

“I’m sorry. This is emotional for me,” George said. There were a few moments of silence. Dan leaned in with his ear turned towards George, hoping he would he say something. Nothing. Dan then looked at James a few seconds later as to say “Bit on the dramatic side.” James dismissed him with a cut look, and turned towards George.

“Why is this emotional for you? Are you related to the deceased?”

“Yes. This is my own son’s funeral.” He stated quietly. Dan felt a pang of empathy and guilt. The guilt being his own opinion about George earlier, and empathy because losing a child can be the worst thing to happen to a parent. It can ruin them to the point of insanity and severe depression, and even to the point of seeing them in places where they’re not there. Hallucination is the term.

Dan would know.

Reviews

[Norbanus]

It's a little late to be getting in on this yarn, but it looks like it has the potential to be a good one.

You've set us up with a peek into the individual characters of the detectives and we questions about their strangely secretive and emotional client.

There seem to be opportunities for improvement in flow and voice, but since the the story is so far along, I think I'll wait until I've read a few more segments to start my usual know-it-all babbling about use of was, is, has been, etc.

BTW. the chapter hook grabbed me and let me know there was something in the next chapter that I needed to know.

Nicely done,

Norbanus