The Night Beat

Susan sounded bored.
    “Nothing at all on the radar?” Jack was fishing for something, but I didn’t know what.
    “Minor stuff so far today. Someone stole a car from the National Cemetery.” Jack gave me the “I told you so” look. “Road work’s blocked off most of the Estates area. Nothing for Night Beat to worry about, though.”
    “Most of the Estates, but not all?” I asked, since Susan had no idea what we actually were doing or needed to worry about.
    “Apparently there’s some big religious deal going on at the Little Church, big fundraiser,” Susan said. “They’ve been advertising it for months. They have the streets blocked off -- you can’t get in without a ticket and they’re cross-checking against a list or something. Why is this of interest to you or the police department?”
    “Just want to know how to get in or out if you don’t have a ticket.” I was used to Darlene’s level of sarcastic help. Susan seemed a lot more difficult to work with. I didn’t envy the day shift.
    “Utility road, where city workers go in and out. Anything else, Detective Wagner?”
    I ignored the snub. “Yeah. A couple of nights ago Darlene said there was a riot. Can you tell me about that?”
    “You could come into the station and read the officers’ reports.” Susan definitely wasn’t into the give and take I was used to.
    “We could. Or, you know, you could give us the highlights and we could continue on, fighting crime, keeping Prosaic City safe for dispatchers with attitude.”
    “Vic,” Jack hissed. “Sorry, Susan. We’re both tired. Been a long night after a couple of longer nights. Can we have those highlights?”
    Susan sighed the put-upon sigh of a woman forced to actually do something when she was going to paint her nails. I decided I didn’t like her. “Fine. There was a riot at the stadium. Even with a lot of reports, we have no clear idea why or how it started.”
    “There wasn’t a game this week,” I mentioned.
    “Right you are,” Susan said snidely. “There was a revival.”
    “Revival?”
    She sighed again. She was big on sighing. I moved to intense dislike. “Reverend Johnson brought in religious leaders from all over to do an old-fashioned tent revival. Big rally kind of thing. As the kickoff to the fundraiser starting today. Do you ever read the paper or listen to the news?”
    “No. I like to remain unaware and get all my news from dispatch. Until this morning, never been a problem.”
    “Right. So anyway, some thugs, or kids, or criminals, no one was really sure, crashed it and thanks to Detective Wagner’s tip, our officers were able to get there in time to get things back under control.”
    I knew the tip had come from Ken. Needed to ask him what he knew. If he wasn’t the mole, of course. Well, I had to ask him whether or not he was the mole. The question was going to boil down to -- could I trust his answers? I hated the way this day was going.
    But not as much as I currently hated Susan. I’d picked up the massive emphasis on “Detective Wagner” and I was getting the distinct feeling that Susan had the hots for my guy. This was not an acceptable thing. I considered going to headquarters and eating her, but decided going for demure and sweet might be better, particularly since Jack looked both embarrassed and frustrated.
    “Yes, Detective Wagner’s the best, isn’t he?”
    “You have no idea.” Susan sounded just a little too smug. And Ralph wasn’t the only one with a werewolf nose. Jack was giving off guilt pheromones.
    “I’ll bet. Anyway, Susan, thanks so much for all your help. We’ll be checking in later, I’m sure.” I hung up the radio. I almost opened my mouth to discuss this little situation with Jack, but the presence of three other beings helped me stay quiet. He was allowed to have dated other people before we got together -- I certainly had. He’d met them. Lucky me. But the point was, if he’d had a relationship with Susan the Dispatcher from Hell, that was his business. Going forward it was my business, but retrospectively, not so much. So I went for cool. Not a canine trait, as mentioned before, but sometimes we can do it. “We need to ask Ken what tipped him off to that riot and what he picked up from it.”
    Jack looked relieved and nodded. “I agree. Hope we can trust his answers.”
    “Me too. Now, like I said before, let’s move the equipment from this car into the nice car we’ve borrowed while in pursuit of