Reunited By The Badge. Deborah Mello Fletcher

gaze in her direction, a smile pulling at his mouth. “Why do they issue you a badge anyway? You’re a prosecutor.”

      Simone shifted her body, turning to stare at him. “Are you making fun of my badge?”

      “I just asked the question!”

      Her tone was laced with attitude. “It makes me official. It says that I represent the courts of the state and that I took the Attorney’s Oath and I’ve promised to honor its tenets. Don’t you dare make light of what I do, Paul Reilly. It’s as important to me as the Hippocratic Oath that you doctors take.”

      “I’m not, Simone. I was just curious about the badge. They don’t give us doctors one.”

      “No, they give you those white jackets with your names embroidered over the breast pockets. Same thing, different medium.”

      “I cannot believe we’re sitting here arguing over a tin emblem.” He lay backward on the bed, pulling his arms over his head.

      “We’re arguing about involving the police. Don’t change the subject.”

      Paul blew a soft sigh as another wave of silence swept between them. Both sat listening instead to the noise in the room. An alarm clocked ticked loudly from the nightstand next to the bed and water leaked from the faucet in the bathroom. There was a steady rhythm of clicks and plops, both just loud enough to be annoying. Minutes passed before he spoke again. “I’ll do whatever you think is best, Simone.”

      “You will?”

      “Yeah,” he mumbled as he folded an arm over his eyes.

      She nodded. “I’ll call my brother. We need to at least tell him that we’re safe. We can also tell him what we know in an unofficial capacity. If they can help work it from their end, it can’t hurt. Until we figure out what the hell we’re doing, we can use all the help we can get.”

      “Okay.”

      “Okay? Really?”

      “Yeah, baby, okay.”

      A noise outside the door pulled Simone upright. “Did you hear that?”

      Paul mumbled, “No. I didn’t hear anything.”

      Simone stood and moved to the window to peer through the blinds. Outside, three working women were gathered in the parking lot changing their clothes. Bare asses and boobs were on full display and no one seemed to be concerned. Laughter rang through the late-night air, their good time fueled by the bottle of booze being passed between them. Simone exhaled, turning back toward the bed. “I don’t know if I can stay here…” she started.

      The rest of her comment stalled in midair, warm breath the slightest whistle past her lips. Paul had fallen into a deep sleep, jet lag and exhaustion fully claiming him. He snored softly and for a quick moment Simone realized just how much she missed hearing him beside her at night.

      Shaking the thought, she grabbed her cell phone from her purse and her food from the meal bag. She took a seat on a cushioned chair in front of the small desk and dialed Parker’s number. As she waited for someone to answer, she took the first bite of her macaroni and cheese.

      “Where are you?” Parker questioned. “I’m sending a patrol car.”

      “We’re fine, big brother. You just needed to know what happened. I also took the bumper off some guy’s car, I think. You’ll handle that for me, too, right?”

      “If they knew Paul was at that restaurant, they’re probably tracking his cell phone. They may even be tracking yours.”

      “We thought that, too, so we tossed the sim card in his phone and powered it off. I’m using my other phone. The one that’s in mom’s name. My primary phone was dead, so I left it at the house on the charger.”

      “You need to come in, Simone. Until we figure out who shot at you, we can’t trust that either of you is safe.”

      “We can’t, Parker. Paul truly believes this company is killing patients and he’s determined to stop them. If we come in, we might lose our window of opportunity to prove his theory.”

      “I wasn’t asking, Simone. That was an order.”

      “I stopped taking orders from you when I was ten.”

      “Then I’m calling Mom and Dad.”

      “Don’t you dare! I just need you to trust me.”

      Parker yelled, “You don’t know what the hell you’re doing! Neither of you has a clue what you’ve gotten yourselves into! Now, where are you?”

      Simone sighed. “I love you. And I’ll be okay. I promise.”

      “Don’t you dare hang…”

      Simone disconnected the call abruptly. She took another bite of macaroni and sat in reflection as she polished off the last of her meal. She didn’t have the words to explain to her brother what she was feeling or why they were suddenly acting like fugitives. She honestly wasn’t sure what the hell they were doing. But they were together and she instinctively wanted to do whatever necessary to support Paul. He needed her and it had been forever since she’d felt like she added value to his life. Wanting each other had never been the problem between them. Needing each other, and admitting to it, had been a whole other animal neither had been willing to claim. But now necessity had put them together, if for nothing more than to hold on to each other for emotional support, and Simone had no intentions of failing him.

      Paul was now snoring loudly, and she instinctively knew that it had been days since he’d last rested well. She was reminded of those days after medical school, during his residency, when his shifts at the hospital seemed to last for days before he was able to come home and fall out from exhaustion.

      She dropped her fork and empty container back into the bag. After reaching for her phone she dialed again.

      Her brother Mingus Black answered on the second ring. “What’s wrong, Simone? And why is Parker texting me to ask where you are?”

      “I need you. I’m at the Karavan Motel on Cicero Avenue.”

      “Karavan? On the South Side? What the hell are you doing there?”

      “Someone tried to kill us tonight,” she said, explaining all that had happened since Paul Reilly had called her.

      “So, you two check into the city’s seediest motel?”

      “We’re not planning to stay, and they take cash,” she continued, hoping to rationalize why the no-tell motel had been a good idea and why Paul felt going to the police was not. Even after saying it out loud Simone knew it sounded like she and Paul had lost their collective minds. And she definitely couldn’t tell any of them that she just needed to be with Paul because she had missed him terribly.

      Mingus listened, taking it all in. A private detective by profession, he heard his sister’s dilemma with a different ear than their police officer brother. He didn’t yell or give her orders he knew she wouldn’t heed like Parker did. Instead, when she was done talking, Mingus said, “Sit tight. I need to put some things in place. I’ll be there before breakfast tomorrow. Are you carrying?”

      “Yes,” she said, taking a moment to check the weapon in her handbag. The Glock 43 had been a gift from her father, the patriarch ensuring she and her sister both knew how to handle a firearm just as well as their brothers. Regular visits to the gun range kept her shooting and safety skills honed.

      “Keep it close, and if you need to use it, don’t hesitate to pull the trigger. You can always ask questions later.”

      “What are you going to tell Parker?”

      “That I didn’t put your leash on you this morning. That he should check with whoever did.”

      “Thank