A/N: Thanks to L.M.L. for the quick turn-around as well as an excuse for yet another hyphen.
BELIEF
by
Owlcroft
McCormick swung the door wide open, a big grin on his face. "Frank, c'mon in, we've got cookies."
Lieutenant Harper grinned back at him and extended a hand with a small packet in it. "Here are those morning glory seeds Claudia promised you. Cookies, huh?" He walked into the foyer and sniffed the air. "I'm betting you didn't bake 'em. Millie sent 'em, right? How's she doing, anyway?"
"She's doing great. The first week of every month, she sends us cookies," Mark led the way back to the kitchen. "This is the third batch. We just started some coffee, too. Hey, Judge," he yelled up the stairs, "Frank's here!"
"Be right down," came a call from upstairs.
McCormick ushered Harper into the kitchen and gestured toward a chair at the small kitchen table. "Oatmeal raisin, this time. Go ahead, she sent three dozen."
Frank reached for a cookie as McCormick started pouring mugs of coffee. "I'm not sure that's enough, if they're as good as those lemon cookies I had a while back." He bit into a cookie and smiled blissfully as he chewed. "Every bit as good. Hey," he accepted his coffee with a nod of thanks, "lemme ask you something. If you don't mind," he added hastily.
Mark joined him at the table and scooped up two cookies. "Sure, what?"
"Well, speaking of Millie," the lieutenant spoke hesitantly, "all the premonition stuff, the visions and all. Milt told me a little about it, but I never heard the whole story about that."
McCormick finished his second cookie and reached for another. "He told you she saw things, right? Things that came true?"
Frank nodded, his mouth full, took a quick swig of coffee, and spoke. "Yeah. He said she told you guys that you were gonna die that night, that she'd seen it." He shrugged. "He said a lotta other things did come true, and that you believed her about it . . . about your death, I mean."
Mark nodded, then shook his head. "Not completely. Some, maybe."
The judge walked down the hallway toward the door, extended a hand to push through, then stopped as he heard Frank's voice say:
"So how come you went with him that night?" Harper dusted cookie crumbs from his hands and picked up his coffee mug again. "I mean, if you even believed it halfway, why did you go?"
Hardcastle stood stock-still, waiting to hear the answer himself.
McCormick sipped coffee, then set down his mug and wrapped both hands around it. "See, Hardcastle's in charge. He's the guy who's supposed to be responsible for all the bad guy stuff we do. I'm just Tonto."
"But if you believed all that prophecy jazz?" Harper reached for a fourth cookie, re-considered, then took one anyway. "Even if you just believed it part-way, why wouldn't you let Milt handle it? You two weren't expecting to find that much at the house, anyway, right? And I had the warrant to search the office."
Mark studied his coffee mug. "Look, Frank, you're a Catholic, too. You know we're not supposed to believe any of that -- no superstition, no magic, no spiritualism."
"But you kinda wondered? Given all the things Milt told me about that did come true?"
"Yeah, but the judge didn't. He was sure it was all just a lotta guff." Mark drank coffee. "And it's his call."
"So you figured he was right and you went along with him." Frank shook his head in bemusement.
"I figured he'd fix it if it wasn't. He's always been in control or been able to fix the situation if something went wrong. Why not this time?" Mark shrugged.
Hardcastle, by this time listening unashamedly on the hallway side of the kitchen door, bit his lower lip and inched fractionally closer.
Harper finished his coffee and waved off McCormick's gesture toward the pot. "Yeah, but you almost died this time."
"But I didn't. I knew he'd figure it out and fix it and he did. All I had to do was my job, and everything would be fine. Whether I believed in Millie's foretelling or not, I always believed Hardcastle would find a way to make everything okay." Without raising his voice, McCormick added, "You gonna stand there all day, Judge, or come in here and have some more cookies?"
Scowling ferociously, Hardcastle pushed through the kitchen door. "I was just tying my shoelace, okay?"
Mark refrained ostentatiously from looking at the judge's sandals, but Frank cast a quick glance down, gave the irritated man a wink, and grabbed another cookie.
finis