The Trench Coat
Myra could barely sit still she was so anxious about the next STEM subject's arrival. This particular subject was a huge catch for Mobius. Detective Castellanos had been making lots of waves in both the Krimson City Police Department as well as throughout Krimson City. Detective Castellanos ran around the city storming buildings, interrogating whomever, and threating people of all persuasions; there was even some talk of him brutalizing a key staff member of the Krimson City Mayor's office. All this trouble in a vain attempt to find his missing wife. Perhaps if he just quietly let it go he wouldn't be here now, but Myra knew he would never stop; she knew he would kick in every door from Krimson City to Kalamazoo if it meant finding his wife- finding her. Myra knew the only way to make him stop and keep him marginally safe was to keep him incapacitated, so reluctantly she gave the order to "get him".
It didn't take the Acquisition Squad very long to "acquire" Sebastian. He followed the same daily routines and took the same route to and from KCPD Headquarters every day. People who practice the same rituals are easy targets. So the team laid in wait for him while he was conducting his private investigation of Myra's disappearace, and quickly took him into their possession. According to the report Myra had been given by the squad leader, Sebastian barely put up a fight, which was surprising to hear. Sebastian was a vigorous and ruthless fighter when provoked. He was also an excellent marksman when he wasn't drinking. His marksmanship scores were one of the highest in KCPD, so when the order to take him was given, Myra chose the toughest Acquisition Squad to bring him in. These were the most trained soldiers Mobius had at their disposal and they were just as fearsome and good at what they did as Sebastian was. However when the Acquisition Squad found Sebastian, he was fairly inebriated and it made him much more docile and easy to take into custody.
Suddenly the phone on Myra's desk rang, she immediately knew what this next call was about, but she answered it anyway.
"This is Myra." She answered.
"Yes," A young man's voice answered. "The detective has been brought into central processing and they have just finished his general medical exam."
"What were the results?" Myra asked.
"Brain, heart, and kidney functions are normal." He answered. "There were some minor abnormalities in his liver functions and his lung functions were fair, but not great."
"Detective Castellanos is a heavy drinker and smoker." Myra said sternly. "That would explain the issues with his liver and lung functions, but they should not present any problems for him being linked to STEM, anything else?"
"His blood alcohol level is elevated." The young man said. "The doctor said it was at .06"
"Has the sedative been administered yet?" She asked.
"As a precaution, the doctor only administered a third of the preliminary sedative." He answered.
"Yes." Myra answered. "He did the right thing. Just let the alcohol dissipate from his system before any further sedation commences."
"Copy that." The young man said.
"One more question." Myra said.
"Yes." The young man answered.
"Has the detectives' things been collected by the Sanitation division?" She asked.
"They have not come up yet." The young man said. "They should be here in the next five minutes."
"Don't destroy his belongs." Myra said sternly. "Have them sent up to my office."
"Will do Ma'am." He answered. "I'll have the Sanitation person send them up to your office."
"Thank you." Myra answered graciously.
Myra hung up the phone and stood up from her desk, then walked over to the large window. It was a rainy day. Terrible storms cut through Krimson City like an axe and further dampened Myra's spirits, but she had to keep her poker face strong, it wasn't going to be easy though. It had been a few months since she last saw Sebastian and she missed him terribly. On the day she left, she looked at him for a long time as he lay on the bed soundly sleeping the kind of deep sleep only a half a bottle of whisky could supply. As she looked at him, all she could do was suppress the urge to cry and cuddle herself up next to him. The months after Lily's death were some of the worst in her life. Her once strong and handsome husband withered away into a hapless drunkard and their happy marriage deteriorated rapidly. The failure of their marriage was all her fault and she took full responsibility for it. She was determined to find out why Lily and Juanita were murdered and today was the day she all would be revealed; it was also the day she would make those responsible pay with their miserable lives.
This was it, Myra would meet her destiny, and she would either be triumphant in her quest or she would suffer the same gruesome fate poor Lily did. Either scenario suited her just fine, but she refused to drag Sebastian into any of this. He truly suffered the most throughout this whole sordid ordeal and she didn't want to make him suffer anymore. Moreover, he wasn't in any condition physically, mentally, or emotionally to undertake an escapade such as this. No, Sebastian had to find his own way now, she knew her fate was sealed. As she stared out of the window, Myra remembered the exact internal soliloquy she thought before leaving Sebastian to utter desolation.
"I know what I am about to do will probably destroy you forever. I am sorry for not being the good wife you need, but Lily deserves justice and I am ready to face the consequences for trying to deliver that justice. If there is a higher power in the universe, maybe that power will make you understand why I did this and why I can't involve you. Maybe if this power is as merciful as they say, you'll forgive me. I do understand if you never forgive me though; my abandoning you isn't justifiable. Be well Sebastian, you're a good man, and I love you. I'm sorry for all of this misfortune."
While she was completely lost in her memories of that somber day, a knock came to her office door.
"Come in." She said snapping out of her daydream.
In walked a worker from Mobius's Sanitation Department. Myra always disliked having to deal with those from the Sanitation division, because they were more or less Mobius's in-house morticians and they looked the part. Their jumpsuit uniforms were either grey or black depending on their duties. The grey suits were used when a new person was brought in, they had to destroy anything that would link them to Mobius or where the person could possibly be. The black suits were used whenever someone died after being in STEM, it was their job to dispose of the body and their belongings, effectively creating a cold case if the police ever became involved.
"I was told to deliver the new subject's belongs here." The pale man said softly.
"Yes." Myra answered. "Do I need to sign anything?"
"No." The man said handing her a large plastic bag, then turning around and walking back out of her office door.
Myra opened up the plastic bag and pulled out the smaller contents first. She looked at his gold detective's badge and smiled. Looking at it, she was immediately transported back in time to the day that she first met the brash young Detective Castellanos.
"So you're the new guy?" Myra said eyeing the young man up and down. "I know you from somewhere, don't I?"
"Yeah." He said sternly. "We met about a year ago when I was still a beat cop. I was on the scene when you and your partner were following up on that hit and run case out in Olde Town."
"That's right." She said with a smile. "You're the cop with the smart ass mouth. My partner couldn't stand you; I didn't think you were so bad."
"Thanks." Sebastian said kindly. "Outta curiosity, how'd you get stuck with me if you already have a partner?"
"He took a job in another city." Myra said. "But truth be told, I'm happy to have a new partner. Even if he is a smart ass rookie."
"Thanks Myra." He said sarcastically.
"My name is Detective Hanson!" She said sternly. "And you'll address me as such!"
"Yes Detective Hanson!" He said sternly.
"I look forward to working with you Detective Castellanos."
Myra smiled and put the badge down on her desk. She then reached in and took out his service 9MM. Taking a quick look to see if Sebastian kept his firearm in decent condition, she immediately noticed that the safety wasn't on, which horrified her. He should know better than to run around with the safety off. If she was still in his life, she would have punched him one for forgetting that. That's the first thing they teach in any firearm safety class. Putting the safety on, she examined the rest of the weapon and it appeared to be well cared for and functional. When she was done with it, she placed the gun onto her desk and moved on to the other items.
Myra pulled out his tattered black leather wallet.
"He still has this beat up old thing?" She asked out loud astonished that he still had this wallet.
Opening it up, she saw his driver's license, his firearm license, his concealed weapons permit, and his voter's registration card all nicely tucked into the pockets. He had a few credit cards in various pockets. She looked in the money section and saw he was carrying roughly three hundred dollars in cash in his wallet, which seemed rather strange. Normally, he didn't carry anything larger than a twenty dollar bill on him. Perhaps he was using this money to bribe a contact? Pulling out one of the bills, she noticed it was marked, so chances were this was bribery money for someone other than himself.
Continuing to thumb through the wallet, she saw the pictures he carried with him. One was of his parents, Myra had only met them a few times, before they moved to Sabastian's father's hometown in Colombia a few years after Lily was born. They were really nice people and always treated Myra like their own daughter; she missed them a lot. Another picture was of his brother who died tragically at twelve years old. From what she remembered of the story, he was outside riding his bike when bank robbers fleeing the scene of the crime hit and killed his brother. Sebastian was about seven years old at the time, but he said that was the moment he vowed to be a police officer when he grew up. He said he never wanted to see his parents cry because of bad people ever again. Thumbing through more pictures, she came across a picture from their wedding day. In fact, it was her favorite image from that day.
The picture was of Sebastian leaning against the wall sheepishly listening to the lecture of chief of the Krimson City police force. Meanwhile Myra, fully decked out in her wedding dress and cathedral length veil, was looking over the chief's shoulder smirking at this conversation. Myra remembered that discussion, it was chief demanding Sebastian to take good care of her or else he would have him to answer to. The Chief doted on Myra; her father was an officer with the chief back when the chief was just a patrol officer. The chief and Myra's family were very close. When Myra's father was killed in the line of duty when she was a child, the chief looked after her like she was his daughter. In fact, it was the chief who walked Myra down the aisle during their wedding ceremony. It had been years since Myra saw this picture, it had gone missing one day, and after the fire, she assumed she would never see it again. Surprisingly Sebastian had it all this time.
The next picture instantly made Myra's heart sink. It was a family portrait of herself, Sebastian, and Lily. This picture was taken three weeks before the fire. Looking at the picture with everyone smiling and happy practically broke her heart. She remembered that day clearly; they were late for the photography appointment, because she wasn't feeling well that morning and could barely get out of bed. As she would find out a few days later, she was pregnant with their second child. This was a secret that no one knew; Myra never disclosed it to anyone. Not even Mobius, who forcibly made all those who joined their ranks disclose all their inner most secrets, knew about this. It was a secret she alone would bear the burden of carrying and she would take that secret to her grave.
When Myra discovered she was pregnant, she became nervous about having a second child. Lily was such a delight, but she didn't enjoy being pregnant. When she was pregnant with Lily, her blood pressure was through the roof. It was so bad that she ended up on bedrest during the last two months of her pregnancy and not working damn near drove Myra stir crazy. Also, she always felt awkward as a mother. She would see other women at the park with their babies playing and singing songs and she would think how do they do it? How could they just jump into the "mommy" role, because she never got the hang of it? Sure, she did the best she could, but she wasn't the type of person to coddle someone, even if they needed it.
Another thing, Myra hated being on maternity leave. She missed the excitement of being a detective at KCPD. She was so frantic to get back to work, that she returned to work part time for KCPD just two weeks after Lily's birth. Changing diapers, warming bottles, and wiping noses wasn't exactly stimulating or fun, but working missing person's cases was, and she threw herself into that role way harder than she did her role as mother. With news of this new pregnancy, Sebastian would insist that she scale back on work so she could focus on the baby, and that would not do. So much like when she was pregnant with Lily, she choose to wait for as long as possible to tell everyone, including Sebastian, about the new baby. She was certain she could hide the pregnancy for ten weeks as she did before. However, with the fire and stress of losing Lily, Myra miscarried three days after Lily's funeral. That was part of the reason she closed herself off to Sebastian. She didn't want him to find out about the miscarriage. Losing one child was depressing enough, but to lose two within days of each other… It was something out of a nightmare, so it was best if Sebastian never knew.
Tears began to pour from her light hazel eyes. She knew going through Sebastian's things would make her emotional, but she didn't realize just how emotional she would get. Closing the wallet and setting that down on her desk, she reached into the bag and pulled out his trench coat. Holding it close to her nose, she breathed in the smell and it was a scent she hadn't smelled in months, it was Sebastian's scent. His scent was a blend of Marlies Black cigarettes, Scottish Creek soap, and Ocean Blue men's cologne. This was a scent that she missed terribly.
Draping the coat over her left arm, Myra walked over the massive windows then closed the blinds. She then went to her desk and set her office telephone to "do not disturb" mode. Finally, she walked over to her office door; she locked it and turned off the lights. Moving over to the long red leather couch that was tucked away in the back of her office, Myra sat down got comfortable. Shaking out the coat one more time, she again held it to her nose and breathed in the scent, immediately Myra melted. Closing her eyes, her mind became awash with memories of the Christmas night she gave him this coat.
For as long as she had known Sebastian, he wore a dark blue KCPD jacket. It had tears in several places, small burn marks on the cuff, a perpetual yellow mustard on the front right side that no matter how many times she cleaned it, or took the jacket to the cleaners for them to clean, adamantly refused to come out. Myra hated that stupid blue jacket, but Sebastian loved it. It was one of the first things he had gotten when he joined the Krimson City Police Force. She could understand the pride he felt when he wore it, but it was old and well past its prime. So that Christmas she vowed to buy him something new and nice.
Myra looked all over the city to find just the perfect coat for Sebastian and she finally found it at Miller's Department Store. A long trench coat would be perfect, because with the exception of summer, the seasons in Krimson were unpredictable! Winter time in Krimson City could be brutal, between the low temperatures and heavy lake effect snow; Myra often wondered how Sebastian stayed warm in a jacket that was clearly meant only for mid spring and the beginning of fall. Fall and spring too were known to suffer with torrential downpours that could last for days, so with a trench coat Sebastian would finally be properly suited for all of Krimson City's wild weather.
Running her hand over the coats fabric, Myra smiled. It was a very well made garment. It should have been considering she paid nearly $600 dollars for it. But it was waterproof, triple lined, and warm. Wrapping herself up in the coat and curling up on the couch, Myra smiled and settled into one of her happiest memories.
Sebastian walked into their bedroom, he just put Lily to bed for the evening while Myra clacked away on her laptop, trying to finish up some lingering paperwork on a case she just closed. Sebastian sat down upon the bed and felt a box crush underneath him. Instantly he stood back up and pulled the sheets back from the bed. There he saw a big blue metallic wrapped box with a big white bow.
"What's this My?" Sebastian asked.
"How should I know?" Myra said not taking her eyes off her laptop. "Santa must have left it for you, but forgot to put it under the tree."
"Really…" He said skeptically.
Sebastian began to gently open up the present. Gently pulling the bow off then slowly pealing back the wrapping paper. Inside was a box that said "Miller's" in big bold letters.
"So Santa shops at Miller's Department Store?" Sebastian questioned.
"I hear Santa has a whole network of secret shopper elves." Myra said still not taking her eyes off of her report. "Something about downsizing his workshop and outsourcing shopping jobs to non-union elves because of rising overhead costs."
"Oh my God My." Sebastian laughed at Myra's longwinded explanation.
Once he stopped laughing he pulled open the box and saw the fine trench coat inside. Sebastian smiled as he took it out of the box and put it on.
"Santa's elves brought this thing a little big." He said. "I'm practically swimming in it."
Myra finally looked away from her computer screen and saw Sebastian standing there in his new coat. She did buy it about two sizes too big, but she figured it would have to go under various layers of clothes.
"I'm sure you're going to be wearing something more than an undershirt when you go to work." Myra said setting down her laptop onto the nightstand, getting out of bed to eye him up and down.
"Yeah that's true." He agreed.
"So what do you think of it?" She asked turning him around to look at himself in the mirror.
"It's nice…" He said hesitantly.
"Well," Myra said as she straightened his lapel. "You're a Sargent now. This should make you look a bit more professional than your old KCPD jacket."
Sebastian looked at himself in the mirror, he was starting like the way he looked in his new coat.
"I think you look handsome and sophisticated." Myra said.
Sebastian looked at himself in the mirror one more time. He then stuffed both his hands into each of the pockets, and then wrapped his arms around Myra's tiny waist and enveloped her in the warmth of his trench coat. She giggled and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders. Pulling her close, Sebastian kissed Myra passionately; Myra melted. After a moment, the loving kiss ended.
"Do you like it Seb?" Myra asked sweetly.
"It's perfect my sweet Myra Claus." He said softly, then kissing her sweetly once again.
Myra woke up still curled up in Sebastian's trench coat. Tears streamed from her light eyes. God, how she missed her life with Sebastian, but those days were over and now that he was going to be a subject within the STEM System, chances were very slim they would ever be together again.