Intersecting Lines Book 2
21 O'Malley's
Jane's viewpoint
It was the last Friday night of the month and that meant Trivia Night at O'Malley's, our regular cop watering hole of choice. While we normally entered with just Nat, Ana, Maura and me, we'd managed to corral Brenda and Sharon in as well this time, the normal team size was six and we'd been missing out in some areas, hopefully having them there would cover some of our gaps, giving us a better chance at winning.
We registered, then went and grabbed our steaks and foil-wrapped potatoes to grill over the huge gas range like normal. The place was busy as usual with lots of cops unwinding, also as usual. That translated into a lot of single cops thinking they were god's gift to women, especially beautiful women. More than a few had buzzed around, attracted by the sight of Maura, Natalie and Ana, though they'd mostly been sent on their way with a smile and a laugh. A few however were being unpleasantly persistent, really not taking the hint and rather than Brenda and Sharon having to get involved I'd decided to step in with one of the more persistent offenders.
"Hey, Officer..." He turned and looked me up and down and smiled, he must have liked what he'd seen.
"O'Connor, John O'Connor" I nodded.
"Can I give you a bit of advice John" Without waiting for his response I pressed on. "I know they all look nice..." I nodded at where Natalie, Maura and Brenda stood chatting to Chief Kelso while Ana and Sharon flipped steaks. "But none of them are interested in you" He frowned at me, his ego obviously affronted; you could hear it in his voice.
"What makes you say that?"
"They're all gay" That got me a disgusted eye roll.
"You gotta be kidding me, what a waste" With some effort I restrained myself.
"I wouldn't go that far. Besides, there's two other reasons you shouldn't bother them" He tilted his head to regard me.
"Like what?" I shrugged.
The first is that all of them are senior officers in the Department, either uniformed of civilian. All of them work with Pope, so annoying them with approaches that aren't welcome might be a career-limiting move" He looked skeptical.
"You're joking fight?" He saw my face. "Really?" I nodded.
"A deputy chief, a commander, a Bureau Special Agent plus two senior civilians" I smiled nicely. "I can see that might just go all sorts of wrong" He frowned, his eyes lingering a little too much on Nat and Maura.
"And the other reason?" I let some harshness creep into my voice, drawing his gaze back to me.
"Their partners are all right here, so hitting on them is going to get you tossed out on your ear" At his widened eyes I held up my hand, letting him see the ring.
"Aw no, not you too" I frowned and stepped a little closer.
"Excuse me?" He suddenly seemed to realise that I was taller than him, plus a lot pissed.
"Hey, I didn't mean anything, just an observation was all" I frowned harder and leaned a little closer as he unconsciously leaned back.
"Well 'John', maybe you might want to make your observations someplace else, someplace where I don't have to watch you eying up my fiancé, Capsice?" He was about to say something when I heard a silky alto inject itself into the conversation.
"Hi Jane, I just wanted to let you know your steak's ready, it's starting to overcook" It was Sharon, I turned slightly to see her standing there, one eyebrow lifting as she regarded O'Connor, before introducing herself. "Commander Raydor" I saw O'Connor's eyes widen slightly as he nodded and mumbled his name, before making quick excuses to head back to his friends at the bar. I smiled across at Sharon as her smile changed from her 'work' one to her far more relaxed and happy normal one.
"Thanks" She glanced at his retreating back.
"Some people just don't seem to be all that good at taking a hint, so I thought I might wander by before you had to get physical" I raised an eyebrow.
"Who said it would get physical?" Her chuckle was quick and low.
"Jane, if you'd been any more into his personal space you'd have been standing on him" She shrugged gently. "Ana was all for coming over here to back you up, but I convinced her that I might as well let my reputation work for me for a change"
"Thanks Sharon, I appreciate it" We shared a smile as we wandered back to the grill, while I chewed over what she'd said, about her reputation. It was sad, Sharon was dedicated, honest, compassionate and a damned good friend, it hurt to contemplate just how bad her reputation was with her fellow cops simply because she did her job without fear or favor. Her job was to help preserve the reputation of the force by weeding out the hot heads, the trigger happy and the brutal; we were better off without them, it just did her no favors with the rest of the force.
I was still thinking it over when I got back to the grill, seeing Ana smiling at me as she leaned my way.
"You looked like you were about to go a few rounds with your friend, I was all for joining in but Sharon took away my fun" I nodded and smiled.
"She took care of it with a lot less bloodshed" Ana shrugged as she checked the foil-wrapped potatoes.
"Where's the fun in that?" I took a sip of my beer and nodded.
"Point" We grabbed our dinner and settled in at our table, Nat had taken care of the registrations so we concentrated on enjoying the evening, just winding down from a busy week, not helped in my case by the whole Boston episode. I'd not really discussed all of it with anyone, mostly because I was kinda embarrassed by my brother being such a douche. Maura would have tried to see it from his perspective but I didn't want her to know just how much of a foul-mothed dick he'd been, so I sat on it and tried to put it behind me.
I'd have to tell someone though, maybe Ana, before one of our sparring session, that way I could talk to someone about it, then burn it out of my system with a full on sparring session, she was one of the few people I knew who I'd trust to spar with when I was in a foul mood, she was as good as I was, less reach and strength but she was faster than me, besides we knew each other's moves well enough that I doubt I'd be able to catch her out even if I tried.
Finishing dinner, Ana and I did a drink run to the bar, chatting with a few people she recognised, or who recognised her, before we settled in for the actual competition, just in time as it turned out. The MC, a guy with an outrageously fake Irish accent bounded in dressed in some weird Leprechaun outfit, introduced himself as Seamus O'Malley before he started running us through the standard rules which were pretty simple.
The night was the usual system they'd introduced a few months back. Five rounds of ten questions, one recent change had been you had to nominate one round as your 'Joker' round, worth double points. The five rounds were 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', 'People and Places', 'Sports' which was a perennial favourite, 'Television shows from the 70s' and 'The Academy Awards'. Kicking it around the group we discussed which would be our joker round and ended up selecting the Academy Awards, 'specially as we all liked our movies. We got ourselves set up with drinks all round and were ready to kick off.
We managed to pull things in quite well on the transport subject, though some of the questions were a bit esoteric. Such as the one asking which rail journey was started by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits? It turned out to be the Orient Express, which Sharon had travelled on when she was travelling in Europe after college.
Another was which car company still in existence was the first to build a working internal combustion engine car, the answer turned out to be Benz, the ancestor of today's Mercedes Benz, Maura got that one as she'd actually read all the brochures and manuals when she got her current car.
Another was what did the DC in DC-3 stand for? Brenda, Maura and Nat all agreed it was Douglas Commercial, which turned out to be right. I kinda thought the questions in this round weren't that hard and maybe we should have made that our double points round but then mentally shrugged; we'd done OK and still had the Joker up our sleeve.
In the end we scored eight out of ten, which put us in contention with everyone who hadn't made it their joker round, three teams had with one of them on eighteen points, we still had our Joker round in hand so we weren't out of contention yet.
The next round was people and places, which was all about connecting famous places with the people who had discovered or popularised them. Ones like the first European explorer to see Victoria Falls. I didn't even know where Victoria Falls was though several of the others knew it was in Africa. Maura was the one to tell us it was on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe and the explorer was David Livingston, the same Livingston immortalized in the famous quote 'Doctor Livingston I presume?' She also pointed out that quote was probably post-event revisionism, some writer making it up for the readers back home.
Another question was about who was the first person to reach the South Pole, Nat and Brenda thought it was an English guy named Scott, 'Scott of the Antarctic', but Ana was pretty sure it was a Norwegian explorer named Roald Amundsen. I'd looked at Maura but got a shake of the head, not even she knew everything. Eventually we ended up going with Scott, given the title, only to find out he'd got there second, a few weeks after Amundsen. He'd died on the way back from the pole, along with most of his expedition, in 1912. As Nat pointed out, he might have come second but he must have had the better publicist.
Some of the others were easier, like who was most famously associated with Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina; Maura, Brenda, Natalie and I were all in agreement that it was Orville and Wilbur Wright and they'd carried out their successful first flight there, another point to us.
Ana got us another point by remembering that Cetawayo was the king of the Zulu army which fought and lost at Rorke's Drift, a famous battle in Southern Africa. Turns out she'd studied the campaign at West Point as a cadet.
The final one of that round had us stumped though, six smart women and none of us had a clue as to who had spent most of his life carving Mount Rushmore, not even a guess, but it turned out to be Gutzon Borglum. In the end despite not answering that last one we'd scraped in with another eight points, which put us on sixteen, trailing the top teams but we'd still had our double point's round in hand. The top placed team after the first round had managed a shocker this round, only getting four points, so they were on 22 points, well off the pace.
Nat and Maura did the next drinks run, while I kept an eye on them, I didn't expect too much trouble in a bar full of cops but I could no more stop looking out for Maura than I could stop breathing. Ana naturally felt the same way as I saw her eyes follow them both to the bar and back. I could see others watching them make their way across the room, but most of the trivia comp regulars knew who they were and who they were with, I may not like them being eyed off, but as long as that was all I couldn't do too much about it.
Sports turned out to be as tricky as usual. Over the month's we'd been doing this comp I'd learned that you could expect six or seven sports questions about American sports with the rest being sport that weren't well known here in the states like soccer or Rugby Union or Hurling or Cricket. I'd actually started watching more international sports to get up to speed; to the point I now followed the fortunes of Manchester United and Real Madrid in soccer, Wales in Rugby Union, County Cork in Hurling, Australia in the Cricket plus plenty of other teams in a wide range of sports.
None of that meant that I'd misplaced my loyalty to the Sox and the Pat's though, I might be in LA but I was Boston born and bred. All of which meant the question about which city was the first to host winning World Series and Superbowl teams in the same year was a complete gimme, Boston in 2004 of course.
The usual Olympic Games question had us scratching our heads, which sport was a demonstration event at the 1988 Olympic Games and became an official medal event at the 2000 games? Brenda smiled at us after we'd beaten our heads against it for a bit, before pointing out that most demonstration sports were local sports and the 1988 Olympic Games had been held in Seoul. That led to a quick discussion about what was one of the only truly Korean sports, making Maura smile as she nodded and confirmed it was Taekwondo, another point to us.
The question about which horse had won the Grand National three times kinda stumped us, till Natalie piped up with Red Rum back in the 70s. It turned out she had an eye for quality thoroughbreds from growing up on a farm, in fact she still had a mare back on the Dearing family farm in Wyoming, as did Ana.
In total we pulled out eight questions again, missing two, one on Lacrosse and the final one on sailing, none of us knew how many countries had held the America's Cup. It turned out to be five: England, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland. Ana and Sharon thought the Spanish were in there too, but it turned out the Swiss had defended the cup sailing in Spain. It sounded weird but I didn't know squat about sailing.
That put us on 24 points, which wasn't bad; we were middle of the pack with those who hadn't already used their joker. The double point's thing kept things interesting because it meant a team could suddenly grab up to 20 points from a round, meaning the top teams would never be completely sure if they were in the clear.
The 'Television shows of the 70s' round turned out to be easier than we'd feared, questions like which show had starred Bob Crane in the title role were easy, most of us had Hogan's Heroes on the tip of our tongue. When it came to what role did Sebastian Cabot play in A Family Affair, Maura and Sharon both pegged it as the butler. Sharon remembered it from her childhood while Maura apparently dredged it up from that encyclopedia she keeps hidden between her ears.
None of us had a clue about which British show Reg Varney starred in as a bus driver; I mean who the hell was Reg Varney anyway? Fortunately Brenda guessed it as On the Busses; she'd seen it on television one wet weekend stuck in her hotel in some god-forsaken part of the north of England, to use her description.
We also, along with probably every cop in the place, knew what sort of car Starsky and Hutch drove, a Ford Grand Torino, or Grand Tomato as Brenda described it.
Keeping up the cop show theme, the next question was about another cop show, but remembering the two actors in Adam 12 was a damned sight harder, we got Kent McCord right but guessed Kevin Tighe who was actually in another show, Emergency, missing Martin Millner, with no half points awarded we ended up with a total of nine out of ten for the round. That put us on 33 out of a possible 40 but we were still in the running.
Brenda and Sharon did the drinks run while we waited for the next round to begin as Ana leaned forward.
"I'm glad Sharon and Brenda came, they look like they're having fun" I nodded, they did that. Natalie glanced over to where they were standing at the bar, then back to us.
"Good thing too, Pope's giving Brenda hell over the home invasion case, apparently Councilor Mori's leaning on the Mayor, whose leaning on Pope" She grimaced. "I got that from the Mayor's head media guy, apparently the Mayor needs Mori's vote on some upcoming issues so he's bending over backwards to keep Mori happy" I frowned.
"Let me guess, Mori knows it and is making the most of his leverage right?" Nat nodded.
"Yeah, there's nothing quite as dangerous as a city councillor with a bit of a sniff of power. Anyway, it means Brenda's under a pile of pressure from Pope" Maura frowned, no doubt already mentally editing her schedule for next week to spend a bit more time with both Brenda and Sharon. She nodded slowly.
"It is fortunate then that Alex and Olivia are visiting next week, that should be a very pleasant weekend for us all" There were nods all round, they were good company and both Sharon and Brenda liked them as much as we did. We had a relaxing, low-key weekend planned, something we all needed.
I smiled as Brenda and Sharon weaved their way back through the tables, each carrying several drinks, they were good people and I liked them a lot.
The final round was the big one for us, double points for the Academy Awards. It turned out to be a real bear, full of tough questions, enough so that after the first few I thought we'd made a mistake making it our joker round.
First question up was who made the longest speech in Academy Awards history; fortunately Sharon knew it was Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver, clocking in at over five minutes. I couldn't imagine standing up on stage talking for two minutes, let alone five. That was two points.
The second was which Director has won the most Oscars. I thought it might have been Spielberg while Nat thought it was Woody Allen. Turned out that while Allan won four Oscars, only one was for directing. It was Ana who told us it was John Ford; she loved his movies and could even name several of his Oscar movies including The Grapes of Wrath and How Green was my Valley, which meant another two points to us.
Brenda loved music soundtracks so she got the next one; Alfred Newman had won nine Oscars for best score, who came second with five? She immediately picked John Williams, surprisingly even though they're some of his best known music none of the Star Wars movies won. Three from three was a good start.
The next question had everyone else stumped for a moment; which movie won every category of Academy Award it was nominated for? Fortunately though I love Tolkien even if I don't talk about it much, so I could confirm it was the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I remembered watching the awards night and cheering every time they won. That was back in the pre-Maura days when I lived on my own and didn't embarrass myself in front of her by cheering every win like the Sox hitting a home run. That made it four out of four.
The fifth question was apparently easy, which woman won the most Oscars, we started arguing different actresses, but Maura just smiled enigmatically and reached out for the scoring sheet, writing Edith Head on the line. I'd never heard of her and neither had anyone else but Maura explained that she was a movie costume designer and had won a pile of Oscars for her work. It figures that Maura would know all about costume designers, but either way I wasn't arguing, five out of five.
The next one had us all stumped though, which man won four Oscars in the same year. We argued round and round without coming to an answer, it turned out to be Walt Disney who won four in 1954 and he'd also won the most Oscars, 22 in all. That cost us two points and gave us five out of six.
Question seven was a tough one, who was the youngest actor to win an Oscar, winning it in her debut film? It turned out to be Tatum O'Neill in Paper Moon, fortunately Nat's mum loved the movie and so she'd been forced to watch it a couple of times growing up and remembered that she'd won an Oscar for it. It sounded a bit like a guess but we'd eventually agreed and it turned out to be right, getting a hugely relieved grin from Nat. That made us six out of seven.
Brenda, Maura and Nat were all certain the first posthumous Oscar went to actor Peter Finch for a movie called Network, Nat told us she remembered it because it was a movie about a TV journalist, Sharon because of the scene where he throws a window open and screams "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more" and Brenda because of the psychological manipulation of the character by his boss, all in the name of ratings. Three very different reasons but they were all valid, as was the answer. Seven out of eight and we were in with a chance.
The next one had us grasping, we had to name two out of three movies that had won the top five awards for best picture, director, actor, actress, and screenplay. We finally agreed that one of them was One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, but the other two had us stumped. We tossed titles around before Maura suggested Silence of the Lambs. Brenda and Ana immediately jumped on the bandwagon for that one, given their backgrounds as interrogator and Bureau agent I could see why. Sharon wasn't sure, Nat was skeptical and I didn't have a clue, but in the absence of any better suggestion we mentally crossed our fingers and put that down on the sheet. Turns out they were right, together with another movie I'd never heard of called It Happened One Night. That scraped us in with eight out of nine and we were all pretty excited, we really felt like we were a really good chance.
The final question was one that sent a chill up my spine as soon as everyone at the table turned to look at me. Name six sports movies that have taken home an Oscar in any category. It wasn't helped when Nat pushed the pen and answer sheet towards me either. Thanks Nat, no pressure, none at all.
Some were easy. Rocky and The Fighter and Raging Bull were easy gets. Maura contributed Chariots of Fire about Olympic runners while Sharon reminded me that Million Dollar Baby was about a boxer and had won, so that made five. Ana added Jerry Maguire, where Tom Cruise was a footballer's agent. It seemed a long shot but for lack of anything else it got added, leaving us grasping for another one. I had a feeling that the baseball epic Field of Dreams had won and was about to put it down when I had a second thought. I knew some movie with baseball had to have won an Oscar, but was it Field of Dreams or something else?
None of the others were sure, pushing the pressure back on me, I was about to give up and go with Field of Dreams when Brenda asked me who they would have made a movie about, Babe Ruth? The others started adding new names, names like Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays and Mikey Mantle when I suddenly smiled, holding up my hand.
"Who was the greatest player ever, even though he played for the Yankee's?" It was Ana who got it, nodding as she spoke, keeping her voice down.
"The Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig" I nodded.
"Exactly, I remember they made a movie about him. Can anyone remember what it was called?" There was silence for a moment, before Brenda looked up.
"Yankee's something, he played for them" I nodded as Maura leaned forward.
"Jane, can you remember who played him in the movie?" I chewed my lip for a moment as I heard the O'Malley character telling us to finish up. Ignoring him for the time being I wracked my brain, before I remembered the speech he'd made on retirement, the one about being the luckiest man in the world. I could hear it in my head, in the voice of…
"Gary Cooper! It was Gary Cooper" There was a quick round of glances as I nodded. "Gary Cooper, in Pride of the Yankee's" Nat quickly grabbed the score sheet and wrote out our answer as Seamus O'Malley's assistant came by to collect it, finishing it off just as she reached our table, taking it with a smile. There was a quick round of congratulations as we were handed another team's score sheet, before we ticked off their answers as they were read out. This team hadn't done so well, only getting six answers, while we were certain we'd got nine answers right, worth eighteen points in total. That should put us on 51 points out of a possible 60, which we guessed had us up there with the leaders.
All the score sheets were handed in and we waited as the leprechaun kept the night going while his people tallied up the scores; I was surprised to see almost no one leaving, I didn't realise so many people were invested in seeing someone beat the team of bankers, apparently they'd ruled the roost for too long and the cops who made up the majority of the teams were rooting for someone to knock them off their perch.
Finally Seamus or whatever his name really was started reading out the scores from low to high, letting the tension rack up as he climbed to the last two. The LAPD's IT geek team came in fourth on 47, teachers from a local high school snuck in and beat them by a point, leaving us and the bankers left and everyone was watching us both. I could see other cops nodding and lifting glasses our way in 'good luck' gestures as he drew it out.
"And finally, we have the two remaining teams, reigning champions the Wall Street Wannabe's and the challengers, the… L.O.L.A.L.E." He spelled it out and then looked out over the room. "What the hell does that mean?" Natalie looked his way and raised her voice.
"Ladies of Los Angeles Law Enforcement" He looked our way and you could see him taking us all in.
"You're all cops?" He laughed. "Which TV show?" I didn't like his insinuation but before anyone could speak a voice called out from another table full of cops.
"They're real cops, you dumbass" There was a scattered chorus of cheers at his words, Seamus suddenly realising he might have put his foot in it in front of a room full of cops as he rapidly started backpedalling.
"Wow, the last cop who gave me a ticket looked nothing like you guys" He looked around the room and forced a smile. "Anyway, I have the final points total here and on 51 points, we have the beautiful women of Los Angeles law enforcement" He sketched a bow in our direction, raising a cheer from all the cops around the pub.
"Our perennial champions, the Wall Street Wannabe's had a great night, as always" I could hear the glum muttering start around the room, as people anticipated the bad news. "But not quite good enough, scoring 50 points and making our lovely ladies the winners!" We looked around at each other as the room erupted in cheers, it slowly sank in, we'd done it. Next second I was being hugged by an excited Maura who was almost bouncing up and down, before a kiss settled us both down. I looked up to see the others celebrating the same way, before we started exchanging hugs back and forward between us.
Next second there was a gentle slap on the back as a patrol officer I didn't recognise congratulated me, then another officer, a motorcycle cop from a regular trivia night team was shaking my hand, in seconds we were engulfed ina sea of cops all congratulating us, it didn't escape me that Sharon was being congratulated just as much as the rest of us, taking in her slightly bemused smile with an even wider smile of my own.
Finally it calmed down a bit and we were called up to the front of the room to receive our prize, a $150 food and drink voucher. There were even more cheers from the room as we made our way through the tables before the Wall Street Wannabe's, the team of bankers, all stood up as we moved past their table. They all nodded and one of them held his hand out, shaking each of us in turn as they congratulated us on the win.
"Hope you'll be back next month, we'd like to win our title back again" We smiled and laughed as Nat promised him we'd be back, rain, hail or shine. They nodded and sat down as we made our way up to receive our voucher, before we got another round of applause from everyone there, even the cops at the bar who hadn't been in the competition.
Finally we managed to wrap up and made our way towards the exit and outside, collecting the last of the well wishes before escaping into the cool air outside. I looked round at everyone, seeing everyone doing the same. Nat snuggled up to Ana and smiled around at us before looking over at where Brenda and Sharon were standing there, holding hands.
"Wasn't that worth coming out on a Friday night then?" They exchanged a glance before Brenda nodded.
"It was fun, we both had fun" Sharon nodded in agreement.
"It was really nice" Ana looked round at us all then grinned.
"Then we're on again next month" I saw Brenda go to say something, probably something about being unable to commit to anything, but I got in first.
"This is our first win, you can't break up the team now, we're defending champs so we've got to hold onto our title" Sharon nodded slowly as Nat spoke.
"Yeah, you're our good luck charms, you can't pull out now" Maura smiled and piled in as well.
"They are indeed correct, without your help we would have not had enough points to win; obviously your participation is essential to the team's success" They exchanged another glance, nodding at each other before Sharon smiled.
"While we can't be certain we'll available, if we're free, we'll be here" There were smiles all round at her words as we wrapped up with hugs before we made our separate ways into the night.
Maura looked up at me from where she was happily tucked under my arm, her arm around my waist as we walked towards her Merc.
"I had fun Jane, I'm glad they were with us" I smiled down at her and nodded.
"Me too" She glanced up at me and smiled.
"You did very well tonight Jane, particularly on the sport-related questions" I nodded.
"Isn't that why you keep me around?" She pulled a small face, before it dissolved into a smile.
"Well, not just the only reason" Her smile turned a little wicked as she pulled me just a little closer. "I think you deserve a reward for being so good" I felt her words, delivered in that sultry teasing tone she uses on me when she's feeling a little naughty, set my nerves buzzing as I looked at her, appreciating my good fortune all over again.
"Oh really, and what sort of prize would that be?" Her voice slowed down a bit, teasingly slow.
"How about anything…you…want…" I looked down at her and smiled, though it was probably a little too feral and hungry, it made her eyes narrow though.
"I might have something in mind" She nodded slowly, playing a little with me.
"And what might that be?" I leaned in and gave her a kiss, pushing it and slipping my tongue in, getting an equally eager response. I finally pulled back, seeing her a little flushed and feeling a real sense of accomplishment in still being able to do that to her after being together for over a year.
"The sooner we get home the sooner you find out"
Our subsequent trip home was remarkably fast, even for Maura, but I wasn't in any mind to complain, not when I got my reward.