62

Aligned Design

Ch 10

Bobby left the utility closet and walked calmly to the men's room. He stood at the urinal, flushed and went to the sink. He washed his hands and splashed water on his face. There, he looked better. He felt better, too.

God it was good to talk with her. He felt good. He knew she was ok. She was coming home in two days. Friday night. He would meet her flight; bring her home. Make sure she was happy. He would do anything to keep her from running away again. Anything. He would change.

He just wanted things the way they were before.

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"It's right down his way," Huang said to Dr. Stephens as they stepped from the lift. They turned the corner heading for the detective unit and Bobby came up behind them.

"Dr. Stephens?" he called.

Huang and Stephens both stopped and turned. "Detective Goren," Huang said with his hand out, "good to see you." Bobby took the doctor's hand and they shook.

"Detective," Stephens answered with a smile. Bobby looked at one, then the other.

"What are you two doing here?" Then he knew, nodding. "You're here to talk about me, aren't you?" His hand illustrated his understanding.

"Yes, detective, we are," Stephens replied. "We're going to talk with your captain and your partner." She watched him carefully. He seemed ok. "You agree that is a smart tactic, don't you?" He's ok so far.

Bobby looked at each of them. You could see him thinking. He began to nod slightly; his hands began to move in line with his thoughts. "Yeah, yeah that would be a smart thing to do. It would have been a smart thing to do before I really went nuts, huh?" He smiled broadly and took a two-step back and forth.

"You need to talk to my partner so she can tell you how screwed up I am. Ha, she'll probably tell you how she should get hazardous duty pay for having to put up with me." Bobby's hands were chopping away at the words. "And, and the captain will tell you how hard it was to get Eames to partner with me.

"You should have talked to them both before all this crap happened. It would have been a good idea. Would have been; so, how come you are just now talking to them?" He sounded genuinely interested; he wasn't being rhetorical.

Huang and Stephens looked at the tall man before them, each running an analysis on his mental state. Bobby's rant was not a rant at all. He spoke calmly, conversationally. His expressive affect was discordant with his immediate emotional state. It appeared he was mentally shutting down areas of affect. He was consciously preventing himself from feeling emotions that he perceived would get him into trouble. Bobby was in a bad way.

Huang responded first, "I'm glad you understand why we're here. I thought you would agree this is a good thing. You are right; we should have done this when your post trauma counseling began. Live and learn, right?"

Bobby looked steadily at each one. "Yeah, learn." He looked at the floor and then back up at them. "I like to learn. Ok, well you should get on. Go get the goods on Goren. It was good to see you again, Dr. Stephens, Dr. Huang." He smiled and stepped around them.

Huang looked up at Stephens. "Want to take a minute and talk about what just happened?"

"Let's talk in the captain's office. He's going to need to know how sick his detective is."

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"He was so drunk, Captain. I've never seen Goren drunk." Sledge was telling Deakins about Monday night.

"So you went and got him?" Deakins knew what he wanted to ask next, but was afraid of the answer. He kind of thought he knew, but didn't want to know for sure.

"Ok, I have to ask. Why did Goren call you? Why would he? You guys hate each other. Why you?"

Eames had been standing to the side, listening. Deakins told her to stay when she brought Sledge into his office. She looked at the floor. To his credit, Sledge did not look at her.

"I have no idea, sir. I was asleep, heard the phone, thought it was a wrong number and then I recognized his voice. I told him to put the bartender on the phone, found out where he was, got dressed, picked him up, took him home and sobered him up best I could." Sledge never broke eye contact. Deakins was impressed. He couldn't resist a slight smile.

"Well, in any case, Edward, you did good. Thanks for being the better man in this situation. Did you stay while he sobered up?"

"Yeah, I made some coffee and we sat and talked. Well, I listened. Goren went on about how miserable he was. You knew Gleason left him?"

Deakins did know this. "Yeah, he mentioned it yesterday. He didn't elaborate. Eames, do you know anything about it?"

She shook her head and said, "I just found out."

Deakins looked back at Sledge. "When did she leave?"

"I don't know, sir. He didn't say. He didn't say why she left, either. He kept going on about how he wanted things to be like they were before. I'm thinking he wanted Gleason to come home. Goren's a brilliant man, a top detective, but he's really a mess, Captain."

"I know, I know. I think you need to share this with Huang and Goren's counselor. That ok with you?"

"Sure."

"Ah, here they are now." Deakins opened the door and shook hands with Huang who introduced Dr. Stephens to everyone. Hands shook all around.

"Tell you what," Deakins said to the group, "let's move to the conference room. There is more room for all of us." Eames and Dr. Stephens stepped out and waited for the gentlemen. As a group, they moved across the area to the conference room. Bobby sat at his desk and watched the collection walk. Eames glanced his way, saw the look on his face, and her heart broke. He knows, she thought. Dear god, what he must be thinking.

Navicky finished unloading the eight boxes, scanned the bars on each one, and headed to the next delivery. He had kept the dock manager talking while Jenese jumped from the truck bed and headed to his vehicle. Navicky watched Jenese drive away.

Why did I ever get involved with this, he wondered. Greed, goddamn greed. Well, this is it. I'm going to get the paintings tonight, keep them at my place and hand them over to Jenese. I'm going to take my money and maybe head south. Get a place on the water. Keep my nose clean. No more getting involved in this kind of shit.

Navicky pulled up to a small clinic in a strip mall on the east side. He set the brake and hopped out with his reader. He walked around to the back, raised the overhead door, and hopped up into the bed. He dropped the dolly off the back edge, leaning it against the bumper. Navicky scanned the three small boxes and dropped them onto the dolly below. He hopped down, up righted the one with 'fragile, this side up' and pushed the dolly into the office.

Less than three minutes later, he lifted the dolly back into the bed, lowered the overhead door and walked back to the cab. He pulled open the door, stepped up and looked into Pangborn's face.

"Let's go." Pangborn was sitting in the passenger seat, hands crossed in his lap. "Come on, drive. You've got a timeline, don't you?"

Navicky couldn't believe it. He started the truck and off they went.

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Bobby could see the group at the conference table since his desk faced it. He knew they were talking about him. He didn't care. Well, he cared, but he was more curious than anything. He really felt good. He had just needed to talk with Gleason. That's all he had needed. Now he was fine.

She'll call tonight and we'll talk. I'll make her happy. I won't mess this up again. No way. I want things to be like they were. I want things to be like they were. I want things to be like they were. I want things to be like they were.

Bobby silently chanted this mantra while he ran a search on the shipping company – number nine on his to-do list. I want things to be like they were.

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Gleason sat for a long time on the edge of the bed after talking with Bobby. She was so sorry for leaving him. How cruel! I had no right to do that to him. He loves me. He loves me. He is a wreck. I am so sorry, love. I am sorry.

Slowly she showered and dressed. She pulled two singles from her wallet and set them on the desk for the housekeeper. I need to exchange some money, she told herself. She lugged her leather bag onto her shoulder and walked to the lift.

She turned left from the lift into the lobby and went straight to the desk.

"Good morning, Dr. Wintermantle. How can I help you?"

"Tell me, where can I exchange foreign currency? I have pounds and euros."

"Ah, good question. Let me find out for you. Just a minute." The young man stepped through the door behind the desk.

Gleason turned and looked across to the small open restaurant. A man in a suit and a woman in jeans made their way along the cold table, selecting breakfast fare. Couples sat at small tables. She missed Bobby with a pain she could feel. She knew they should be together, here at this hotel, eating breakfast, making love in the big bed upstairs.

"Dr. Wintermantle? Dr. Wintermantle?"

Gleason spun and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I was a million miles away." She smiled around her embarrassment.

The young man smiled back. "We don't exchange money here, but the bank on the corner of Maple and Hamlin does. You go out the door and to the right. It's about three blocks from here."

"Thank you. I need to pay for today, but I don't have enough American cash. I'll be back." She smiled and headed out. Maybe I'll get something to eat later. She didn't trust her tum.

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"Where are we going?" Navicky asked Pangborn.

"We are going to your next stop. And then the stop after that. And the one after that. We're going to empty this truck. Then, we're going to go to where you have the paintings stashed. And the-e-e-e-n, you are going to give me those paintings." Pangborn looked over at the driver.

"What about the money? You gonna pay me, right?"

"Am I going to pay you? You bet, pal. No problem. Look, I want to get this deal done so we can just be done and get on. Where are they?"

Navicky drove.

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