[* Linda Blair played the role of Regan MacNeil in the horror film The Exorcist ]
3.
Linda Blair herself would have been envious of the way Andrea's head spun to defend herself to the man steering her down the corridor toward Sharon's office. She hadn't anticipated THIS! What the hell was he thinking? Was he going to just fling the door open and tell her friend she'd been asking questions of a personal nature, which he wasn't authorised to answer? SHIT.
"Andy, no wait, she'll kill me." Andrea pleaded.
Andy turned to her with mischief written all over his face. He had no intention of answering any of her questions. He knew whatever he answered would be used against him, possibly in more than one way. The best way to deal with it would be to lay it ceremoniously at Sharon's feet, to allow her room to confirm or deny as she saw fit. Yes, that's what he would do.
With that, he flung the door open without knocking, fearing that if he took his hand away from Andrea's arm too long, she would manage to flee.
"Uh, sorry for not knocking, but Andrea needs to speak with you Captain".
Sharon looked up, startled as the door flew open and Andy ushered a flustered Andrea through the door in a flourish that left no room for formality.
Putting her pen down, she looked from Andy to Andrea and chuckled, before taking her glasses off, putting them down, and raising her hands to rub her face as if trying to regain some composure.
"What the devil is going on here?" she levelled at the pair.
"Well, Captain, Andrea has questions she would like answered and I don't feel qualified to provide those answers, so I am referring her to my boss." Andy offered, with his signature grin.
"Sharon... I, ah, um" Andrea got out before she was interrupted.
"So, Miss Confident... how HAS that gone for you?" Sharon cut her friend off, trying to control the urge to laugh unreservedly.
"Andy, it's alright. I know exactly what she's up to. Leave her to me." she said with the hint of a smile starting to curl at one corner of her mouth.
And with that, he chuckled and walked out the door, closing it behind him. Andrea deserved whatever Sharon decided her punishment should be, and he was fully confident he'd disclosed nothing to her.
"Andrea, you're shocking" Sharon said as she collapsed back into her chair.
"I told you you wouldn't get any of them to tell you what you wanted to know. And you still won't because most of them know nothing to tell you."
"Sharon, it's Flynn." Andrea's raised arches and wide eyes told Sharon there was no point in pretending she was wrong.
"What did Lieutenant Flynn tell you that makes you so certain of that?" She asked with her own arched eyebrows begging the question be answered to her satisfaction.
Andrea grunted disgustedly indicating she was not amused and told her "He said he sees you go into your office, and he sees you come out of your office, and that if that's what I meant, then yes he was seeing the Captain. The whole time I was talking to him, it was like talking to a combination of YOU and Provenza at the same time. You've rubbed off on him."
Sharon couldn't contain her laughter any longer. Andrea was right, it did sound like a combination of her own humor and Provenza's diversion tactics. Good grief, had she indeed rubbed off on him in such a short amount of time? "Alright. Ok. Yes, Lieutenant Flynn and I are 'sort of' seeing each other. Nobody else knows, not even Rusty. The only person who MIGHT have an inkling would be Provenza, but I'm not sure that Andy would have confided in him just yet."
With crossed arms, and a self-congratulatory smirk, Andrea asked her "So... how exactly DID that mark get on the wall in your condo?"
