Chapter 1: Life's too short

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MCPD

12-6-03

5:30PM

Vince sat at his desk in his office. His elbow rested on the desk top as he stared at the blank screen on his monitor. The sign-in box was on the screen. The cursor blinked every second. His eyes glanced around. He looked at the walls, with the melancholy design and the dark brown stain finish, and large windows through which he could see a good amount of the rest of the floor he worked on.

The wall all the way to his left was also the wall of the office to his left, same with the wall and the office in front of him, the wall his door was on. He had to walk through the other Detective's office in order to get to his. There were a few files cabinets behind him, and since he had a corner office, a window behind him. There was a space heater under this window in absence of a radiator. It was like that in a bunch of the offices around him. Someone went around and turned all of them on to low. The storm from last night was still there now in the morning. Wind and sharp snow flakes in everyone's face. To his left was another large file cabinet. On his desk was a phone, a calendar, a printer in the corner on the right side of the computer console, and a picture of Cheryl.

He looked around his office again and took all of this in. This isn't an office, he thought. It's a glorified cubicle. Shaking his head, he looked out of the windows to his left and saw Howard's office. Vince made a face to himself, and watched as Howard sat there talking on the phone to someone. I better at least look like I'm doing something, Vince decided, before I get bitched at because I'm getting payed for doing nothing. He looked back at his monitor at the blinking cursor.

He typed his name into the first space, and "Vince Burnett" came onto the screen. He pressed tab and then it came to his password. The name & password check completed with a beep and the search interface came up onto the screen, with several fields and options for specifying whatever it was someone may be searching for, and an area for search results. He paused, staring at a blank screen again.

He knew that typing in "Irvine" would do him no good. He'd done it time and again and came up with nothing useful as to where to find the guy. He had no previous record, no location, no place of residence, no relatives, no name changes. The guy just popped up out of thin air it seemed, and it made Vince angry, how this guy could just slip in and out of his jurisdiction. He sat back in his chair and put his legs up on his desk and his hands on his head, staring at the screen, the blank search fields and that blinking cursor again. A fly landed on him, and he brushed it off. Another black pair of jeans, and the same pair of boots, but this time, a blue t-shirt. His gun hung from its holster under his blazer. I don't know where to start or where this stops. I forgot where it began, and I could only imagine where it'll end. But in the mean time, what the fuck am I going to do just sitting here looking for a ghost?

He leaned forward and put his face into his hands as if he were crying and slowly slid them down his face and into a sort of praying position, and rested his head of them. Then he repositioned his left hand and rested his head on it, his elbow on top of the desk in front of the keyboard. His right hand was on the desk, the other elbow resting on his right thigh, and he tapped his fingers and sighed. Out of the corner of his left eye he saw Detective Stanford coming into his office. He was about Vince's height, maybe an inch or two taller, and with broader shoulders. He was in his mid 30s and in his combed back brown hair, gray hairs were obvious. He had a serious look in his eyes most of the time, but that was only when he meant business, when he was working. Usually he was a friendly guy though, and now it looked to Vince as if he had something interesting to say.

"Hey, Burnett."

Vince stopped tapping his fingers and put his left elbow on his left thigh, and clasped his hands together under the desk. "What's up, Stanford?"

"You heard about the party, right?"

He arched a brow. "No..what party?"

"Carrington's getting promoted, we're throwing him a surprise party and the ceremony is this weekend."

"Really? What's he moving up to?"

"He got onto S.W.A.T."

"That's a promotion?" Vince said, as if to ask what put the S.W.A.T. team over the Narcotics Unit.

"Well, yeah. Figure, our Narcotics Unit is a tactical unit of its own, we're not just regular Detectives, we do that and our own kind of S.W.A.T. work. So now he's moving from being a regular Narcotics Detective to getting to see a little excitement."

Vince shrugged. "I guess you got a point. Is there time for the whole unit to just take time off and throw a surprise party?"

"We're not the only Tactical Narcotics Unit here, or did you forget that part?"

Vince pointed his finger at him. "Hey, don't get smart with me!" he said in a joking tone, the both of them smiling at the sarcastic humor and reaction. "So when is this party anyway?"

"Well, figure, it's about 5:45PM now, I think we're all going down to the party room by 9:00PM, fancy food'll be catered and ready and everything, music and all, the whole nine yards."

Vince nodded. Suddenly, Stanford looked as though he remembered something.

"What's the matter?"

"Oh, no, I was just gonna say, I almost forgot, everyone in our unit is invited and their partners are welcome, so if you wanna surprise your girl you can suddenly take her out to dinner, and it's free!" Standford said with a chuckle.

A smile came over Vince's face. "Yeah, she'd like that. I think I owe her a few surprises," he said with a nod. He looked around for a clock. "What time do we get off if this party is at nine?"

"I think your shift ends in fifteen minutes. You've been doing paperwork all day since like six, right?"

"Yeah it sucks."

"Go ask Howard, he's not really busy, he told me to go remind everyone about the party tonight, you were the last guy left." Stanford suggested.

"Alright," Vince said as he logged out of his computer, turned it off, and got up out of his chair. He extended his hand and Stanford took it and shook his hand with a nod. "I'll see you tonight at the party," he said, to which Stanford replied "Alright then I'll see you tonight." He then left Vince's office to move onto whatever else he had to do. Vince rubbed his forehead. "Party tonight," he thought to himself. "I play my cards right I might get lucky." He walked out of his office and made his way over to Captain Howard's office. He knocked on the door, and was immediately greeted with a "Come in!" He opened the door, stepped in, and closed it behind him, looking out through the windows to see if Carrington was around.

"What is it Vince, what, what're you doing?"

"Ssh, calm down boss I was making sure Carrington wasn't around."

"Oh, Carrington? I guess Stanford told you about tonight."

"Yeah, I wanted to know when my shift ended for today, I forgot."

Howard checked his watch. It read 5:50. "It's ten to, you're done at six, get outta here you can go home now" he said all in one breath. Vince shrugged. "Alright then, I'll see you tonight then." Howard nodded. "Okay."

"Later boss." Vince said on the way out.

"So long." Howard called after him.

Vince made his way downstairs to his car and drove home.

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6:10PM

Vince walked into the apartment and threw his jacket and holster onto the couch. Cheryl heard the door slam shut, and she poked her head out of her room cautiously. Seeing Vince startled her, and his greeting made her jump. "Hey, honey what's up?" he said in high volume. "Vince, what're you doing here?" she asked, surprised. "I'm home, and tonight we're going to a fancy dinner" he said as he made his way closer to her. "Fancy dinner? What do you mean?" she said. He came over and held her in his arms and gave her a kiss. More surprises. He went into the bedroom and sat on the bed and began unlacing his boots. "One of the guys at work is getting promoted and my unit's throwing him a surprise party. Nice party, and good food, and it's all free."

"Oh.." she answered, a bit blindsided by the fact he was home so soon, and because now he was taking her out tonight, sort of. "What time do we have to be there by?"

"Nine o'clock. You got something nice to wear?"

"Uh, yeah, do you?"

"I'm sure I'll find something."

"What about your dress uniform?"

"No, no, that I have to wear for the official ceremony this weekend."

"Can I go to that too?"

Vince stopped. He looked up at her, and saw the hopeful look in her eyes. She really wanted to be with him, he realized. He extended his arms, his left out a little further than his right, and motioned for her to come to him. She came over and sat, leaning up against him, and he put her arms around her. "Of course you can come with me to that ceremony," he said to her, his eyes locked onto hers. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just.." she began.

"Yeah, what is it?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I miss you. Work's been taking up a lot of your time lately and sometimes I really hate when I can't see you."

He kissed her forehead and ran his hand through her hair. "Here I am. For the whole night."

She looked up to him and smiled and wrapped her arms around him. He laid back on the bed and took her with him. "I'm tired," he said. "I'm comfy," she answered. He closed his eyes. "Lemme know when eight o'clock rolls around, we'll get dressed then," he told her. "Why?" she asked. "Because staying here like this for a while would be nice," he answered. All she said was "Mhmm." They dozed off in each other's arms.

When 8:00 came around, Vince woke up to Cheryl shaking him gently, saying to him "Come on Vince, time to get ready." He rose up out of the bed and stretched his arms out with a relaxing sigh. He looked around, first to Cheryl, then the closet. Okay...what to wear...got my pants on...got a shirt in the closet..got my jacket..a little cologne, good to go. He walked over to to dresser and opened a drawer, and pulled out a grey tank-top undershirt. After this, he simply removed his blue t-shirt, revealing his in-shape but not jacked up upper body, and put the tank top on, but kept his jeans unbuttoned. Cheryl started getting changed into a little black dress. Vince reached into the closet and pulled out a short sleeved dark-purple button-up shirt, and began buttoning it.

"Do you always dress in black?" Cheryl asked him.

"Yup. Works with everything," he answered. When he was finished, all of the buttons were fastened, sans the top two. He pulled up his pants around the shirt and closed them up, turning to his hutch to go for his cologne. "There, almost done. All I gotta do is put some of this stuff on," he started, as he opened the small bottle and poured some into his right hand palm. He set the bottle down, rubbed his hands together, and then wiped the cologne on either side of his neck and on his chest until his hands were dry. He turned to Cheryl, who at this point was in her dress, pantyhose, and shoes. He had a double take.

"What?" she asked with a smile coming out on her face.

He smiled back and shook his head. "Come on we gotta stop fuckin around we gotta go soon," he said to her in a joking voice.

"Alright you ass, I gotta fix up my hair and do my makeup," she retaliated. He sighed and waited. This is gonna take a while.

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9:09PM

MCPD Party Room

When Vince and Cheryl walked in, the party had already started. Ah, this is good. No congratulatory speech to sit through. He turned to Cheryl. "Come with me, we gotta go say high to the man of the hour, then we can sit." She nodded. She hooked her left arm around his right, staying close and getting some sort of a grip on the sleeve of his blazer. Some people were dancing, but he didn't mind, he cut through the dance floor, however in a nonchalant manner.

When they finally got over to Carrington, his wife was with him and he was being congratulated all around. He was a year or two older than Vince, and about an inch short. When Carrington noticed him, his eyebrows raised and he greeted him with a "Hey! Thought you wouldn't be here." Vince chuckled.

"The party just started, I'm a few minutes late, no big deal."

Carrington smiled "I suppose. And who's this?" he asked, his eyes shifting over to Cheryl.

"Oh, this is my girlfriend Cheryl. Nice, right?" Vince said, raising his eyebrows with a mischievous smile, slightly tilting his head forward. Cheryl smirked, jabbing her elbow into his side under his arm that she had wrapped hers around, causing him to jolt a little. Vince frowned, and Carrington and his wife laughed. Cheryl extended her free hand to shake Carrington's, and he accepted, getting a good yet gentle grip and shaking lightly before letting go.

"Well, you guys go get something to eat and sit down and enjoy yourselves.

Vince nodded. "Will do. C'mon Cheryl."

With that, they made their way over to the table with all the food trays and got on the now short line. After scanning over the trays and getting what they wanted, they made their way over to a sparsely populated table and sat.

"Do you know all these people here?" Cheryl asked.

Vince looked up from cutting his food. "Yeah, most of them, all of these guys are in my unit and some of em have done work with us on big cases in the past. They all know me though," he said with a wink, causing her to smile.

"Why don't you have a partner?" she asked.

"I wasn't assigned one. I could request one if I need a friend or something, but that won't be until I finish this case I'm working on," he said as he cut his food with a knife and fork. She nodded and got to working on hers.

He plucked a piece of food with his fork and put it into his mouth and started to chew. Good stuff. It was baked ziti. As he chewed, he opened his sense of hearing. Music was playing. People were talking. A lot of conversations going on at once. He studied this. Then he started analyzing every little thing he could and started comparing it to how animals in the wild would act. He didn't know why he did it, but it was a habit. They all come together as friends or members of a pack or a clan to celebrate the fact that one of their own has moved up a level. They gather and feed themselves and communicate, about all sorts of things as they eat. Just talking and eating for the most part, oblivious to what's going on outside. They gather like animals to a place where they know the food is at. Is that all? Why, though? What's the point?

"Vince," Cheryl called. He snapped out of his trance. "You alright?" she asked, a slight worried look on her face. He put his hand over hers, and nodded assuringly.

"I'm fine. Just, deep in thought."

At about 10:00 they had left at went home and went to bed. The thoughts repeated in Vince's mind as he fell asleep.

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