A Fair Distance. Running on Empty. Chapter Four
Simon Banks replaced the phone in its cradle gently and leaned back in his recliner. So much for a relaxing Sunday morning at home, he sighed to himself. Well, he'd asked for any contacts concerning Jim or Blair to be routed to him. Where Ellison and Sandburg were concerned, it was better that he be on top of what was happening.
Frowning, he contemplated the phone conversation he'd just had with Dave Findley in Sweetwater, Tennessee. The cop had asked who specificallywas coming to interrogate Blair Sandburg; said the Sweetwater P.D. was wondering why was it taking so long. When told that Detective James Ellison was driving down to handle the case, Findley said he'd done some checking and knew Sandburg had been involved with Major Crimes as a consultant and had also worked with Detective Ellison. The Tennessee cop had politely grilled Simon as to what was the relationship between Detective Ellison and Mr. Sandburg. Findley had sounded suspicious when he stated that he knew Detective Ellison and Mr. Sandburg had lived together; he had asked if Detective Ellison wasn't maybe a little too close to Mr. Sandburg to be handling this case.
Simon tilted further back in the recliner and stared at the ceiling, as if the answer to Finley's question about the closeness between Jim and Blair could be found there.
How was he supposed to explain the bond, damaged as it currently was, between those two? Lord, but they were an unlikely pair of friends. To look at them, they would seem to have nothing in common; in fact, if it weren't for Jim's senses they probably never would have connected. Sandburg's wild theories had panned out, though, allowing Jim to regain control of his life. And Jim had taken a shine to the kid, trying to look out for him, even going so far as to run background checks on Sandburg's dates. They'd had their ups and downs, but they'd been closer than a lot of married couples he'd known.
After Sandburg's mother had released the dissertation, things had gotten very rocky between them. Jim had even made noises about ending Sandburg's observer status. Then Blair had made a sacrifice of his career and his professional integrity, which Jim seemed to have accepted as atonement for Blair's carelessness at keeping his research safeguarded.
Simon got out of his recliner, remembering when Jim tossed Blair a detective's shield in the bullpen. As Captain, he had been responsible for that scene, had gotten the approval from his superiors to extend the offer to their former observer.
Sweet Jesus, thinking about that day always made him restless. He needed to move around and decided to grab a cup of coffee.
That day – well over a year ago… To his eyes, Blair had seemed ambivalent about accepting the offer to take academy training and be Jim's partner officially. After Jim was done giving the kid a hug in the guise of horseplay about scalping Blair's mop of curls down to academy applicant length, he had ordered Blair into his office. He'd then proceeded to ask Blair if this was what he wanted to do, to be a cop instead of an anthropologist. Blair had looked at him solemnly while answering him.
"I'll always be an anthropologist, Simon, it's how I look at the world. I can also swear to 'protect and serve'; man, I'll do my best to be a good cop. And this way I can stay with Jim as his partner; I want that more than anything."
He wasn't sure what had happened to sour things between them again over the next few months. Of course, it didn't help that the offer to join Major Crimes had to be pulled. Franklin, who was Simon's division head, and Wang, the Assistant Chief of Police, had both told Simon they regretted rescinding the offer they'd previously agreed to, but the Chief of Police had received some intense political pressure from the Mayor against Sandburg's Exceptional Entry status application.
Simon poured himself a cup of caffeine and walked over and opened his back door, sipping coffee, as he looked at the fall colors on the trees in his neighborhood. He grimaced, thinking over the scorching dressing-down he had received from the Chief of Police over the whole sentinel/fraud/job-offer mess.
The brass at headquarters had been afraid of adverse publicity; and logically, it was hard to defend jumping an admitted fraud up to detective. Sandburg was not allowed to enter the police academy at Burien, south of Seattle, even as a regular applicant, and Simon was told that any application for a non-police officer position at the P.D. from the kid would be canned. Simon believed somebody had a grudge against Blair and was pulling some major strings, but he'd gotten exactly nowhere with trying to pin down the string puller.
The three of them had presented a cover story to the brass, which explained that Blair had denounced a fictional account that had been mistaken for his dissertation, with the pre-approval of Simon. The story would have been that Blair had made this gesture to stop the press from interfering so the police dept. could concentrate on ending Zeller's reign of terror. All three had hoped this obfuscation would allow Blair to be reinstated at Rainier so he could finish his Ph.D, and so he could continue acting as Jim's guide and a police consultant to the department.
Their superiors had forbidden them to try and salvage Blair's career, though, and had made it explicitly clear that Sandburg was not to be allowed to observe or assist on any more cases. He was restricted to public areas in police stations and was not to be consulted in any way regarding any investigations.
Of course, Jim had tried to get around those restrictions. Blair had ridden with him to a few crime scenes, but Jim had been reported; and, reluctantly, Simon had given him a written reprimand, by order of the division head. Furthermore, Simon had been told that if Jim persisted in defying the restrictions Blair would be taken to court, slapped with a restraining order, and charged with obstruction of a police officer performing his duties. Jim hadn't wanted to see Blair put through any more trouble, so he'd stopped taking Blair with him.
Simon walked over and dumped his cup in the kitchen sink, thinking about how emotionally distant Blair had become from the bullpen detectives, after his exile.
It had become harder to keep up with Sandburg; Simon had seen him less and less, and when he'd asked Jim about the kid, Jim hadn't given a whole lot of information. Oh, Simon knew that Blair and Jim had had arguments over suing Rainier and the publishing company that had released the dissertation without Blair's permission. Jim had complained to Simon about Blair's stubbornness; Jim's frustration over his refusal to sue overwhelmed the detective sometimes, and could put him in one god-almighty cranky mood.
The last few months before Blair left town, Jim had been increasingly closed off, his face a bland mask whenever anybody had asked him how Blair was doing. He'd told whoever had asked that Blair seemed to be really enjoying his job and was making a whole new set of friends. He'd said Blair didn't seem to have the time anymore to keep up with old friends, and that he hardly saw him himself since Blair worked a late evening shift.
Simon sighed. Thinking about the friend who he'd not seen in a year's time was reminding him how much he missed the kid.
Simon had been on a week-long vacation, a year ago, when Blair had called him at home. He asked if Jim was working undercover and said he didn't want to ask Jim. Simon decided he didn't want to know the details.
With Blair waiting on the phone for his answer, he debated the restrictions on sharing information and decided he could tell Blair that Jim was working secretly part-time with an ATF task force on gun smuggling but that he wasn't doing anything covert. The kid had also wanted to know if Simon knew Jim had been seeing a tall, dark-haired woman with caramel colored skin. Simon explained that was Melissa Adams, who had started with Vice three weeks ago, and hadn't Blair met her? Blair said something about Jim and his secrets and broke the phone connection.
That was the last time he spoke with Blair. The kid had left town that day, and the next day Simon had gotten a letter from him, postmarked Cascade, telling Simon he appreciated all the help he had been given and that he regretted it hadn't worked out about joining Major Crimes. He'd asked Simon to pass along his goodbyes to the rest of the crew. That had made Simon pause because not everybody in the bullpen knew Blair anymore; after all, time brings change and some detectives had moved to other departments while others had joined after Blair's stint there.
Along with Blair's letter was a long list of things to look out for with Jim. Blair'd also asked that nobody try and track him down. The kid had written that he'd thought it over and it was time to 'detach with love.' The letter stated that he wasn't the right guide for Jim; but Jim would be more receptive to looking for a better guide with him out of the picture.
Blair had been wrong about Jim finding a compatible guide. Jim didn't really connect with anybody much anymore except with Simon. And while Simon could see for himself that his detective wasn't happy, Jim wasn't telling his captain why he was angry with Blair. Jim had never told Simon what had happened between him and Sandburg, just that they'd parted ways, and Blair'd had a better opportunity come up out of town. Simon had asked Jim if Blair was keeping in touch, but Jim had replied that Blair hadn't even sent a letter or phoned home to let him know how he was doing. Simon had suggested trying to find the kid every so often, but Jim had always nixed that suggestion.
Simon wondered how much his own mistake had led to Blair's decision to leave town. When Simon had returned to work and Joel, the acting captain, updated him, he found out he'd been wrong about information he'd given Blair in that phone call – Jim had gone actively undercover that week. And also apparently Jim and Melissa had for several weeks been pretending to be interested in each other. They'd wanted to act realistically, build a tight cover in case it was needed later. Jim later told Simon that he hadn't thought it necessary to report that the flirting was for the job until the ATF found a way for them to get inside the operation.
The task force had caught a break, a way to place members closer to the illicit organization, and Jim had been given the approval for him and Melissa to pose as a kinky couple looking to buy into a prostitution business run out of an upscale bar. The prostitution business actually was a sideline of the gun smuggling operation the task force was concerned with stopping; Jim was trying to weasel into the gun end of the deal by establishing himself as a player with the hooking side of things.
Something had gotten fucked up between Jim and Blair because of that undercover operation, Simon surmised. At first, he hadn't been concerned that Blair had moved out of the loft because he supposed Blair had figured it was a good time to find his own space, if Jim was dating again. He had wondered why Blair had left Cascade, though; the kid had lived here since he was a teenager. When months had gone by and Blair hadn't contacted any of their friends, Simon grew more troubled over the apparent split between his two friends.
Jim hadn't been much help; he evaded Simon's questions by retreating into his Army Ranger act. Damn, he would even stand at parade rest when Simon would ask him why Blair left, but wouldn't say much except to agree that Blair must have been upset about something.
"Sir, with the way Sandburg's mind works, there's no telling what spooked him into jumping ship." Or he'd say, "Captain, as far as I'm concerned he abandoned his post. I don't know why he went or what he thought he was accomplishing."
Simon hadn't made captain on just his good looks; he figured that Blair and Jim had a lot to finish saying to each other. What did the pop psychologists call it? – 'closure.' Yeah, they needed a whole shitload of closure.
He hoped Jim clearing up this Marie Edwards mess would allow for that closure to take place. There was circumstantial evidence pointing a finger Blair's way, but Simon had a hard time believing the kid could have killed Marie Edwards. At least Jim could clear up the guilt issue by dialing up his senses. He'd ask Blair directly if he had killed the woman; Jim would be able to detect if Blair was lying.
Jim had been insistent when the case came to their attention that the evidence implicating Blair was bullshit. Despite denying any wrongdoing by Sandburg, he seemed angry with Blair, for being accused; angry with Chancellor Edwards, the vindictive bitch, for being dead; and angry with himself, for reasons he wasn't sharing with his captain.
And if after questioning him, Jim felt that Blair was guilty of murder? Even if Jim was angry with his ex-partner, Simon trusted Ellison to have Blair's best interests in mind and bring him safely into custody. God forbid that this be the case, but if Blair was arrested Simon intended to pull a few strings to have the best lawyer available be assigned pro bono to his case. He was owed a few favors by some legal leeches and he'd call one of them on said favors.
Jim was actually the best qualified to run this investigation, Simon had told that cop from Sweetwater; and because Jim requested it, Simon had asked that Blair not be notified that it was Jim who was coming to see him. He assured the Sweetwater police officer that, despite Ellison and Sandburg having been close friends, Detective Ellison would conduct the investigation professionally. He'd told the other cop he'd contact Jim on the road and have him inform the Sweetwater P.D. as to his ETA. Dave Findley had offered to be Jim's Sweetwater liaison, and he'd pass that along to Jim as well.
Simon dialed the number to call and waited for Jim's cell phone to decide whether to actually let him talk to Jim or just leave a message.
Right. No answer, so he left Jim a voice mail message. As mad as Jim had been when he'd left Cascade, Simon could give him another day to cool off before actually talking to him in person. Sweet Jesus, there wasn't anybody better than Jim for holding onto an angry mood.
He remembered Jim's parting shot at him before driving off Friday morning. "Captain. I don't want to go, some things are best left alone; but I'll do it and get the truth out of Sandburg. Just - let me run this my way; I want Sandburg kept off-guard as much as possible. So don't tell him I'm coming; let him wonder if it's me he's got to deal with. Okay, sir?"
Jim had tried for a respectful tone but missed it by a mile. Still, Jim knew Sandburg better than anyone else and if he thought this was the best approach - well then, Simon would back him up.
And if Jim was too bull-headed to find Sandburg on his own in order to straighten up whatever mess they had made out of their friendship; well then, it was good to be the Captain and give orders for a certain detective's own damn good.
Simon pondered over to his desk and pulled out a cigar from the top drawer. He lit it and inhaled the aroma down into his lungs as he contemplated the Sweetwater cop's question again.
'What was the relationship between Ellison and Sandburg? Between Sentinel and Guide?' For all he'd observed their goings on for years before Blair had left, he was pretty ignorant of how their voodoo tricks actually worked. This past year, Jim had told him he had had to keep his senses dialed down, mostly, without Blair around to help with his control over them. A sentinel, then, needed a guide to be at the top of his game. Did a guide need a sentinel too, in the same kind of way?
Oh, hell; these were things he rarely tried to ask himself and for a good reason. He could feel the usual headache he got when considering the weirdness that was Ellison and Sandburg's bond starting to throb behind his eyes.
Jim was the sentinel, Blair was his guide; now that things were set in motion, let the sentinel deal with his runaway guide. And let one overworked police captain enjoy the peace and quiet till Ellison came back to Cascade.
~oo~oo~oo~oo~
Continued in A Fair Distance. Running on Empty. Chapter Five