S2 E1 – Put THIS In Your Pipe And Smoke It!

The tension in the station is palpable. Any day now! Any day now it will arrive!

How to give it to him?

Dwayne wants to wrap it up in a big red ribbon and give it to him in front of a huge crowd of people down at La Kaz. Camille wants to take out a full page in the newspaper and trumpet it to the whole island. Fidel convinces them to simply frame it and hang it above his desk so he can find it in his own good time… which should be about 5 seconds.

Fidel wins. Time enough for parties and announcements later… once the Chief calms down and/or doesn't fire them all. He is wrong about the timing, though.

It takes 7 seconds.

Everyone is sitting at their desks when the Chief walks in. They all return his greeting but something in their voices tips him off and that's why he is looking back over his shoulder as he approaches his desk. It isn't until he turns around that he sees the large framed document hanging prominently over his little corner of the station, his domain, his turf.

Utter silence reigns as he steps up to the surest sign of their pride in him. He stills. It is many moments before he turns back to face them. They immediately realize that he is overcome with emotion and doesn't know what to say.

Camille jumps to her feet and reaches him first but only because Dwayne and Fidel have farther to race. She urges him to sit, which he does without the slightest trace of resistance. The men shake his hand and pat his shoulder, grinning ear to ear. She is the only one who sees how moved he is and that he doesn't trust his voice just yet.

To give him time to recover and to distract the other officers, she turns and looks at the document hanging so innocently there on the wall and begins to read…

"Guinness World Records Certificate. Detective Inspector Richard Poole of the Honoré Police Force on the Caribbean island of Saint-Marie holds the world's record for solving the oldest cold case being 193 years for the mass disappearance of 50 people in 1820."

She says it with a pleased satisfied tone which Dwayne and Fidel echo with their own comments of "Oh, you bet!" and "Well done, Chief."

When they turn back to him, he is himself again. He stands back up and joins them in front of the ornately scrolled and designed bit of parchment, giving it a critical once over, "That's not quite right, you know. Your names should be up there too. It was a team effort."

"No way, Chief! It's all you. It will always be all you. We're just the tools you need to do your job."

He shakes his head, "No, Dwayne, it's all of us. Together. Our next citation will have ALL our names on it."

Fidel laughs, "OK! Juliet will like that! She's so proud now! Imagine if my name is on the next one!"

Richard reaches up and makes as if to take it down off the wall, "In fact, I'm going to add all your names to it right now!" There is a mad scramble and he is wrestled away and back into his chair. Everyone is laughing.

The precious bit of bragging rights is left safely on the wall.

"Ah, Chief! Don't go desecratin' it! People will want to see it as it is."

"People? What people?"

Dwayne laughs, "Why, everyone! Soon as word gets out it's here, you're gonna have all kinda visitors. Be prepared to have lots of selfies taken!"

"Oh, surely not! It's just…"

She lays a hand on his shoulder and murmurs, "It's just marvellous, that's what it is. You finally have something to prove to others what we already know."

He has the grace to blush a bit and fidget with a pen, "Oh. Well."

Camille goes to her desk and takes out a smaller frame, gives it to him, "Here, I had a smaller copy made so you can take it home… for all those long dark nights when you wonder why you were sent here. To remind you… that you are needed."

She doesn't tell him of the gentle kiss she has placed on the paper right over his name.

She also doesn't tell him of the copy she's mailed to Croydon with a tiny glassine bag of pure white sand, a pressed frangipani flower, a paper drinks umbrella from La Kaz...

… and the note…

… 'Put THIS in your pipe and smoke it!'

… signed 'His Team'.

END