Ashes

Fallon was sitting at her desk when he walked in. He came up to her and asked to see the ADA, Mrs. Collins and she informed him that she was in a meeting and probably wouldn’t be out for another fifteen minutes.

“Could you please tell her that it is urgent?” he asked Fallon.

With that she lifted the receiver and rang Ms. Collins and told her that Detective Haner was waiting for her.

“She says she’ll be out in fifteen minutes,” Fallon relayed again. “I told you so.”

“Women,” Brian muttered and took a seat.

“Hey, I heard that,” Fallon said with a laugh.

“At least someone’s in a good mood,” Brian pointed out.

“What’s wrong?” Fallon asked him concerned.

“Just stress, nothing too big,” he told her sighing.

Fallon could see that it was bigger than he was letting on.

“Men,” Fallon said.

Brian looked up at her then smiled. Just talking to her made him feel better. All his worries were temporarily forgotten.

“Hey, I heard that,” he mocked with a grin.

She stuck her tongue out at him childishly then returned to her work. Brian sighed then pick up a flyer on the coffee table. It was one about the recent crime rates in the city. At the back of the flyer was a large blue and black graph showing the trends in crime rates. According to the flyer the number of murders in Raleigh had dropped significantly over the past two years. That was of course not including the most recent events. Brian knew that if the killer was not caught soon things would go spiraling out of control.

“Mr. Haner,” a stern but familiar voice said from the doorway.

Brian looked up to see Emily glaring at him. He didn’t even notice when the door to her office had been opened. He did however notice the smartly clad man standing next to her. He was about six feet two inches with long blonde hair. The man leaned over and cupped her hands in his gently then waved them all goodbye before gracefully exiting the office. Emily motioned for Brian to follow her into her office.

“Who was that?” Brian asked intrigued.

“That, my friend, is none of your business,” Emily hissed causing Brian to raise his eyebrows accusingly. “What did you want?”

“Um yeah,” Brian started, “I need to get a warrant for some medical files for the new victim.”

“What’s her name?” Emily asked routinely.

“Clarice Newton,” Brian then told her.

“Is that it?” Emily asked still upset that he was prying into her business.

“Yeah,” Brian replied turning to walk out. “See you tonight right?”

“Um, about that,” Emily started and Brian turned to face her. “I think I might have a rain check on that. I have a date.”

“A date? With who? Fabio?” Brian snorted remembering the man that stood outside just moments ago.

“Just get out!” Emily roared. “You’re going to have to wait for your damn warrant.”

Brian snarled at her then left without a word. He sat at the front and waited while she went to get a judge to sign the warrant. Why was she so angry with him? Didn’t she know she couldn’t just cancel their weekly meetings without him wanting to know why? He sighed knowing that it was a Friday night and he would be home all alone.

“Everything alright?” Fallon asked him, obviously hearing the commotion earlier.

“Yea,” he grumbled.

“You know I get off in five minutes. If you want to wait, we could go talk about it over coffee,” she offered smiling.

Brian thought about. It was finally his chance to get to know Fallon better but he had work to do. He needed to get more information on the new victim. Plus he kind of had a relationship with Emily. But she was going out on a date.

“How about we talk about it over dinner later?” Brian asked Fallon.

She smiled at him then said teasingly, “Are you asking me out?”

“And what if I was?” Brian replied smirking. “Meet me at The Lily Pad at seven.”

“Here you go,” Emily smiled while handing him the piece of paper. He knew she was just putting a front for Fallon; she was pissed.

With that he turned to leave.