Superbia (Book One of the Superbia Series) Read Online Free

  Want some
coffee?”
    “Black and
strong.”   
    “Just how you
like your men?” Frank murmured.    
    Staff Sergeant Erinnyes
put a mammoth hand on Frank’s shoulder and said, “I see you’re fitting into
your house duties rather nicely.   Glad to
know you’re getting a head start on your new primary assignment.”
    Frank
laughed.   He turned around and handed the
Staff Sergeant his coffee.   “Don’t I
wish.   I don’t know which is worse, making
coffee, or having to work downstairs in defectives.”
    Erinnyes looked
down at the two coffees in Frank’s hand.   “Come again?”
    “This was my
first official order from Detective Ajax.”
    Erinnyes’s bald
head reddened and he aimed a fat finger directly at Frank’s face, “You are
assigned to patrol, which places you under my command, not in the basement with
that trash-picker.   Unless I assign you
anywhere, you will sit at your desk and wait for me to decide what to do with
you.   Are we clear?”
    Frank nodded and
said, “Crystal clear, sir.   Should I let
the Chief know you gave me a different order than he did, or is it okay as it
stands?”
    A thick purple
vein popped out of the Staff Sergeant’s forehead and the area around it
darkened.   He managed to keep his voice
steady when he said, “I see.   Apparently
it’s more important to tell some dungeon dweller than the second-in-command of
the police department.   I will go and
verify the specificities of your assignment, Officer.   A word of advice.   Watch your back.   Ajax does not have a good track record with
his partners.   Always remember that he is
not your friend.”
    “The story I heard
was Aprille went on maternity leave and never came back.   You saying he’s gonna knock me up too?   My wife’s on the pill.   Maybe I can go on it with her.”
    Erinnyes sneered,
“Is that what you heard happened?”
    Frank started for
the hallway, keeping both coffees in front of himself.   He managed to make it as far as the staircase
before spilling any on his new shirt.  
    ***
    Vic took the
coffee from Frank’s hand and said, “You feeling all right?   Your knee bugging you?”
    “I just saw the Staff
Infection.   I actually forgot how much I
hated this place until I saw him.”  
    Vic grimaced like
he had the taste of something rotten in his mouth.   “I got into it one day with him about a burglary
investigation. He insisted I do it his way, and when I asked him how many burglaries
he’d ever worked, he said, ‘More than you!’   So I went and looked it up.   I
looked up all of the stats for his thirty year career here.   Know what I found?”
    “A sterling career
of excitement and danger?”
    “Twelve
arrests.   Six DUI’s.   Three domestic violence arrests.   Two for retail theft.   One for simple assault.”   Vic pointed to the case folders stacked on
his desk, “I made twelve arrests this year already.   All felonies.   I’ve made over one hundred felony arrests in my ten years here.”  
    “Wow,” Frank
said.   “You must be some sort of
hero.   Do they sing folk songs about you
in your native country?”
    Vic’s eyes
narrowed, “I looked you up too, smart ass.   Do you know how many arrests you’ve made?   You’ve made seven.”
    “That’s not
true.   I’ve made more than that.”
    “Felonies,
Frank.   I don’t count the other
crap.   We don’t write parking tickets down
here.   It’s real police work.”
    Frank slumped
into the chair at the small desk near the door and said, “You mean in between
naps, right?”
    Vic reached for
an envelope that was on his desk and removed the folded letter inside of
it.   “I just got this in the mail from
upstate.   It was written by a thirteen
year old girl and left for her foster mother to find.”   He held up the page and started to read:
    Dear Mama Rose,
    Thank you for all you done for me.   I am so sorry about the mess.   I am also sorry if you get in trouble for
this.