Pitiless

4. Black Gets a New Assignment

4. Black Gets a New Assignment

“Black, I need to go and do a health and welfare.  Do you have some time to go with me?”  Ralph Long said looking down on Black over the cubicle half-wall.  Detective Ralph Long sat next to Black in the MPU on the second floor of the Law Enforcement Center. 

“What ya got?”  Black asked looking up from his computer.

“Will my answer to your question change whether or not you’re available?”  Long asked.

“Listen to the short timer.  Shit, Long, don’t get your panties all bunched up.  I’m just curious what case you’ve got workin’ that’s all.”  Black stood up and grabbed his jacket off the hook hanging in his office.  While most of the MPU detectives didn’t wear formal suits to the office, but usually reported to work in pants and crisp collared shirts, including the women, Black tended to throw a suit jacket on when he went out on calls.  If the mood struck, he’d arrive to work with a tie on as well.  Long was old school, though.  Day in and day out he reported in a full suit and tie.  It’s one of the things that Black liked so much about Long and knew he’d miss when he soon retired.  The man was a pillar of consistency.  To Black, it was also an outward display of his integrity as well.  There just weren’t many cops, or men, like Ralph Long.

Long caught him up on the case he was working while they rode the elevator down to the lobby.  The LEC lobby walls were richly painted in one of the few frescoes that Benjamin Long painted in North Carolina. It portrayed scenes of CMPD officers protecting and serving.  “I gotta man who’s mamma’s gone missin’.  It’s been a few weeks since he’s talked to her.  He’s gone by her house a couple of times and she hasn’t been around.  Apparently, she don’t drive her car that much, you know?  But her car’s been gone both times he’s gone by.  Now he says the place is smellin’ kinda rank.”

“Oh boy,” Black said in response.

“I told him to wait outside for us.  Last thing I need is this Pastor findin’ his mamma dead and smellin’.”

Invariably, when someone has been reported as missing and then their house or apartment begins to reek, it’s because the dead body of the missing person is there.  It was one of the more unpleasant tasks of MPU to make a “health and welfare” visit to ensure the missing person was fine.  In these cases where there’s a bod odor reported, you pretty much knew what to expect.

“I’ve called a patrol car to meet us there so they can secure the scene once we confirm,” Long said.  They drove the rest of the way in silence.  Long pulled his car up in the road in front of a small brick house that looked like it’d been build in the 1960s.  A blue Toyota sat in the driveway with a man in it.  Black assumed it was the son.  The house was small with greenish asphalt shingles that were streaked with mold, and white shutters framing the windows.  Black noticed that the house might have been old, but it was well kept.  The paint on the shutters was still bright and not peeling.  The front door was a bright red and gleamed a bit in the sunlight.  There were flower boxes under the windows and beautiful shrubs and flowers in a bed in front of the house.  The yard was mowed.  The cruiser with the uniformed officer hadn’t shown up yet.