Parole (Hypernaturals 7)

Breakfast with the Crew

Denise looked with some amusement at the five of us, arrayed in an arc. Carol poured some coffee, and Anne came walking down from upstairs drying her hair with a towel.

"After what we heard last night, we made an executive decision that 'Guac Loving' is no longer an optional session at Conclave. Recipes and how-to during the day, actual party on the Patio in the evening. Guac's on me. Literally." Denise told us as if we are being punished. 'Go do your homework' tone of voice. "You three better be hungry." Denise added, pointing two fingers at Morgan, Jessica, and myself.

"Yes, Ma'am.  We'll skip lunch." Jessica said on our behalf.

Rachel concurred. "My first party. Not my last."

We assembled breakfast Tacos, with fresh eggs, crispy fried bacon, and other ingredients already on hand. Once settled, and the joking over the previous activities earlier in the morning exhausted, we got down to discussing what to do about Tommy.

"I asked Angel to monitor the police scanner, in case we can catch something going on in real-time. It is a long shot, but at least Angel will know all the city happenings." Morgan opened with.

"That seems like a very broad net." Anne commented.

"It is. It is not the only one. After breakfast, I am going to call my old lover DeWayne, a Detective in the department, and let him know I need to hear of anything that matches Tommy's MO."

That caused numerous sets of raised eyebrows.

"Darling: Have you even talked to DeWayne since France? Does he know you married?" Jessica asked.

"No. Time to fix that too. DeWayne and I were always friends even if we were not lovers. In Houston, when he was seeing someone exclusively, He and I still went out for beers after work sometimes. DeWayne let the Cabal pressure him into not seeing me overtly, because it was his career on the line, and we were both young cops. I understood that he did not have my freedom to ignore them. My Dad set up a trust fund for me long ago. I tried to never use it, but I COULD dip into it if my job went away. DeWayne never had that option, and the Cabal never seemed to care about beers in a cop bar. Only that I was having sex with him." Morgan explained.

"Who are the Cabal and why did they care about who you screwed?" Denise asked.

"I called them that. A sort of white supremacy group buried inside the department. They had big plans for me as their fair-haired child. The public face of departmental progressive policy. The woman that was promoted over men, etc. What they could not stand was me dating men of color. I dated a lot of men then. I only ever got in trouble with the Cabal over the ones that did not appear Caucasian. It led to why I left the force. I dug those people out and exposed them for what they are, and managed to burn through a pretty good portion of senior officers, particularly in Vice, but ultimately the assistant chief of Police."

This is more than I have ever heard Morgan say about why she left the force.

"Oh. Geez." Denise looked sickened. "I take it DeWayne is a man of color?"

"Yes. One of them. I never cared. I just like nice men. I cared not where their ancestors came from." Morgan paused. Looked down. Sighed. "I should have. Not about the ethnic hatred thing, but I should have known what those bastards were capable of. Taken them down sooner. I was slowly building my case, one threat at a time. I should have gone active and dug them out. Bastards."

"Now DeWayne is a cop here? In Austin?" Denise asked.

"Yes. He has not hit anything like what we faced in Houston here. JUST the standard, unorganized bigotry and hatred." Morgan said, some emphasis on the word 'just' to indicate her opinion of that.