At least there was a fresh coffee waiting for him in the car. Arthur sipped at it tenderly as the hot steam spewed from the top. Despite it being so hot out most of the time, he still felt like a cup of hot coffee was the right thing to do in the morning, regardless of the temperature. He liked his with cream. His partner, Dot, was probably the only person in the world who knew that anymore, and still cared enough to remember to order it for him. There was a strange comfort in that. They were at best friendly, only ever spending time with each other outside work when it was a work related event. But still, Arthur was glad there was at least one person out there who cared about his coffee.

  Dot drank and drove with one hand on the wheel, one hand on her own cup. A part of him felt like that was dangerous, but another part of him didn’t really care, and trusted her to operate the wheel like that. He knew he could trust her. He’d trusted her in much more dangerous situations, and with much more sensitive things, and she had never let him down. So, he didn’t really care if she was being careless while driving a cool twenty down a two lane road. That was, until, they crashed.

  A smaller car had run a red light far too late, and they slammed into the rear end of it as it tried to screech through the intersection. It was a faded red junker with rusted edges, and it’s windows were heavily tinted. Arthur swore as his coffee sprayed all over the window in front of him and somehow his partners coffee had gone absolutely everywhere, including all over their hands and legs. Fortunately, their airbags hadn’t deployed, which in this coffee-involved scenario was probably for the best as Arthur did his best to remove the burning liquid from his hands and legs. A quick check mid-wipe down showed that the worst injury either of them had were minor burns from their drinks.

  Arthur swore, as he and Dot jumped out of the car almost at the same time, but by then the small junker was burning it’s wheels out like it was running from the devil. Some people probably did consider cops the devil, although in this scenario Arthur was acting less in a police capacity and more in one of being pissed off that his car just got hit. Arthur yelled at the black tinted windows, but the car had already gained traction again and went speeding off into the distance. He noted down the license plate as they both quickly got back into the car. Dot turned the key and there was a pathetic sputtering sound from the engine. She swore, and smacked the dashboard with her fist as if that would somehow get the engine going. but after a few more turns of the key and a few more abusive blows to the vehicle, she gave up.

  “Shit!” She exclaimed. “We didn’t even hit them that hard, but this things acting like we’re totaled. What the fuck!”

  “I got the plate,” Arthur said, uninterested in her complaining, as he input the junkers plate numbers into their cars computer and sent out an alert for a hit and run. Interestingly, the plates didn’t pull anything. Which meant unregistered, or fakes. The former seemed likely for such an old crappy car. They spent the next ten minutes or so waving off citizens who had witnessed the scene and were asking them about their well-being. A few of them even helped push their car out of the middle of the road while they waited for a tow truck.

  “Bet they just wanted to know if anyone died,” Arthur muttered as they were left alone again.

  “Jesus, what’s with you? Relax,” Dot said. “Anyways, I’ve been telling you for months something like this would happen eventually.”

  “You’re the one who crashed!” Arthur protested.

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. At least we’ll be able to get the Tahoe now. Hopefully that piece of junk stays totaled. I never understood why you loved that car in the first place.”

  He loved their ugly old Ford Taurus because it was the first car he got assigned as a detective, and it held significant sentimental value to him. It was a material object that had kept him grounded throughout the last five years. But he didn’t say that, maybe because he was afraid to admit something that sensitive to Dot, or maybe afraid to admit it to himself. Instead he just shrugged. “Well what now? Should probably head back to the precinct.” Dot nodded, and began to call a car on her phone app. “Wait.” Arthur said. “Just for you. I need to make a stop first.”

  His partner eyed him, raising an eyebrow, the only place hair was present on her head. “A stop?”

  “Yeah, personal. You know.”

  She gave him a short look. “We’re still on the clock, you know. A busted car doesn’t exempt you to go hide alone in your apartment all day.”

  Arthur didn’t say anything, just kept his gaze on her. Whether it made her feel uncomfortable, or sorry for him, or whatever, he didn’t really care. All he cared was that it worked so he could get away for an hour and respond to the text message with the address burning a hole in his pocket.

  “What a shit day. Fine.” She grumbled. “But don’t be too long, I’m not filing this shit all by myself.”

  “I won’t. Be back soon.” Arthur opened his own phone and pretended to call his own car through Uber, then waved to Dot as her own arrived and she got in the back. As soon as the little sedan was out of sight, Arthur dialed a number he knew from memory. The line picked up. A woman’s voice was on the other end, impatient, and maybe a bit haughty.

  “This had better not be an excuse.”

  “Well…less of an excuse, more of we just wrecked our car.” Arthur said sheepishly.

  Silence followed. When she spoke again, there was no indication of empathy, or concern, just the same impatience. “That’s not going to work. Wait for my call.”

  “If it’s another file, just-” The line hung up. Arthur sighed. She wasn’t like Benny. Could never be polite, or pleasant. Or just normal for that matter. Always had to act like she only had a few seconds for anyone and anything, like the world was about to come crashing down. Ten minutes later the phone rang again, and Arthur picked up, waiting for her to speak first.

  “Change of plans. Where are you?”

  Arthur looked around at his surroundings. It only took him a few moments to determine where he was in Longley and where a good, isolated spot to meet would be. “There’s a covered parking garage on Alamo. It’s for a movie theatre, should be empty this time of day. I can be there in about five minutes.”

  “Is it covered?”

  “Uh, I think so. Yeah, it’s all indoors.”

  “Fine.” The line disconnected.

  “Fine.” Arthur repeated quietly to himself. No professional courtesy from that one. He began walking towards the garage. One perk of being a detective was having to drive all over the city, which meant he knew where just about everything was. Either because something terrible happened there, or because something terrible had happened close by. This parking garage was located just next to the theatre, and you could walk right in. It was multiple storied and pretty rundown and dirty looking. To Arthur, it looked like the perfect place for someone to commit a crime, although as far as he knew no crimes had ever happened there. The theatre itself was extremely nice, recently renovated, so it was strange they never tried to gloss up the garage. Getting inside, it was mostly covered as Arthur thought, but there were a few openings along each floor that let in some sunlight. Good enough, he thought.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  For just a moment Arthur raised his hand like there was still a cup of coffee in it, before remembering what had happened. He stopped what he was doing, heading back outside and found the nearest little coffee place close-by and bought a new cup. With cream. It smelled a little old, and a little stale, but at this point he really didn’t care. The only disappointing thing was that he drank it far too quickly and the coffee was completely gone by the time he’d gotten back into the garage, and had to dispose of the cup before he even managed to get to the second floor. Arthur was walking the length of the whole place, mostly just to find if there were any actual private spots he could meet his contact at.

  He circled the first floor, then up the second, and same procedure. Like he assumed, the place was practically empty during the day, only a few cars here and there. A security guard in a ticket booth just ignored him as he walked in. Arthur noted there were cameras in seemingly random spots on each floor, and wondered if any of them were actually manned, or even recording. Regardless, it didn’t concern him, whatever he was picking up here couldn’t draw that much suspicion. A few cars passed here and there, so he waited on the first floor expecting a call. A few minutes later, a large black SUV with dark, tinted windows arrived in the garage. Arthur couldn’t help but grin as the ticket booth operator forced them to stop behind the barrier and pay five bucks for entry. That’s what you get for being rude, he thought. The SUV saw him almost immediately as it passed the gate, stopping near him as one of the back passenger doors opened. He got inside.

  “Don’t often meet face to face.” He said.

  The SUV began to move again, driving into a dark, empty corner of the garage. Arthur didn’t recognize the driver, but he did recognize the voice on the phone across from him. She was slender, and quite tall, some inches over six feet. Even sitting down it was obvious she was a bit taller than he. Her auburn hair was always cut short. Arthur had only interacted with her once or twice. At first he thought she was attractive, until it became clear how coldly and rudely she would treat him, and that attractiveness went away quickly. She wore the same outfit Arthur had always seen her in; a black suit, with a black vest, a black undershirt, black slacks and shoes. No jewelry, just the bare minimum of makeup. She carried no purse or any obvious bag, but Arthur did know she had a small pistol tucked away in her jacket, as he’d caught a glimpse of it once or twice. Arthur could make a lot of assumptions about her, but despite meeting her face to face numerous times already he still didn’t even know her name, he realized. Part of him figured that was probably a good thing.

  “Nice car,” Arthur said, after silence from his initial comment. The Assistant, as he’d heard her been called once, ignored him again. She kept her eyes past the drivers seat making sure they were in a suitable spot. Once they parked, she quickly glanced around their surroundings through their own tinted windows. Apparently it was satisfactory, because she reached behind her into the back seats, retrieving an object Arthur hadn’t noticed before.

  It was a metal box that would be large enough to hold something like a basketball. It had numerous medical markings all over it, from hazard signs to the classic white cross on red background. There were various labels with tiny writing Arthur couldn’t make out, and a bunch of symbols Arthur recognized as ones he had seen in hospitals before.

  “Smuggling livers?” Arthur asked jokingly, trying to ease the tension.

  “Not me. You.” When she spoke, her voice was hard, authoritative, and like ice. In the darkness she was quite menacing, her eyes glinting just a faint hint of amber. They glinted in the same way a big cats eyes glinted in the jungle when the light shone off them just right. It made Arthur shiver, and not a lot of things did these days.

  “Uh…was that supposed to be a joke?”

  She ignored his question. Apparently not. “My boss isn’t happy that you wrecked your car. This is the third time in two months that you’ve had some sort of issue like this. He thinks you’re getting sloppy. I think you are sloppy.”

  Arthur wanted to say something, defend himself, as he felt his cheeks his hot at the accusations, but he controlled his emotions. She was right, technically. There had been numerous incidents that impeded his capacity to do work for her. He just didn’t want to admit it to himself.

  Instead of berating him further, she just kept talking, tapping the box in her hands. “You’re not to look inside here. Under any circumstances.” She placed the box on the ground, and handed Arthur a small envelope. “Instructions, get rid of them afterwards.”

  Arthur couldn’t tell if this was punishment, or something else, but either way the whole thing was strange. These people were definitely shady, but not usually this shady. “I need to know what’s in here. If someone catches me with it, like, you know, the police, then what?”

  “Then don’t get caught. What’s in there is irrelevant.” The woman went quiet, eyeing Arthur for a moment. She was too hard to read. There was some kind of emotion churning under her eyes, even if just barely, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. “This is your last job. A delivery of sorts. But the recipient isn’t in town. So you’ll need to hold onto the package for a few days. The client will be here Friday. The instructions will tell you how to find him. This is very important. You’ll be compensated.”

  Arthur was always compensated at various ‘rates’, so none of that was particularly interesting to him. What really had his attention was that apparently this was his last job for them, despite the Assistant having moved over that part a little too fast.

  “Why? What happened?” He knew she knew what he meant.

  She just shook her head. “Nothings happened. You’re a contractor for us, this is the last contract. Simple as that.”

  He stared at her hard, but again was unable to suss out and kind of motivation, or emotion, or anything. He couldn’t get anything out of her besides the fact he had the faintest feeling she really didn’t like him. He turned away, annoyance crossing his face. The corner of her glossed lips turned upwards, somehow she’d noticed his expression, even in the dark of the car under the unlit garage. That annoyed him even more, so he bit his lip to stop his face from doing things he didn’t want them to.

  “Did I do something wrong?”

  “Why do you care?” She shot back almost immediately. “You’re a contractor. You’ve done good work for us. My boss has determined we no longer need your services. It’s as simple as that.

  “It’s clearly not,” Arthur said. But she ignored the question, her amber eyes boring holes into him. He dropped the subject, despite promising himself he’d get an answer. “Anything special about this? Handling instructions?” Arthur asked, trying to show he was still a professional and she was making a mistake. He knew that pride was misplaced, because no matter their reasoning, it was probably better that he stopped working with the Assistant and her boss altogether. But still, he wanted to prove they were making a mistake. That he had it in him to do…whatever it was they were doing.

  “It’s all in the envelope.” She said. “Just keep it safe. Also, this is obvious, but don’t tell anyone you have it.”

  Arthur looked up at her questioningly. “What is this?”

  Her face didn’t change whatsoever. Completely stony. “It doesn’t matter.” He almost scoffed, but kept his mouth shut. Arthur simultaneously hated and admired this woman. She was an acute professional, more so than he. She almost inspired him. But she lacked anything else. Not friendly, not nice to be around. She didn’t even pretend to care about him. He could only imagine what her personal life was like. Devoid of love or passion or happiness. He laughed to himself. Maybe he was projecting a little too much.

  Arthur sighed, opening the door and getting outside the car. He stood and picked up the box. “I still have no car. Am I just supposed to lug this thing around?”

  The Assistant was already leaning over to close the door for him. “That’s your problem,” She said, and the door slammed shut. The menacing, blacked out SUV’s engine roared to life, and it left the garage as quickly as it had come. For such a big car it surprised Arthur how stealthy it could be. He stood alone in the garage with the strange, metal box in his hands, the envelope placed on top of it. As he was trying to figure out how to get it home, he began to make his way back out of the garage, getting ready to actually call an UBER this time. As he left the garage and got into the car that eventually pulled up for him, there was a jet black raven watching him as he left. But Arthur never noticed.