Screamers
Ramblin Rose
Brown and Rafe were working nights and weren’t happy about it one bit.
Rafe looked over at Brown and said, “Man, is this the most boring night you’ve
ever had or what?”
“Close. Jesus, I hate working graveyard. Now I know why they
call it that. “ Brown replied.
“Maybe we’ll luck out and get a good call soon.” Rafe said and both men said,
“Nah.”
Just then, the phone on Rafe’s desk rang. Picking it up, Rafe said,
“Detective Rafe. May I help you?”
“This is Mary White. I want to report a murder or something.”
“Okay, is it Mrs. White?” Rafe asked.
“What difference does it make if I’m married, officer?” She asked.
“It doesn’t, Ms. White. I just wondered what I should call you.
That’s all.” Rafe said, trying to keep a straight face. He pushed the
speakerphone button and motioned Brown to come over. The two Detectives
sat and listed to the woman describe some murder she thought was happening
right now.
“It’s terrible. The screams are blood curdling. I’m afraid for
the nice man’s life. He’s a great neighbor and we don’t want anything to
happen to him.”
“Well, Ms. White, what's happening right now?” Rafe asked.
“Maybe I was wrong, Detective. I don’t hear anything. Nevertheless,
it woke both my husband and me up. I’m sorry that I bothered you.”
Brown looked over to Rafe and said, “Damn, I was hoping for a murder.
You know you’re fucking bored when that happens.”
“Hey, Henry. Wanna play some poker?” Rafe asked, with a big smile on
his face.
“Sure, it would be better than sitting here waiting on a call all night.”
Brown said, getting the cards and taking them over to Rafe’s desk.
Both men sat down and started playing poker. Henry was getting his
butt kicked big time but at least they weren’t bored. When the phone
rang about two hours later, both men jumped from the sound startling them.
Brown pushed the speakerphone on Rafe’s phone and said, "Detective Brown.
May I help you?”
“Yes, my name is Mary White. I talked to a Detective Rafe about two
hours ago. I’d like an officer to come out and see what’s happening
at our neighbor’s home. He’s screaming.”
“Ms. White, are you certain this time?” Brown asked.
“Don’t take that tone with me, Detective Brown. I’ll have you know
I’m not that old. I know a scream when I hear one.”
“Can you hear anything else along with the scream? Do you hear any
words?” Brown asked.
“Yes, but they make no sense to my husband and myself.”
“Maybe we can help. What are they? The words, I mean.” Brown
said, trying not to laugh.
“Well, we’re thinking there must be a Native American in there torturing
this good man because he keeps calling him Chief.” Ms. Brown said.
Rafe and Brown exchanged looks and said, “What's your address, ma’am?”
“You’re going to actually check it out this time? It’s about time.
It sounds like he’s killing that poor Mr. Ellison.” Ms. Brown said.
Rafe and Brown both had to put a hand over their mouth to keep from laughing.
Finally getting control, Brown said, “Ma’am, we’ll be out to check on Mr.
Ellison ourselves. Don’t you worry about it.”
“Thank you, Detective Brown. I don’t want anything to happen to him.
Oh, I need to give you the address. It’s 852 Prospect, apartment 307.
His name is Jim Ellison. He's such a sweet man.”
“Thank you, Ms. White, we’ll get out there right away. Please try not to
worry.” Brown said as he punched the speakerphone off.
Rafe and Brown looked at each other and almost fell on the floor with uncontrollable
laughter.
“Henry, do you believe this? We’ve been trying to figure out if they’re
a couple all this time and their neighbors rat them out.” Rafe said howling.
“Now, how are we going to handle this one, Rafe? It has to be good.
We need to get into his apartment and make a run for the loft bedroom before
Jim has a chance to say or do anything.” Brown said, laughing as hard as
Rafe was.
“Oh God, we need to wake Simon and Joel up for this.” Rafe said.
“Wait a minute! How about Conner? She’ll be pissed tomorrow if
she’s not included in this bust.” Brown said.
“Fine, you call Conner and tell her to haul ass over there now and wait for
us.” Rafe said. “I’ll call Joel and Simon.” Rafe said.
They both made their phone calls and everyone agreed that no one would make
a move without the rest of them.
Brown called Mrs. White and said, “Ms. White, this is Detective Brown.
We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes so we’ll come to your apartment first
and find out if there's anything else you can tell us.”
“Thank you, Detective Brown. We’re in 303, right next door to Mr. Ellison.”
Mrs. White said. When she hung up the phone, she said, “I told
you I’d get someone that would care about our Mr. Ellison. They’re on their
way over right now.”
Mr. White said, “Well, I just hope he’s not in there with some woman and
be embarrassed by all of this.”
Mrs. White looked at her husband and said, “Jim has been our neighbor for
five years and he’s never ever made any noise even when we know there's a
woman with him. So something must be wrong.”
“Well, I wonder where his roommate is. Mr. Sandburg usually watches
out for our Mr. Ellison.” Mr. White said.
Suddenly, Mr. White looked at Mrs. White and said, “Shit, what if they’re
a couple.”
“A couple of what?” Ms. White asked.
“Maybe they’re gay, sweetie. Maybe that’s what’s going on. Oh
god, do you still have the key to his apartment for watering plants?” Mr.
White asked.
“Why? I called the police, honey, not to worry.” Mrs. White said.
“He’s a policeman, Mary. What if those were his friends and they’re
going to catch him at something he really doesn’t want anyone to know about?”
“Robert, are you saying you want me to go into his apartment unannounced?”
“Do you want to embarrass him?” Mr. White asked.
“Of course not. He'll take that key away from me for this. I
just know it.” Mary whined.
“It’s up to you, Mary. You decide. If you want my opinion, I
think he might have been having sex. Now that I think about it, he
calls that little one Chief, doesn’t he?” Robert asked his wife.
“Oh shit. He does. Robert, I’m so embarrassed. We have
to go over there now.”
They put on their robes, smoothed down their hair, walked next door and knocked
on the door. After about two minutes, the door slid open to Jim Ellison and
he wasn’t happy. “Mary? Robert? What’s going on?”
“Can we come in, Jim?” Robert asked.
“Well, this isn’t really a good time, Robert, if you get my drift.” Jim said,
trying to stay calm and not scream at them both.
“Mr. Ellison, I called the police because I thought someone was hurting you.
A Detective Brown and Rafe are on their way over to check on you. Robert
got to thinking and thought maybe you weren’t being hurt so we wanted to
warn you.” Mary said as quickly as she could. “I’m so sorry.”
Jim smiled and said to Robert, “You knew?”
“Well, I had an idea. I see how you watch him. I also see how
he watches you. Doesn’t bother me in the least, Jim. Now get yourself
cleaned up. They’ll be here soon.” Robert said.
“Thanks, Mary, for watching out for us and to both of you for the warning.
Night.” Jim said as he slammed the door. Mary and Robert heard him
say, “Chief, get your butt down here. Our friends are on their way
to catch us at something.”
When the police arrived, Robert was surprised to see five people standing
in front of his door. “Well, we might have been wrong. There's been
no noise since Mary called earlier.”
“That’s okay, sir. I’m Captain Simon Banks and we’ll just go in to
check out things. You don’t happen to have a key to the Ellison place,
do you?” Simon asked.
Mary went and got her key and said, “Please bring it back when you’re done.
I water his plants and a few other things.”
“No problem. We’ll bring it right back as soon as we open the door.”
Simon said, taking the key from Mrs. White.
All five Detectives walked quietly over to Jim and Blair’s place with key
in hand. Upstairs in his bed, Jim heard them open the loft and he looked
over the railing and called out, “Simon, what are you doing here?”
All five detectives jumped when they heard Jim’s voice. Blair came
walking out of his room and said, “Simon? What are you doing here, man?”
All five of them looked at each other and began blushing. They weren’t
sleeping together. They weren’t even on the same floor.
“Your neighbors called about someone hurting you. We called the others
for back up.” Brown said.
Jim came walking down the stairs and said, “Well, we were watching a scary
movie earlier, it might have been that. Did they hear a woman scream
or something?”
“You’re neighbor said that she heard you scream, Chief.” Brown said.
Blair got red faced and said, “That must have been when I spilled the buttered
popcorn in his lap. He was pissed.”
“Sorry, guys, we’ll let you get back to sleep now.” Simon said. “Night.”
“Thanks for checking up on us.” Jim said, walking them to the door and shutting
it after they all walked out.
He smiled at Blair and said, “Way to go, Chief. That was a good save.”
“Obfuscation is my middle name, remember?” Blair said, kissing Jim. “Now
can we go back upstairs and finish what we started earlier?”
Jim pulled Blair into his arms and started kissing him. If Jim had
any sense about him, he’d have been listening to their friends, but all of
his sense seemed to have gone south. He didn’t even hear them come
in the front door. Blair looked over and saw their friends standing
there with big grins on their faces.
Blair put his face into Jim’s chest and said, “Shit.” Jim looked over at
their friends and said, “So any of you have problems with this?”
“No, not a bit. We’ve been wondering when you both would come to your
senses. I guess it was tonight or did we miss it?” Conner asked.
“That’s none of you business. Now would you all mind leaving?” Jim
growled.
“Fine, be that way.” Joel said, laughing all the way out the door.
Finally, when they all were gone and in their vehicles, Jim walked next door
and knocked.
Robert opened up the door and said, “How did it go, Jim?’
“They caught us after they left. They came back in. I wanted
to let you know that I’m going to put up sound proofing on the walls so you
won’t have to worry about that again. I’m really sorry that we bothered
you.”
“Not to worry, Jim. I got to reap the rewards, if you get my drift.”
Robert said, laughing as he shut the door.
Jim smiled while walking back to his love. His life. God,
how he loved that man. Opening up the door, he saw Blair standing,
looking there a little timid.
“Chief, everything's all right. We don’t need to worry about anything.”
Jim said taking Blair’s hand, walking up the stairs and getting hard just
thinking about his Chief.
Mr. White was going to reap some fine rewards this morning.
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