SACRIFICES (13 page)

“Debby’s husband Jack is a nice guy. I’ve only met him a few times but he’s all Debby talks about.” The elevator dings and Brad says. “Well, this is my floor.” Brad smiles and steps out. “What’s your husbands’ name?” Brad asks her as he steps out.

The pretty Jenny McQueen looks away. “His name
was
Frank. He passed away 5 years ago.”

Brad stops the closing door with his hand. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s tough sometimes, but my friends are always telling me to move on.” She shrugs slightly.

Brad stops the door for the second time from closing. “I know what you mean. I hear the same from my friends and family all the time,” He looks away as she steps out of the elevator. “My wife was killed by a drunk driver almost two years ago.”

“Yeah I heard.”

“How’d you hear?” Brad quickly asks as they stand by the elevator door as it closes.

“I read it in Newsweek when they did that write-up on you last week.” She explains with a slight smile.

“I’m sorry I forgot that now everyone knows about my life and me.” Brad looks away and says with a huge amount of nervousness. “You know something, I’m...I’m actually getting ready to leave for the day…would you like to maybe…I’m mean would you like stop for a cold ice tea somewhere?” He looks away feeling guilty and nervous at the same time. He can’t help but feel like he’d like to talk to her a little longer. He doesn’t know why but he does.

“Sure…that sounds nice.”

“When would you like to go?” Brad follows up still feeling nervous about his invitation and not quite sure why he is even asking at all.

“We can go now if you’d like to.” Jenny says with a smile while Brad and Jenny proceed toward the elevator and Tammy stops him as she sees him with a pretty woman she doesn’t recognize.

“Hi Brad.” Tammy smiles and hands him a box. “The mail room said they forgot to send this up this morning. It’s addressed to you and it says Personal and Confidential like the letter this morning.”

Brad takes it from her hand. “Thanks.” As he remembers what the letter mentioned about a package he’d be receiving in a box like this one.

Tammy gives this woman a once over. “So where are you off to?” She continues to look at this woman she has never seen before.

Brad grins and starts to explain. “I’m going to be off for a couple days. If something comes up that’s real important call my cell phone, if not talk to the chief or Todd.” Brad smiles and walks toward the elevator as Tammy continues to watch. “I’ll see you in a couple days.” Brad smiles as the elevator door closes.

CHAPTER 8

BRAD AND JENNY TAKE HIS JEEP TO THE WATERLOO PUB

They step out of his Jeep on the mostly quiet drive from the station. He walks over and opens the door for her. “I can’t believe the heat we’ve had. Hopefully soon this heat wave goes away.” Brad tells her as he closes her door.

     Jenny takes a deep breath. “Yeah it’s something. What is it now, 40 some straight days of over 90 degrees? Is that some kind of record?” She continues to walk next to Brad as they approach the entrance to the cozy pub on the waterfront.

“Yeah it’s a record all right. But it’s not the kind of record I was hoping we’d set.” Brad grins as he pulls open the door for her as the refreshing cool air of the restaurant greets them.

Brad stops at the sign that says, ‘PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED’, and says to her as his phone rings.
Veronica walks up. “Could you excuse me a moment,” He walks toward the restroom to talk in private as he sees Veronica escorting Jenny to a booth in the back.

“Jostler.” Brad says as he watches her sit down.

“Hey dad, what’s up?”

“Oh son, it’s so good to hear your voice.” Brad grins with relief. “Where were you earlier? I‘ve been trying to get a hold of you for several hours. Why the hell didn’t you answer your cell phone?” Brad sighs.

“I left at home on accident, but I was just over at Matt’s house messing around on his new computer on the Internet. Is something wrong?” Ask the young Jr. at his dad’s obvious strange behavior.

“No...Everything is fine. I just wanted to talk to you and just tell you how much I love you. You know me.” Brad senior smiles.

“You’re acting weirder than normal dad, are you sure nothings wrong?” The younger Brad persist feeling like his dad has something on his mind or bothered about something.

“Well you...well son, All right son I’m just going to tell you, you know I always tell you everything. Anyway, I want you to do me a favor. I want for you and me to go out tonight. Maybe shoot some pool or see a movie or something, or maybe play some miniature golf,” Brad Sr. doesn’t want to frighten his son. “…just hang out for a couple days.”

His
son’s still confused. “Dad you said you’re gonna tell me something but you didn’t tell me anything. What is it?”

     Brad Sr. says as he watches Veronica walk over to the table with two glasses of ice tea with lemon and sit them down in front of Jenny. “Ok son here it is. Because of the case I’m on right now, you know the one. Anyway, I am receiving a lot of press, and well today at the office I received a letter that was a threatening letter. It made mention of you. Now if I knew who it was that made the threats I’d take care of it. But unfortunately I don’t know who it is...”

    Brad Jr. interrupts. “You don’t have to worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

    Brad Sr. says with a long exhale. “I know you can, it’s just...you wouldn’t know who to protect yourself from. So here’s what’s going to happen, I don’t want you anywhere alone...” His son starts to interrupt. “...NOW...listen and listen good, until tonight when we can talk more about this. I want you to hang out with your friends at their house, not ours. Go back to Matt’s if you want to, or go to Jim’s. His dad works third so he’d be home. It would make me feel better if you did. And well, besides that, it’s not a request it’s a direct order. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

Brad Jr. shakes his head in confusion. “Not really but I’ll do it anyway, I love ya.”

“I love you too babe, I‘ll see you tonight.” Brad hangs up the phone feeling ten million times more at ease than he has been all day since the letter. He smiles to himself in anticipation of his guys’ night out evening with his son.

Brad walks to the table with a huge grin as he sits down. “Sorry about that.” He reaches for the sweetener.

“It must have been a good call; you have a huge smile on your handsome face.”

Brad swallows hard and looks away as he feels a little bit uneasy about the compliment. “Thank you...that’s a nice thing to say.” He looks away once again and starts to stir his tea slowly avoiding eye contact.

“Why did you ask me out?” Jenny boldly asks as she watches the look on his face.

Brad shyly looks away. “Is that what I did?”

Jenny grins. “Yes you did. Then I said
yes
, and now we are here.”

Brad smiles and continues looking away feeling a great deal of uneasiness about the question and the fact he’s sitting down at a pub with a beautiful woman. “I really don’t know. I guess the thought of getting away from the office and the case sounded good. My head felt like it was going to explode and well to be honest with you I thought it might be nice to go relax with someone that wasn’t involved in this case or from my office.” Brad grins not positive himself why in deed he asked her.

“Is that a fact?” Jenny smiles bashfully. “Or could it be that you felt some kind of an attraction to me, like I feel toward you?” Jenny smiles as she rubs the top of her tea glass with her index finger in a circle as she stares at the blushing twenty-two year veteran of the Chicago PD.

“You
know something…” Jenny explains. “I’ve watched you on TV at the press conferences. I’ve seen you being interviewed, and you come across like such a powerful confident man that rules with such authority. I mean you just
ooze
with confidence.” She winks at him. “...But right here, right now, you seem just like a cute, shy little boy at a loss for words, nervous and antsy. I
wonder
why that is?”

Brad begins to fidget in his seat and he loosens his tie. Veronica walks over to the table and gives Jenny a smug look and smiles at Brad. “Hi there Brad, how are you doing?”

Brad looks up. “I’m fine. How are you?”

Veronica gives the beautiful guest of the Inspector
another
somewhat smug look and then smiles at Brad. “I’m good. Do you want to look at the menu today?”

Brad looks at Jenny. “Would you like something to eat, my treat?”

Jenny smiles at the waitress knowing that she obviously doesn’t like the idea for some reason that Brad is here with her. “No thank you I’m not hungry.” Jenny looks away hoping the waitress leaves soon.

“No menu today, the tea is all we will be having.”

Veronica gives a phony smile and softly touches the top of Brad’s hand. “Ok sweetheart, just flag me down if you change your mind.”

Brad begins to fidget a little and then Jenny leans toward the middle of the table. “I think that waitress likes you.”

“No…she’s just a friend.” Brad says with a casual turning of his head.

“If looks could kill...I’d be dead.” Jenny smirks and then chuckles. “That girl looked at me like I was doing something wrong being here with you. And now that I think about it, that pretty young girl at the station didn‘t act like she was too happy seeing me standing there with you either.”

Jenny asks. “So why is that?”

“What do you mean?”

Jenny explains. “How come you’re acting so shy right now and when you’re in the public eye you come across like Dirty Harry?”

Brad chuckles at the comparison. “I don’t know. That’s a tough question.” Brad sips his drink looking away and slightly raising his shoulders.

Jenny looks directly at him. “I think I’m right. I think that’s why you’re acting like this.”

Brad smiles and says bashfully looking at her. “You’re right about what?”

“You know.” Jenny looks into his eyes.

“No I don’t.” Brad begins rearranging items on the table trying to avoid answering the question he remembers well.

“You know what the question was and you know why you’re not answering it. A man that can quote reports and documents at a press conference from memory and then answer two and three part questions can’t expect me to believe he forgot what I said when I asked him just a minute ago if he was attracted to me.” She takes a sip of her drink. “Can you really expect me to believe that?” She maintains eye contact as she slowly stirs her tea.

Brad lets out a long exhale and shyly smiles. “I’ve seen you
several
times at the station; you were in the front row at the last two press conferences. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t notice you…and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take a few innocent glances at you when you weren’t looking. You’re a pretty woman,” He looks away nervously. “…actually you’re gorgeous, but the truth is I don’t know if I’d ever be ready to date or get serious with anyone; I put thoughts like that out of my mind completely. That’s why I don’t date.” Brad slightly shrugs and takes a sip quickly glancing at the pretty lady.

“Why is that?” Jenny smiles again and makes the comment. “If you feel like that, why’d you say at the press conference that you were spoken for when I asked if you were available?” Jenny leans her elbows up on the table and moves forward slightly.

“Habit.”

“Habit? What do you mean?” Jenny wonders as she can’t help but notice how uncomfortable this attractive and powerful man is acting at this moment.

“I’ve been asked out several times after my wife passed and I’ve never had any interest in dating at all...so I just started saying that when I was asked out to avoid explaining
why
I wasn’t ready to date, it became an easy out, it saved me from explaining why.” Brad swallows hard and forces a brief smile as he takes another quick glance at the beautiful lady, who for some reason at this moment in time has him mesmerized with her smile and her unbelievably gorgeous green eyes.

“That makes sense to me...and I can
definitely
believe that you’ve been asked out a lot.” She smiles and gently taps the top of his hand. She continues, as she can’t take her eyes off of him. “Why do you think you continue to put those thoughts out of your mind even after all of this time has gone bye.” Jenny moves her hand from his and takes a sip of her drink and awaits his response. “Why don’t you tell me, I’m a good listener?”

                            Brad takes a long drink and says to her as he leans back in his seat. “When I got married all those years ago, I thought that was it, my life was set. I had a woman I loved more than life itself. We were happy, we brought a beautiful baby boy into this world and my life was perfect,” Brad smiles briefly as he looks toward the ceiling. “…I had it made. I couldn’t wait to see her every night. I called her several times a day to just hear her voice. She was so wonderful,” Brad smiles again and looks at Jenny. “I didn’t think life could ever be better.” Brad’s smile disappears and he noticeably swallows hard. “Then one evening that all came to an abrupt, tragic end because some drunk asshole was too stupid to call a cab.” Brad looks away. “I don’t normally talk about this. But I think it’s only fair to let you know how I feel about my life and my future. I don’t think it’s possible for me to ever be involved with anyone. I don’t think I’ll ever feel comfortable moving on that way.” Brad exhales and takes a sip.

“I know how you feel. I mean I can imagine how you feel. When I lost my husband I felt the same way you just described. For me it’s been five years now. And time does help a
little
. But I can definitely relate. But I guess all I can do is move on. I think he would have wanted that.”

                            Brad smiles and tells her as he softly touches the top of her hand. “I guess people like you and me should be happy for at least being able to say that at one time in our lives we knew what it was like to be happy,” He winks at her. "…you know.”

                            “I think you are a wonderful special man and I understand what you must be going through; I mean the fact that you also have a son…that has to make what happened with your wife even tougher on you. I don’t have any children myself so I can only imagine how much tougher that would have been if I did.” She leans closer. “Whether you know it or not, you are moving in the right direction now.”

                            Brad tilts his head. “What do you mean I’m moving in the right direction?”

                            “You tried to explain
why
you weren’t ready to move on and
how
you don’t know if you ever would be able to move on,” Jenny grins shyly. “
But
you
did
admit to noticing me at the station, and you
did
admit to taking a few innocent glances, and you
did
admit to thinking I’m pretty, actually you said I was gorgeous…” She smiles and looks away. “…And you
did
ask me out today,” She looks away briefly. “And even though you didn’t admit
this
…I can tell you’re
definitely
attracted to me.”

                            Brad nervously smiles and starts to blush. “
How
can you tell?”

                            Jenny sighs and takes a sip. “You just told me. By you asking me
how
I could tell…well that tells me that you are.” Brad looks away smiling and clears his throat.

                            They sit there with little talking for the next half an hour; the occasional smile, mentioning the weather, small talk. It’s comfortable for the most part. But there’s some tension especially with Brad. Brad thinks she’s nice and he likes talking to her. For now she’s pleasant company. Pleasant company feels nice with his 24/7 stress. He also thinks to himself how easy she is on the eyes.

    Brad also can’t figure out why she has this effect on him. It’s strange and at the same time sort of nice.

Jenny takes a long drink of her tea. “Brad I have a confession, we’ve been talking a little bit and you opened up to me like you did and well…” She looks toward the ceiling then back at him. “…the truth is I’m not a reporter from Peoria.”

Brad quickly turns to look at her a little shocked by her confession and not sure why she lied. “I’m actually a nurse…well…I guess the proper title would be trauma unit surgical nurse, I do actually live in Peoria though.” Jenny takes another drink, as she looks down feeling embarrassed and slightly awkward.

Brad leans toward her. “Trauma-unit-surgical nurse.” Brad smiles showing by his expression that he’s incredibly impressed. “So…how did you get into the conference then?” Sounding more confused then anything else.

Jenny smiles and acts even more embarrassed. “Well the truth about that is kind of funny…” She rolls her beautiful green eyes and shrugs. “…remember when I told you that Debbie Young was a good friend of mine. She works on the fourth floor in the records department,” Brad nods his head as he recalls her mentioning that. “…well when your face was plastered all over the news about the Investigator from the fifth precinct I called Debbie knowing she worked in your building and ask her if she knew you,” Jenny appears nervous and uncomfortable as she tells him what happened. “I told her I thought you were incredibly handsome, and I’d like to meet you. She told me about you losing your wife and she also told me she’d like to see you meet someone nice. She really likes you she thinks you’re a wonderful man. Well, Debbie was trying to hook you and me up. She sent me a press pass in the mail and here I am.”

Brad can’t help but smile at the sweet gesture by her and Debbie. It also reaffirms in his mind that this pretty lady is definitely interested, possibly very interested. “So I have Debbie to thank for us meeting?”

“Yes, she’s the one.” Jenny starts to blush. “I just thought you were so good looking and the way you handled yourself in the media was so…” She starts to spin her glass in between her hands finding it difficult to say the exact words. “…lets just say I was
more
than impressed.”

Brad reaches over and places his hand on hers. “All things considered. I would have to say that is one of the nicest things I think I’ve heard in a very, very long time.”

“Well it was worth the trip.” Jenny adds as she places her other hand on his with a shy smile.

Brad begins to feel a little uneasy about them now holding hands so he gently pulls his hand back as he looks away and clears his throat. “So you took off work to
just
come down here to meet me?” Brad wonders as he glances at her while she looks away.

Jenny takes another drink and says with a wink. “I definitely would have, but the truth is I always take off a big part of July for part of my vacation. Last week I went to Florida to visit with my aunt and now I’m here in Chicago to do some shopping and do some sight seeing. I also take a week off around Christmas.”

Brad smiles. “I can honestly say I can’t remember the last time I ever felt so flattered. You are a sweet lady and I’m glad we have had the chance to get to know each other today.” Brad clears his throat. “Don’t take this the wrong way but,” He smiles and repositions himself in his seat. “You are such a beautiful woman and there is no doubt in my mind you could easily have any man you wanted…so why would you be attracted to a beaten down, hardened, stressed out detective like me…I was just curious.”