Page 38 of Stone Blind

“I’m in your space, disturbing your morning routine,” she said. “I can either be a help or a hindrance by yapping at you and making you forget something important. You have a dangerous job. I don’t need to distract you. See you when you get home.”

She blew a kiss and toddled off to the bedroom.

“Shit, I think I might be falling in love with her crazy ass,” Mustang said, looking toward the bedroom where he wanted to take at least fifteen more minutes to really start his day right.

Helen called from the other room, “I heard that!”

He simply smiled and prepared himself for work, easing out the door to the garage. Mustang made it to the office, a smile still on his face, as his boss called a meeting on a case coming up for court in the next few weeks. He’d been going over his notes in the file at his house, and the file he needed was still at his house on his desk.

“Damn it,” he said, realizing he didn’t have time to go back and get it. “Aw man...bear balls.”

Reluctantly, he took out his phone. He dialed Helen, not wanting to ask, but he needed her help. She answered the phone, not sounding sleepy, but awake.

“Missing me already?”

“Always, but I need an assist,” he said. “In my office on the corner of my desk is a file labeled Murtaugh. I forgot it this morning and need it in about twenty minutes.”

“Say less; be there in ten,” she replied, ending the call.

Helen was already dressed. She hadn’t gone back to bed since her body was still on it's normal time zone. After locating the file folder and disarming the system, she pulled up the GPS and pressed the pre-programmed address for his station house.

“See, being prepared pays off,” she said, pulling out of the drive and heading to the Trooper station.

Helen entered the front door carrying the folder. A woman with too much attitude sat behind the desk giving Helen a curious stare. She spotted the folder, and her entire body language changed.

She asked, “Can I help you?”

“I have an item for Trooper Neary,” Helen said.

“You can leave it with me,” the woman told her.

“Or you can call back to the bullpen, let him know Helen has arrived, and he can come and retrieve it himself,” she told the lady.

“Or you can leave it with me, like I said,” the woman repeated with more attitude than necessary.

Helen wasn’t in the mood to get into a discourse with the woman. She pulled out her phone and called Mustang. In the line, she simply said, “Lobby.”

A couple of minutes passed before he came around the corner, the smile on his face wide as she passed the folder to him. Helen was dressed as he had hoped. She wore an adorable pair of cropped jeans and cute sandals which showed off her newly painted toenails, and she carried a mini designer bag to match the shoes. Her hair sat high on her head in a messy bun and her earrings matched the yellow blouse over a white tank. She looked absolutely perfect to him. There was no garish red lipstick, stupid fake eyelashes, or fillers in her face. The smile, warm and natural with no veneers or blue tinges from over treatment with whitening techniques, nearly made his stomach flutter when she spoke.

Helen said as she passed the folder to him, “I didn’t know if it had sensitive information, so I didn’t want to leave it on the counter.”

“Thanks love,” he said, leaning down, his lips puckered. Helen kissed him, not wrapping her arms around his neck to make a show about it.

“See you at home,” she said, noticing the crowd gathered behind the reception area to take a peek at who’d come to the office for Neary.

A loud chorus of “ohs” and “ahhs,” followed, making Helen turn around to see the Troopers all watching. She provided a playful wave to them all, leaving as silently as she’d arrived. Mustang shook his head, knowing he wouldn’t hear the end for the rest of the day. His chest stuck out a bit with pride as his co-workers watched her leave.

The woman behind the counter made a snide remark, “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

“I don’t. She’s a woman,” Mustang said, joining the Troopers to get the meeting started.

He sat distracted during the meeting and most of the day. He didn’t pull anyone over when he went on patrol but simply patrolled his stretch of highway and realized he was sick and tired of sitting in the car. The nervous feeling returned and he leaned into it, returning earlier than expected to the station house. He’d used the last two hours to catch up on paperwork, then he’d head home to her. Maybe he was lonelier than he believed, and having someone to go home to for a change was a pleasant experience.

The closer it got to two o’clock the more his spirits improved. At 1:45, he sat grinning like an idiot, thinking of her being at the house waiting for him. A warm, gushy feeling hit his gut, and he knew then, he was in trouble.

“Damn, she must be amazing,” Littlefield, a Trooper he’d trained, said to him. “Jacobs wants to see you before you go.”

“Roger that,” Mustang replied, closing out his computer for the weekend. He cleared his desk, then made way to his boss’ office. Tapping on the frame, he said, “You wanted to see me?”

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