Page 19 of Marcus in Retrograde
The guy tried to raise his head, but flopped back down to the ground with a thump.
“Missy, are you okay?” I asked.
She looked at me, and finally seemed to come back to herself. “Yes. Yeah. I’m fine. Holy shit. I’m good. I had no idea the guy had pickpocketed me. Thank you…”
“Marcus,” the handsome burly man supplied. “Don’t mention it.”
The cops hopped up the steps at that moment and quickly assessed the situation. They waited for the ambulance before moving the grease ball, but took statements from me, Missy, and Marcus.
It turned out that Marcus had been walking a few dozen feet behind Missy on the way to the building. He’d seen the guy around and hadn’t liked his look much, and when he saw the hand dip into her purse as she turned to walk up the stairs, he’d gone full linebacker and slammed him to the door as it closed behind Missy.
He’d managed to tackle and wrestle him into the hall and that was when I came flying down the stairs.
We watched as the medics rolled the handcuffed suspect out the door on a stretcher. He’d had a pretty good cut on this forehead and they wanted to check him for a concussion.
As soon as the door closed, the officer turned to us. “Well, sir, you’ll be delighted to know that there has been a rash of break-ins in the area and we’ve been trying to figure how it was happening. It looks like you just solved the whole thing.”
“Good,” Marcus said. “Glad I could help.”
The officer turned to Missy. “I’d ask the super to change your locks and maybe get a keypad for the front door as well. The latch didn’t catch well and that’s how you were able to fall into the building.”
“I’ll talk to the owner,” I volunteered.
“I’ll stop buy the hardware store and grab a new lock set for Missy’s door. I can put it in tomorrow.”
Missy nodded. “Thank you, I’d appreciate that.” She knelt down to the dog. “And thank you, Pollux. You’re a good boy, aren’t you? Going after the bad guys.”
He woofed, and then gave three sharp barks I was entirely to familiar with.
My head snapped up to Marcus. “You’re three-oh-two!”
“Uh, yeah?”
“I’m three-oh-one!”
“Ohhh, yeah… Uh…” He rubbed his neck and looked down.
“You’re a Cubs fan.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
“I am?”
“Are you not sure?
“I’m not sure where this is going...”
I laughed. “I’m a Cubs fan.”
“Oh. Oh! You are? Wait, you noticed the Cubs hat in my drawing?”
Nodding, I couldn’t keep the idiotic smile off my face. “I’m a graphic designer. Details like that jump out at me all the time. I’m surprised you noticed the one in mine…”
Marcus was clearly shocked. “Well, I uh…I guess my idea of you meeting Pollux here has been accomplished.”
Missy leaned in between us. “The nice officer said we’re free to go now, so I’m going to let you two guys chat it up in the hall.”
“Oh, hey, sorry,” I said, kicking myself mentally for ignoring the woman who was attacked half an hour before. “Yeah, I’ll go talk to Mister Davos about this front door.”
“Thank you,” she said, sincerely. “Thank you both. That could have been a real mess if you hadn’t been on your toes, Marcus.”
