“Looks like you had one hell of a night,” Shannon said, shaking his protein shake.

“Sally doing Sally things.” Micheal dropped onto his desk’s chair, lowering his bag down beside him.

“Sounds terrible. Do you want to talk about it? I know how you F-types can’t function without venting.”

Micheal just stared at him not knowing what to do about his partner who didn’t make a lick of sense at any time.

“I’m joking,” Shannon said, sitting on the edge of Micheal’s desk. “So what’s Sally doing that she shouldn’t be doing?”

Micheal looked into Shannon’s eyes and sighed, sitting back into his chair. “For one, when I came home. She got mad about me making more money. Definitely with our financial situation now that she isn’t working. Then she went out to the clubs with her girls. Didn’t come back until much later after promising to be back at ten.”

Shannon took a long drink of the shake and stared at the roof. He fiddled with the lid and only moments later turned to Micheal.

“I think that maybe you should consider wearing pants in the relationship. You sound like a F-type.”

Micheal rolled his eyes and turned on his PC. “What do you think the higher-ups want?”

Shrugging, Shannon looked around the office. Most of the office workers were head down into their computers, pouring over the paperwork.

“I think they probably have a major case that one of the divisions couldn’t solve and is throwing it at us. Which is both good and bad.”

“I figure the same,” Micheal said.

“The others are here. Let’s see what they expect of us.” Shannon shot up, drinking his shake as he walked towards the conference.

“Yo, Mike!” Carter waved him over.

Shannon pushed away a hesitant Micheal. “Go see what he wants.”

“Alright,” Micheal said, “keep a seat warm for me.”

Micheal marched straight towards Carter who stood in front of his desk holding a deck of pictures.

“Tell me if you know this woman,” Carter asked, holding out the pictures.

Feeling confused, Micheal flipped through them. His hands started to quiver and his face felt like he was in an oven. That everybody was staring at him. Slapping the pictures face down against his palm, he looked into Carter’s eyes.

“My wife. Do you know why she’s with him?”

Carter raised an eyebrow. “That’s what I’m hoping you can tell me.”

Micheal gritted his teeth and glanced at the roof. “She told me she was going out with her friends. That’s all I know.”

“That’s unfortunate that you have to hear this from me but…” Carter turned his monitor towards Micheal. “Given the location they went to and the fact he owns the entire building. We believe that they could possibly be in a physical relationship. Because of the security, we couldn’t get our men inside, and this is just an opinion based on how tenants act with female company.”

Micheal looked at the slideshow of pictures showing the entire building and most importantly, the top of the building which looked like a fraternity pitching a party. Girls in all kinds of clothes hung around pools, outdoor restaurants, and there were quite a few shelter areas where someone was fucking.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

He rubbed his beard and looked at Carter. “She’s an FBI agent on paternity leave. Could she have gone under cover? Is that something you can dig up?”

Carter rubbed his elbow where a scabbed started to peel. “I can contact my man at the FBI and ask if they are running an operation. This can more or less inform us if there is an inside man but we won’t be able to know for sure if it's her or not.”

“I understand when I get home. I’ll try to get some information out of her about it.” Micheal handed the pictures back over and went straight for the conference room.

I can’t fucking believe her. She doesn’t have to tell me her assignments but getting close to men like that? He definitely isn’t the type to be strung along.

Shannon waved him towards a seat in the back the moment he entered the room. The chairs around the table were already filled and some of the others were standing against the wall. Micheal made his way beside Shannon and sat down.

He took out his phone and sent her a text message, having this sudden meeting. What are you doing, right now?

“What was that about?”

“Sally was caught with Mr. Winters by Captain Carter’s team.” Micheal crossed his arms and kicked his legs underneath a chair.

“Working or Working?” Shannon raised his eyebrows.

“No idea. She lied about going out with her friends last night.”

“I mean, your marriage has been going downhill though. Kind of seen this coming.” Shannon shrugged and leaned back. “What I’m curious about is that everybody here is from the CI division.”

“How do I have this coming to me?” Micheal glanced at the stage where Gary Melton, the Assistant Chief of the Criminal Investigation division stood with the Chief of Police, Arthur Sanders.

“You have been ignoring her whenever I am over. You are really sloppy, my guy. On top of that, you are one rude son of a bitch. If I was her, I would have left you a long time ago.”

“Seriously?”

Shannon turned to him and nodded, then burst out laughing. “No, I was joking. Honestly, I don’t know why she doesn’t want to be with you.”

Micheal rolled his eyes and turned to the front as the Chief walked to the front of the stage tapping a hand microphone.

“Okay, quiet down.” Arthur looked out over the crowd. “I don’t have a lot of free time. So I’m getting straight to the point. You lot complained like my daughters and thus we are releasing you back to your divisions. No extra pay. Any questions?”

Someone raised their hands. “This means we can return to regular duty without the check-ups?”

“No!” Arthur pointed his knife-hand at another person with a raised hand. “You.”

“What if we would like to continue working on the case?”

“Too fucking bad, next.”

Who would dare raise their hands when someone like this was being an ass-hat? Everybody sat quiet as a mouse before a row of traps. Which left the Chief grinning like the cat on the other side.

“Good, no questions. You are dismissed.” Arthur turned around and walked off stage with a pep in his step.

Shannon shook his head and patted Micheal's shoulder to distract him from looking at his phone. Or more precisely, the text message that just showed his last message.

“Why don’t you just prepare for the worse? I have a good divorce attorney that can set you up to not lose half your belongings. Especially with the evidence you have against her.”

Micheal shook his head. “What if it’s just something I’m imagining and she is indeed working a case? If I jump the gun that would mean I don’t trust her and would definitely push her into doing something petty.”

Shannon gave him a look that said it already happened but he nodded at Cpt. David who looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but here.

“Are you ready to return back to Homicide,” Shannon asked.

“Yeah, let’s go see what case we can get on. I feel like doing something useful after spending all that time chasing around that dick bag.” Micheal followed right after Shannon, snaking through the many checkpoints to the cube farm of the Homicide division.

Cubicles sat around an open center that only had a task board set up in the center. Shannon made his way over and took a look at the short descriptions of the crime and file location.

“This one is two days old. Woman found drowned in Lyon river in district 4. No witness noted anything of import.” Shannon tapped a note.

Micheal nodded; his thumbs tapping away at his phone. “Sounds Okay.”

“Bro, are you really spamming her phone, right now?”

“No,” Micheal said, slowly. “I’m asking her friends if they know if she is working again.”

“Wow,” Shannon mouthed, “F-type.” He took down the note and stuck the thumb tack back in. “Let’s go see if they can issue me a better F-type.”

“Okay,” Micheal mumbled.

Shaking his head, Shannon led the way.