Chapter Four: Promises you can’t keep.

“So, you pulled out a gun between a father and daughter, while the daughter was naked too, right?” Said the assistant chief of the DPD. She was a hard, stern woman, she was a rock and a fighter, a fighter with glasses.

“Yes, but-” I stopped because she raised her hand. She asked me a question,

“One question, what the fuck were you thinking?”

I looked surprised and shocked, “Uh, e-excuse me?” “Don’t look so surprised, Detective Kaisen, I only asked you a simple question. What the fuck we’re you thinking?” Her face was stern and cold, she wasn’t playing around. I can’t recall the last time she blinked.

“I-I heard screaming coming from the bathroom a-and I-” “And you pulled out a firearm on them. Hm, that sums it up.”

“But I heard screaming, what was I supposed to do-!” “Assess the situation, maybe knock. Speaking of knocking, you also walked into that family's house without a warrant or permission. You know what that is, right?”

“Trespassing- but the door was open-!” She cut me off. “The door wasn’t open, it was unlocked. You couldn’t see the inside until you opened the door and looked inside. You know this, Mr. Kaisen.” She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as she said this.

I just leaned forward in my seat and looked down, Ronnie tried to stay quiet as possible as if he didn’t want to be noticed. The assistant chief sighed, “You’re lucky this was reported to me and not the chief. You know how much trust and faith he puts into you…too much trust and faith in fact.”

She glanced at Ronnie, which Ronnie caught and stiffened. “And you, Mr. Neel, you already know what happens.” Ronnie nodded and looked down, rubbing his face. I looked at Ronne then the assistant chief, “

W-wait happens? it was my fault, not Ronnie’s-”

“It is his fault. He’s been working longer than you-"

"But, he trusted-” I said, cutting off the assistant chief, only to be cut off by her again. “No, he’s supposed to be a leader, not a follower. Yet, he trusted you, followed you, and looked at where that got him.”

I just looked down and clenched my fists.

“So, Mr. Kaisen, you are now dismissed. I need a word with detective Neel.”

I looked at her, then Ronnie. “It’s okay, just go.” He said to me quietly as his hand gestured towards the door. I looked at him before sighing and getting up to leave.

I sat down at my office desk, waiting. I was scared. Soon enough, Ronnie walked out of the Assistant chief’s office.Ronnie closed the door behind himself, I couldn’t see his facial expression yet. He began walking towards me, I got up and met him halfway. “Ronnie, what happened? Did you get in trouble? What did she-”

Ronnie put his hand on my shoulder. “Let’s take a break. I know this bar I’ve been going to ever since I became a detective.” He said as the corner of his mouth tugged. Ronnie began to walk, and I walked beside him.

“How are you so calm about this? What happened to the family incident could have cost us our jobs!” Ronnie kept walking, then said, “It was a mistake, was it not?” I kept walking, my hands now in my dress pant’s pockets, and nodded.

“Yeah, it was. But you're still so calm about this. Why?” Ronnie chuckled and kept walking, “Because, what happened made me realize something.” I raised one eyebrow to that. “And what is that one thing you realized?” Ronnie just kept walking, the corner of his mouth tugging before he said these three words, “I work too much. I need to take a break. I need to enjoy life…”

***

As we pulled up to the bar, me and Ronnie got out. We walked in as three guys that were already seated, glanced at us and smiled, the middle one spoke up, “Ronnie! Glad to see you again! And I see you brought a drug, who is he?”

“Glad to see you too, Dzhoshua. Him? He’s-” I chimed in when Ronnie pointed his thumb at me.

“Zad. Hey.” Kaisen said, as lifted his hand up slightly as a wave.

Dzhoshua smiled widely as he said, “Ah, Zad! Come, come sit with us!” I just looked over to the bar counter, walked over, and sat down as I said, “Ronnie can sit with you guys, I’ll sit here and think.”

Ronnie sat down with the guys as Dzhoshua said, “Then why don’t you sit with us and think, eh?” Dzhoshua said, still smiling like everyday is a good day.

“I think better when I'm alone.”

Dzhoshua chuckled at my words, “lone thinker boy, got it!” He sipped beer and continued saying, “Just remember, two heads are better than one. Find someone that relates to you, maybe you two can share your ideas.” Dzhoshua said, smiling.

I nodded without looking at him, “I’ll keep that somewhere in my mind, thanks.” Dzhoshua smirked and said, “Happy to help. A friend of Ronnie, is a friend of mine.” Before looking at Ronnie.

“Now, you.” Dzhoshua leaned in and said quietly, “So, what happened?”

Ronnie raised an eyebrow as he took a free heineken and drank it. “Huh? Nothing happened. I just came here to relax and talk to my Russian buddies.” Ronnie said.

“I call bullshit! We all know you only come here after shit goes bad! And plus, look at him, whatever shit happened, it was the hardest.”

Dzhoshua said as he too drank his heineken, glancing at Kaisen. Ronnie take’s the heineken from his mouth and lowers it, too looking at Kaisen, who is sitting on the bar stool looking down.

“Yeah…it did.” Ronnie said, looking at Kaisen longer than anticipated, like he’s seeing a past.

Dzhoshua stopped glancing at Kaisen and looked at Ronnie, before looking at his beer. “Y’know, he looks alot like someone I know.” Dzhoshua said, keeping his eyes on his beer.

Ronnie turned to Dzhoshua, raising an eyebrow. “And who could he possibly look like-” Ronnie stopped himself and closed his eyes, slowly while chuckling. “He does not.” Ronnie said, shaking his head, trying not to believe it as he took quick glances at Kaisen.

Dzhoshua catches this, then continues saying, “Look at him, he looks alot like someone I first saw two years ago, someone just as hurt as your guy, Zad.”

***

“Dzhoshua, look at the man over there, he looks mad.” The man on the right of Dzhoshua said. Dzhoshua glanced at the person, his face looks sad and sympathetic as his eyebrows furrowed and his face frowned, “Your right, drug.”

Dzhoshua then stood up, leaving his beer on the table. Both men that were on the right and left of him, looked at him, “Dzhoshua, what are you doing?” Dzhoshua kept his gaze at the man sitting on the bar stool at the bar counter, “Я скажу ему, что он живет только один раз.” He said as he walked over to the man.

“Good luck, drug.” The man on the left said as he watched Dzhoshua walk off to the man.

Dzhoshua tapped on the counter in front of the man, the man looked over at Dzhoshua, “Yes, may I help you?” He said as he turned back to face the display of alcohol over at the bartender's side.

Dzhoshua, “I just wanted to know if someone pissed in your cereal lately.”

the man drank his glass bottle of Heineken then said, “No, no one did. I'm very good, Thanks for asking.” the man said in a quick tone like he was trying to get Dzhoshua to leave so he can drink alone.

“Well, you don’t look very good, and sound like it either.” Dzhoshua said. staring intently at the man.

“Maybe I just have that thing where my face is…resting.” the man said. Trying to keep a frown from appearing on his face.

“RBF? Yeah, I doubt it, look at you. I can tell you’re about to cry.” the man clenched his free hand into a fist and snapped,

“Can you just go?!”

Everybody in the bar looks at where the loud voice came from. The man turned his gaze from Dzhoshua to the people in the bar, then faced forward while everybody went back to their business, to think.

“C-can you just go. I’m trying to think.”

Dzhoshua raises an eyebrow, “What are you thinking about? Maybe you can come sit with us and tell us.”

“I think better when I'm alone.” Dzhoshua just smiled at the man, “What’s your name?” The man sighed in annoyance,

“It’s…it’s Ronnie.”

Dzhoshua kept smiling and then said, “Well, Ronnie, I hope you know that two heads are better than one…well four.”

Dzhoshua said as he gestured his head towards his buddies over at the table.

Ronnie looked over to Dzhoshua buddies, then faced the glass display of alcohol, staying silent before sighing, then saying, “It doesn’t matter what I’m thinking right now, it already happened. There’s nothing I can do to change it.”

Ronnie kept his eyes on the Heineken bottle that’s near empty. “So, you're reminiscing about the past? Ha! So that’s what got you down? You need to enjoy the present, friend.”

Ronnie kept looking at the half empty bottle, trying to hold back a frown. Dzhoshua continued, “C’mon, sit with us. Tell us, we’re listening.” He said as he gestured his head towards his buddies. Ronnie looks at Dzhoshua’s buddies, then him, then back to the heineken.

“I might…I might cry.”

Dzhoshua smiles at Ronnie’s acceptance of joining him and his buddies for a drink, even though Ronnie didn’t directly say it, he knows. “When have we never, friend?”

Ronnie slightly smiled, but the frown that he’s trying to hide shows up slightly before disappearing. Dzhoshua stood up, then Ronnie stood up. They walked over to where Dzhoshua and his buddies were sitting. Ronnie sat across from them. Dzhoshua sat in the middle of his buddies. “Go ahead, friend. Tell us. Our ears is deaf to others, but you.”

Dzhoshua said as he gave Ronnie a reassuring smile, in which Ronnie smiled back, a genuine smile, but not a smile without tears. Ronnie had tears rolling down his eyes, thinking about his past, thinking about the words he would use to explain it. Or he’s thinking about his new friends that’ll listen to his story.

***

Ya know, Detroit isn’t the best city. Being ranked third highest in homicide rates definitely does not make you the best city. But it doesn’t stop you from having the safest home. When I was little I thought I had the safest home, but something stopped me from believing that. The same van that kept circling around my neighborhood, and the ‘monster’ in my closet. The van circling my neighbor didn’t bother me, they’re not in my house, but the monster was. Every night after school I would put my school clothes in the closet, and only shut it half way. The hinges on the closet door were loose, so if I didn’t close it fully it would slowly open. The sound and the darkness is what got me. ‘Creeeeaaakkk.’ I used to get scared because I thought I always closed my closet door fully. Everytime my eyes laid upon the closet, there would only be darkness, the fear of what most people feared was there, the fear of darkness. The fear of not knowing what’s there because you're engulfed in darkness. Well, there was a lamp in my room, but it could reach so far. And it didn’t reach my closet. When staring at a dark place, a place completely engulfed with darkness, you tend to wonder what’s there. You squint your eyes to see if you can catch a glimpse at anything, that’s when your eyes start playing tricks on you.You start to imagine what could be lurking in the darkness, and boy let me tell you when I squinted my eyes, I thought I saw a hand. No time to think, no time to wait, I dashed out of there, not without grabbing my tiny flashlight. The only safe room; my parents room. I ran out of my room. The house was too, engulfed in darkness. The only thing to illuminate it was the cars passing by, and the street lamps. But their lights didn’t reach certain places, leaving it in darkness. Just how my lamp’s glow couldn’t reach the closet’s darkness. Luckily I had my flashlight. So I turned on my flashlight and I saw my parent’s door. I could see what was in front of me, because I had the flashlight pointed ahead. I was scared of what could have been to my left, right, and behind, but I did look behind once. I looked back upstairs to my wide open door, scared of what might pop out, I ran to my parent’s door. I busted through the door like a brute, and fell. My mom and dad woke up instantly and looked at me, rushing to my aid.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Sweetie!” My mom said, getting off the bed and running to my aid like she didn’t just wake up from a possibly a good nap, Probably motherly instincts. My dad followed behind.

“Sweetie! What’s wrong, what happened?!”

“Yeah, man! You came through the door like a brute!”

I just pant, trying to get a word out. “...monst…er…clos…et.” T

Those words released all the tension my parents had before I said anything. I looked at them, while also panting. My parents just look at each other and sigh, like they knew something like this was gonna happen. My parent’s looked at each other.

My dad mouthed something to my mother, the words I could barely hear was “I got this.”

Whatever he said, my mom nodded to it and looked at me, my father looked at me too and said, “C’mon, kiddo. We’re gonna teach this monster not to mess with my son.”

My father’s words bring relief to me, it’s like his sense of protectiveness and reassurement just makes me hopeful, he just brings hope to me. But I looked at my mom, she was just looking at me with a comfortable smile. My dad brought me hope, but my mom brought me comfort, and I want- no I need that. I tugged on my father’s shirt. “

What about mommy? We need her help too if we’re gonna take down the monster!”

My father looked at my mother, my mother giggled, shoo-ing us on. “C’mon, kiddo! Your mom is tired from comforting you all the time.”

I knew he was joking, I know my mom will never get tired of taking care of me, never ever.

“And plus, it’s our job to protect the damsel in distress.” My mom rolled her eyes, smirking. I chuckled and so did my dad.

***

After my dad checked the closet, I was still weary as I was snuggled up in my bed, in case the worst happened. My dad came to the left side of my bed because that’s where I always sleep.

“Alright, buddy. I think the monster heard my heavy footsteps and got scared.” My dad said, chuckling, trying to cheer me up. He didn’t want me to fear this ‘monster’, but I was scared that it might come back when my dad left.

My dad saw it on my face, I had the sheets up to my nose, my eyes dead on the closet, the grip on my sheets turned my knuckles white. He sighed then took off his necklace, a gold necklace with a cross on it with Jesus's crucifixion on it too. He never took that necklace off, I looked surprised.

“Daddy, what are you doing?” He holds out the necklace to me and says,“Here, take it.” My face, my face was stunned, my eyebrows rose, my eyes dilated.

I know that might sound weird because I’m stunned that someone that allegedly never took off their necklace, decided to give me their necklace. But trust me, he never took it off, not until the day he handed it to me.

“Daddy…what are you doing?” I said again.

I was confused, why was he giving me this? Why was he giving me his necklace?

“What does it look like, kiddo?” He said to me as he stuck out his palm with the necklace in it.

My eyebrows rose. I waved my hands dismissively, “No, daddy, I can’t! It’s your favorite necklace!”

He just placed it around my neck, buckling it as he said, “Yeah, and I’m giving it to you.” He said. He had this big smile on his face,

I felt it again, the same thing. Something like hope, like I have people that truly care for me, which I obviously did. This feeling, tugging on my heart, throwing a punch in my stomach then twisting it. I started to tear up.

“Why, daddy? Why?” My father sighed as he looked at the necklace, and up at me,

“That necklace was…my father’s' ' I looked surprised, I looked down at the necklace that I was now wearing, then at my fathers face.

“T-This was grandpa’s?” My father held the cross necklace in his hand, his face frowning, which looked like a slight smile, like he was experiencing sadness and happiness as he stared at the necklace.

I knew that if he’d cry, I’d definitely cry too. He continued his gaze on the necklace as he said, “Yeah. Before he uh…passed away. He said, ‘Give this to anybody who needs protecting.’ ”

He looked up at me and continued, “And I think I found who needs it the most.”

After that, I just hugged tightly, my small arms trying my best to just squeeze him. Tears fell from my tear duct, then more and more until I sobbed. I said to him, “I don’t ever want to lose you, daddy. You or mommy.”

My dad hugged me back, his long arms wrapped around my body. “You won’t ever lose us, we’ll always be with you.” That…that was when he sinned. That was when he told a lie…

***

As Ronnie opened his eyes, thinking about what his dad said to him last night until he came and found both of his parent’s dead, laying in their bed. Ronnie looks down, finding himself fiddling with the cross that’s hanging from the necklace. A detective from afar spots Ronnie sitting on the couch alone while the crime scene was being searched, cops standing about, caution tape rolled across the front of the house.

“I’ll be back.” The detective said as he walked away from his partner, who was talking to him at first.

“Uh- okay. You can definitely walk away while I am talking.”

The detective just waved his partner off. As the detective sat down on the couch, facing forward, he said to Ronnie “So, what’s your name?”

The detective said as he held out his hand for Ronnie to shake. Ronnie just looked at the Detective’s hand then into his eyes, Ronnie looked at the detective, his 11 year old eyes piercing through the detective's. “R-Ronald, but my parents call me…Ronnie.”

Ronnie looked down at the ground as he mentioned his parents. The detective put his hand down since Ronnie didn’t want to shake it. He fiddles with the cross more, feeling Jesus’s crucifixion plastered on the cross. The detective lays his eyes on the boy’s necklace, it looks pretty nice, so why not ask about it?

“That’s a nice necklace, where’d ya get it from?” The detective said with a smile that says, ‘it’s okay, you can talk to me.’

Ronnie just kept looking down whilst fiddling with the cross. The detective just nods and then says,

“I’m sorry about your loss.” The detective as he got up and went to walk past the boy.

But before he could, Ronnie grabbed the detective’s hand. The detective turned his head to the boy, wondering why he grabbed him all of sudden.

“Don’t leave me, please. All of the officers that questioned me never said sorry for my parents death. All of them came to ask questions, then left. But you didn’t ask questions about my mommy and daddy, other than where I got this necklace from. A-And you said you were sorry for my parent’s death.”

The detective looked at the boy with a wide-eyed expression, not letting his eyes close until he processed what the boy said, allowing him to blink. “You won’t ask about my mommy and daddy’s death, right?”

The detective snapped back to reality and looked at the boy, “No, I won’t ask about your mother and father’s death, if you don’t want me to.” The detective said as he looked at the boy’s face.

Ronnie’s face looked…pleading. Like he was desperate for someone to stay with him, his eyes dead on mine. It’s like he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if I left, I could tell he wanted someone that cared for his well-being to be with him.

“T-Thank you, mister. Thank you so much!”

The detective smiled at Ronnie’s sudden happiness as he sat down and faced the boy.

“You're welcome, but you don’t have to call me ‘mister.’ It’s Richard.” The detective said as he chuckled, holding out his hand again for him to shake.

Ronnie faced him and shocked his hand with his tiny hand. After they

shook hands, Ronnie fiddled with his cross again, not knowing what to say. He looked down on his cross, and his memory came to him. Remembering that the detective asked him where he got the necklace from.

“Oh, and about the necklace…”

The detective lifted his head up, shifting his gaze on the necklace then to him. Ronnie looked up at the detective, then continued, “My dad…gave it to me, before he…”

The detective nodded, then looked at the necklace, “Yeah, it’s a pretty cool necklace.” The detective looked at Ronnie with a smile. Ronnie smiled back,

“I-It was originally my grandpa’s. He gave it to my dad, and told him to give it to someone who needs protecting.” The detective’s eyebrows rose, “So, I’m guessing you’re the one that needs protecting?”

Ronnie just simply nodded.

***

“Detective Neel, do you love your job?” Ronnie kept fiddling with his necklace, not hearing a single thing the assistant chief was saying. “Detective Neel!” The assistant chief says, after signing at Ronnie’s lack of acknowledgement of the words she’s trying to say to him.

Ronnie looked up with a wide-eyed expression as he said, “Huh?”

The assistant sighed again and repeated, “I said, do you love your job, Detective Neel.” Ronnie’s eyes widened, like he thought he was gonna get fired in a few minutes or something.

“Yes, Ms. Kep. I don’t know where I’d be without it.”

Ms. Kep looked down at her desk. Her hands folded together. She looks up at Ronnie and says, “Well, it doesn’t look like it, Mr. Neel.”

Ronnie sighed, knowing what she meant. He hasn’t been doing things ‘nicely’ when it comes to getting info from suspected people of a crime.

“You're a great detective, Ronald. You’ve solved many cases that other detectives couldn’t have. But this is the second time you’ve done something out of your jurisdiction.”

Ronnie sighed, the realization of what he did was wrong, even if it was a means to get info. With the look of his face, he’s contemplating the idea of him possibly losing his job.

“I know.”

Ms.Kep looked at Ronnie, her eyes stern as always, but empathetic as she looked down, then back at Ronnie “This is your last warning. Don’t mess it up, detective Neel.”

Ronnie nodded then stood up as Ms. Kep dismissed him. Ronnie walked out her office. When Ronnine turned around after closing the office door, he was greeted with his partner, Richard. Richard gave him a sympathetic smile which looked like a slight frown. Ronnie walked up to Richard.

“How did it go, huh?”

Ronnie scoffed a laugher, a smirk evident on his face, hiding a pang of nervousness.“Like shit. This is my last warning from her.”

Richard raised an eyebrow, clearly interested in what'll happen to his partner if he keeps up his act of ‘doing my own thing.’

“And after that?”

Ronnie scoffed and raised both of his eyebrows, “Then you're probably gonna need a partner, Richie.”

Richard raised both of his eyebrows, “Well, you better get your shit together, partner. I can’t lose you now, you’re the best partner an old shit like me could ever have.”

He said as he placed a hand on Ronnie’s shoulder. Ronnie chuckled, saying, “I can’t lose you either.”

Ronnie smiled at Richard’s care for him. “Don’t worry, you’re gonna lose me. C’mon, let’s head to that bar I’ve been telling you about. I could really go for some Hennessy.”

Ronnie’s smile faltered when Richard said that Ronnie’s not gonna lose him. Those words brought him back to the night before his parents died. The night Ronnie’s father told Ronnie that he was never gonna lose him or his mother, then the night after… After that Ronnie was scared of the words ‘you won’t lose.’

***

Ronnie parked his car in front of the cemetery gate, wiping his tears like had been to a different cemetery, mourning for some other person or people. He looked behind his seat to see a chair and a bottle of hennessy. Ronnie sighed when he starred as the hennessy, he looked at the bottle as if it brought back memories, good memories that could make someone cry. He got out of his car and went to the left side of the passenger seat, and looked out the chair and bottle of hennessy. The cemetery worker saw him coming and opened the gate for him. Ronnie nodded at the cemetery worker, the worker nodded back and looked at the bottle of hennessy Ronnie was holding.

“Are you drinking with someone?”

The cemetery worker asked. The corner of Ronnie’s mouth tugged, “Yeah, an old friend.” Ronnie said.

The worker made a joke about getting too drunk in a cemetery. Ronnie chuckled and continued to walk into the cemetery until he found the gravestone he was looking for. Richard Wallace, 1942-2009. Ronnie sighed as he looked at Richard’s grave. He opened his folded chair and placed it down. He searched his trench coat for a pack of cigarettes. He took them out and looked at them.

“Your favorites.” Ronnie said to himself as if he was talking to Richard if he was still alive.

He kneeled before the grave and made a little hole in the dirt where Richard’s body was below, with his pinky finger. He then placed the cigar in the hole he made, making the hole a little bigger for the cigar to perfectly fit in. He took out a lighter and lit the cigar. Ronnie then picked up the bottle of hennessy and poured a good portion of it on the dirt he was buried under. He pulled the drink, looking at what’s left of it. Ronnie sat down on the chair, Right across Richard’s grave. He took a swig of the drink before pouring the rest on Richard’s grave.

Ronnie smokes his cigar, staring at Richard’s grave. He scoffed with laughter before saying, “You lied, you bastard.”

A tear then fell from Ronnie’s tear ducts before he said again, “You lied.” as he sniffled, his voice shaky.

I lost a lot. The home where me and my parent’s used to live, my mom and dad, most of my childhood, and recently, my partner, the person that was there for me since my parents died. But out of all those losses, I only gained one thing from it, a new partner. And he brought me hope once more. I don’t wanna lose him either, I don’t…