Page 1 of Dirty Cops Next Door

1

Toni

I breathed deeplyas I applied a final coat of mascara and tried to chase away the memory of my dream. My new neighbors had become a fixture in my dreams, despite my efforts to block them by falling asleep listening to old radio mystery programs. They’d appeared in my dreams ever since they’d helped me move into my new house. I pushed the memory away and re-focused on my reflection in the mirror.

“You’ve got this, you can do it. You’re a strong person.” I looked at myself in the antique oak mirror over my dresser and brushed a lock of light brown hair away from my face. “New Hope is not Roanoke, and it’s sure not anything like working in New York. You can do this.”

Thiswas my new job as a reporter for the New Hope Herald, the local newspaper. With a brand new degree in communications, I’d sent out dozens of applications. The Herald was the only one that had replied. I was happy that even one had responded. It also gave me an opportunity to move my younger brother and me out of the small town we’d been living in over in western Virginia, to a bigger town in central Virginia.

“Hey, Toni, now that you’ve got a job, and you’re over twenty-one, does that mean you’re going to start buying alcohol?” I heard my brother call from the bathroom where he was doing his hair. I swear he takes more time on his hair than I do on mine!

“You know I don’t drink, Eric!” I didn’t tell him that hewas the reason I didn’t usually drink. He’d been my responsibility since I’d turned eighteen and I took that very seriously.

“Fine!” I could almost hear his eyes rolling as I strode through my bedroom door. “Don’t forget to eat today; you’ll pass out and that will not look good on your first day at work!”

I rolled my own eyes this time and went down the stairs. I’d managed to rent a house with two floors in a decent neighborhood and was keeping up the payments on my three-year-old car with the advance the paper had given me; the rest I’d spent on Eric’s school clothes.

I looked down at my old skirt suit, bought from a second-hand shop for the graduation I hadn’t been able to go to. Eric had been sick and a two-hour drive to the school where I’d taken online classes just hadn’t been feasible. It was a good school, but I’d needed flexibility and the university had given me that freedom and a degree with a good name on it. I just hadn’t been able to go my own graduation.

As usual, all I could do was breathe deeply and carry on.

The sun had peaked and was lighting the leaves in oranges and yellows outside the window by the time I’d managed to set toast and oatmeal on the table as I waited for Eric. I thought about my coming day as I sipped at my orange juice, the oatmeal already forgotten.

Get Eric to school, meet with my new boss again, and hopefully not make a complete idiot of myself.

“I’m going to see what activities there are at school I can get involved with; that way you don’t have to worry about me being here alone if you have to work late at some point.” Eric sat down in the chair opposite mine, his voice startling me out of my list-making.

“Oh good! How are you going to get home though?” I rubbed at the crease that formed between my eyes when I was confused or concerned, hating that the habit wouldn’t break. I was going to give myself wrinkles at this rate.

“You’d look so much prettier if you’d put a little more makeup on, you know?” Eric said as I smoothed a hand down his bare jaw, his own eyes creased. He was the spitting image of me, after all, only male; it would make sense that he had the same expressions I did.

“I don’t have time for things like that and never have. Besides, it’s silly. If people don’t like the way I look naturally, they can just kiss my…” I stopped as his eyes went wide in gleeful anticipation. He loved it when I cursed, but I tried not to. “Behind.”

I didn’t realize how prim I looked as I picked up a piece of toast and ignored his snicker of delight.

“Anyway, how will you get home?” I glued him to his chair with my patented “mom look” and waited.

“I’ll find a ride with another kid or walk. It’s only a couple of miles to the school.” He shrugged as if to say it was no big deal.

He was all the family I had left. It was a big deal to me.

“At least take your bike then; that way it won’t take you as long.” I didn’t try to control him too often, but I did like to maintain some kind of discipline between us, siblings or not.

“Yes, ma’am,” he mumbled, giving me a fake glare with familiar eyes the color of well-worn denim before he grinned. “Does that mean I can ride the bike today?”

He was at that stage where he didn’t want a parental figure anywhere near his school, because it was so… lame was the word I think he used.

“I have to drop off some papers, otherwise I would say yes. I might as well take you.” I gave him a look that said sorry before grabbing the rest of my toast and standing up.

“Come on, let’s get this show on the road before I have a heart attack wondering what’s going to happen today.” I snatched my purse, my laptop bag, and the papers I needed to drop off at the school.

We were silent as I drove my sedan through quiet streets, the congestion only starting as we neared the school on Main Street.

“Look at all the people, Toni!”

Eric hadn’t realized there were so many kids at the school and neither had I.

It seemed like there were about a hundred kids milling around the building, all engaging in a variety of teenage activities, from listening to music on headphones as they sullenly stared out at the people passing by, to the ones sucking face on the lawn as if there were no other people around to witness their young passion. I looked away as we walked into the school, embarrassed for the ones apparently trying to win a kissing competition.