Jaya & Jing

I have a Saturday off! The murder rate is slow. I hope to have lunch with my best friend, Jing Lau. We have been friends since Marine boot camp during our teenage years. I learned police work at age 20 as a Marine MP. She went to college after the Marines to learn business, and she is now the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for a technology company.

Both of us have jobs that keep us busy seven days a week, which is why I'm so happy today. Let me call her.

"Hey, girl. I have a surprise for you."

"Hi, Jaya. What's the surprise/"

"I am off today. Do you want to meet for lunch?"

"Yes! When and where?"

"How about 1230 at the diner?"

"Perfect. I will be there."

 We are meeting at the Hillsford Diner restaurant downtown. Both of us liked the casual atmosphere and the location. It is 10 minutes away from where I live and five minutes away from the police station.

I am leaving now to get to the diner on time.

♦♦♦

I arrived before Jing. The staff found a booth for us and seated me. I took the side to face the door so she would see me when she arrived. I also asked the waitress to bring me an iced tea to tide me over while I waited.

Ten minutes later, she entered the diner, and I waved. We hugged each other and sat down to talk.

"Jaya, happy to see you again, my friend, " she said.

"Likewise, How have you been?"

"Busy! Our company is doing well and growing in sales and employees. As the COO, both of those things are keeping me busy. We need to decide on our office space."

"What's the decision?"

"These days, office workers expect to work from home. Our problem is that our leases on two buildings expire in six months. If we let all employees work from home, we will pay for empty office space."

"What does your company do?"

"We provide surveys that cover employees' experience, or EX, as we call it. If a company wants to know how the employees feel about management, it can do so through a survey. That's the simplistic version of what we do."

"Only one survey per customer?"

"No. These days, we provide most of our customers with continuous listening surveys. That means we help them to design surveys they can run all year. Combining the survey results gives them a deeper understanding of their employers. How is your job going these days? Do you still enjoy being a detective?"

"Yes. I love my job. Things are quiet, which is why I reached out. I feel like we are in the calm before a storm."

"Are you still working days?"

"I am the lead detective these days, so my bosses suggest I should be on days."

"Do you still have the partner you mentioned last time we met?"

"Yes. We are approaching a year together."

"Wow! One year with a male partner. That is wonderful to hear."

"It helps that Gino is a gentle giant. He is coachable. He is the first man I have spent time with, someone I know respects me. He is nothing like the foster-home dads."

"Any progress on having a boyfriend?"

"No.  No time. Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Nope. I work seven days per week most weeks. It doesn't leave enough time to date, either."

"Do you remember our conversations in boot camp? We used to talk about dating after the Marines. We didn't know how busy our jobs would be back then."

"Just teenagers. We didn't know anything back then."

I saw a window explode and figured a shooter attacked the diner.

"Jing, get down!"

"What is happening?"

"Someone is shooting at the diner. Get under the table and stay there until I return for you."

"What are you going to do?"

"My job! I have my Glock on me, so I hope to stop this if they come in."

I moved from our table to a column I could hide behind and waited. The shooting outside stopped. A man entered the diner carrying an automatic weapon and wearing body armor. If I want to shoot him, I need to hit him from the neck up.

"Afternoon people. This is a robbery. Please put your wallets and phones on the table before you. My partner will be in to pick them up."

That is valuable information. It tells me I could fight him or wait for his partner and fight both. He still stands before the door because it lets him view the diner. I have a direct shot from the column. 

I step out from behind the column and fire one shot. The man fell to the ground. I run to him and kick his weapon away. My shot went through his neck, and blood flooded the floor. I checked his pulse, and he was gone. Now, I need to be ready for the second shooter.

"Everyone stay down and stay quiet. I am Detective Jaya Reese from HPD. I expect one more shooter to enter."

"Detective Reese, is that man dead?" someone asks from under a table.

"Yes."

I go back behind the column and wait. I left the dead man in place to distract the second shooter. It might cause him to put his weapon down and accept an arrest.

The second shooter enters the diner, carrying the same weapon and armor.

"No! Dave, what happened?"

I step from behind the column.

"I shot him."

"Who are you?"

"HPD Detective Reese. Put your weapon down, or you might suffer the same thing Dave got."

He stared at me with steely eyes.

"Are you related to him?"

"Yes. He is my older brother, and you killed him."

He stood up and pointed his weapon at me. I stepped behind the column again as he sprayed shots at me.  When he ran out of bullets, I stepped out and took three shots at him, and I couldn't believe my luck. He went down. I walked over and kicked his weapon away. One of my shots hit him in the forehead. There was no pulse on him.

I stepped outside to make sure there were no other shooters and found none.

"Everyone, You can come out now. The threat is over."

I grabbed my cell phone and called HPD.

"Dispatch, this is Detective Reese, badge number 15866. Reporting a police shooting at the diner. We have two dead shooters, so send the medical examiner. I could use a patrol team too to interview the diner customers that became hostages during the shootout."

"Help is on the way." 

As I finished the phone call, I heard clapping in the diner.

The customers came out from their hiding places and clapped for me.

"Thank you for saving us," an older woman said.

"Sharp shooting," a young man said.

"Thank you all. Also, thanks for doing what I told you to do. That allowed me to talk one-on-one with the shooters."

"I am amazed at the courage you showed today," an older man said.

"Detective, you are blushing," a young woman said.

"Thank you for the courage statement, but I just followed my training."

Jing came over and hugged me.

"You are my hero."

"Thank you, my friend. We should do lunch again soon."

"I'm not sure. Trouble follows you around."

"I see you haven't lost your sense of humor."

"Nope. Call me when you have another day off."

"Sure. It might be three years from now."

"Let's do it daily while things are slow for you. We can break if things speed up."

"If we do it daily, we must visit the food trucks. That way, we can take our food and chat for a few minutes before leaving."

"That's a deal. See you tomorrow."

"See you too."

(This story is a work of fiction. Some of these characters will appear in my next novel – The Chameleon Killer.)