The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event
“Bonnie, I need those heat signatures.” Jeff Royce whispered, leaning up against the wall, his eyes scanning the darkened area.
“I’ve almost got it.” Bonnie said through the ear piece. “Okay, I got it. Two signatures at four o’clock. Seventy feet away.”
Peeking out from around the corner, he could just make out two figures covered behind a similar structure. He pulled his head back just as he saw a muzzle flash from one of their position.
“Oh, hell.” Jeff muttered. He took a breath, then took a running jump towards a neighboring structure, dodging shots as he did.
“Bonnie, I can’t get a clear shot on these guys from here. They’re too well-covered.” Jeff looked down for a moment, then up again. “Let me know when they’re on the move again.”
***
The two men, in their twenties, one white, one black, scanned around the area when Jeff had taken cover. They couldn’t see any sign of movement. They spun to the right at the faint sound of a twig snapping. The men squinted towards the source of the noise, a small row of bushes, and, with the dim light, were able to barely make out the colors of a flak jacket.
The white operative gestured to the black one, who nodded. They stood up, raised their guns, and started towards the bushes.
***
“Bonnie?” Jeff whispered.
“They’re on the move again.” Bonnie said. “I think they’re– wait! I’ve lost the heat signatures, I can’t tell which direction they’re going! I think someone’s tapped into the feed! I’ve lost it.”
“Bonnie, you have to get it back.” Jeff hissed. “I’m exposed out here!”
“I’m trying!”
“Bonnie!”
“I’m working on it!”
Jeff looked around uneasily.
***
The two men crept closer to the bushes, keeping their guns trained on their target in the bushes. They stepped closer.
Suddenly both men grunted slightly, both feeling a stinging sensation on their back. Both men reached at the source of the pain, until their hands came back with a sticky paint on them. They looked up, to see Jeff, no flak jacket, training his gun on them with a sly smile.
“Bang, bang.” He said evenly, almost deadpan. “You’re both dead.” He looked up at the ceiling. “Time!”
The two men groaned as overhead lights flooded the room, revealing Jeff’s surprisingly life-like flak jacket sitting over the bushes, stuffed with shrubs.
Jeff chuckled and patted both agents on the arm.
“Don’t beat yourself up. Every field agent dies a hundred times in here. You just gotta remember to watch your backs.”
***
CIA Headquarters – Langley, Virginia – January 13, 1993
Bonnie smiled as she and Jeff walked through the hallways. “I can’t believe you’re still doing field training on your last day.”
Jeff shrugged. “You know me. I’m not the type to keep an eye on the clock. Keeps me busy. Besides the more times we kill our guys in here, the less it happens in the real world.”
“Oh yeah? Cause a few of them are saying you just wanna prove you can still go toe to toe with the younger guys.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “I don’t care about trying to prove anything, if that’s you mean.”
Bonnie giggled.
Jeff gave her a slightly condescending look as they reached the door to his office. “Look, I’ll give you this much; you gotta get up a little earlier than them to catch me off guard.”
Jeff opened the door and was immediately taken aback at the two dozen people on the other side, in front of a cake and banner which both read ‘HAPPY RETIREMENT, JEFF’, and yelling “Surprise!”
Jeff lowered and shook his head, showing a hint of amusement at Bonnie.
“You’re right.” She said with a sly smile. “We did.”
***
“It’s the End of the World As We Know it (and I Feel Fine)”
Ethan Moore, the shorter man with thinning hair, tapped his hand on Jeff’s shoulder as he went for another slice of cake.
“So this actually happening.” Ethan said, wistfully.
“Yeah, Ethan, it’s actually happening.” Jeff said with a chuckle. “You’ve known this was happening for a while. Plus Sharon’s been wanting to move back to Philly for a long time.”
Ethan shrugged, “Yeah, it’s just the thought of someone I started with retiring. Makes me feel so damn old.”
“Hey, if you’re old, what does that make me?” asked the man approaching them with light hair turning silver. “I was the one who recruited both you guys, remember?”
“So you like to remind me every time, Bob.” Jeff said to Bob Garrison, the older man.
“It’s just we’re starting to lose more people with everything that’s gone on over the last year.” Garrison said. “It’s like we got kids running around here now.”
Jeff nodded solemnly. “So were we once upon a time. They’ll grow up fast.”
Garrison chuckled. “Everything’s changing, you know? No more Gorbachev, no more Soviet Union, a Democrat in the White House again.”
Ethan held up a hand in mock defense. “Don’t blame me, I voted for Perot.”
Jeff smiled. “Hey, look at it this way; we won the Cold War. I like to think maybe we had a hand in that.”
Garrison nodded in acknowledgment, then turned to Bonnie and the crowd, who were starting to chant “Speech, speech, speech!”
Pouring some more champagne, Jeff nodded and stepped out into the center of the room.
“Okay,” Jeff started with a sigh. “I know there’s been a lot of rumors going around that my retiring has something to do with everything that’s been going on Russia the last year and a half, or the new administration here, or that I’m buying into the thinking that maybe we’re obsolete now or something like that. Honestly, the truth is, it has nothing to do with that.
“This week, it’ll be twenty years since I joined the Company. I’ve seen and done a lot, lost a few friends. On balance though, I feel like I can be proud of those twenty years.
“Thing is, I wanna have dinner with my wife every night. I wanna see my kid catch a ball that I threw to him. I wanna come home to them every night, instead of having them wonder where I am and worry about me all the time. I just wanna be there for my family. I mean if we haven’t been working this whole time so that a guy can do all that, then why the hell are we here?
“We got people like Bob and Ethan sticking around, plus new people like Bonnie here. I honestly feel like I’m leaving the Company in good hands, I don’t feel like the place’ll fall apart without me..
“Anyways, I don’t mean to sound sappy, but Bob here was just telling me everything’s changing, and he’s right. But that doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. I gotta believe that even a guy like me can find some happiness, no matter how much things change.” The group smiled and laughed lightly at this. Jeff raised his glass. “To new chapters.”
Garrison, Bonnie, Ethan, and the others all raised their glasses. “New chapters.” They said.
Satisfied, Jeff smiled, and took a sip…
***
Jeff’s body lay across the park walkway, barely visible as the moon remained covered by the clouds. His eyes were closed. His shirt and jacket were stained with blood around his chest.
***
The detective shook his head in resignation as he stacked the case box, marked ROYCE, J. among the others.
box Jeff Royce
***
FBI Field Office – New York
Lilly Rush’s face remained impassive as she squeezed the trigger repeatedly, emptying her weapon into the target. Ryan Cavanaugh, the tall, dark-haired man next to her pressed his thumb on the button, pulling the sheet of paper with the dark silhouette on it back towards them. He nodded in approval as he inspected the series of holes in the center mass, and gave her a sly smile, which she returned.
***
“Well that should cover weapon proficiency when you transfer over.” Cavanaugh said as they walked back towards the office. “Consider yourself lucky. The instructor I had at the academy was a real hard-ass.”
Lilly chucked. “You should see the one we have in Philly. ‘Locked and loaded’ Lafferty.”
Cavanaugh chuckled back. “If you’re looking for some living arrangements in the city, I know some people who can help.”
Lilly nodded. “Just gotta make sure it’s cat-friendly.”
Cavanaugh leaned closer with a grin. “I know a few places to eat too when you get back.”
Lilly cocked her head and smiled.. “Just don’t forget your keys.”
Cavanaugh’s smile faded slightly. “So you’re still going back to work at Homicide till then?”
“You know me, like to keep busy.”
“Just hoping you won’t forget about us up here.” Cavanaugh said, looking serious. “I mean it, the Bureau needs good people, especially now that we’re an agent short.”
“You mean now that they forced Yates out.” Lilly said coolly.
Cavanaugh nodded. “Yates and I didn’t agree on much, but for what it’s worth, I think she deserved better. But, yeah, it’s all the more reason to find good people.”
Lilly nodded, then glanced at the clock. “I better go.”
“Okay.” Cavanaugh said evenly as Lilly walked away. “Rush?” He asked as she was halfway out the door, causing her to turn around.
“Don’t be a stranger.”
Lilly smiled, turned back and started walking again.
***
Lilly couldn’t help but be a bit taken aback at the stares she got from her colleagues as she walked into Homicide.
“Now there’s a face I didn’t expect to see around here again.” Kat Miller said, walking over to give Lilly a hug.
“Good to see you, Lil” Will Jeffries said. Nick Vera, not getting up from his desk, gave her a friendly nod.
“Yeah.” said Lilly’s partner Scotty Valens awkwardly, while walking over himself.
“Lil,” Lieutenant John Stillman said, coming out of his office.
“Here to work, boss.” Lilly said, smiling uneasily.
“Any idea how long?”
“Open-ended for now.”
Stillman gave her a look, then placed a folder on the desk in front of him. “Well, since you’re here, we just got some new info on an old job, might interest you.”
“Yeah?”
Stillman opened the folder, revealing Jeff’s photo clipped to the top. “Victim’s Jeff Royce. He was shot in Summerton Park back in ‘93. Assigned figured it was robbery gone bad, since his wallet was missing. Main suspect was junkie named Oscar Torres. He’d held up two other people at gunpoint in the same park back in the eighties.”
“So where’s Oscar today?” Scotty asked.
“Dead.” Stillman said. “He was found OD’ed in his apartment the next night, had the victim’s wallet on him.”
“But we got something new?” Kat asked.
Stillman nodded. “Oscar’s family’s been trying to clear his name ever since. This past week, they caught a break. Managed to find a drug counselor who could put Oscar at a rehab clinic at the time the coroner put time of death. Records and sign-in logs back him up.”
“So what’s he doin’ with the wallet?” Vera asked.
Scotty shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first junkie to take somethin’ off a dead body.”
“Well if that’s the case, then robbery wasn’t the motive.” Lilly said. “So what was?”
“Well, Jeff Royce was no ordinary victim.” Stillman said. “Guy was a twenty-year field agent for the CIA.”
Jeffries nodded. “Twenty years with the CIA, that’s a lot of skeletons in your closet.”
Lilly looked at the other detectives. “Maybe one of them got out.”
ROLL INTRO
Cold Case opening credits by ES Posthumus
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