And I Call Myself A Detective
by doel

"He's at it again."

"Huh? Who's at what?"

"Ellison. Doing the Madam Trousseau audition."

"Where? Oh. Shit! Now what?"

"You kidding? You know the drill as well as I do by now."

"Yeah. Call Sandburg-- Oh, never mind. That's his car pulling up now."

"How does he know?"

"Psychic? I dunno. What difference does it make?"

"Aren't you ever curious just what in the hell is going on there? I mean, Ellison gets all spacey, and out of the blue, here comes Sandburg. Five minutes later, Ellison's fine, but suddenly there's some new bit of evidence no one's been able to find up 'til then. You don't find that just the slightest bit...weird?"

"Nope."

"Liar."

"Okay, yeah, I do, but big whoop. It ain't like they're going to confide in us. What difference does it make so long as it works?"

"Yeah, but it's *how* it works that concerns me. I mean, what if there's something weird going on with Ellison? Something...not...normal?"

"Ellison? How do you figure that? I'd say it was the kid."

"Sandburg?"

"Sure. Look, watch 'em for a minute and you'll see what I mean. There's Ellison doing the mannequin thing...here comes Sandburg at a run... Now watch, the kid's gonna get all up in Ellison's face, talking low, so's nobody else can hear. See? Now, in a second, he's gonna pat the side of Ellison's face. There he goes. What'd I tell ya? Still talking...still talking... Another pat, this time on the chest... Any second now Ellison's going to take a deep breath, shake his head like a wet dog and run off to find some obscure, but vital piece of evidence."

"Man, what I'd give to hear what the kid's saying!"

"Like the captain would let that happen! Whatever's going on, Banks is in on it. He guards those two like a mother bear when this happens."

"You blame him? Major Crime's solve rate doubled not long after the kid-- oh...OH! Well, I'll be damned. And I call myself a detective."

"Don't beat yourself up, partner. It's an understandable mistake. Just...you know...keep this between you and me, okay? Whatever magic the kid's working, it's effective, so let's not rock the boat. Now, come on, let's go see what miraculous piece of evidence they've found this time."

The End

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