There was half a blink of the eye and four months had slithered away.

11 : 21.

Detective Hensly Morsel's Blue Arch.

" Psst. " The man snickered from the driving seat to the guy beside.

" Psst. Is that him? " He inquired again to him who was playing the part of being attentive with his eyes closed. The driver didn't realize when he stopped playing and so he had drifted away. Unannounced.

" Hensly. " The driver took his gaze down from the door of the bar and looked back at his partner on the seat beside. In the absence of light, it didn't take Detective Jude Fredric more than a second to spot the sleeping man.

" Hens. Wake up. " Finding no other way, he swatted on the shoulder of Detective Hensly Morsel. Breaking the man's unofficial slumber.

Hensly only closed his eyes for he knew the truth. The night was boring like his old mother and in no way it could be portrayed as young and exciting as Jude Fredric told him, back in the prescient. But he came onto the stakeout anyway. Maybe for the little hope that, in some miracle it could be.

" Is that him? " Detective Jude Fredric was still eccentric and exhilarated, even after 3 hours had passed and on the tone of his eager voice, Hensly was thinking if he didn't read the case file probably or how much the the Lieutenant lied to him to get two extra man on the ground.

Hensly Morsel wiped his eyes and quickly moped the diving drool from his lips. He breathed in heavily and peeked through the black tinted window of his blue Arch. His scoped vision fired onto the side door of the bar. Scrutinizing the dark contour of a man who had just stepped away and lit a cigarette.

Hensly couldn't say for sure and easily became a bit more annoyed when the roused voice of Jude poked him again.

" Is that him? "

" Just let him get some light. " Morsel answered sharply, regarding the irked tone of his voice. Even though, he didn't follow the reaction of Jude, he felt the weight of his words as Fredric slumped back on his seat.

Hensly flipped open the glove box, revealing a series of element. The box covered the brand old revolver of Jude, his switch on hand radio, the weak torchlight of Morsel, which was already on its last dying battery, the license papers of Hensly and a few small packets of nuts and crackers, which had already marked its existence in the compartment by leaving the dust and crumbs.

He teared the mouth of the cracker open and stuffed two pieces in his own and crunched it, creating an irritating noise. Jude threw a quick peak at the doings of his partner and felt the strain of disturbance on his mind. What Hensly doing was very un detective like, he thought to himself. They were on a crucial stakeout and the importance of their discretion barely needed any saying. And Hensly Morsel who did this for a leaving was destroying the smooth silence of the foreplay with his bothersome chewing.

" Nah, it isn't him. " He scarcely coughed up the words along as he gulped the drowned biscuits down his throat. The fading torch light fell on his lap and weakly illuminated the browned papers which printed the credentials and the picture of the fugitive. A 6 feet 1 inch man with an obvious broken nose and past jaw dis figuration. But that wasn't his only embarrassing feature since his name was Chit Bubbers.

And when the smooth silence returned again, deprived of anyone's annoying sound of chewing, Jude felt at ease, in the light less car. He was feeling the premature sprouts of adrenaline which was shooting into his veins and pumped along the whole body. The wait was more exciting than any period of his life. And the mind of Jude was fulfilling his constant desires with proper illusions. Any moment, someone's going to walk out of the door, lit a cigarette, flash a mirror under the neon lights. And he would burst through the door of the cheap bar and smash his pair of semi pristine handcuff on Chit.

It would feel like anything he never felt before, Jude thought to himself. On the occurring of an excited grin.

" It's not happening. Tonight. " Hens broke the lull with a following loud burp.

Jude's grin stuck to his face in surprise and then his arched and questioned brows requested for further explanation.

" What do you mean? " He asked without wasting a second.

The street was empty for it was late. The neon lights were flickering like a moon behind a row of clouds and the alluring idea of an excited night was being murdered.

" Chit's not here. He's fucking nowhere near here. " Hensly answered with an insulting smirk, not knowing how heavy and killing his words were to his friend beside.

There was a brief moment of dull pain and regret in the forehead of Jude Fredric then the most obvious question of the night came spitting out of his mouth.

" Then what the fuck are we doing here? " He requested without any hint of politeness in his voice. The use of strong profanity was the proof of it all.

" Well, you wanted it. You got it, didn't you? " The stout taste of anger in Jude's voice didn't make it to the understanding room of Morsel since he was still smiling. Every word that came out of his mouth made him more annoying but in all fairness, it was Jude's eagerness that landed them in the dead of night, in front of a lifeless bar. Where there was no sense of trouble brewing.

He was none the wiser when Lieutenant Cornel smirked and handed him the brown folder, containing the profile of Chit. Jude knew exactly who the man was and where he stood in the level of being a scumbag. He thanked his luck again and again when the driving wheel of the Blue Arch was being gripped in his hand.

" Where is he then? " The anger inside him lasted an equivalent of a half a minute. Jude Fredric was not a violent man. He was just a man who was envious of everyone else out in the world, having an adventure. He felt alone in his apartment with his books and the awful television which had no more than a few channels and bits of colors, conquering the very edges of the pictures. So he spent his idle time, which he had a lot of since most of his work hour in the police station was wasted sitting behind a desk; he read books. Mystery, adventure, drama, auto biography, inspirational. Any of the covers of the book which looked interesting as he spied on them from behind the display window, he had to have it.

So the small one roomed apartment of the surrogate detective was filled with books, wrapping papers and cards. Truth be told, the quantity of the literature texts were more in number than his clothes. And every bit of the pages, every word he read only inspired him to lead a life that was exciting. Not dull. Not as bleak as the paper he was handed every evening and told to write the report down.

But now in the smoky air of the car, the shallow words of Morsel, all the excitement in the world seemed to only exist in books and their fine print.

" He's in the Gremlin. That's why Task Force is having a big party tonight and we are here. Working as valets. " Morsel was still unaware of the tone of his voice and how cruel it sounded to Jude.

Jude's sigh knocked onto his consciousness as he realized the high hopes of his partner.

" What? Did you actually think we were the ones dragging his drugged ass to the truck? "

He laughed out loud to clear the air, to make things a bit lighter than it was. Morsel didn't like awkward silences. He was unhappily married and he had enough of it. Thus creating a personal hatred which he tired his best to avoid at all times.

" I just...... I just thought we would be doing something fun tonight. For once. " Jude wanted to say a lot of things. His mind struggled to add more to his stuttered sentences but he stopped. Knowing he sounded sad and his inner misery was making an entrance in his voice.

Morsel forgot how to be compassionate. He really did and somehow his nonchalant cruelty was helpful to his job and his Achilles Heal, which was the weekly poker night that was held in the basement of Bill's house.

It was an addiction, probably the worst kind he had. And his doings in there wasn't making him feel good about himself when he emptied everyone's pockets and walked out of the smoke and fume filled trapped cellar, blind drunk and falling down on the intersection.

Last weekend, he reached his tiring and dull home in the murderous hours of 3 A.M. The first thing his hazy vision caught was the worried face of his beloved as she propped the door open and peaked from beside. Her long eyelashes quickly lost the concerned hue and the waterfall of anger and upset came falling down. He remembered very little of it as he passed out on the staircase and woke up with his mouth licking the side of his coat, the green context of his earnings suffering the same drunk fate as he did.

" Hey, it's alright. It's good we are here and not there. " Morsel slapped his large pal on the box and picked up the small tin casing, his poisonous choosing of alcohol swimming inside the tin.

Jude looked at him with his face desperately trying to make him look tough. But Hens being a good poker player knew that his disappointed glow was asking how it was good, sitting in the car, away from all the danger that had the solid possibility to add more meaning to his life. How sitting there was any better than feeling alive?

" It's good, Jude. It's good. " He said in an announcer voice, with a grin conquering his face from one ear to another. " Because we are probably not going to have a dozens of bullets up our ass before midnight. Like that punk Harry will. Probably. "

He added another sly laugh, trying to salvage the newly built friendship he had with Jude.

It worked as Jude smiled softly and leaned in to grab the remaining of the cracker.

The mutual hatred towards Harry was the punch line of Morsel's joke. Morsel hated him with a burning passion. Jude didn't despise him. His mind was way delicate and non violent for harboring an emotion which had no stout basis. But Morsel, on the other hand, was not as thoughtful as him since the good looks of Harry, his bachelor life of bedding beautiful women, the story he told vigorously about the thrilling and sex emerged nights he spent with them, his job as the points man of the response team which he procured through jumping some tough loops were the few and juvenile reasons he was disliked.

He was everything Morsel wasn't. Married, holder of disastrous hair, a train wreck marriage, his drinking habit, impulsive behavior and unmasked violence.

In the unsolicited return of the glumly stillness, Jude drifted off in his thoughts of the recent novel he was drowning himself into. He walked all the way home from the bookstore around the corner, reading the little summary on the back over and over again. Excited, aroused, his mind trotting loudly like a child in a candy shop.

The train of his thought made a unannounced stop when the radio on the dashboard coughed up a grainy voice with a hasty tone. Morsel patted his waist and cursed instinctively as he didn't spot the green switch on light, a blink of green hue on the dashboard. He forget when he hanged it up there but the calm voice which cleared up in the passing of a few seconds emitted enough sound for him to take notice.

" Dispatch, dispatch. Reported breaking and entering on Arson Street. " The woman's voice cleared up with every cough of the dying switch on. Morsel's annoyance with the cheap communicator appeared with his squint as he again cursed and grabbed it. In a gesture, that his touch will fix the technical problem that he had no knowledge about.

" Possible home invasion in progress. All Units be advised. Any officers in the area are advised to response. "