Lonzo, well Detective Alonzo Huggins, pushed the door to the squad room open, causing it to slam against the door as he had done every working day for the last fifty years. He made his way over to his desk, pushed the messy pile of papers out of the way, plopped his to-go coffee on the top of the desk, opened his egg sandwich, and took his first bite. It was only as he was chewing on his breakfast that he realized he was the only one in the room. He checked his watch to make sure it was still running.

“Hmm……” he mused, then muttered to himself, “I wonder where everyone is?”

This was not typical, as usually when he got in to work the place would be humming, the night team heading home and making sure the day team was up to date on any new developments overnight. Lonzo finished his sandwich, took a long sip of coffee and stood up. Still not a soul in sight and he wondered if he had missed a meeting time or something. This was his last full day before retirement, and he had gotten a bit sloppy the last week or so, but his team understood and covered for him.

He strolled down the hallway and just as he was almost to the conference room, the doors opened and the whole squad walked out.

“Oops, sorry Lonzo,” his partner had run right into him as if he were invisible. “We were just…umm….finishing up…uh…something.”

“Yeah? Anything I should know about?”

“Nah. Just stuff going on. Hey, man, you’ll be out of here at five tonight and don’t need to worry about a darn thing except cleaning up that pile of reports on your desk and signing those retirement forms. You gettin’ out, man.” Henry grinned at him and walked on to the squad room. The others had just glanced at him and rushed by him. He had the distinct feeling that they were avoiding him.

He sighed, headed into the men’s room and washed his hands and looked into the mirror. How had he gotten so old? Almost 70 years old and he’d been doing this job for so long it had become the core of his existence. His wife had left him a decade ago, his kids had all moved to various parts of the country and now, today, he wouldn’t even have his job to come to every morning. Truth be told, he was scared to retire, even though he had tried to talk like he could hardly wait for it to happen. Oh, well, life moves on. He sighed and decided he better get back to the disaster of reports on his desk.

One of the young guys was heading to the bathroom as he walked out. “Oh. Good morning.” He ducked his head and almost ran into the men’s room.

What the hell was wrong with everybody today? You’d think he was already invisible. And there was another group of his team chatting up in the corner and when he approached they split up and headed to their desks. Lonzo shrugged and plodded over to his desk. He began making piles of the papers in front of him so he could file or throw and was absorbed in the mindless work when he realized the Captain was standing next to him.

“Leave that for a minute, Lonzo. Can I see you in the Conference room? I have someone I’d like to introduce you to if you don’t mind.”

Now Lonzo had never heard the captain be so solicitous. Usually he barked an order and everyone, including him, jumped. Lonzo guessed he was making an effort to be nice since this was his last day, and their relationship had never been particularly friendly.

“Sure. I can get to this later.”

“Oh, let it know. Maddie can see to it.”

Longo’s eyes widened. Maddie? Maddie the Monster was the squad secretary and never, EVER would any of them presume that she would “see to” anything other the absolute basics of her job. But since this was the captain he shrugged and rose. They walked down the hall toward the conference room, then the captain paused.

“Wait a sec. Come into my office for a moment, would you? I need to find a folder.”

“I guess. Can’t I just meet you at the Conference room?”

“Nah. Just come in and sit a spell since this is your last day. It’ll only take me a minute.”

Lonzo had decided Captain was acting very strangely but maybe he was just having a bad day. He followed him into his office and the Captain indicated he should sit. The Captain sat behind his desk and opened his bottom drawer and pulled out a bottle of Johnny Walker and two glasses. Now Lonzo was really shocked. Captain’s love of a bit of whiskey was well known, but in all the decades Lonzo and he had worked together, not once had the captain poured him a shot.

“I just wanted you to know,” Captain said, pushing a glass across the desk. “We are really going to miss you, Lonzo. You have been, without doubt, one of our finest detectives with a superb closure rate.” He raised his glass to Lonzo. “Here’s to your retirement and may it be all you hoped for.”

Lonzo tipped his own glass, and the two men sipped on that fine whiskey and then Captain said, “Let’s go.”

He led him out of the office, down the hall, and held the door open for him.

“SURPRISE!”

Lonzo jumped about two feet when he stepped in and heard the call and the applause. There in front of him was the complete squad. The room was decorated with blue crepe paper and there was a huge cake on a table in the corner along with a catered lunch. Lonzo, not EVER given to emotional reactions after so many years of being a stoic officer of the law, felt his eyes tear up.

Best party ever.