Pulling into the driveway, I could see Syd sitting at a table by herself. She had a smile on her face as she swirled her straw around her cup that was half drunken. I wonder how long she’s been sitting there. Turning off my car I hurry inside to meet her.

“So sorry for being late.” I said, walking up to the table.

“Yeah, right, you left me here for 15 minutes. Dinner is now on you.” Syd chuckled.

“Of course, haha. I got held up with the paperwork after today’s case.” I said, taking the seat in the booth across from her.

“oooh sounds like an interesting case. You have to tell me everything.” Syd said, putting her hands under her chin.

“I hope you're ready. This one is dark and there’s no happy ending.” I said. Her eyes grew wide, and her smile spread across her face in anticipation of what happened on the case.

By the end of the story, the smile was replaced with a frown. “How could one person be just so evil!” Syd said, wiping a tear from her eyes.

“Yeah, the world is a cruel place.” I said, taking about a bite out of my burger.

“Is there nothing you can do to charge her for doing that to that poor man? I mean, she was directly the reason for his death.”

“I understand, Syd, but it gets tricky since she didn’t have any involvement with him to take his own life. If the wife had forced him to do it through force, deception, or duress. Then we would have a stronger case, but since it was totally his decision, then we don’t have much to go on. So, it’s all in the prosecutors’ hands.” Wiping my mouth, I continued. “But it’s absolutely amazing that Kalina could figure it out in such a short time.”

“Yeah, your boss sounds like she has some kind of magical powers to figure out the case that quickly.” Syd said taking a bite from a chicken finger.

“Your telling me, I don’t even know if I am going to ever be as talented as her. That woman must spend her free time solving murder mystery puzzles.” I said, picking up my burger for another bite. “Anyway, let me hear some stories from your job. Do you have any good stories?”

Syd took a bit out of her chicken finger. When she swallowed, she said “Not really, I mean a med student passes out here and there. Although I can’t really blame the last one. We had to pull out a 20-foot tape worm from someone’s intestines.” Syd took a sip of water, then her eyes grew wide.

“Oh, I actually do have a good story. There was a gentleman at a buffet just enjoying his dinner by himself. On the table next to him was a guy just eating like he hadn’t eaten in days. Food is just going everywhere, and he’s making all kinds of noise as he eats. All of a sudden while he is eating some fish, a fish bone flies from his table and hits the gentleman, eating dinner by himself in the eye.”

I made a face as I finished chewing my fry. “Sounds like a painful way to go blind.” I said.

“Your telling me, supposedly the man is pressing charges since he is now blind in one eye.” Syd said, taking another bite from her chicken finger.

“Who would have thought a piece of full dinner could end in such a nightmare?” I said, taking a sip from my glass of water.

We continued the night trading stories from work.