“Well, it's now or never.”
As she entered the room, she was inundated with a rush of old friends and colleagues wishing her luck and congratulating her on returning. Cheyenne and Tyler were the first to hug her. Andrew and Jennifer had both transferred to other precincts, or they too would have pulled her in for a hug. She glanced across the room and caught Erica’s eye, who gave her a curt nod. Coming from her, that was the equivalent of blowing a kiss across the room, so it kind of blew her away. In public, Erica had always played the role of the division’s “Ice Queen,” so Veronica had expected to be ignored until later. After that, she was assaulted by many of her old superiors as they came forward to welcome her back. Jack had always treated her like a daughter when she was there. The tears forming in his eyes were enough to have her doubting whether or not she could get through this while keeping her own eyes dry.
She was so busy trying to thank all of them and politely get them to leave her alone, that she did not notice when someone crossed behind her. After accidentally backing into them, she turned to apologize. Recognizing her old friend, she went in for a hug instead.
Mark kept a stern expression on his face. “Only you would think it is okay to walk into someone and not apologize.”
She stared at him, flabbergasted until she noticed the corners of his mouth ticking up as he fought to hide a grin. Eventually, he gave up and cracked a smile that lit his eyes. “It’s nice to see you back here again, Veronica. The place wasn’t the same without you.”
She gave him a quick hug in thanks, then headed over to Blake’s office.
◆◆◆
It took almost all day for the psychologist to be satisfied that Veronica would not fall apart working again. Then another two hours before she could prove that she was still physically up to doing the job. After that, all that was left for her to do was a mountain of paperwork.
When she finally left Blake’s office, she found Ben leaning against a desk, clearly bored out of his mind. She laughed aloud at the stir-crazy look in his eyes. His hair was sticking up in odd places, like he had been running his hands through it all day.
“Do you know how long it's been since I’ve spent this much of my day sitting in this building?”
She knew he was joking. Since he had become a detective, she knew he had been spending more time at his desk then he would have liked. Not enough to make the job boring, just enough for his mother to stop being terrified every time her phone rang. His mother was a high school math teacher, and had never understood why her son had chosen such a dangerous profession. Ben had enjoyed his time as a patrol cop, but when a position had opened up as a detective, he could not let the opportunity pass.
Veronica had met him at the same time she had met Nick. In fact, he had witnessed the radio incident, and still brought it up every once in awhile when he felt the need to embarrass her. Ben had always been intelligent and observant. That, and his natural ability to lead and put people at ease, made everyone sure that he would rise in the ranks quickly.
After achieving his promotion, he had often requested that Nick and Veronica work with him. He knew they were good investigators, and he missed the camaraderie he had with the uniformed officers.
They had all been working together, when Veronica made a discovery that had given them a huge lead in a case where everyone was coming up empty. It had also gained her the attention of the higher-ups, putting her on the fast track for becoming a detective as well. Unfortunately, that same discovery had led to Nick’s death, and all of the other repercussions that followed.
Now that she was working with him again, she was worried that she would not be able to shake the memory of Nick. However, she was more worried that if she did not work with him, she would be stuck in a squad car not working the case at all.
Taking a steadying breath, “Well, it turns out I’m not crazy. You still willing to be my partner?”
Staring at the badge and gun that were now attached to her belt, Ben also took a deep breath before answering with, “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Confusion dominated Veronica’s thoughts as Ben led her back out into the parking lot, rather than to the detective's office. She did not understand what they were doing.
“Shouldn’t we be getting started? The sooner we figure this out, the sooner it’ll all be over.”
Ben tossed a slightly irritated look over his shoulder. “Do you have any idea how long that took? The day is over. We can start our investigation, but if you stay here all night on your first day back, they will yank that badge away faster than you can blink. If anyone even starts to think that you’re unhealthily focused on this, you’ll be done. I kind of set up a makeshift office awhile back that we can use for now. But I’m telling you that tonight is all about getting re-acquainted with the evidence. We are not staying up all night so that on your first official day back, you fall asleep in front of the boss. You’re going to be under a magnifying glass for the foreseeable future, so we have to play it safe.” With those words he turned around once more and escorted her to the truck.
As they drove to the office that Ben had mentioned, Veronica started to recognise the route they were taking and dread filled her body. She suddenly knew exactly where they were going, and she knew that no amount of preparing could make her ready for what she was about to face.
She was going home; her old home at least. As they turned the corner onto her old street, Veronica saw the burned-out husk that used to be the home she shared with Nick. With all of the bad juju floating around this property, it had never been bought. So now, it stood as a sort of memorial to the officer that had lost his life there.
“Why did you take me here?”, was all she managed to croak out as her throat had gone suddenly dry. She could not understand why someone who claimed to care about her would be taking her back to this place.
Ben glanced over to her, an apology written all over his face. “Long story short; I’ve been continuing the investigation into Nick’s killer on my own, ever since it went inactive. This seemed like a fitting place to work from.”
With that, he pulled into her old driveway, exactly where she had parked that night, and got out of the car. “After you left, no one ever came here, not even the homeless people. I don’t think it's safe to be in there for too long, so I’ve set up in the backyard.”
Veronica could feel her breath coming faster as she stared at the charred remains of her home. With her vision narrowing and throat tightening, she thought she was going to pass out.
When Ben’s door slammed shut, she jumped in surprise and instinctively reached for her gun. Before she could draw it, she shook free of the panic and started counting her breaths to give herself something to focus on.
Once she felt she had gotten herself back under control, she forced open her own door. With a shaking hand, she unbuckled her seatbelt and jumped out of the cab in an awkward tumble.
As Veronica entered her backyard, she tried desperately to quell the memories that were still bubbling to the surface of her mind. That became easier to do when she saw the shed in the corner of the yard.
We didn’t have a shed.
Ben walked straight to it and opened the door. “After you.”
She walked past him and into the shed. As Ben turned on a few lamps, she felt as if she had entered one of her nightmares.
One wall was covered with pictures and documents, all having to do with the man that had killed Nick and so many others, but none of them held any answers. It took all of her self control and the knowledge that there was someone standing right next to her, to stop herself from curling into a tight ball on the ground.
“Without anyone out there gathering new evidence, there hasn’t been anything new lately. Basically, the only thing you haven’t already seen is the analysis of the bomb, and the card that was on your windshield.”
The apologetic look intensified. He was starting to wonder if it had been a mistake to do this. She was clearly strug
gling to hold herself together.
Veronica closed her eyes and focused on her breathing again. She stopped listening to Ben talking, because she already knew everything he was saying, and fought to control herself.
She slipped the ring she had been wearing on her thumb off and flipped it between her fingers until she could think straight. Regaining composure, she started to take a more calculated look around the room.
Interrupting Ben, she went to the professional side of her mind, treating this like one of the cases that she had worked with him in the past.
“Why don’t we start from the beginning. It's been a year since I’ve looked at any of this stuff, so I’m bound to be a bit rusty on some of the details.”
Remembering where she was, her professional demeanor cracked and her eyes began to glisten. She turned to Ben, “Do you have copies of this stuff?”
He turned and pulled a thick file out of a cabinet and held it out to her.
After snatching it from him, she left and returned to his truck. She fixed him with a stare when he climbed into the driver’s seat. “I won’t work here. This was my home. If you ever bring me back, I will tell Blake that I don’t want to work with the detectives, and I will go back to the streets. I will work this on my own. Understood?”
With anyone else, Ben would have rankled at the command in her voice, but looking at her, he saw the same authoritative, pain-in-the-ass that she used to be, and he was glad for it. He started the engine and asked her where she wanted to go.
In the end, she decided to go back to Ben’s house. It was the only place she could think of where they could work in private, plus it had the added benefit of being near Ben’s kitchen. He had fantastic taste in food. Ace was also still there, so she would have to go back to collect him before she went home again anyway. This time, she was determined to stay the whole night in her own apartment. But before she could do that, she needed to clear up one thing.
“Did I pass your fucking test?”
If possible, Ben’s expression seemed to be getting guiltier by the second. It had been a while since he had looked her in the eye.
“If you could get through that and not have a panic attack, I don’t need to worry about you while we’re out there.”
She nodded and the rest of the trip was made in silence.
When they got back to Ben’s place, they were greeted by an overly-exuberant Ace jumping all over them. Veronica was grateful that she had clipped Ace’s claws as she felt them raking down her legs. After getting him to calm down and giving him some food, Veronica went to the coffee table in the living room and started to clear it off.
Once she was finished, she began pulling pictures and documents out of the folder and started to organize them. As she was looking through the evidence, both new and old, she began to fall back into the familiar pace of working a case. She let this feeling take over, so that she could hold up the pretence of objectivity. As she sorted through the evidence, she flashed back to what sometimes felt like another lifetime; when she was first introduced to this monster.
* * *
Ben Becker rushed into the briefing room and pinned a new picture up onto the cork board. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have another. We just received the email. Our lab techs are checking out the video as we speak.”
A new urgency filled the room as people began to prepare themselves for what would come next. Veronica had recently taken time off to visit her father in New York to tell him about her engagement, so she had yet to be involved in this case. Of course...she had heard all about it.
For the past week, the Phoenix Police Department had been receiving anonymous emails. The first had contained a picture and a web address. All of the subsequent ones had been anonymous jeers and taunts. After checking the web address, detectives had found a live video of a woman that appeared to be buried alive. They had already been forced to watch her suffocate as they futilely searched. Now it appeared that they had another.
As of yet, they didn’t have anything to go on. There was nothing to identify the woman or her location in the video. It was only after she expired that a name had been anonymously sent to them so that they could inform her family. They still had not found her body. Every cop on the force was itching to get their hands on whoever was doing this.
With the new video up, they were all partially terrified that they would not be able to find her, and partially excited with the possibility of new evidence. As everyone flurried about the room getting ready for Ben’s briefing, Veronica retrieved the file that she had received earlier that day, and went about familiarizing herself with the case. The sinking feeling in her stomach got worse and worse as she dug deeper into the provided information. As her pessimistic side took over, she pulled her necklace out of her uniform and began spinning her engagement ring around. Trying to force some happier thoughts into her mind.
As Ben pulled the video up on a computer in the front of the room, he began to speak. “So far, all we know is that someone, a man judging by the profile, has now abducted two women and buried them alive in an undisclosed location. This guy wants attention. He’s calling us out and asking us to try to catch him. He thinks that he’s smarter than us. Let’s prove him wrong this time.”
When the video finally came up, everyone in the room sucked in a breath. They were shown a video of a woman, clearly terrified, in a small box that had dirt filtering in from cracks in the corners. Everyone went pale as they realized that this video was the same as the first. There was little chance that they would be getting any new information from it.
As Ben was moving the mouse to the side of the screen, Veronica noticed something. She could have imagined it, but she had to be sure. She quickly got up and walked over to Ben. “Move over for a sec?”
He gave her a quizzical look, but said nothing as he slid away from the keyboard, allowing her access to the computer. She took hold of the mouse and slowly scrolled across the screen again. When nothing happened, she took a deep breath and tried one more time, focusing on a different area. Sure enough, for a brief moment, the cursor morphed into a hand. She held her breath and went back to that spot.
Ben gasped and eagerly moved back in to take control of the computer. “Look alive people! We’ve got something new!” Taking a moment to make sure he had everyone’s attention, he clicked on the hidden hyperlink.
They were greeted by several images that were obviously meant to infuriate them. The first few were jpegs of recent news articles. All which had headlines like “Clueless Cops Still Stumped.” There had been several articles lately that talked about this case, and how the cops were no closer to solving it than they were when they got the first email. Looking around the room revealed a large amount of faces changing color as their anger grew to a new level.
This guy was cocky.
As the next message scrolled across the screen, several of them jumped up in rage, wishing they had someone to pummel.
“THOUGHT YOU COULD USE SOME ASSISTANCE.”
Veronica’s mind clouded over with fury as she watched all of this. In a moment, all of that was forgotten as her mind went blank in shock. A new video popped on the screen, but this one wasn’t live. In fact, no one knew what to think of the video at all.
The video showed a woman walking down the street at night. The person filming was clearly sneaking up behind her and getting closer. In almost no time at all, a hand reached out from behind the shot and wrapped around the woman’s face.
This is when they all noticed the white piece of cloth in the mystery hand.
The woman struggled for a moment and then went limp. As the man lowered her to the ground, they finally got a clear shot of the woman’s face.
Everyone leaned away from the screen as they realized this face did not belong to the most recent victim. Nor did it belong to the original victim, Sylvia Clark.
“MORE TO COME.”
The screen went black as the implications dawned on all of the cops in the room. The kill
er had not one, but two women...and this time he was going to walk them through the whole thing.
◆◆◆
Exactly twelve hours later, they received another email.
The subject line on this one had read, “NEED MORE?”
With their hearts in their throats they watched another video. This time they saw a man digging in the middle of the desert, depositing a coffin sized box into a large hole, and then covering it back up again.
As Veronica watched, a memory stirred, but she was unable to fully pull it to the front of her mind. Disturbed that such a horrifying moment could remind her of something from her own life, she decided to ignore the feeling and continue working the case.
When her shift was officially over she went back to Nick’s house and continued to pour over the videos. She knew she would never sleep anyway. This case was keeping everyone up at night. Even Blake, who was about to be promoted to Staff Sergeant, was looking a little worse for wear.
Having already watched the earlier videos many times, she focused on the most recent two that had come in. She was sure if she concentrated enough she would be able to find something useful in one of them. But all she managed to achieve was falling asleep at the dining room table, with her laptop still open and playing the videos in front of her.
When Nick staggered exhausted through the front door later on, he found her still asleep. He was far too tired to pick her up and he did not have the heart to wake her, so he grabbed a large blanket and pulled a chair up next to her. After placing the blanket over both of their shoulders, he fell asleep hugging her in a grip that would not let up.
Just before he lost consciousness, he heard Veronica talking in her sleep.
“Bad baby pie, please.”
He let out a silent chuckle and then his world went black.
I’m sitting in that diner from that movie The Waitress. What am I doing here? Whatever, I’ve had weirder dreams before...at least the diner isn’t on fire.
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