Coming Back

by Tabitha J Arment

  The world shook and there was yelling.

  Veronica woke suddenly as Ben grabbed her by the shoulders and shook.

  “Veronica, you have to wake up!”

  Before she was fully able to pull herself out of the nightmare, Veronica thrashed and screamed.

  Ben tried to hold her down to keep her from hurting him or herself, but she was strong and entirely unaware of what she was doing.

  Once she woke up she laid there, drenched in sweat, trying to catch her breath.

  Ben was still leaning over her holding her down by her shoulders.

  “What happened?”

  Now that she was coherent enough to be aware of the world beyond her dreams Ben let go of her and flopped down next to her. “Amidst the screaming...you said a few things in your sleep...mostly Nick’s name. How often do you get that dream? Is that why you always went to the cemetery?”

  Veronica stared at the ceiling for a moment and then turned over to face Ben. “It’s always the same dream. It never changes, even a little bit. I’ve had it on and off ever since Nick died...I usually don’t have it this often.”

  This time it was Ben’s turn to flip over to face her. “I wish you would have told me. I could have at least tried to help.”

  Veronica sighed, “What would you have done? It’s a dream Ben. I’m sure that with enough time it will fade away. Until then...I wake up abruptly sometimes.”

  Ben inched closer and placed his hand on her arm. “Veronica, you were screaming. Maybe you should see someone...talk to someone about this. It might help.”

  Veronica looked him right in the eye, “I do talk to someone. The dreams mostly faded out when we started meeting up at the cemetery. They’ve picked up again recently.”

  Ben’s sighed. “Because I stopped meeting with you. I knew I shouldn’t have…”

  Veronica placed a hand on his cheek so she could stop him from talking. “No, not everything is your fault. The dreams started again a few days ago because I went to bed thinking about what happened to Nick. It came again tonight because of everything that’s been happening lately. I’m surprised I’m not having the dream more often. I think it's better with you.”

  They stopped talking and comforted each other for a time. Falling asleep wrapped in each other’s arms, they both slept soundly. When they woke up again they were still tightly wound around each other. Having woken up like that recently, they were far less uncomfortable with it. This time there was no awkwardness or tears. They were just two people, currently living together, that slept in the same bed.

  Getting ready for work that morning, they formed a rhythm. While Veronica showered, Ben made eggs. While Ben was in the shower, Veronica cut up a couple apples. Once they were both in the kitchen, Ben brewed coffee and Veronica made them some toast. Then they both sat down to eat the feast that they had created.

  Most of this occurred without words except for a few comments about the quality and quantity of the food. Neither of them were morning people and they both knew each other well enough not to try to hold a conversation until the caffeine had a chance to enter their system. They had both had a big night and not enough sleep to recover from it fully.

  The rhythm continued as they got ready for work. Veronica had always been the type to barely make it to work on time so she was unused to waking up with the ability to make a real meal for breakfast and take her time getting ready. All the same, it was like they got ready together every day. Ben pulled their guns out of his lockbox while Veronica got her uniform together. Veronica fed the pets while Ben loaded up the truck. Then they took their usual seats with Ben driving and Veronica on the passenger side and went to work.

  ◆◆◆

  Look at them. Their cozy lives. Their easy routine...Maybe it's time to shake things up a bit. I only have to find the perfect way.

  ◆◆◆

  When they got to work everything was the same. The room was busy with the same level of activity, all the faces were the same. Still, everything felt different. Yes, they were in trouble. Yes, there was still a psycho after one of them. Yes, they were still far away from catching him. In spite of that, they felt a new energy coming from everyone in the building. As terrible as it was that the killer was active again, no one else had died yet. They had new evidence, while it was not much, it was there. Most importantly, for the first time since Nick died, they felt like the team was back together again. It could never be full again, with Nick gone. But with Veronica back, they all felt like they had a better chance at finding the man responsible for so much pain. That’s the energy that Ben and Veronica walked into and it was infectious. In spite of the fact that they were about to walk into a meeting where they were most likely going to be reamed out by their boss again, Ben and Veronica could not help but feel optimistic . Even though she had only been back for a short time, Veronica already felt home again at the station. She had tuned back into the life there, and it felt good.

  She was practically glowing when she and Ben walked into Blake’s office.

  The happiness on her face and in her body language made Blake pause for a moment. He enjoyed getting to see her like that.

  She was always so happy and vibrant while she was with Nick and ever since she lost him he had been missing that look.

  He, Nick, and Ben had all gone through the academy together. Although he had risen in the ranks faster than either of the other two, they had all remained close. They had all trusted each other with their lives at times, and when Veronica started dating Nick she had been become the fourth musketeer.

  It seemed now she was finally coming back to herself and into the fold.

  However, he was still the boss and he had to act like it.

  Once the door was closed and Ben and Veronica had taken seats opposite to Blake he began speaking. He let command deepen and strengthen his voice, “I want to make it clear that I do not condone your outside investigation. If that’s what you call it, Ben. And Veronica, you should have told me when you found out about it. You’ve disobeyed my direct orders and for that I would be well within my rights to take you off this case. Ben, if I wanted to I could take you upstairs and have you suspended...if you were anyone else I probably would. Out of respect for our friendship and our mutual...connection to this case, I’m letting you stay on and I’m not going to turn you into the higher-ups. Both myself and Mark will be keeping a close eye on you now. If one of us gets a whiff of impropriety from either of you I’m taking you off the case. I care too much about both of you to let this kill you or your careers. You will come in every day and work. You will tell me what you are doing every time you leave this building. You will brief me at the end of every day on what you have done and what theories you are working. Most importantly...when you go home at the end of the day, you are going to leave this case here. No paperwork, nothing is leaving this building with you. When you leave this place, I want you to at least try to live as normal a life as you can. By now you know I’ve ordered that you two be watched while you are not here for your own protection. Ben, don’t bother trying to talk me out of it. It's for your own good, and it means that you can rest easy when you leave here at night. If you want to stay on the case, those are the rules. Break any one of them, and you’re done.” Blake looked them both in the eye as they considered what he had said.

  Once a chorus of “Yes sir,” had come from them he went to dismiss them. “Good, now go get to work. The sooner this ends the better off we’ll all be.”

  Upon leaving Blake’s office Ben and Veronica turned to one another.

  “Well, that was inspiring. I knew I was going to be watched when I came back but...we have to check in every time we leave the building...Mark has to babysit us. It’s almost not worth it.”

  Ben shoved her playfully into the wall, “Of course it’s worth it. The moment we catch that crazy bastard everyone will stop questioning if you are fit for duty. Think about it...if you and I come up with enough evidence to put this guy away...this’ll
all be over. We can both start to move on.”

  Veronica was nodding throughout this speech, “Then I guess we better get back to work.” She shoved him back for good measure, walked past him, and entered the detective's office.

  Once again, Ben stared after her as she crossed the room. He shook himself out of his reverie and followed after her.

  Behind him, Blake could be seen watching him through the glass walls of his office and nodding.

  Nobody else seemed to notice.

  When Ben and Veronica made it into the detective's office, they were met by Mark.

  “I know you guys probably aren’t that keen on having me watching you during this investigation, but it's probably the only reason why Blake let you stay on the case. I swear I’m going to stay out of your way. I know you guys are good cops, I’m not all that worried. I’m here to make sure that when we go to prosecute this guy, nobody can file harassment charges and you two won’t be ripped apart on the stand. Plus...I’m a pretty good cop myself. I can help if you ever need someone to bounce ideas off of.”

  He poured this speech out in such a rush that neither Ben nor Veronica had a chance to silence him.

  Ben was certain he did not take a breath the entire time.

  When he was finally done, and a little red in the face from lack of oxygen, Veronica stepped forward. “We get why you volunteered to watch us for Blake. In fact, we kind of owe you one. If you hadn’t been there last night I don’t think Blake would have ever stopped screaming at us. Thanks to you, all we got was some minor yelling and teasing. As much as it sucks that we have to be watched this closely, I’d rather you do it than anyone else. I trust you, and Blake will listen to you when you tell him that everything is going fine. This is way better than having some IA jackass following us around 24/7.”

  Once Veronica was finished reassuring Mark that they were not mad, Ben chimed in with his own two cents. “As much as I’m loving this heart to heart, I think we all better get back to work. The sooner we can catch this guy the sooner Mark can stop feeling like a narc for having to report our actions to Blake. Veronica’s right, I’d rather it be you than anyone else. However, all of these offices have glass walls. People are literally watching our every move right now. That means that Blake can see everything we are doing and he will know if Ronnie and I are trying to influence you, so the best thing we can do right now is just do our jobs.”

  With that, Mark and Ben went back to their desks while Veronica worked to move an extra chair over to Ben’s.

  They spent the next few minutes updating their board with the information collected last night. They had a timeline containing the dates that the police had received emails with stills of the victim's face from the video and the autopsy reports underneath. Plus, a description of their lives up until they were buried in the desert.

  By compiling all of these descriptions, they had come up with a general profile of the victims he chose. The killer liked tall women with wavy, brown hair. He prefered that the woman’s hair be long and he liked it when it was their natural color. None of the women were wearing much makeup when they were abducted, suggesting that he prefered women to look more natural. He also liked to take women that worked with their hands or had jobs that kept them on their feet.

  The medical examiner had confirmed this for them during the previous investigation. It appeared that he liked to speed up his timetable for taking women. In the beginning, the police would only be getting emails from him once a week, by the time that they found his burial site, they were receiving emails every other day.

  There was only one anomaly; when he had two women buried at one time. They had yet to explain that one. All in all, they had found 18 victims at the burial ground, which exactly corresponded to the amount of emails they had been sent with new victims on them. They knew that he liked burying the women in the same place every time. He had stopped taking new victims right after they found his site; suggesting that particular place had a special meaning for him.

  The most striking thing about him was the way that he taunted the police.

  This killer clearly had problems with authority figures and considered himself to be smarter than everyone else. He was incredibly cautious while he was doing his “work.” Until last night, nobody had ever been able to find any physical evidence that he even existed.

  Given the grainy image that they had of him from the videos and the shoeprint that they were able to find at the shed last night, they knew that the killer was at least 6 feet tall, but he was stooping in the video so he could be taller. They knew that he wore a size 13 shoe. It was difficult to determine his build because of the baggy clothes that he wore. He always wore a hood with long sleeves, pants, and gloves so they were unable to determine his ethnicity, hair color, and they had no sketch of his face yet. They knew that he was meticulous. He recreated Ben’s shed down to a “t” in Veronica’s living room and he did so without leaving any trace of himself.

  They also knew his main focus: Veronica. Ever since she went to her superiors and helped them find the killer’s victims, he had come after her.

  First he had blown up her house with Nick in it. He waited until she got home, which suggested that he was watching her while he did this. A year later, he had left a note on Veronica’s car. For some reason, she was still his obsession, and judging by last night he was still watching her.

  While Ben and Veronica rankled at the idea of being guarded when they left the station, they knew that this was a strong argument not to fight against it. If they managed to catch the killer because he was watching Veronica, it would make all of their lives that much easier. As agreed upon the day before, Ben and Veronica refrained from investigating the explosion at Veronica’s old house and allowed Mark to run that end of the case without them.

  As they stood looking at their board, full of all the things they knew, Ben and Veronica felt the hope from last night flare brighter. They still did not have much, but they were slowly building a net around their suspect and they were sure that someday soon they would catch him. Any more slip ups like last night would only serve to speed things along.

  In their minds, the results of this investigation were a forgone conclusion. Once this case was over, Nick’s killer would be rotting behind bars for the rest of his existence. All they had to do was find enough evidence to put him away. For an investigation that had been re-opened less than a week ago, they were already doing well.

  Veronica was the first to make a suggestion, “I think we should talk to the victim’s families and friends. Maybe they’ve remembered something over the last year that can help us. This is the best we’ve got right now, so let’s run with it.”

  Ben nodded and pushed up out of his chair. “I agree that’s our best option right now. Let’s go talk to Blake and clear it with him.” Before he left the room he turned to Mark and explained what they were going to do.

  Mark only smiled and went back to his work.

  When Ben and Veronica left the office they had to cross a more open area where all of the patrol cops worked when they had paperwork to fill out or research to do. As they were walking they could feel all eyes upon them.

  More specifically, everyone was looking at the hand that Ben had placed on the small of Veronica’s back to guide her across the room. This was not an uncommon gesture. They had all seen it before. This was Ben telling Veronica that he had her back without having to speak. Yet for some reason, this gesture seemed far more intimate with these two.

  They all noticed how comfortable the two were with the contact and could not force themselves to stop looking.

  When Ben noticed what had caught all of their attention he became self-conscious and let his hand drop. He did not realize that as it swung by his side after that, he was continuously clenching and unclenching his fist.

  A few people shook their heads, others exchanged knowing glances, some were smiling. Even the new rookies who did not know them reacted as if they did.

&nbs
p; Across the room, Erica could be scene grinning in a very un-Ice Queen-like manner.

  Ben and Veronica entered Blake’s office to get permission to leave the building so that they could conduct their interviews. They were sure that it would not be a problem, but according Blake’s rules they had no choice.

  Because Ben was by far the superior officer, he took the lead with Blake. “You told us that we need to talk to you if we’re planning to leave the building. We decided to go talk to the families of our victims. I know that we talked to them the first time around, but they might have new information..”

  Blake was sitting at his desk, filling out papers. Without even looking up he responded, “That’s fine, but be gentle with them. They’ve already been through alot, and they are under no obligation to answer your questions. Start with the most important stuff and go from there because they can end the interview anytime they want.”

  Veronica took this speech without comment because she knew why he was saying it; she had been gone for a long time.

  Ben was another story. He was offended that Blake felt the need to talk down to him. “Sir, I get what you’re trying to do here, but it’s unnecessary. With all due respect, I know how to do my job. I’ve been a detective for a while now and I know how to conduct an interview. I’m not trying to be insubordinate here. I need you to know, in spite of recent events, you don’t need to worry about me.”