Coming Back

by Tabitha J Arment

  While they were searching through the racks of dresses for Cheyenne, they heard the voice of someone else who had been working there on and off for years. Walking around the edge of the rack they were met by the sight of Andrea arguing with another regular customer, Melanie.

  “Theater is not a fake major!”

  Melanie laughed and walked away. She was a lawyer and had always mocked Andrea for what she was studying in college.

  They all walked over with Cheryl.

  “Is she still jealous of your life?”

  Andrea snorted, “Yes, it’s not my fault she didn’t have the guts to go theater.”

  Everyone laughed while Cheyenne counted out her clothes and headed into the fitting rooms.

  By the end of the night, each of them had a brand new dress and Cheyenne had several options for her date the next week.

  When they left the store, Natasha asked if they wanted to go get a drink at ‘Shea 32’ but the others shot her down.

  “Don’t you have work tomorrow, too?”

  Natasha laughed as she unlocked her car, “Oh please! This has nothing to do with you wanting to sleep...well maybe for Erica and Cheyenne, but we all know why you want to go home.”

  The knowing look she gave Veronica was all it took for the redhead to blush furiously as she climbed into the car.

  While everyone else was laughing, Veronica seethed. “I hope you know that next time any one of you has a significant other, I will get payback.”

  They were all still laughing when they dropped her off at Ben’s house.

  She was muttering as she unclipped her seatbelt. “Yeah, yeah, yeah...you’re all hilarious.”

  They laughed louder, so she flipped them off as she was unlocking the door. When she got inside she saw the television on and Ben fast asleep on the couch.

  She cuddled up next to him and started running her fingers through his hair.

  He slowly woke up, “What took you so long?”

  She grabbed his hand and started pulling him up. “I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”

  DAY 14

  T

  he next morning they woke up to find that once again they had been left in peace.

  The fact that the killer appeared to be losing interest in his game was making Veronica more inclined to go along with the plan that Mark was cooking up. She wanted to catch the asshole before he went underground again.

  Part of her wanted Ben to come up with nothing at work today so that they could get on with it. She would never say that to Ben because he had finally managed to get past her enthusiasm for the idea and she did not want to provoke his anger. If the other detectives had to deal with his foul mood again, they might revolt. So she kept her thoughts to herself and wished him luck with the investigation on their way out the door. When they made it to the office, she quickly separated from him and made her way to the locker room.

  Once there, she was ambushed by Erica and Cheyenne.

  “So, how did things go with your ‘not boyfriend’ after we dropped you off last night?”

  Veronica glared at them and their air quotes. “Nothing happened. It was so damn late that we went to sleep.”

  Erica gave her an amused smirk. “Feeling a little frustrated then? Maybe we should go get some doughnuts. Those always seem to put you in a better mood.”

  Veronica shoved her into a locker and turned her back on them so that she could change into her uniform.

  When the three of them left the locker room, they were startled to find Blake standing in the hallway waiting for them. Cheyenne split off to find Ryan, but Erica and Veronica were trapped. When the boss was waiting for you outside the locker rooms, it generally meant that you were about to have a truly crappy day.

  “Okay, I need you two to spend the first half of the day at the Horizon High School career fair. After that you can come catch up on paperwork and we’ll go over the prep work and game plan for tomorrow. Okay?”

  Mustering all of the fake enthusiasm that they could manage they told Blake that they would be happy to and ran out the door.

  Once they were in their squad car, Erica jumped on Blake’s comment about prepping for the next day. “What’s he talking about? What’s happening tomorrow”

  Veronica desperately wanted to avoid this conversation, so she tried to throw her off. “No clue. Now we get to spend our day with snobby high school kids who are gonna make fun of our uniforms. This also means we can’t get doughnuts. If we show up there with doughnuts, we will never hear the end of it. Damn! I was looking forward to that!”

  Sensing herself beginning to ramble, Veronica shut herself up and stared forward.

  Erica continued to watch her with a calculating expression for a moment before she spoke again. “Oh, you know something! Spill! What the Hell is happening tomorrow?”

  Veronica tried to maintain an innocent expression for a moment, but she could feel Erica’s eyes boring into her and quickly gave it up. “Fine!” She huffed, “Mark had an idea to catch the killer and we’re gonna try it tomorrow...If Ben can’t come up with any leads that is.” She could still feel Erica staring at her, but refused to say anything more.

  “This is what you two were fighting about yesterday, right?”

  Veronica still would not meet her eyes. “Yes. Ben doesn’t think it’s a good idea. He’s afraid I’ll get hurt. He’s mad because I want to do it.”

  There was silence in the car for a few minutes as they continued driving.

  Veronica was relieved at first, but then Erica spoke again. “Mark and Blake want to use you as bait, don’t they?”

  She spun in her seat to face Erica. “How in the world did you guess that?”

  Erica almost laughed, but held it in. “It wasn’t that hard. You said it was a plan to get the killer that Ben doesn’t like and required prep work. What else would it be?”

  Veronica silently cursed. I wish she wasn’t that smart. Let the lecture begin.

  “Can I get in on it?”

  Veronica gaped at her in surprise. “You’re not gonna try to talk me out of it?”

  This time Erica did laugh. “Yeah, that would go over well. Objectively speaking, it's a good idea. I don’t like that it’s you, but I get it. I’ll feel better if I can be there.” She shut her mouth with a snap and faced forward again.

  “I guess, talk to Blake. I’m sure he would let you in. Why wouldn’t he? Although, he might not want too many people that are emotionally involved to be part of it. Ben’s already gonna be there.”

  Erica gave her a pitying look at the ridiculousness of her statement. “There isn’t a cop in the city that can claim to be objective in this case. Blake is gonna have to learn to live with that.”

  Veronica was staring out her window again. “Right, we’ll talk to Blake when we get back.”

  When they made it to the high school, Erica let out a sigh. “The cars in the student lot are more expensive than the cars in the faculty lot. I already don’t like it here.”

  Veronica nodded as they walked towards the office. “I told you...snobby high schoolers.”

  The woman in the front office told them to go to the auditorium with everybody else and wait for the event to start. Neither one of them was sure what to make of that. They had never done a career day in an auditorium. Most schools had tables set up for everyone in their cafeterias. This would be interesting.

  When they made it to the auditorium and saw the podium set up in the middle of the stage they both halted and stared incredulously.

  “I’m going to kill Blake,” Erica seethed under her breath.

  Thinking quickly, Veronica turned to Erica and began speaking. “As the most senior officer here, I believe it is your duty to do all the talking on this one.”

  Erica turned the tables on her just as quickly. “Oh no you don’t! I think, as the senior officer here I’m going to pull rank and make you do all the talking.”

  Veronica was getting desperate. She hated public speaking. “Bu
t you did that yesterday with the dumpster diving!”

  When Erica’s triumphant expression did not change, Veronica kept talking. “Please don’t make me pull the ‘I have a psycho killer after me’ card.”

  Once again, Erica said nothing.

  Veronica brightened up as she thought of her trump card. “Fine. How about this? You kept me from guaranteed sex last night. You owe me!”

  Erica’s face faltered. She knew that all of Veronica’s points were accurate, but she didn’t want to be the one to speak. Eventually she gave up. “FINE! But we are SO even after this.”

  Erica and Veronica waited for their turn backstage, getting more and more uncomfortable by the minute. When it was finally their turn at the microphone, they both tried to pretend to be confident as they walked out on stage.

  Erica tried to think of something to say, but was honestly coming up blank. “Okay, you want to know the truth about what it’s like to be a police officer? Our boss didn’t tell us we would be doing this today until our shift started this morning, and that kind of stuff happens all that time. It’s one of the cool parts of our job. We never know what our day is going to be like. On any given day we could be serving warrants, directing traffic, working with detectives, or riding in our cruisers waiting for calls to come in. If you are looking for a normal 9 to 5 job, this is not something you want to pursue. But, if you want something a little less predictable, and want to spend your career helping people, this is definitely something you should look into.”

  When Erica was done talking, she asked if any of them had any questions they wanted to ask. She gave Veronica a significant look telling her that she would at least be helping with the questions.

  The first question came from a boy that looked to be about 16 years old and thought he was really cool. “So, do your uniforms rip off?”

  Erica and Veronica both glared at him as he was pulled away by a teacher.

  “Are there any serious questions?”

  Another boy, looking to be about 18 stepped forwards. “What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?”

  Erica paled as she glanced over at Veronica. She seemed to be fine, but Erica couldn’t tell for sure.

  Before Erica could answer, Veronica stepped forwards and started to speak. “I was outside of a building that exploded and I had a piece of glass slice through my leg. I lost a lot of blood and I spent that last year in physical therapy trying to be able to walk without a limp.”

  Most of the students’ expressions were blank, but a few looked almost impressed.

  The boy sat down and a 16 year old girl with a serious face stepped forward next. “What’s that craziest case you have ever worked on?”

  Once again, Erica felt her heart stop as she turned to Veronica to see if she was okay.

  Veronica completely stunned her by keeping her cool and answering the question. “I don’t know if any of you remember the serial killer a year ago who was abducting and burying women. Well, my partner and I worked with the detectives on that case.”

  The girl thought for a moment and then her face lit up. “Oh, yeah! I remember that one. I read in the newspaper that you guys never caught him. He disappeared after blowing up....Oh.” She awkwardly went back to her seat.

  Veronica squared her jaw. “Yeah, that’s what happened. Anyways...any other questions?”

  An uncomfortable silence settled on the room.

  “No? Okay then. Thanks for having us here today. Officer Mathers here will be back on stage at the end of this to hand out her card and answer any other questions you can come up with.” With that, she turned and quickly left the stage.

  Erica caught up with her a minute later. “Are you okay?”

  Veronica hated that question. “I’m fine. I just don’t want to go out there again. When they call everyone out for students to talk to individually, I’m going to stay back here.”

  Erica nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, that’s fine. Whatever you need.”

  They had to sit around and wait while all of the other people that had been roped into speaking that day had had their chance.

  It took far longer than it should have.

  Finally, they called everyone back out so they could mingle with any students that were interested in talking to them. Veronica found a quiet place backstage to sit and wait for Erica to finish up.

  After another hour of being bombarded by students who wanted this to last as long as possible so they did not have to do anything for the rest of the day, Erica was finally able to pull herself away. She found Veronica in one of the dressing rooms and they left the school without another word.

  When they were about half way back to the station, Veronica finally spoke. “Well… That was fun.”

  Erica could not help herself. She started laughing and it did not take long for Veronica to join in. They were still laughing when they pulled into the parking lot at the station.

  The pair sobered up upon entering the building because they remembered what the rest of the day had in store for them.

  Blake was on the phone in his office, so they went to their desks and started working on paperwork until he was ready to talk.

  About ten minutes into this, Veronica glanced into Ben’s office to see how he was doing and felt her heart stop for a moment.

  There, sitting at his desk, was his mother.

  Oh, dear God! What is she doing here?!

  Veronica desperately tried to control her breathing and continue to work, but she was failing miserably.

  She could not look away from his office. It was one of those rare moments where she wished she was hallucinating. She was never more relieved than when she saw Blake beckoning her to his office. She practically sprinted across the room so that she could avoid Mrs. Becker seeing her.

  Neither Erica nor Blake could explain why she was suddenly so excited to be in the bosses office. That was until, Blake looked towards Ben in the hope that he had seen her and would have some explanation. When he saw Ben’s mother calmly flipping through a binder, he let out a deep chuckle before following Erica through his door.

  Erica was only in Blake’s office for long enough to request a position on the team. She was approved to be in the surveillance van.

  After that, Veronica was stuck in Blake's office convincing him that she was going to be okay. Blake had to be sure that she was emotionally in a place where she could handle using herself as bait. This was going to be a difficult and stressful day for everyone involved, and Blake needed to know that nobody was going to crack under the pressure.

  Once they had gotten past that, they were able to work on going over the plan Mark had been putting together.

  It was not terribly intricate. Mark informed them that he had an old college buddy who had become an on air reporter for ABC 15. He had managed to convince his friend to do a short interview with Veronica that would be aired during the news the next morning. The hope was that Veronica would be able to say something that would set the killer off and put him on the offensive. Then she would be fitted with a microphone, an earwig, and a GPS locator. She would stage a fight with Blake in the parking lot and turn over her badge. Then she would go to the cemetery and wait at Nick’s grave. There would be a few plain-clothes cops scattered about and Ben, Mark, and Erica would be waiting in the van. Hopefully, the killer would make a move sometime that day so that they would not have to continue this charade.

  Blake had remained silent while Mark talked, but it became increasingly more obvious that he was not impressed with this plan. In the end, he made his thoughts clear. “So, our plan involves a playground taunt and then sitting around waiting for our guy to get bored?”

  Rather than make excuses Mark simply asked,”Has anyone come forward with a better idea?”

  Blake deflated as he admitted that no one had. “Where’s your guy?”

  Mark looked down at his phone. “He should be here in about half an hour.”

  Blake nodded his head and turned to Veronica. �
�You should stay in uniform for the interview. It will have more of an impact that way.”

  Veronica nodded her agreement and asked if she could take the next half hour to get ready.

  Blake released both her and Mark so that he could return to his paperwork.

  Veronica spent the next half hour freshening up in the locker room and chatting with anyone else who happened to be in the station. She even pulled her phone out and texted Natasha for a while as she tried to keep her mind off of the interview she was about to do.

  Eventually, she saw Mark head out into the parking lot and return with Greg Harmon and his camera crew in tow. She took a calming breath and followed them to the briefing room. The next thing she knew the lights had been set up, a small microphone had been clipped to her vest, and a cameraman was telling them that the camera was rolling.

  “I sit here today with Veronica Taylor following up on a story a year in the making.”

  While Greg was introducing her and the story, Veronica found herself studying the man in front of her rather than listening to what he was saying. He had wavy black hair that was a bit too quaffed for her taste and wore way too much makeup. His teeth were too straight and white to have gotten that way naturally and his skin wreaked of spray tan. All in all, Veronica came to the conclusion that this man spent more time on his appearance than even Natasha did.

  In comparison, she sat before him in her uniform, with her hair up in a ponytail, and wearing very little makeup.

  She zoned back into the conversation when she realized that he had finally asked her something.

  This is already going so well.

  He repeated his question. “I was saying, we all followed this story last year as many local women were abducted. Should we be worried that this serial killer is going to start taking women again?”