Skip to main content

Atlas Missing - Part 4

When I got home I pulled up yesterday's newspaper's headlines. I scrolled through and stopped when I saw one particular article. A young man had been found in a shallow grave. They didn't say how he died but I knew who was responsible. LaShonda Marcus was #anathema to me.

***

I'd been reading about an increase in serial murders all over the country and I was pretty sure that the majority of them were being committed by the former cult members of Pandora's Children. It was becoming a #pandemic the likes of which law enforcement had never seen.

***

At least I knew where I was going to be sent. Thinking about that made me think about leaving the Fort Worth Police Department. I hadn't been smart about it and kind of forced them to #ostracize me. I'd been mad at the time, but life was too short, and I'd made amends.

***

I'd apologized to the captain and the rest of the detectives on the team because I have #empathy and I could tell I'd wronged them.

I went to sleep knowing that tomorrow would be the start of a long ordeal trying to catch a serial killer we'd let slip through our grasp.

***

I had a crazy dream (I blame it on pepperoni) in which I caused a #schism within the FBI because of the way I caught killers and started my own law enforcement agency, the Thibodeaux Department of Law Enforcement, but that's way too narcissistic, and I'm not like that.

***

I woke up and saw that my girlfriend had left me an affirmation #poem on the bathroom mirror. It was short and sweet.

You're always my superhero
The baddies will always be zero
You will catch them no matter what
Whether outside it is cold or hot

I smiled as I got ready.

***

"Morning, Annie," Jaci said as we met at the front entrance. "You ready?"

"Morning, Jax. I'm as ready as I can be."

"Good. Don't worry about the section chief. He's a bit of a #dinosaur when it comes to female agents but he means well."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

***

"It means that he thinks we should still be in the kitchen with babies on the hips."

I shuddered. "He's not in the same #galaxy, let alone on the same planet, as the rest of us. How does anyone put up with him?"

"They don't have much interaction with him day-to-day."

***

"Thank goodness for that," I said. "I wouldn't put up with it."

She chuckled. "Come on, let me get you a cup of coffee before you meet with the section chief."

"Is it good coffee?"

"#Nectar of the Gods," she answered. "They have some very fine coffee available here."

***

The coffee was exactly as described. The caffeine boost felt like an #exorcism of lethargy and it helped me get ready for the day ahead. It only took a few minutes to go through the final steps of employment, get my credentials, and then head upstairs for my briefing.

***

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Atlas Missing - Part 10

'Are you sure you're OK?' I asked. 'I'm not planning to #defenestrate myself or anything. I just need to focus. Let's go through the police, crime scene, and autopsy reports and then we'll work on pinning everything down tomorrow.' I grabbed the first victim's reports. *** An agent brought sandwiches while we were reading. I saw Hannah grab one and start eating without conscious thought. Jaci caught me staring and said, 'Don't #groke at her. Get your own.' 'That wasn't what I was doing.' 'Really?' 'She's not even aware she's doing it.' *** 'Hannah, how's the sandwich?' 'Huh?' She dropped it on a napkin and then sniffed it. 'Do you smell something odd?' 'Nothing unusual. Do you?' I asked. She nodded. 'I'm #macrosmatic. I have a heightened sense of smell. Something in here smells and it's not the food.' *** 'Could be this book,' I said, holding u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Atlas Missing - Part 6

"Why did she go to Houston?" Jaci asked suddenly. "I have a #theorem," I said. "She must know someone there, or it has special meaning to her." "That's a theory. A theorem has been proven," Jaci countered. I grinned. "Well, let's find the proof to make it a theorem." *** 'We can't really do much until we land,' Jaci said. 'Your #logic is faulty. LaShonda Marcus was on that reality TV show, Ravens' Claws, about the wives and girlfriends of the players. There's a lot of information online about her. We can use that as a starting point.' *** 'Good thinking,' Jaci agreed as I typed.' 'We can lock her up this time #iff she doesn't escape,' I said emphasizing the extra "f" in that word but it flew over her head. I only knew it because of my teacher's lessons about math, and biology, because we had chemistry. *** Jaci looked at me blankly for a moment and then said, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Atlas Missing - Part 8

'We're not even sure it is a him. Pandora's Children were all women. The Oak Leaf Killer could be too,' Jaci said. 'That's kind of #transitive, isn't it?' Hannah asked. 'Maybe, but we know nothing about them. We need a timeline and victim profiles for both killers.' *** 'We can get started on that as soon as we get to the office,' Hannah said as we drove toward her house. 'As long as we can #permute the timeline in the right order, we'll be able to figure out what happened when, which will give us our best hope of catching them both.' *** 'I'm having the Oak Leaf Killer's evidence couriered over from the respective jurisdictions. We should have the full #set by the time we get there,' Hannah said as she pulled up to a nice house in the suburbs. 'Welcome to Casa Derricks.' 'Any wife or kids?' Jaci asked. *** 'Ex-husband, ex-wife, two kids,' Hannah answered. 'Is that the #metric by whi...
Post a Comment
Read more