Undiscovered protégé

Chapter 1 - files

It's almost the end of the day, when we get connected to a domestic abuse call. It's an ordinary call, a wife who finally has had enough dealing with her abusive husband to get help. Once we finish dealing with it we head back to the station as it's end of shift. We're about to go clock out when Angela pulls us away from the computer. "I really need to talk to you two about this investigation I'm doing"
Her voice doesn't sound like she's confused with somthing so I have no idea what it could be about. I reply, "yeah what about it?"
"Come here." She walks over to another computer, and Tim and I follow.
"Look at this." She sits down, and pulls up a document with some details of the case. I skim and don't notice anything sticking out to me.
"What about it?"
"The location. Where the body was found." Angela specifies.
I look at the text that tells us the location and immediately know what she means. Chills go through my body. The location was one of which we already had an investigation of a murder; one of Rosalind's murders.
"It has to be a coincidence right? The soil must've looked different from the decomp so the killer decided to put the body there there's no other explanation" I say frantically, knowing there is another explanation.
"No lucy. Can I show you one of the scene photos?"
I take a deep breath. "Okay."
"Are you sure? They're really macabre and probably triggering"
"Pull them up"
She pulls up a photo of the body at the scene. Despite all the blood and mutilation I focus on one thing.
DOD50920
I kept reading the string over and over.
5. May. 09. May 9th. 20. May 9th, 2020. 6 months exactly after I was almost killed. She died almost 2 months ago.
I stare at it for almost a whole minute.
"but Rosalind is in jail and Caleb is dead." I say. I can't bring myself to believe that it probably is related.
"It could have been someone who worked the case? Someone who would have seen Caleb's notes?" Tim suggests.
"You know just as well as I do that it's probably Rosalind and she probably has another stupid little minion." Angela says with irritation in her voice towards the end of her sentence.
"It would honestly be worse if it were someone who worked the case," I tell them. Tim and Angela go back and forth suggesting unlikely scenarios that it isn't related to Rosalind. I'm zoned out trying to wrap my head around this. Caleb wasn't the end of it? "Lucy?" Tim taps my shoulder.
"You alright?" He asks.
"Mhm yeah I'm just processing" I tell him.
"We should probably get more people on this investigation, because it's big. Regardless of how they knew to put a body there." Tim suggests.
"Nyla already clocked out for the day but I'll definitely get her in on this" Angela.
"Could I have the case details? I know it isn't my job but I know I am not getting any sleep tonight, and I want to be useful." I say, laughing a bit.
"I can try to get that approved, are you sure you want them though?" She says hesitantly.
"Yes I'm sure. I really need to help with this."
"Okay I'll see what I can do"
"Lucy lets go clock out now." Tim says. I nod and follow him and we clock out. Following that I go straight home. No more talking, just walking from the station to my car. I get in and drive home. I was holding my breath without realizing it because how could Rosalind still be doing this! I get home and Jackson is already there because he clocked out before I even got back to the station. He's watching TV but I just walk past him to my room. I didn't change before I left the station because I forgot to. I take off my duty-belt and put it in my bag so I don't forget it in the morning. I then change out of my uniform and into a tank top and sweatpants. It's only 6:30 but I feel exhausted. Seeing that document with that location written out on it had thrown me off a bit and I almost forgot dinner. I go to the kitchen to make myself a microwave meal. After I do Jackson gets up and makes himself the same thing.
"You good? You're breathing funny."
"That's an odd greeting, I'm fine just a bit thrown off."
"You're right, it is, anyway how was your day?"
"Fine, busy morning. You?"
"Yeah, call after call." He laughs.
I'm not really super hungry, being informed about Angela's case killed my appetite. I take a few bites but then just go to my room. I don't really want to do anything so I just sit there scrolling social media for just a few minutes until I get a text from Angela
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Angela: Hey Lucy! Just checking in, you're alright? I texted Ny about the case and she said she would come in early to help with it, the sooner we find the killer the better, obviously. Also got sharing case files with you approved
Lucy: I'm as good as I can be, also thanks for contacting Nyla and for the docs. How so quick?
Angela: it was tricky 🙃
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I'm grateful that they're coming in early because I don't want this case open a minute longer than it has to be. I get up and grab my laptop. I locate the email and open the documents. There isn't even that many because it was just opened yesterday. I look over each one. I look for any information that seems off. Anything that could cause this to happen besides contact with Rosalind. Anything big or small. Everything about her feels familiar in some creepy way and I don't know why. I'm looking at these documents until I fall asleep, with more questions than I've answered, and way later than I should've.