Undiscovered protégé

Chapter 3

After a long silence and a lot of awkward eye contact, I say, "I'm not going home alone tonight am I," trying to disguise fear with annoyance.
"That's what you're concerned with?" Angela chuckles.
"Duh, What else" I joke, because obviously there is so much else I should be thinking about right now. I look up at the clock and it's only nine am. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom" I tell them and walk off. I don't actually have to go to the bathroom I just know I need to cry. So I sit in the corner of the bathroom and cry for a little. I have barely processed what Angela just told me and I don't want to, but I do. There is someone who wants me dead. Who wants me to relive my trauma for the 24 hours before I do. Who wants to torture me. There is someone who has killed someone who they know I would draw parallels to myself. So that I would know that they are there, and so I would know I'm probably next. They want me to be paranoid, and maybe there's someone else before me, and I can't stop it because nobody knows who it is. But I'm almost certain whoever this wants to make me scared and probably wants me to give up and they'll kidnap and torture me the second I let my guard down. They want to abduct me and torture me and make me relive trauma and kill me. I get up because I realized I'm spiraling. I also had to get back to Tim and Angela, I have to get myself together so I splash some water in my face and rush back.
"Okay let's go we have to get back to work" I tell Tim. I realize that's not at all my place and that he should tell me off for it but he doesn't which really annoys me.
"Okay ange, keep us posted, call us if you get anything else."
"Got it."
And we walk back to the shop. I'm checking the time every few minutes. 9:10. 9:16. 9:19. We get called to assist a homicide scene, at an old house in a building on the corner of a block where we just canvas the scene and then go. It doesn't take too long but it feels like forever. Even though this scene has nothing to do with Rosalind hearing 'homicide' makes me think of the case. It's ten. I have a twelve-hour shift again today. Eight hours left. And in the first two of those we get two calls. The first of those is a family of divorce, and an alcoholic father without custody kidnaps his daughter. The horrific things I see in a day. Homicide. Kidnapping. I know it's unrelated but I still draw connections. The other call is for auto theft. It's so completely unrelated but the car is the same color as the one Caleb stole and kidnapped me in. It's 12 now and we go to the food trucks for lunch. 6 hours left. We get out of the shop and I get our lunches. Tim usually gets the same thing every day. I get the food and bring it to the table he's sitting at. We ate quickly. 12:20. 5 hours and 40 minutes left. 12:27, we get a call from Angela. "Hi" I say after I answer it
"Hello, firstly just wanted to make sure you're doing alright Lucy"
"Yeah I'm fine, I'm gonna put you on speaker now alright?"
"Alright"
"What is it Angela?" Tim asks
"I noticed that the date on her side is the same day she was abducted, which isn't how Rosalind and Caleb did it. They'd kidnap their victims around 24 hours before death, right? Isn't that odd?"
"Yeah that is, we should probably poke around more with BHPD." Tim says
"I already did, I got a ton of information. I got the transcripts approved to share with the both of you, but I'll summarize it"
"We interviewed Nathan Lim, the other rookie in their class of 3, and he said that Stephanie had been acting really strange that day. He said that when they came to work she was acting really withdrawn and quiet. She also seemed scared. I checked with her TO and he said the same thing. So maybe she knew something. Hailey reached out via email and said that Steph mentioned visiting her mom, Karin Taylor, that day. I'm about to interview her."
The radio sparks to life and we're called to a scene.
"7-Adam-15 responding" Tim says, and I tell Angela "okay we have to go, let us know how the interview goes" and hang up. While we drive to the scene I think about what Angela says. It wasn't 24 hours? Stephanie was acting weird? She had to have known something. This just doesn't add up. I can't even try to think of what this could mean because I'm exhausted. I didn't really get the words the radio said so I have no idea what we're about to pull up to. We arrive at a restaurant. Two men are yelling at eachother just outside the doors. Tim gets out of the shop, and I follow him. Tim de-escalates the situation. I observe.
"tired?" He asks, sounding annoyed
"Yeah sorry I know it's not an excuse-" he cuts me off
"Sorry? Just-" he pauses and takes a deep breath. "get sleep. Don't be tired again tomorrow. You can't be too tired to do your job"
I nod. We get back in the car. I know if it wasn't for the case he would have said that sorry doesn't cut it. He would have made me walk. It's frustrating that he keeps letting me off the hook. As we drive around I look at the time on my phone. It's 1:52. The ride is silent, and we don't get a call until 2:34. The call isn't over the radio, it's from Angela. I answer. "You're on speaker" I tell her
"Hello, alright, I interviewed Karin Taylor, she said that she was not expecting Stephanie that day. So somebody is lying, or Stephanie was dropping in uninvited. Her mom didn't give us any other information that stuck out to me, but you can look over the transcripts. The rest of the family is no contact. The dad was a one-night-stand and she's no contact with her parents."
"can we find the dad? Maybe he is related to this in some way?" I ask
"I doubt it but we'll look into it"
"Anything else?" I asked.
"No, I'll call you if I find anything,"
"Alright, thanks and bye,"
"Bye," she hung up
I really appreciate Angela giving me the case details, it assures me that we're making progress. It's quiet for the next few hours. But of course we get a call at 5:56 because that's just my luck.