Safe Place to Hide || Chenford / The Rookie

Chapter 21

***

Lucy freezes, feeling both numb and like little tiny needles are stabbing into every inch of her body as the pieces finally fall into place. "My dad was his doctor..."

"Yes, that's right. Your father. Your father's a good man, Officer Chen. He cared about Billy, and he believed he could get better. But then they had one bad session — Billy got triggered, and he hurt your father. It was an accident, and your father didn't even want to press charges.

"But you insisted on arresting him, didn't you? William begged you. Your father begged you."

"I— he assaulted my father. I didn't have a choice. I—"

"You didn't have a choice? You didn't have a choice?" Marissa is incredulous, her voice becoming shrill with her outrage, "All of this, and you still don't get it? Of course, you had a choice. There is always a choice. Like the choice you made to protect yourself and your little boyfriend. Or what about when Tamara stole your car? You had a choice then." She gets up from the couch to pace the room in frustration.

When she turns back to Lucy, the agony in her expression is almost too much for Lucy to bear, "Why couldn't you have just made an exception? Why couldn't you have offered him the same grace? Billy needed help, not jail, but you didn't care. You chose, Lucy. You made a choice just like all of the other choices you've made, and my brother is dead because of it."

"That's not true," Lucy is shaking her head vigorously, emotion rising up in her throat with the realization that the man that she had arrested in her father's hospital room that day was no longer alive as a direct result of that arrest. "I did care. I wanted him to get help. The system—"

"Yes, please tell me about your precious system, Officer Chen," Marissa spits, and the look she sends Lucy's way is terrifyingly cold.

Lucy is crying now, overwhelmed by her fear and her grief for this girl and her brother, "It doesn't always work the way it's supposed to. But I tried. I wrote up an addendum. I recommended that he receive mental health treatment, not prison, but..."

"Ah, yes. The addendum. Do you know how long Billy was in jail before they even scheduled a hearing to discuss your goddamn addendum?"

Lucy just shakes her head.

"He was in there for weeks, and he was so sad and so scared and so miserable — it was like a time warp. All of the progress he'd made was just gone, and nobody could be bothered to care. Did you ever even bother to follow up? To see what happened with your little addendum?"

Lucy shakes her head again, tears streaming down her cheeks, "I'm so, so sorry Marissa. I didn't know..."

***

"Tim," Angela barks over the radio.

Tim is knocking on what must be his hundredth door, his desperation growing with every dead end. "I'm here. What do you have?"

"Two of Lucy's cases came back linked to suicides. One was on scene. The other is an arrest record for William LaForte; he committed suicide in jail a few weeks after Lucy arrested him."

"That's him. That has to be the one. Is there an address for him?"

"Yes, and it's a block over from the dumpster her phone was in; she had to have known we'd burn time searching the closest buildings first; if you hadn't pointed us to her brother..." Angela pauses, not wanting to speak the words any more than Tim wants to hear them. "Anyway, SWAT is setting up as we speak. We're waiting for a confirmed visual of what's going on in the unit."

***

"'Sorry' isn't going to bring him back. 'Sorry' won't fix what you set into motion. If you had just listened to your father..." Marissa's face falls, and she turns away from Lucy. "It doesn't matter now, does it? And things didn't work out with Tamara obviously. But, you know, I think that's for the best. You know now that what she is going through is your fault. And I didn't really want her to pay. She doesn't deserve to die. She was kind to me. And this is between me and you, Lucy. And it's time for you to pay for what you did to my brother."

She leaves the room and disappears into the bedroom before returning with a gun in hand; Lucy immediately recognizes it as her own off-duty weapon. "Marissa —"

Marissa stops short, pausing just in front of Lucy, "Really, you should be thanking me, I'm showing you much more mercy than you showed my brother. You're suffering far less than he did in that jail cell."

"Marissa, please. I understand that you blame me. But think about what you're doing. You already know you won't get away with this. You've left too many clues. You're throwing your life away. I am so, so sorry for what happened to your brother. I truly mean that, and I will do anything I can to help you. You have come so far on your own; you have so much in front of you. Don't let this one choice define the rest of your life."

She lifts the gun to point it at Lucy, "I don't actually know how to use this, but I haven't knocked anyone out with a skillet before either, and that turned out okay. I'm sure I'll figure it out." She gives Lucy a chilling smile, "It's not like you're going anywhere. And I'm not planning to get away, Lucy. There's nothing left for me here after this."