In The Dark

“Jocelyn! Jocelyn, stop it. Jesus Christ, would you calm your ass down and quit that!” Georgia dodged another cherry tomato. She grabbed one of those loose woven crepe paper blankets off the bed and held it up in front of her as she walked in the direction of her sister who was using the food on her tray as tennis balls. It was the first movement they had witnessed in days; most of the time she just sat huddled and stared into nothingness. It was times like these, Georgia thought to herself, that she missed the moments of staring into nothingness… almost.

The sudden outburst stunned Georgia and the nurses that came running into the room. “Stay back! Just stay where you are. I got this.” Georgia didn’t even look over her shoulder. She kept her face forward, peeking over the edge of the blanket to see what and where Jocelyn was hurling the food next. Slowly, she inched her way within touching distance and once she reached her she dropped the blanket and slung the tray away from Jocelyn’s reach, wrapped her in the blanket trapping her arms; gathering Jocelyn close.

“Shhh, Jocie, shhh.” Georgia repeated this mantra until she felt Jocelyn’s rigid body give up the fight.

The nurse waited until Jocelyn stopped trying to wrestle against Georgia’s hold, scooted from behind Georgia just as she saw Georgia wave her forward, and shot Jocelyn in the arm with a sedative effectively stopping the train wreck… at least for a little while.

Georgia helped the nurses put Jocelyn in the bed, but didn’t stay a minute longer. Her tears were for herself and not to be seen by the nurses nor were they to be seen by Jocelyn in case they were to register somewhere deep inside the titanium shell she had locked herself in.

***

The sour sweaty smell of the precinct lodged deep in her sinuses making her want to use the ‘pinch your nose’ routine as she walked through the swinging doors. The air conditioner was on the fritz again if the smell was anything to be judging by. It didn’t matter if it was 50 degrees outside or 115 degrees outside; the air conditioner had to run in the bullpen. On any given day there were enough bodies hovering around that kept the temperature beyond comfortable and beyond bearable to the nose.

Her entry, however, didn’t go entirely unnoticed in the mayhem that was in process as magically the Captain stepped in her path, effectively cutting off her route access.

“ D.A. Kanes, it’s nice that you have finally decided to grace us with your presence.”

Georgia’s usual stone mask became even more so and the grip she had on her briefcase would have broken a lesser made product. “I suppose, Captain, that was your stilted attempt at sarcasm?” She shrugged it off as of no consequence and held out her hand to stop any further attempts on the Captain’s part to muddy the waters farther. “I will take your rudeness and the way the worker ants are frantically working as a sign that something has come about. Why don’t we go to your office? Anything I have to say to you will be done there as, one, I do not want anyone to hear what we have to say and, two, this – she looked around her at the chaos – is enough to give a rock a screaming migraine.” As she finished her sentence she did a really nice sidestep heading for the Captain’s office, quirking a lip at the picture in her mind’s eye of his short legs running to catch up with her long-legged, no nonsense stride.

The office was cramped and cluttered. The desk was riddled papers, pens, and books. The ashtray that sat on the corner near the Captain’s right hand had thrown up its contents which had now started to spill over onto the government issued carpet below. Georgia dropped her briefcase in the only other chair in the room. She knew from prior experience that it was not fit for human use and the last thing she wanted to do was soak up the stench of stale cigarette smoke.

She watched the Captain round the desk; his khakis looking as if they had been rubbed against the floor of the basement before being worn and his shirt had definitely been pulled from some forgotten bag. All the bluster seemed to be blown from his sails or maybe someone let the air out of the plug he wore up his ass.

He put his hands on his hips and took a deep breath blowing it out in a tired exhale. “Georgia, let’s cut the shit. I know you have personal issues on your back, but things have gone to hell this morning and I need you to focus for a bit.” He looked at her with bloodshot eyes and rubbed his face. “I don’t have to refresh your memory of Lindsay Caudell do I?” He watched her face transform. “I didn’t think so.”

“Do you think I could ever forget? He’s the piece of slime that tore my sister apart and that rat shit lawyer got him off without so much as hitch even though we had tons of evidence that proved otherwise. And, let’s make one thing utterly clear Reece, my personal life does not interfere with my job, so let’s nail that one to the wall and not play with it anymore.” Georgia pinned him with her gaze, “So what about him?”

The Captain rubbed his ruddy face once more. “Damn it Georgia, he’s missing…he’s fucking missing and that so called “rat shit” lawyer of his is making a stink about it. Have you not seen the news this morning?” The Captain started walking ping-pong style across the floor and went on spewing vocab as if he didn’t ask a question. “Obviously the fuck not. Anyway, it’s all over the news. Seems that lawyer thinks that some of us at the precinct have something to do with it because we had a hard-on for the scum.”

“I’m telling you Georgia, we need damage control on this thing. That cluster-fuck out there is because of this and the news has our balls in a vice.”

Georgia uncoiled her arms, “And, what exactly, would you like me to do about it?”

Georgia stood in front of a makeshift podium which really was the last place she wanted to be. The media swarmed like drones over a succulent flower vying to get as close as possible to her with their microphones. She was disgusted with the lot of them. They were mere vultures that swallowed their own shit.

“Is it true that the Albany Police Department has information as to the whereabouts of the serial rapist and murderer, Lindsay James Caudell?” Called out one of the buzzards of which Georgia couldn’t and wouldn’t try to separate from any other.

“D. A. Kanes! D. A. Kanes, my name is David Roshter of the Northern Chronicle, is it true that the reason Caudell got a lesser sentence was because his last victim has a mental illness that prevents the courts from believing anything she says or did he receive a lesser sentence because the State was unable to successfully prosecute the case?” He stood there for a moment with his hand still in the air looking like a flag pole.

Georgia sneered. They were scum in the bottom of fetid water barrels. She wanted to give them the one finger salute and walk back into the precinct, get her things together, and go home. She had better places to be than here doing this.

“No, that is not a true statement.” Georgia stood tall and straight, her back a picture of steel as she looked out among the sea of reporters. “None of what you say is true, but I’m not here today to talk about those things.” Georgia glanced at her cards to get her thoughts straight before speaking again.

“D. A. Kanes? This is…”

Georgia’s head snapped to attention and she held her hand up in that international symbol of ‘stop already you are being an idiot’. “Stop. Just stop all of you. I didn’t ask any of you to speak and I didn’t say that I was taking questions at this moment in time. I came here to let everyone know that the Albany Police Department is working hard to find Mr. Caudell. We have teams set up to work in shifts as well as FBI involvement. We will catch him and put him back where he belongs.

“We would also like to say that you can help us immensely by reporting what is most important which is that the Albany Police Department is doing all in their capacity to find and capture Mr. Caudell. Furthermore, keeping gossip to a minimum due to its aggravating nature to investigations would also help. If we all work together we can wrap this up a lot faster. Thank you.” Georgia picked up her card and walked back in the police department through the double doors.

The crowd outside was deafening as they all started to shout questions at the same time. She didn’t care. She did what Reese had wanted her to do… she took care of it. The whole three ring circus could kiss her ass. She had more amusing things to do than to feed herself to the wolves that were circling out there. She found herself panting with anger as she walked to her office and to make herself feel better she slammed the door behind her making the blind jump from side to side and the window rattle. She smiled when she did it. She was quite pleased with the noise and kicked off her shoes to get down to work.