Officer Jerkins walked out of the court room with me, seeing as it was the end of our shift I could just head home for Bandvagah. Although Officer Howard had sent us off early for a presence in the court case so Molly wouldn’t be home yet.
“You think that with all these new Animal-People that will show up, they might take away those stupid regulations they have you and your wife on? You can’t get promoted and she has to stay an aid.” Officer Jerkins started, trying to make conversation and hoping not to discuss the current case. In my opinion the lawyer was grabbing at straws, the likelihood that the gun was stolen at the time when it was actually on the property was proof enough to see he is lying.
Badly at that.
“I’m not sure, but it would be something to look forward to. But it doesn’t really bother me that much; I am doing what I hoped I would when Molly and I moved here. It was to make a difference in a small town. When I was growing up, I idolised my father for his work and I knew that’s what I wanted to be.” I replied, giving a shrug at the end of it; “So, it matters not if I get promoted or not.” I finished.
The comments made Officer Jerkin’s raise an eyebrow; “So you’d rather be the guy that is stuck in the middle? Knowing your luck, you’d be solving the case to a kidnapping knowing your luck. You jinxed feline.” She said with a chuckle, giving me a gentle punch to the shoulder. Or what she could reach of it.
It didn’t hurt, though I wasn’t sure if she could hurt me or not even if she tried. Though seeing what she did to McClure, I didn’t want to find out.
I couldn’t help but chuckle as well, looking up to the sky as we walked back to the station to fully knock off from shift; “I guess so, knowing my luck it would be the Super Intendent that does the kidnapping and tries to say that Molly ate the child for lunch. But with his reputation, they’d put it under the lowest priority. So far all evidence any R.A.M. member has brought forward to convict us hasn’t been that well thought of.” I stated with thought, remembering the Kangaroo court that tried to convict Molly with audio tapes downloaded from the internet. That seemed like so long time ago.
By the time I finally got home, I was feeling pretty tired. Not just because of the court case but when nothing is going wrong following up to a court case, it gets quite boring. The only trouble we ever had on patrol happened to be a motor vehicle crash into a power line when someone’s clutch failed. Or so said the driver who couldn’t stand straight without throwing up half his weight in puddles of a foul reeking substance. That smell still haunts me, disadvantages of having keen sense of smell number one: sometimes it’s just ‘too’ good.
“That you honey?” Molly called from the kitchen, apparently getting herself a snack. The TV was on yet just blaring some re-runs of some girl saying how she would look good in fur. This entire week, celebrity people have been making stupid jokes about the Animatix-Serum. Has been giving Leona migraines. If she wasn’t under watch, I swear she’d have torched her lab by now. I even remember the phone call I made in hopes to cheer her up.
It went in an unexpected way.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Holding the phone to my ear, I got a rude surprise when a voice yelled into my ear, a screech that I would have called a banshee if I didn’t recognise the voice and the obvious sadness; “WHAT?! What do you want?! If you are another person who wants this fu-“ she started screaming yet I called over her, cutting her off.
“Leona, it’s me George!” I shouted through the phone, hoping she could hear me over the rants. Apparently she did.
The shouting stopped, but the breathing was loud and heavy, she had either been shouting a lot and gotten hoarse or had been doing what I thought she would be. Crying; “Oh, Sorry George. I kind of lost control.” She said with an increasingly softening voice. It was clear she was cracking, if I could see her eyes they’d be red by now.
“I understand Leona; I called to see how you were holding up. Is there anything we can do?” I asked calmly and carefully, hearing a sob at the other end. Leona was breaking apart; the research she spent her life on was now being used by people who had odd visions of being happy fuzz buckets.
Molly was by me, hanging on every word spoken. Her hearing allowed her to listen in on the conversation. We would put it on speaker so she could talk too but unfortunately our phone wasn’t that technologically sound.
Another sniff came from the phone before she spoke up; “I’m okay, I have people here looking after me. It’s just tough sometimes. I’d destroy my work if I wasn’t afraid I’d be arrested. I don’t want to be in a cage again.” She spoke with a frail in her tone.
“You are not going back in a cage, just do what they tell you and you will be fine. You are going to be okay Leona, you did everything you could and if this goes south, they will see you as the person that spoke the truth. Also if it works, you will be hailed a hero to some people. It’s going to be okay.” I told her gently, though Molly took the phone off of me before I could continue being a sap.
Molly pressed the phone to her ear before speaking clearly; “Hey Leona? It’s Molly. I’m sorry for what happened but George is right. Plus you have friends out here, if you ever need to talk then by all means, give us a call.” She spoke with a smile, feeling as if she was finally talking to Leona properly. We owed a lot to Leona. It wasn’t her fault we ended up this way, she helped us out before with Bureguard and it was our turn to loan support.
Leona coughed slightly, though her tone was getting a lot clearer and her voice raising a happier scale; “Thanks Molly, you too George. I also have some good news; my old parole officer will soon be back at work. But that’s not really the good news... You see, when he was on a short walk with me and another Parole officer, he had asked the officer to get something for him. He returned with a small box.” She started. I could see where this was going; Molly could too due to the squeal she was holding in.
“It was a diamond ring. He asked me to marry him! It can’t be official yet since I’m on Parole even when he’s better and since he’s shown relationship with me, the other Parole officer will have to be present until it is over. But... I’ve said yes.” She said excitedly. I had blocked my ears by the time but it didn’t help, my ears still rang badly by the cry of delight that came from Molly. She sounded like a rabbit with its tail caught.
And that’s loud.
The rest of the conversation improved dramatically after that, but I couldn’t get a word in due to the chatter going on between the two women. Though I did catch one thing that Leona had asked. She asked if Molly could be her Bridesmaid for me to attend with her. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse; it would be great to get something good happening after all this nasty business.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I sighed at the memory and called out towards Molly to answer; “Yes, I am just going to change out of my work clothes.” I said casually since she could hear me clearly. Upon reaching the bedroom, I went to take off my shirt, though heard the phone ring just outside the room. Just reaching out, I grasped it and placed it up to my ear; “Hello?” I questioned, having not saw the caller ID.
“George? It’s Danielle. Are you still in your work clothes?” she asked hurriedly, her breathing fast and a series of cracks in her voice told me she was hyperventilating. Something must be very wrong for Officer Jerkins to act this way.
I nodded, even if she couldn’t see me, so I spoke up; “Yeah, what’s the matter?” I asked quickly, having been entrapped in the phone call faster than I had even been. Though by the sound of her voice, it didn’t sound good.”
Danielle then spoke words that made ice shards run up my spine, I would never forget the words that were just dripping with terror.
“My Daughter has been kidnapped.”