"Detective Kingston," a young officer walked into the bureau with a petite blonde woman trailing behind him.
"What can I do for you, Corporal Murphy?"
"Detective, this is Arlene Kasper. She needs to talk to someone about her missing daughter."
"Of course. Ms. Kasper, please have a seat," she said. "Thanks, Murphy. I got it from here."
Murphy left the room, and Ms. Kasper sat down in the chair next to Allie's desk.
"Tell me what's going on. Why do you believe your daughter is missing?"
"Well, she hasn't called me in a couple of days. She calls me every other day and texts me every day. The last time we talked, she was going to go to the store and was going to come by afterward. She had a new tattoo and was extremely excited to show me."
"What day was this? Do you know what the tattoo was?" she asked, firing up her computer.
As Ms. Kasper spoke, she began taking notes.
"It was last Friday. She didn't tell me what the tattoo was. She wanted me to see it for myself, I guess."
"Do you think her friends might know? This would be pertinent information for the report."
"I can give them a call and see if they know."
"That would be great," she said. "Does your daughter have an active social life?"
"She's a homebody. She works and goes home. If she does go out, it's not very often."
"You said Friday? Why didn't you report her missing sooner? That was over 36 hours ago. We need to start looking in the first 48 hours."
"Detective Kingston, I tried. I begged. When she didn't show up at my house, and I couldn't reach her, I did come in. I tried. I was turned away and told that since my daughter was an adult, I had to wait 24 hours."
"You were told that by someone who works here?"
"I came in, and I talked to a man who was at the front desk. He wasn't very nice. He acted as if I was bothering him."
"What was this officer's name? Do you remember?" she asked.
"I believe it was a Hadley."
"Hadley? Sgt. George Hadley?"
"Yes, that was it. My Uncle's name was George, so I remember his first name was George."
"Ms. Kasper, I need you to fill out this statement. Write down everything you can think of, no matter how insignificant it may seem. Details make the difference. Do the who, what, where, when, and why. Who does she know? Who knows her routine? What was she doing before and after? Where was she going, where had she been, and why was she going there? Everything you remember from the last conversation you had. If I can, please send me copies of the last text messages you had exchanged. Things such as that. I need the most detailed description of her and the most recent photo. If you have one on your phone, send it to me, and I can print it out here. Here is my card with my email address. I will be back in a few minutes. If you have any questions, just write them down when you think of them. OK?"
"I think so," she said. "Thank you for being so concerned about my daughter."
"Of course. I'll be back. And Ms. Kasper, in your statement, please write down the name of the officer who turned you away and how the conversation went."
Allie walked away from her desk with purpose. She was angry, but she tried to keep her composure. She did just that until she made it to Curtis' office, where she stormed in and startled him.
"Call an ambulance because I am about to hurt somebody," she said.
"Who is going to need medical assistance?"
"Desk Sgt. Hadley. I need to have a very loud discussion with him. I need to have it sanctioned; he is of a higher rank than me, and I am not about to be written up for insubordination. So, I need your backing on this."
"Can I ask what this is about before I put my name behind it?" he asked.
"It's about a terrified mother sitting at my desk filling out a missing person's report on her daughter. She's a twenty-two-year-old girl who hasn't had contact with her for about thirty-six hours now; with us having a fucking serial killer on the streets, she was told she had to wait twenty-four hours. We know the first forty-eight is the most important and that the whole twenty-four-hour rule is, in fact, not a rule, not here or anywhere else. Maybe on TV or in books, but not in the real world."
Curtis picked up the phone, "Yeah, it's Curtis in the DB. I need to know if Hadley is on the desk today. He is? Tell him to come to my office immediately... and he may want to wear a cup."
He hung up the phone, "Why don't I take care of this? Your emotions seem to be extremely escalated right now."
"No fucking shit I am. Emotions are escalated right now. You didn't look at this poor woman and see her pain." She was pacing the area of the small office. "What if it was Makayla and someone you have told you can trust to help you, I.e., the police look you in the eyes and say sit back and wait? Do you have ANY idea how much the city is going to be sued for if her daughter is somewhere dead? Oh, the press is going to have a fucking field day when they find out about the blatant disregard we had for this woman and her little girl?"
"Oh shit."
"Oh shit is an understatement, Martin. So let me do this. I'd rather him be pissed at me than anyone else. At least I know he will avoid me and not speak to me. I won't be mean."
"No, you'll just be passive-aggressive and condescending," he said.
"Oh, LT, you know me so well."
It took about ten minutes, but finally, a rollie-pollie-looking man entered the office. He was about 5'7 "and 280 pounds. His hair was disheveled, and his shirt was a crumpled mess. His belly hung over a 52-inch waist. He looked annoyed and bored, as if he was too high on the chain of command to be questioned or called into an office. He stood in the door with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Why am I here?" he asked, sounding indignant.
He was a cop who let his body and ego grow too large.
"Hadley, sit down," Curtis said, pointing to a chair.
Allie was standing, leaning against the tall file cabinet.
"No, I'll stand. I have things to do so we can get whatever this is over with."
He was still standing in the doorway. Allie kipped herself from the filing cabinet and walked up to Hadley.
"Hadley, I expected nothing from you, but I am still disappointed," she said.
His face became red with anger, and his ears from embarrassment.
"Listen, little lady, don't you dare talk to me like that. I am your superior."
"I am not little, and at this moment, I am certainly going to be a lady; as far as being a superior you are not superior in any way."
She invaded his personal space, making him feel threatened and uncomfortable. She was almost nose to nose with him if she wasn't two full inches taller than him.
"Sit down... NOW," her tone was stern but not threatening.
He stepped around her and took a seat. He sat down and crossed his arms with a look of disdain on his face.
"What the hell am I doing here, Martin? And why am I being spoken to like a probie from an underling on a power trip."
Allie leaned back, almost seated on the desk. "You're listening to this underling because you're an archaic idiot. Did you really tell a terrified mother that she had to wait twenty-four hours to report her twenty-year-old daughter missing? While there is a serial killer on the loose to boot?"
"Yeah, it's a policy. Maybe you need to read your manual, Detective."
"I could agree with you, but we would both be wrong."
Allie walked over to the bookcase behind Curtis' desk. She picked up the heavy policy and procedure manual and tossed it to him.
"Why don't you pull it up for me to read? In the meantime, I will explain why I know you're wrong. You are about fifty-five years behind. Did you read the manual, or have police procedural shows and crime novels educated you?" she said.
He dropped the manual heavy on the floor.
"I'll take that as a no," she said, tossing him a pen and pad. "If you can write, I suggest taking notes because you are about to get schooled."
Hadley bobbled the pad, and the pen fell to the floor. He dropped the pad on top of the manual.
"Oh, this should be good. Educate me," he crossed his arms and legs, closing himself off.
"There is no waiting period to report ANYONE missing. The first forty-eight hours are the most critical. It doesn't matter if the person shows up forty-five minutes later. We have a fucking SERIAL KILLER on our streets who seems to be targeting young women. You know she could have gone to the FBI due to foul play and suspicious circumstances, but this woman came to us because we are public servants. You seem to be self-serving if you ask me. You do realize if this girl ends up at the coroner's office on an autopsy table, the department and you will be sued. You will have to live the rest of your life with blood on your hands. You may want to look up the number to your union rep."
He slowly uncrossed his arms and put his feet flat on the floor. His face softened, and a look of remorse came over his face. She was not sure if it was because he was concerned for the girl's safety or the gravity of the situation that he would be sued that caused him to do so.
"You're right. I never stopped to think about it. I just thought we had a twenty-four-hour policy," he said.
"You are sharp as a marble. Do you know that? You are at the point in your illustrious career where you show up to work for the sole purpose of building your 401k so that in a few years, you can collect that big fat pension. If she has been raped, assaulted, or even more tragically dead, that's on you. That mother thinks she waited too long to come back and report her. It's been thirty-six hours. Her guilt will be crippling."
Hadley was both white and green at the same time. He swallowed hard. "I will accept full responsibility morally and professionally," he said.
"No fucking shit, you will, and you should, so don't think that you're falling on your sword because you're not. If you are a praying man, I would start praying that this girl is not found with her guts hanging out and slowly bleeding to death while she looks at her intestines."
"Do you have anything to say?" Curtis asked him.
"I would like to be excused. I don't feel very well."
"Imagine how that mother feels as long as you have understood every syllable that has come from my mouth. Do you have any follow-up questions for me?"
"No, Ma'am." He stood up and quickly left the office.
Curtis looked at her with an impressed expression.
"I'm surprised how well you restrained yourself. I honestly half expected you to rip his balls off and make him swallow them. Instead, you made him swallow his pride."
"I won't lie, I'm proud of myself," she said.
"He seemed genuinely concerned by the time the conversation was over," Curtis said.
"He was genuinely concerned because he just realized he should up his professional liability insurance. If the directions were on the heel, that man couldn't pour water from a boot."
Curtis let out a small laugh.
"You are a master at that. You know that, right?"
"It's a blessing and a curse."
She left the office and returned to her desk to see if Ms. Kasper had finished her statement. She was determined to do right by her daughter and Ms.Kasper. She was going to find her. She was going to be found, hopefully alive. Her gut told her that she was not. If the man had taken her, she would disappear till she was found.
"Did you happen to get a hold of her friends?" Allie asked.
"I did. They didn't know either. She was supposed to meet them and show them, too. All she told them was to brush up on their Latin."
"Your daughter knows Latin?"
"Almost as well as she knows English," Ms. Kasper said.
"She seems like my kind of girl. Let me look over your statement."
Allie read the statement twice. Ms. Kasper did an excellent job; her statement was detailed and complete.
"Ms. Kasper, you did an amazing job on this statement," she said. "I am going to exhaust all efforts to find your daughter. My partner, too. One of us will work on it until we find something. No one wants her home more than you and I do."
Ms. Kasper cradled Allie's cheek like a mother does to express love and tenderness.
"I believe you. I must believe you, but I honestly do. I have faith in you; you and your partner will be in every prayer I send to the Lord. You are exceptional for putting yourself on the line for people you don't even know."
"It's my job, but it's also my pleasure."
Ms. Kasper stood up.
"Ms. Kasper."
"Yes, detective?"
"Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo."
"What does that mean?"
"If I cannot bend the will of heaven. I shall move hell," Allie said.
"She would really like you too. Thank you," Ms. Kasper said, her voice trembling.
Allie called Murphy back to show her out. She rubbed her fingers on her temples when she was gone. It wasn't working.
We both know she's dead, Caretaker.
"I have to believe there is a chance she is still alive."
Then, let me rephrase. I can say without certainty that she will be if she is not dead now.
"Why have you seen her, wherever you may be?"
He didn't answer. He just looked at her. She took a deep breath and sighed heavily.
You know it as well as I do.
"Fuck. Fucking mother fucking fuck."