Chapter 3

A New Job

It had been a couple of days since Dana’s odd encounter. She had tried to look for the thing that had attacked her, but unfortunately her search had led to no results at all. In fact, any people she asked about it had just looked at her like she was crazy, which was understandable when considering the type of person she was looking for. Only comic books had creatures like the one she had been looking for.

With no leads on her mysterious assailant, Dana had decided to simply stay in her office and wait for work to come by. This also didn’t bring any results, as no messages or calls seemed to be coming with the intention of asking for her services.

Right now, the detective was laying on her couch that was also used as a bed with a porn magazine over her face. Despite having given up on her search for the creature that had attacked her, the memory of that encounter was still vivid in her mind.

“They can call me crazy all they want, but I know what I saw, dammit,” Dana mumbled to herself as she gently scratched the area she had been hit. There was still a slight stinging sensation there from the attack she had taken that night. “No way was all that just some crazy dream or something like that. Otherwise my ass wouldn’t have felt like it got fried. But then again, where the hell did that thing go? And what was it in the first place?”

The detective did have an idea as to how she could get on the creature’s trail, though. Considering what had happened on that night, she was certain that the thing had been responsible for the power going out in the apartment building. Whatever it was doing, it needed to take large amounts of electricity from whatever source it could find. Because of this, Dana was certain that if she was on the lookout for any sudden power shutdowns, she could find that thing again.

However, no such strange reports had come in. The detective had even asked some people she knew to be on the lookout for such things and keep her informed. So far, though, nothing had come up at all.

“...Well, screw this!” Dana suddenly yelled as she sat up on her couch. “If there’s nothing for me to do in terms of working, might as well try and enjoy my time!”

The detective walked up to her TV, where she had set up a video game console and turned it on. She was about to turn on the game console as well, but stopped when she noticed what was on TV. It was a news report on several missing people.

“Late last night, a group of four teenagers went missing in the woods in the eastern parts of Grand Lake,” the news reporter began. “Besides their destroyed camping equipment, no other signs have been found of the missing teens. The police are currently looking through the forest for any signs at all that could lead them to their location, but are unfortunately short on available staff. There have already been several other disappearances all over the city that are taking up resources. Still, the city’s chief of police has promised to solve all these cases as fast as possible.”

The news report was switched off, as Dana started up her game console and went back to her couch.

“These cases will all be solved, my ass! No way is that dumb bitch getting anything solved!” the detective laughed as sat on her couch. “If she truly wanted any crimes to be solved around here, she wouldn’t have crippled the police force so badly that they can hardly get anything done anymore.”

As she began playing her game, Dana thought about what she had just learned. Apparently, multiple people had gone missing in a very short amount of time, right after a strange creature comes around and blasts her with electricity.

Coincidence? The detective was willing to bet that this was anything but that.

However, she wasn’t going to go and search these missing people at all, until someone was willing to hire her to do it. This might sound cruel, but even she had rent that needed to be paid and no amount of working for free was going to pay it.

Suddenly, her office’s doorbell rang. Cursing a bit underneath her breath, Dana paused her game and got up to answer the door. She suspected that it was the landlord, asking for her late payments again.

“Goddamn old man… How many times do I need to tell him that I’ll pay as soon as I freaking can?” the detective cursed as she walked to the door and opened it. “Look, Mr. Henricks, I haven’t got the money, so can you-”

Dana stopped talking immediately as she saw who was waiting outside. It wasn’t the old man of a landlord that she had expected. Instead, there was what seemed like a married couple standing there, a man and a woman.

“Ummm… Excuse me, but did we perhaps come to the wrong place?” the man asked awkwardly, having not expected such a reception. “We came here looking for Colt’s Private Detective Agency. The name is written on the door, but has it perhaps moved to another location? If so, could you tell us where it is?”

It took Dana a moment to realize just what was going on actually. After such a long time, she finally had actual customers standing right at her door and here she was, receiving them rudely while barely even dressed. She took a quick glance at herself and noticed that she was only wearing the T-shirt and underpants she had gone to bed with.

“Just a second!” Dana quickly said before closing the door in front of the couple. The man and the woman waited outside while they could hear someone moving around quickly on the inside and moving things around. After a bit of time had passed, they were called. “Come in, please!”

The couple entered the office, which had now been cleaned up to make it look somewhat presentable. Gone were the empty beer bottles and pizza boxes that used to litter the place. Dana had also put on her detective outfit, which consisted of a white shirt, black pants, white shoes and a long light brown coat.

“Welcome to Colt’s Private Detective Agency,” the detective greeted the couple while sitting behind her desk. “Come have a seat, please.”

The man and the woman looked at each other for a second, both now feeling unsure about the services of the detective. They still walked into the office and sat at the two chairs in front of the desk, hoping that perhaps this was the help they needed, even if the person they were looking to hire wasn’t exactly right in the head. Not to mention, they both knew just how desperate they were to get help.

“Now, as you’ve probably already guessed, I am the owner of this detective agency. My name is Dana Colt,” Dana introduced herself politely. “Might I ask who you fine people are and what exactly brought you two to my office?”

“Yes, well… My name is Richard Harris and this is my wife, Margaret,” the man introduced himself and his wife. “We have come here looking for your help in finding our missing daughter, Jennifer.”

“A missing kid, huh? I can handle that,” Dana said as she too out a cigarette and lit it up. “Do you have any clues as to what might have happened? Did you have a fight with her that caused her to run away from home? Or did she go with a boyfriend on a little trip?”

“We are afraid that it is a bit more serious than that,” Richard answered as he waved his hand a bit in an effort to get rid of the smoke from the cigarette. “Have you heard about the recent disappearances that have been happening?”

“Sure have, just saw it on the news,” Dana replied. “Is your daughter one of the missing people?”

“I’m afraid she is,” Richard answered as his tone became much sadder. “In fact, she was involved in the latest case of disappearances. She along with her friends went camping to the woods near the lake. They were supposed to be away only for a couple of days, but when they didn’t come back, we got worried and called the police. They searched the woods and were able to find the campsite, but-”

“THOSE USELESS BASTARDS WON’T DO A DAMN THING!” Margaret suddenly yelled at the top of her lungs and slammed her hand on the desk, surprising both her husband and Dana, who actually jolted a bit on her seat. “They claimed that they’re doing everything in their power to find my daughter, but it’s all bullshit! If they were really doing everything they can, they would be sweeping through the forest non-stop, until my little girl was found!”

An awkward silence fell over the room, as both Dana and Richard were left speechless by Margaret’s sudden outburst. The hysterical woman’s husband eventually broke the silence.

“I apologize for my wife’s actions,” Richard said. “You see, my wife doesn’t exactly have a high opinion on the city’s police department anymore. Some time ago they were doing their job and keeping people safe, but that isn’t the case anymore. Ever since the new chief took over, things have gone downhill and we have even considered moving out of this city to somewhere safer.”

“Can’t blame you for that,” Dana said sympathetically, fully understanding her customers’ point of view. “Believe me, I don’t exactly like how things have been handled on that front either. The reason I first started my detective agency was so I could help out people when the cops themselves couldn’t.”

“I see… That is good to know,” Richard said as he had started to comfort his wife, who had begun to sob quietly. “So, will you take this case? Money is no issue to us at all. Just name your price and we will make sure to-”

“You got a picture of your daughter?” Dana asked, cutting off Richard. “I’m going to need to know what she looks like in order to look for her.”

“Oh! Of course. Here you go,” Richard said as he took a picture out of his pocket and handed it to the detective. “So… Will you be taking this job then?”

Dana didn’t say anything, as she looked at the photo. The girl on the picture had long, curly brown hair and bright blue eyes. She was smiling happily at the camera, which made her look like a real sweet kid. One could tell with a quick look at the picture and the parents that the girl had inherited her mother’s hair and her father’s eyes.

“Ummm… Detective?” Richard tried calling out to Dana upon not getting a response at first. “Will you be taking this job?”

“Please… Find my little girl,” Margaret said in a low voice, having managed to compose herself enough to speak up. “The thought that anything bad has happened to her is killing me. I beg of you, please bring her home to us. We’ll pay any price you name.”

“No need to worry. I’m taking this case,” Dana finally answered as she put the picture in her own pocket. “I was just thinking about how badly things have changed. I remember a time when a kid like her could play outside without having to worry about shit like this. Really pisses me off.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Richard said, grateful over the help they would be getting. “I will make sure that you are fully compensated for your services!”

“I’m sure the payment won’t be an issue. In fact, I’ll probably give you a discount for recognizing the incompetence of our current head of the police force,” Dana said as she and her clients stood up and began to make their way to the door. “Although, please don’t think badly about all of the cops that are currently on the force. Even if most of the real good ones gave up on this city and left, there are still some heroes there, doing their best to make sure people like you are safe. I’m actually going to be meeting a couple of them regarding this case.”

Once the details of her job had been figured out, Dana left her office and started to head towards the city’s police department. Even if most of the people she respected and was friends with in the force had left, there were still some people she knew she could count on. Not everyone there was an useless yes-man to the new chief, who cared more about her ego getting stroked than doing her duty.

The few respectable cops left were often a great help for Dana’s work as a private detective. They would provide her with details regarding some of the cases she worked on, such as information on people involved or details on crime scenes. The current chief obviously didn’t like the idea of someone outside her control going and doing a better job than her people were, but unfortunately for her, a lot of the people she favored in the force weren’t exactly the most active or loyal workers. A lot of the chief’s favored staff were easily bribed and would do their best to avoid actually working, making it easy to avoid getting caught by them.

While Dana couldn’t understand why the people she considered her friends from work were still working with such a police force, she was honestly grateful for them. Their help had often proven to be incredibly valuable and had helped her solve quite a few cases.

The detective finally arrived at the front of the police department and could immediately see the signs of the place going down the tubes. A few police officers were just standing around at the entrance, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and talking among themselves, like a bunch of gossiping teenagers. These people didn’t even bother putting their uniforms on correctly and looked like their clothes hadn’t been washed in weeks.

The building itself wasn’t much better. There was graffiti on the walls, with most of them basically being complaints directed at the uselessness of the officers. There was also trash littered all around the entrance, with the steps to the front door being practically covered in plastic cups from coffee shops, candy wrappers, old newspapers and other garbage.

Dana was honestly infuriated by the sight before her. She could still remember how different things were back in the day. The entrance was kept clean without even a single piece of trash in sight and anyone that dropped any trash there was in for a hefty fine. Not only that, but only a few idiots would even consider vandalizing the building, and the police officers were too active and hard-working to be standing around doing nothing.

To see the place that she used to work at with such pride get reduced into such a mess left the detective wondering whether to be enraged or saddened by what she was seeing. Nevertheless, she began to walk up the stairs to the front door of the station, hoping that her contacts within the police force hadn’t been fired because of the new chief’s whim or something else.

As soon as she walked through the front door, Dana saw that the place was just as bad on the inside as it was on the outside. Trash littered the floor and the place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in ages. There was also a front desk with a young woman as a receptionist, but she was clearly not interested in work. Much like the “cops” outside, she wasn’t properly wearing her uniform either and wasn’t doing anything that even remotely looked like work. Instead, she was looking down at her smartphone, like it was the only thing in the world.

These types of people were now very common in the city’s police force. Lazy, unprofessional and utterly worthless. Gone were the people who honestly protected and served the community with pride and honor. The good cops that actually did their job had all been replaced by useless bums that cared more about their phones than the work they were supposed to be doing. With people like these, it was no wonder why the city had gone to hell.

Dana had once looked at what kind of people were being hired upon the new chief taking over. She had noticed that a lot of them were just fresh out of college with all sorts of ridiculous degrees that she didn’t even know existed and a lot of them didn’t have any real experience when it came to work. The only thing they had been doing, besides their useless degrees, was spend way too much time on social media as an activist of some type, although it was more like they were just whiny brats that were desperate to be noticed. The way Dana saw it, these were all just spoiled children that had gotten everything handed to them through complaining, which is probably how they got hired as well. She was certain that at least 90 % of them were spending their time complaining about the police a couple of years back.

Without saying a single word, Dana walked past the receptionist, who was too busy with her phone to see her. The detective kept walking without any obstructions by a single “officer” that should have questioned her presence, until she finally arrived at a desk with someone that was actually working. It was young man in his 20’s with a large pile of papers on his desk. His face had signs of severe exhaustion as he kept working through the papers, but despite this he wasn’t slacking off in his work at all and his uniform was in perfect condition.

“Hey, Dillon. How are you doing?” Dana said with a smile to the man at the desk, who looked up at her. “I see that you’re still the hard worker as usual.”

“Oh, Dana! It’s great to see you again!” Dillon greeted back with a big smile. “Yeah, I’ve been up to my ass in paperwork lately. It sucks, but somebody has to do it, you know?”

Seeing Dillon brought back a lot of good memories to Dana. Back in the day, he had been under her tutelage, as he had just joined the force. Like quite a few people that were aiming to be police officers then, Dillon had dreamed of becoming one ever since he was a small child and hoped to protect the community around him. At first, Dana had expected him to quit after seeing some of the worst parts of the job, but was surprised to see him hold on no matter how tough things got. In all honesty, if she had any regrets regarding her leaving the force, it was the fact that she was no longer working with Dillon, as they had made a good team. While she herself was headstrong and brash, he was a lot calmer and more collected, even if he wasn’t as headstrong.

Sadly, those days were long gone now. Nothing more than mere memories at the moment.

“I’m guessing the chief is using you as the dumping stations for all this crap then, huh?” Dana said. “You’re a good cop, D, and I hate to see your skills get wasted like this. I’d suggest that you quit working here and join me in my detective agency, but I doubt that would be a good idea. I’m not exactly getting all that much work and I know you’ve got a family to feed.”

“Yeah… I’m thankful that you’re willing to offer a place for me, but I can’t accept it just like that,” Dillon said with a sad smile. “Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to work with you, like we used to. However, with two kids to feed, I can’t really go and do just whatever the hell I feel like. I might essentially be a slave here, but at least the steady paychecks keep my family fed.”

“It’s okay. I know what you mean. I honestly respect you for being so responsible,” Dana said with a smile. “Anyways, I kind of came here for business. Think you can help me out?”

“Oh, of course!” Dillon said excitedly. “What do you need from me?”

“I’m currently looking into a girl who went missing by the name Jennifer Harris,” Dana replied. “From what her parents told me, she went camping with a couple of her friends in the woods and disappeared. Think you can get me the files on that case?”

“I should be able to do that, but I’m not sure how much that will help you, though,” Dillon said. “You know how the current force is. As long as they keep kissing up to the new chief and say things that she likes, they don’t have to really do any work at all. Hell, their reports are often so badly written that I can hardly understand what they’re supposed to say!”

“I know. I know. But I need to at least give it a look,” Dana said with a sigh. “It should at least give me some sort of an idea of what I might be looking at before I go to the crime scene myself. You know that a good detective leaves no detail overlooked, right?”

“Yeah… I mean, you’re the one who taught me that,” Dillon replied with a small smile. “I should be able to get the reports and other stuff to you. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it,” Dana said with a small grin.

“No problem. However, I think there might be something else you should look into as well,” Dillon suddenly added. “Shane wants to talk to you about something.”

Shane was one of the detectives that Dana respected and had even been trained by him. Despite having been put on paper work, much like the other police officers still worth a damn, he had remained in the force due to his sense of duty. If he had something so say to Dana, she was going to make sure she heard it.

“Okay. I’ll make sure to meet up with him,” Dana replied. “Any idea what he wants to talk about? And why didn’t he just call me himself?”

“To answer your first question, I have no idea. I just know that a lot of strange stuff is going on right now, so it’s probably related to that. Whatever it is, it seemed very serious,” Dillon explained. “As for your second question, you know how the new chief doesn’t like you very much, right?”

“Trust me. The feeling is VERY mutual in that regard,” Dana said and rolled her eyes.

“Well, Shane didn’t want to take any risks in getting fired. The job might not be what it used to be, but even he needs a paycheck,” Dillon continued his explanation. “Last month, one of the good guys on the force got fired due to a call he made. It’s possible that our phone calls are being monitored, so he didn’t call you. Besides, Shane had a feeling you would show up here with all the crazy shit that’s going on.”

“Glad to hear the chief keeps finding new ways to make everything even shittier,” Dana grumbled. “Anyways, I’ll go see Shane right away. You get me the files I need in the meantime.”

“Got it.”

With her new destination set for her, Dana began to head towards Shane’s office. Once again, almost none of the police officers noticed, let alone questioned, her presence at the station. The only ones that seemed to even take notice of her being there were the few remaining good cops, who had been there when Dana herself had still been in the force. However, they knew that they could trust their old colleague and didn’t mind her being there at all.

Eventually, Dana reached Shane’s office and knocked on the door. A gruff, older voice told her to come in, prompting her to open the door and enter. What was revealed was a room that looked like a complete mess. Piles upon piles of papers and files were littering every possible spot in the room. The desk, the floor, the tops of cabinets and even the chairs were all covered in papers to some degree.

“Holy shit, Shane. Is it just me or has the amount of paper increased here since the last time I paid a visit?” Dana asked while looking around with wide eyes. “Do they just dump all the papers here or something?”

“Good to see you too, Dana,” Shane said with a small smile. Much like Dillon, he looked very exhausted as well. The older detective had shirt gray hair and was wearing a white collar shirt with a red tie, brown pants and black shoes. He also had a brown coat resting on the back of his chair. “As you can see, I’ve been quite busy with some of my… duties.”

“Yeah, you sure have,” Dana mumbled as she cleared a chair of all the papers on it and took a seat. “Dillon told me that you wanted to see me. What’s up?”

“There are some photos that I’d like you to take a look at,” the old detective said as he handed a folder to Dana. “Tell me what you think about them.”

Dana opened the file, completely unprepared for what she was about to see. During her years working for the police and as a private detective, she had seen many horrifying sights with her eyes. Violent murders, terrible accidents, suicides and other gruesome scenes that would leave any sane person scarred forever. She had seen so much death and violence that she was certain she would never be shocked by such things ever again.

How wrong she was.

Almost as soon as she opened the file and saw the first photo, Dana’s eyes went wide from shock. As she kept going through the pictures, her face began to turn more and more pale, with each horrifying sight burning itself to her memory. This was something she couldn’t have ever been prepared for.

All of the pictures were of violent crime scenes. However, never before had Dana ever seen anything this brutal and violent. Some of the victims had been torn apart by what seemed like wild animals, some looked like they had been burnt to the point their whole bodies had been charred, some were cut to numerous pieces and so on. It was like a collection of hellish nightmares for the eye to see.

“Holy shit… That’s not something for the faint of heart,” Dana mumbled as she closed the file and took a deep breath to calm herself a bit. “Jesus freaking tap-dancing Christ, Shane, what the hell have you been looking at?”

“Murder cases from the last few days,” the old detective answered.

Dana looked at Shane with eyes wide from shock. She couldn’t believe what he had just said.

“You’re kidding, right?” the blonde detective asked. “There’s no way these happened just in the last couple of days. If that was the case, it would be all over the news!”

“I’m afraid that I’m not lying at all. All of these deaths have indeed occurred just recently,” Shane answered. “It has been hidden completely from the public, though. The new chief knows that none of her ass-kissing subordinates could find their own asses without a map, so she is going to keep this whole mess hidden in order to save face. The only reason she is allowing the disappearances to be reported on is because it isn’t looked upon as badly. If someone gets brutally killed, there’s a panic. If someone goes missing, just a few eyebrows get raised and nothing more.”

“Goddammit! Of course she’s only thinking about covering her own fat ass!” Dana cursed angrily. “She doesn’t give a shit if innocent people get killed, as long as she gets to keep her comfy job!”

“I feel the same way about this. That’s why I decided to get into contact with you,” Shane said. “This is something that obviously needs to be looked at and by someone who can see beyond the screen of a smartphone.”

“You want me to look into this whole mess?” Dana asked, receiving a nod from the older detective. “I’ll do what I can, but I can’t really promise much. I’ve already taken up a case regarding a girl that recently went missing.”

“That’s fine by me. I just hope to get some assistance with this whole mess,” Shane said. “Besides, I can’t help but feel like these deaths and the disappearances are connected somehow. After all, they started happening around the same time.”

Having taken up the work offered by the grizzled detective, Dana took a copy of the file containing the information on the recent deaths and left Shane’s office. She began to walk back to Dillon to get the file on the incident regarding the disappearance of Jennifer Harris and her friends. Once she had that, she could finally leave and get to work.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be one more obstacle in her way.

“Well, if it isn’t Dana,” a mocking voice called out from behind the blonde detective, stopping her in her tracks. “What’s the matter? Not enough work for a loser like you, so you’ve come back here to take some from us?”

A frustrated groan escaped from Dana’s mouth as she felt her anger begin to rise immediately just from hearing that insufferable voice. She slowly turned around to see two police officers, ones that had been hired personally by the current chief, standing there with smug smiles on their faces.

“Detectives Miles and Kerry. What a displeasure to see you two useless shitbags again,” the blonde detective said as she tried her best not to let her anger get the best of her. “Considering how badly things are going in the city, I was under the impression that even you two would be out there doing some actual work for once. Guess I was being too optimistic in thinking that either of you two would ever do something actually useful.”

Miles and Kerry had once tried to get into the police force while it was still a respectable establishment, only to get kicked out due to not meeting required standards. The two of them had then gone to social media to complain about the police force, making up all sorts of wild accusations that had no shred of truth or evidence to them. While most rational people would only roll their eyes at the stories the duo made, they had managed to find similarly thinking individuals that managed to make them seem a much bigger deal than they actually were.

Once the new chief took over, Miles and Kerry were among the first ones to be hired by her personally and get assigned as detectives of all things. Once this happened, their behavior only got worse. The two fake detectives would constantly abuse the new power they had, instead of helping the community they were supposed to serve. This eventually led to an incident, where they were suspected of sexually assaulting four teenage girls, but the whole thing was buried by the chief. This had actually been the last straw that finally made Dana quit her job in the force.

“Hey, don’t such a tone with us! We do plenty of work around here!” Kerry shouted at Dana. “You have no idea what kind of work we have to do at the station itself!”

“Actually, I know what the work at the station itself is like, dumbass! And you know how!? Because I used to do it myself! Unlike you lazy assholes, who just sit on your asses all day!” Dana yelled back. “Why are you here in the first place? Last time I checked, the only thing you two were good at was licking the boss’ ass. Or did she finally get tired of having your tongues up her rectum?”

“If you must know, we are here to check on Shane’s progress on a couple of cases he’s been working on,” Miles explained. “It’s unfortunate that such a useless old man is responsible for such important work, but it can’t be helped.”

“Hey, that “old man” does a lot more work in a single hour than both of you have done in your entire lives!” Dana yelled, angered over her friend and mentor being insulted in such a manner. “If you two are so much better, why don’t you work on those cases of his and get them done?”

“We would, but there are some problems with that,” Miles began to explain. “You see, they require certain amount of cultural sensitivity that we don’t really have, as we are a couple of white guys, so-”

“THE FUCK DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING, YOU ASSHAT!?” Dana practically roared in rage, as she was completely done with the lies she was hearing. “Police work has never been about things like race, gender, sexuality or anything else like that! What the hell kind of bullshit are you trying to spew!?”

“Something a foolish brute like yourself would never understand, Ms. Colt.”

Dana felt a chill run down her spine upon hearing the new voice behind her. It was the voice of an older woman that she knew all too well. Ever since the day that person had been introduced into her life, she had been forced to listen to her spew some of the most disgusting and two-faced words one could ever hear. Listening to her just for a second made you feel so filthy that you wanted to take a bath to clean yourself out of sheer disgust.

It was the new police chief, Caitlyn Cannary.

“Well… The new chief herself,” Dana managed to say while gritting her teeth. “What a great displeasure this is.”

“Is something wrong, Ms. Colt?” Caitlyn asked in a mocking tone. “You seem to be having some issues. Perhaps you should leave the station now and go see a doctor.”

“Oh, no need to worry about me. It’s just a reaction I have instinctively upon meeting absolute scum,” Dana replied. “I’ll be better once I get out of here.”

Dana began to make her way back towards where Dillon was, so she could hopefully get the files he had for her before leaving the station completely. Her anger was quickly raising from seeing not only Miles and Kerry, but Caitlyn as well. The two rapists that destroyed any credibility the police had and the person who allowed it all to happen. If she stayed there for too long, she was certain that someone would end up getting hurt.

However, Caitlyn wasn’t apparently done tormenting her former detective and stood in Dana’s way.

“Not so fast. I think that you might have something that doesn’t belong to you,” Caitlyn said while standing in front of Dana with an irritatingly smug smile on her face. “I believe we are going to have to do a body check on you. A completely thorough one at that.”

“The absolute FUCK!?” Dana yelled angrily. “Didn’t you forbid all forms of body checks as they were a “way to sexually harass women without repercussions” or some crap like that!? Aren’t you being a bit of a hypocrite here!?”

“We all have to do things that we don’t like. Now, detectives Miles and Kerry,” Caitlyn called out to her two goons. “You know what to do.”

Just one good look at the faces of the two “detectives” told you that they weren’t exactly planning to do anything legal or professional. The perverse grins on their faces told you just what the two were planning and Dana was having none of it.

“First of all, I’m not a teenage girl, so those two shouldn’t even be that interested in me. Second of all, there’s one thing I want to say to that,” Dana said before running past Caitlyn, almost knocking her down to the floor in the process. “YOU’RE NOT GETTING YOUR RAPIST HANDS ON ME, ASSHOLES!”

The blonde detective could hear the chief angrily screaming at her thugs to go after her, but it wasn’t going to do much. Miles and Kerry were about as active as sloths, so they weren’t exactly the greatest of athletes. As far as she was concerned, Dana had already escaped.

As she was running through the corridors of the building, she met Dillon on her way. The young officer had most likely heard the commotion and was now heading towards Dana with a file in hand that contained the information she needed.

The two of them didn’t need any words to communicate at all. Just meeting gazes for a moment was enough for them. Just as she ran past Dillon, Dana snatched the file from his hand and kept running while Dillon kept walking like nothing had happened.

Despite being worried over what might happen to her friends that had helped her, Dana kept going until she had gotten far enough from the police station. Once she was certain that she was safe, she opened up the file Dillon had given her and looked through the papers.

Her next stop would be at the woods, where the kids had gone missing.