She crashed through the doors of the police station and slammed her hands against the steel counter.
“Give me back my daughter!”
The receptionist glanced up at the tall woman leering down at her, “Can I help you?”
“Give me back my daughter!” the blond woman raged.
The receptionist stopped typing for a minute. With a tired hand, she rubbed her eyes. It was bad enough that today she had to stop her writing to fingerprint seven suspects, but now she had to deal with the crazies as well.
“Ma’am, if we are holding your daughter for any reason I am sure our detectives have probably cause,” the secretary attempted to assure the woman.
“My daughter is an innocent,” the woman shrieked back.
“Then she should have nothing to worry about,” the receptionist replied, not fazed. Inwardly, the receptionist smirked. She dealt with this sort of thing on a regular basis. If she was deterred by one woman shouting and screaming, she might as well quit now.
The hysterical woman, now seeing she was getting nowhere with the secretary, screamed, “Someone help! They’ve taken my innocent daughter!”
Down the hall, a door opened and a handsome man with a clean shaved face stuck his head out, “Stanton, McKenn can you calm that woman down?”
The two officers replied in trained unison, “Yes, sir.”
The man gave a relieved nod. He did not like having crazies in his police station, especially not when he was talking with the mayor.
They made their way toward the woman.
The woman was terrified to see the two tall and armed men walking toward her. In her mind, she saw demons growing and stretching with every step. Their eyes glowing blood red. Their claws ready to echo that color with her blood. There was screaming now. The screams of their victims, the woman thought.
This lady, Stanton decided, is completely off her rocker.
He and his partner were trying to contain the senseless woman, but having little luck. Her brown eyes had a wild look to them that did not seem to correspond with the dark grey pantsuit and her spiky black pumps. Her blond hair once pulled back in a tight ponytail now hung like a punished puppy. Various pieces of her golden hair were hanging out of her ponytail and were plastered against her sweating and pale skin.
The screaming the woman had thought was the screams of the demon’s victims, was actually her own. Her mouth was open farther then should have been possible and she was wailing. The sound itself was so disheartening, it made even the hard-heartened chief of police wince while on the phone with the mayor.
McKenn finally managed to place a hand on the woman’s mouth, effectively muffling the sound.
The woman’s eyes were terrified. Her hands wildly tried to tear the officer’s hand away from her mouth, but failed to succeed. She tried clamping her jaw down on the officer’s hand. To the man’s credit, he only winced and did not let go.
Stanton was trying a different tactic, “Ma’am, I need you to calm down. Listen to me. Listen to my voice. The only reason Officer McKenn here is restaining you is because he feels that you will do damage to yourself if he does not. We are just trying to help.”
It did nothing to calm the woman. She continued to scream through McKenn’s hand, bite, kick, and sometimes even punch.
Stanton remembered the woman mentioning her daughter when she came in. “Ma’am, think about your daughter. We won’t be able to let you see her until you’ve calmed down.”
That did the trick. The woman stopped her screaming and simply froze. McKenn removed his hand from her mouth.
“C- Carly?” she croaked with raw vocal cords.
Stanton smiled, “Yes. I’ll take you to her, if you will follow me.”
The business woman, now more docile than a dove, followed him.
McKenn just stared at her transformation.
Stanton was nervous, he had no idea who the daughter was exactly --other than the fact that her name was Carly. He was unsure of how the woman would react when she discovered there was no Carly.
Wait, Carly. His brain did a double take. Carly Degrey. Stanton knew exactly who this woman’s daughter was and what happened to her.
McKenn caught up to his partner, “Stanton, we have no Carly in our holding areas.”
Stanton glanced back at the woman. She bending over to pluck a discarded candy wrapper off the floor.
“I know,” Stanton replied, “It was the only way to keep her calm.”
“So, how do we keep her calm after she discovered we aren’t holding her daughter,” McKenn asked.
Stanton didn’t have an answer for his younger partner.
They already reached the holding area.
Stanton entered first and the woman followed. She circled her head in wonder as though the whitewashed walls with a metal chair and table were something glorious.
Stanton directed the woman toward the chair.
“When will you bring Carly in?” the woman asked.
“She’ll be in shortly,” Stanton lied.
He closed the door gently behind him and followed his partner to the viewing room.
McKenn was staring at the woman through the one-sided glass, his face expressionless.
“You going to tell me about Carly?” McKenn asked.
Stanton ran a hand through his thinning brown hair. “Carly Degrey was an officer of the law. Not unlike you and me. She was eager to please and a rule follower through and through.”
“One day, a robbery went south. It began to turn into a hostage situation, but before we could call in S.W.A.T. the gunman shot off his gun. With in seconds, bullets were flying left and right. The sound was deafening.”
Stanton stared at the mother who watched the door with an eager expression, “Carly --Officer Degrey crept into the bank around the gunman and was herding the terrified hostages out when the gunman saw her. She was dead before she even hit the ground.”
Stanton leaned an arm against the glass, “She was innocent and she died a hero.”
“Is today the anniversary of her death?” McKenn asked.
Stanton nodded, “The fifth.”
McKenn stared at the woman, a whole new level of understanding in his eyes.
Stanton straightened, “I have to tell her. The poor woman may not be in her right mind to forget something like her daughter’s death, but…”
“--she needs to know.” McKenn cut in.
Stanton walked out, his steps stiff and harsh.
McKenn watched as Stanton told the mother of her daughter’s death. He watched the woman dissolve into tears, and watched as his partner gave comfort to the other grieving over the death of her daughter.
Of her heroic daughter.
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