The Academy

Part Two: Chapter Five

Vanessa Lohan is a very interesting woman. It's been a few months since we originally brought her in for questioning about Liam Knox. We found out she'd been forced to hack into the police system and delete the files, Knox had threatened to kill her family.

So, we let her go. But, we did some digging. She has a long history with computers, and our database is hard to hack. It took us a long time to catch her at first and after we let her go, she disappeared. But today, she's back, standing in the middle of the police department.

I'm walking out of the building with my things, as it's the end of my shift. I have a nice laceration on my forehead, held together with butterfly bandages from our most recent mission. Piece of glass right to the face. 

I stare at Vanessa, who seems lost in the bustling main lobby of LAPD. So, I approach her. "Hi, you remember me? You're Vanessa Lohan, right?"

"You're that SWAT girl!" She recognized me instantly.

"Sargent Olivia Prenton, can I help you? Is this about Knox?"

She nods and I quickly lead her into the conference room, calling the detectives on Knox's case. Vanessa tells us that he has reached out to her again, and he wants information on what she thinks is his next target. 

This leads to her pulling out her laptop, and showing us the message in the center of the screen. Knox wants whatever she can get him on Cole Smith, the CEO of Smith Group Corporate Law.

"What exactly can you get?" The lead detective asks her.

"What do you need?" Vanessa fires back.

"SGCL is known for their confidentiality and software protected data, there's no way you can break into their system." The detective dismisses her. 

Vanessa smirks and raises an eyebrow. "Wanna bet?"

The detective looks like he's been smacked, so I speak up, my tone challenging. "Show us what you got."

Vanessa nods, a determined look crossing her face as she starts rapidly typing on her computer. It's only five minutes later when she announces she's in, and can get us whatever we want. This makes me smile, and I have to bite back a laugh at the detective's shocked expression. 

The detective leaves, and we browse through SGCL's information until he comes back, wearing a happy expression.  "Ms. Lohan, do you have a job that puts these skills to good use?" He asks.

"Excuse me?" Vanessa frowns.

"LAPD would like to offer you a job. We want you to help us take down Knox, and work every other case we come across."

"Um...you do know that everything I just did is...illegal, right?"

"Well, if you're on the side of the law..."

"Okay, then." She answers without hesitation. "Yes. I'll take your job."

"SWAT can probably use your help too," I jump in again, making sure my own department gets something out of this. 

The detective and I come to that agreement with one long staring contest, that I win. So, Vanessa's on our side, and the entire police department benefits from it.

As I'm leaving the building again, my phone rings, and I pull it out, answering when I see Lacey's name. Her wedding is in a week, and not long ago, she had asked me to be her best man. Or maid of honor. Whichever we want to call it. After all, I was the one who got the couple together in the first place. And they made fun of me for my gay push.

I step out of the room, being plunged right into a lengthy conversation about...shoes? Shoes or accessories of some sort. It seems that Camille is standing right next to her as she talks at me through the phone, because I can hear words being muttered in French.