Linda's Story

Out Of Jail

Danny furrowed his brow as he read the subject's file of previous convictions: child abuse, assault on a minor, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault with intent to do bodily harm.

Why did all that sound familiar? He shrugged it off and followed his partner into the box.

It wasn't until he glanced at the file while his partner was questioning the subject that he figured out who it was sitting in front of him.

"Do you have any family?" He interrupted the questioning, ignoring the annoyed looks.

"I've got three kids. Two daughters and a son."

"You keep in touch with them?"

"Not my youngest. She's married now and has a couple-a kids. Her name's Linda. Why, do you know her?"

"N-no," he cleared his throat. "Sorry. You just look like... someone else I know."

**********

"Sarge, I can handle it," Danny reassured his boss.

"You're really trying to tell me that you've got no emotional attachment to the subject?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I have absolutely no emotional attachment to the subject."

"Your judgement is impaired. You can't tell me you don't have an opinion of him."

"Tony O'Shea is a heartless, lying, low down, sneaky, cheating, child abusing son of a bitch who deserves to rot in hell for ever laying a hand on my wife."

"I'd say that's impartial," he muttered sarcastically.

***********

It was a Friday, so the kids were spending the night at Patrick's house, much to their utter delight. They hadn't had a sleepover with Patrick in a while.

Danny needed to tell Linda about what happened at work that day, but he needed her to be relaxed. "You wanna take a bath?"

She looked surprised at that notion, "who are you, and what have you done to my husband?"

"Well, I know that you just finished your period, and you like to take baths after that, so..."

"That's very considerate of you, babe!" She smiled widely, "I accept your invitation."

*********

"So what's up?"

Danny stalled his hands in Linda's soapy hair. "'Scuse me?"

"What's up?"

"What makes you think something is up?"

"Well, there's the fact that you offered to take a bath, just out of the blue. Usually I have to suggest it, or force you to do it with me. And when you do suggest it, it's after I've had a tough day or a panic attack or something."

"Just... some stuff happened at work today."

"Oh yeah?" She rubbed her arm with the body wash, "like what?"

He needed to tell her in a tactful way, but how? "I think for the first time a subject was someone I knew."

"Really? Who was it?" When he didn't answer, Linda turned to sit sideways in the tub. She looked at him, "who was it, Danny?"

"Tony." He said after a beat.

"Tony who?"

"O'Shea."

The color drained from her face, "my father?"

He nodded.

She stood up quickly- much too quickly for Danny's liking- and moved to get out of the tub.