Wasting in the Rain

Chapter 10: Lisa

Years and years went by, and the squad and I were working on new cold cases and finding ways to burst through the ice. Mark was given the Detective of the Month award for discovering the missing three hundred pounds of DNA evidence in the Deere case the day after the family was found, and the case eventually faded into some extent of obscurity, with us occasionally wondering what had happened to them.

One day as I was reading over a ten-year-old case of a woman who had been mysteriously raped and murdered, I felt a presence near my desk. I looked up to see a young woman, probably in her thirties, looking down at me. She looked vaguely familiar and so did the four people with her. There was an older man and woman who were about seventy, along with another man and woman who were at least late thirties or early forties.

"Can I help you all with something?"

"Only a thank you for helping us sixteen years ago," the youngest woman said.

"Sixteen years? Honey, you're going to need to clarify for an old lady," I joked.

"I'm Rachel Deere, Ms. Lisa."

My jaw dropped.

"Rachel! Oh my goodness! How are you!?"

I jumped from my chair and gave her a hug. The rest of the team - Val, Eric, and Mark - came and shook hands with the rest of the family, exchanging a few embraces.

"I'm good, Ms. Lisa. I wanted to tell you that I'm graduating high school."

"Oh my gosh! That's amazing! Congratulations!"

Rachel went on to tell me that she had been home-schooled and seeing many therapists for the past sixteen years. Now she had gotten to the point where she had graduated from D.C. high school standards and was going to apply to a local community college so that she could gain a college education and still have the support group within the city.

"Wow. I am so proud of you. And you're talking and so eloquent... Oh my goodness. I still remember the day we found you."

"Really? I've tried to, but I can't."

"I remember that Pinkman gave himself up, and we'd started to search the premises when we heard a young girl screaming 'no boom, no boom!'. That was you. You were terrified by the gun that one of the agents had, but you had no idea for the word for gun, only the sound it made. And I still remember that when Dr. Harris first asked you to write, you looked at the way he did it and that was how you learned. Oh, you've come so far!"

People have always asked me about working in cold cases and if I ever get depressed that I'm not solving the cases I'm given. The answer is yes, I do get saddened that I can't find answers. It really stinks. However, being able to solve the older cases, or finding a kink in a case that we didn't know existed that blew the case open as we knew it, is so uplifting in my job. Being able to find answers to what I've been looking for is what it's all about. I love it. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

As for Rachel, I am so proud of the progress she has made throughout her life. Her happiness was cut off at age four, like her families' hands. Twelve years later, she's been back at it, working for what she's missed. Twelve years of wasting in the rain and feeling the tarnish of time on her youthful life have been hard on her, but the ways that she has polished her life and cleansed herself of those demons is incredible. I can't understand it. I simply can't. All I can say is that she's made me very proud.