Find me (English)

One night in the cell

Amanda Garcia was losing patience for the first time in her life.
She had managed in record time to get every authorization to bring that detainee to that station. Fortunately, a lot of people owed her favors that she didn't hesitate to ask back. It had only taken part of that computer to realize that it was too big a deal and that she had to move the higher-ups.

She had a lot of patience Amanda, definitely a lot of patience. But that character in front of her was a wall. She couldn't tell if he was completely idiotic or very smart. Hidden behind those goggles, that goofy face....

A character straight out of an 80s sitcom. The ones with the fake laughs in the background. Instead, he was a child trafficker. Who wouldn't cooperate and was wasting her precious time.

"So. I'll ask you one more time. Because since I didn't get anything with the good, now let's move on to the bad. Don't say you don't know because nobody believes it. Do you know how much you risk? No? I'll tell you.

12 years for child abduction. 12 years for possession of material. Off the top of my head, with what we found, you've already reached 50 years by now. Which means because you're 50, you're going out horizontally from in there. In a comfortable wooden box. But know that I will personally make sure you don't get isolation.

I will have you thrown into the community. Do you know what they do to people like you? Don't you? Do you want to know? I guess I'll leave you the surprise. Well have a good time. You have 50 years of free rides. "

He clicked a button by the door and over the intercom simply said "take him away." It was wasted time, he would never speak.

The door opened at the same time that a nervous Phil had returned hoping to hear from her. He saw her on the threshold, threw his gaze inside and looked at the man inside the room.

She had seen him before, his face was all over the news when she arrested him for that little girl. Then she thought he shouldn't be there in that barracks and realized why he was. She stormed through the door like a fury, grabbed him by the prison uniform he was wearing, slammed him against the wall with one hand and punched him in the face with the other. The first in a long series before Alan and two other officers managed to pry it out of his hands.

He found himself locked in a cell being watched by an Amanda who inside had loved that show very much. What he had done she wished she could have done, but she would have gambled the place away. Either way she had had to take action against him.

"Forgive me but at least this way you won't get into trouble and create any for me." These were the words she spoke to him when he had apparently calmed down and handed him an ice tablet to put on his hand.
He gave her an angry look, took what she was offering him and thought she should punch on his face some more.

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"-Alan I need the computer Bücher.
-My Life for that.
-Remember, don't track it, don't follow it.
-C'mon, please hand it over. Tomorrow.

Please let Phil know that I love him and always will. Forgive me my love for not being able to come home, go ahead. Remember to give the tablets to Cerberus. There used to be three. Two of the small ones and one of the big ones. But now from this week he has to take one less of the small ones. You can find them in the cabinet in the basement, you have to turn on the light or you won't find them. If they are all gone get a prescription from Dr. Dunham."

These were the words Hailey wrote.
These were the words she begged to be delivered.

"I know that when you get what you want for me it will be over. Let me at least say goodbye to my partner. Just this. And to remind him of the medicine for my elderly dog. Nothing changes for you."

Mr. Rolex after reading them decided that they could go. He felt magnanimous for once in his life. Everything was about to go back to the way it was supposed to be. He was going to get rid of her, place the little girl, and stop for a while. The frenzy led to mistakes. And mistakes were for losers. Like Bücher.

~~~~~~~~~~

Little Chris... She was wiping my face with his shirt. And he was trying to fix my hair while I still continued in shock staring into space. How I wished I could have taken a shower. Wash myself of all the filth I felt on me. The beatings, the filthy hands, the feeling of being dirty....
I had promised to get you out of here Chris. I had apologized to her for getting Natalie released instead of her. I did not tell her in what way of course. Her unsettling answer moved me so much.
"You made the right choice, she is younger."

She is young. Whereas she was big. 14 years old. I should have tried to get them both released. I had played all my cards and had no more.

She asked me what that writing in the wall was that she had seen me stroking all the time.

"My life," I answered her.

And I told her about what I had out of there. I told her about Phil, about our great love, about Jessy, I told her about my friends. All of them. I made her tell me about her. About her family, her school, her friends. If we hadn't been in hell it would have seemed like normal talk. Instead we were trying to stay connected to reality. She was for me the only normal human contact left as I was for her. We stayed there, embraced in silence. Saving each other.
Who knows if Alan had received the message yet. It was to be delivered by an anonymous courier. Then another courier would go and pick up the computer. A normal person, oblivious to everything, paid simply to pick up something from one place and deliver it to another. I could only wait now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The little boy paid to carry that letter along with the newspapers walked into the station that morning. No one paid particular attention to it. One always tends not to notice events when they become habits. The brain discards details it considers unnecessary. He left everything in the counter at the entrance and left.
"Alan this is for you, it has your name on it" . Alan immediately recognized the handwriting and blanched as if he had seen a ghost. He took the envelope and before opening it he looked for Amanda. He found her in her room, Hailey's room, where a Jake with dark circles under his eyes and an unkempt beard, with no decent sleep for a few days, if not a few hours in an armchair, was still working on those files to look for a name that might lead them to her, without finding it.