Chenford Story

46

Lucy's POV

I drove to the apartment in silence. I was equally happy and sad at this was my life now, at least for a few weeks. Not seeing anyone except Grey, and even then it had to be rare. I knew Tim would be upset when he heard the news of my undercover work, that it would remind him of Isobel. She would also leave for long term assignments without even a goodbye and Tim was left to pick up the pieces. Now I was doing the same. Even if it was technically a lie.

Tim's POV

Grey sat my down in his office after shift the next day. Lucy hadn't been in and I hopes she wasn't too ill to still see Juniper after work.

"Officer Bradford"
"Good afternoon sir."
"I need to inform you that Officer Chen has gone undercover, we are unsure for how long"
"Oh, when does she start?"
"Lucy started this morning, that's why she wasn't on patrol today"
Oh.
Well that was fine.
It didn't remind me of Isobel.
Not at all.
I definitely couldn't remember a million times where my watch commander told me the same thing about my wife.
This definitely wasn't exactly reminding me of that.

Why didn't Lucy tell me?
I thought we were good?
I mean she moved out a few months ago but still good?
I figured she might tell me these things, if not for me then Juniper.
Our daughter deserved to know when her mother would be gone for extended periods of time.

"Oh, ok. What's she doing?"
"Drug lord, I can't tell you more Tim. I'm sure you understand these things are highly confidential."
I just nodded. Whenever Isobel went undercover her case worked would tell me almost everything, except the whole drug addict part.
"Who's her handler?"
"I am"
That was unusual, Sargent Grey was never a handler personally. He always helped with the case but never personally handled the UC.

I left the office after a minute more of conversation, I needed to collect Juniper from the nanny before the young woman started worrying about it I was coming.

Lucy's POV

I sat in the apartment for days, looking over every second of footage that Emmet was ever in. Looking over the files if every one of his friends since his birth. Rosalind was a whole different issue, she was a serial killer and so am entirely new list of possible accomplices, motives, victims.

I had been wondering mostly about why I was being messaged, threatened. What was the goal?
Death threats were all well and good, but they were never acted upon. Always just threats. Meant to scare me? If so into doing what?

None of this meant any sense to me. I was meant to be the detective. My phone buzzed, ready for my 6 hourly call from the serial killer.
At this point I had a rhythm down on the call, I could have recorded myself and played it every time.
"Rosalind"
"Lucy."
"Anything new?"
"Nope, just living my life in jail. Maximum security is fun, the guards mostly avoid me, they think I'm going to try and kill them."
"Sounds exhilarating."
I kept my voice monotone, at this point the phone calls had stopped being creepy, they weren't even scary anymore. People would think I had been forced into a conversation with an estranged aunt or grandparent, not an imprisoned serial killer who had personally wanted me killed, multiple times.

"It really is, anyway found your ex yet? Oh wait, no you haven't. He ist back here yet so no. He's still free."
"Yes Rosalind. But don't worry, he'll be back with you soon. Goodbye now. See you in six more hours."
Rosalind hung up the phone. Our calls were short, but still just as annoying. I had called the prison Rosalind was housed in many times about the phone issue. Either they found it and took it away, or they just couldn't find one. Either way by the next time a call was scheduled, Rosalind would still call. Like clockwork.
There was no stopping her.

At one point I considered changing my own number, but decided against it, Rosalind would just somehow find my new one and then the calls would resume. That nightmare would not be worth doing just to miss even one call.

My days consisted of nothingness more often than not. Endless files, calls, death threats. Eat, sleep repeat. That was the jist of my current existence, and it sucked.

Occasionally I went outside, a walk here, shopping trip there. I could never go outside for more than a few hours a week though, for risk of someone from the station seeing me. Most of the time I would just drive around anyway.

Tim's POV

It had been two months since Lucy left. Grey would give occasional progress updates but ensured everything was kept confidential. I expected nothing less from the boss but it still hurt slightly.

Juniper had been asking about mama less and less with each week and it hurt. I didn't want her to stop caring about Lucy just because she had to go undercover for an undefined amount of time without saying even goodbye.

Lucy's POV

I was out after one of my weekly shopping trips, just thinking about Tim and Juniper. I had mindlessly driven closer to their house a few times since leaving, each time I regained thought and control a block away and I would drive off again.

At least I had had more of a break in the case. Emmet had been spotted driving near the mortuary carrying a suitcase on the night the body was taken, and then he was seen a week ago at a coffee shop on the other side of the city. You would think a criminal might leave the city they are wanted in, but no apparently he was just chilling and hanging out still in the city.
Seemed stupid to me but each to their own.

I was driving to the coffee stop to scope it out. The last few days had been spent reviewing CCTV of the place, Emmet had come in at least once a fortnight for a drink and always spoke to one man in the corner who I hadn't yet identified.

The man always wore a long trench coat and hat, even indoors. Though you could see that he had light brown hair and looked to be about 6"2. Because in a city of many million people, many fitting that description, that was definitely going to help a bunch.

I was so lost in though I didn't even see the car heading straight for me. I didn't see anything except the driver.
A certain crazed, wanted, escaped convict.
A man named Emmet.

And his car was barreling towards mine.