In The Dark. We Pray

Chapter 3

Cherish County 2nd Precinct

'What the fuck were these girls involved in?'

Molly scanned over another entry in the journal. The bitter taste of stagnant, black coffee from the old coffee pot in the precinct 'lunch pin' hung in the room.

"We need to get into her devices, now."

Demmer nodded silently, holding his phone to his face with a shoulder, as he typed up a report on the old office PC.

"No. No, you aren't understanding. Her mother gave us the journal. Free will. She'll attest to that."

Christian flipped back a few pages and looked at another entry. This one taking place a week prior to meeting Hunter in Garrett in the woods.

'Hiedi's going to be an angel of the forest. I'm so jealous...'

Molly jotted down some notes, holding them in the air for Molly to glance. Christian, however, was fixated on the argument he was currently wrapped up in.

"No God damn it you aren't understanding. The warrant is for the Morris girl's devices. Not the Pierson girl's.

No, we already went through those when she went missing. Alyssa Morris. You know, for a DA you're pretty fucking slow Tom."

Demmer read the next line, and the blow back of doing so caused him to spill his coffee on the desk.

"But Hunter said I could be Garrett's Angel, if I helped Turn Hiedi for Hunter!"

Molly slammed his hand on the table.

Greg whipped his chair around at the commotion.

"They had her fucking help. I'm picking her up now. Call her mother & let her know that if she isn't ready to follow me back, I'm taking her daughter in cuffs."

Chris locked the journal away in his desk, grabbed his cigarettes and Glock 22; Re-holstered it to his waist and motioned to a suit in the call lobby of the office as he slid the office door open.

The officer was portly. New to the precinct, but well-rounded as an officer. Dependable.

"Mark, I need you to find out who's on their beat in the Morris girl's neighborhood. Have them head over now and tell them to not let the girl touch her phone until I'm on site."

The officer nodded his head and shut the door, hurriedly making his way to a desk phone.

The room's tension cut by a factor of 10 once Christian made his exit.

Greg listened to the District Attorney give him his emotionless, templated response.

'This is how it always goes.'

"Detective, I'll see what I can do about a warrant. I'll let you know in a couple of hours if there's any movement on the judge. But without a proper sit down with the girl over the new potential evidence, Holter won't sign off. You know how he is. In most cases he advocates hard for privacy, especially when it looks loke it could incriminate a juvenile."

Greg leaned back in his seat and rubbed the bridge of his nose, strangling the start of a migraine.

"Then get a different judge to sign off, we need this now. There's a reason the Morris girl's father hasn't been involved in handing off the journal. In a few, Molly will be pulling up to take Alyssa and her mother in for questioning. If something happens and we don't have this warrant, it would be nothing to make a phone or laptop vanish."

Tom's tone was that of frustration, a man attempting to wrap his head around the information being thrust upon him.

"So, you think the father might have something to hide?"

"No, nothing points to him being involved as of now. But if there's one thing I've learned in my time in the force, it's that fathers protect their babies. They'll go to unexpected lengths to keep their children safe and free. I once had a man slice his own arms up with a broken beer bottle so we wouldn't take his son to jail for a disorderly. I had a father stand in oncoming traffic because he couldn't get his daughter to the hospital in time to have her baby, and she had died in the back seat. She would've, anyway, turned out she had eclampsia. Had a seizure on the way to the hospital and passed. We're pretty sure she was dead before they got off her city block, but don't tell that to a father. I guess you can't now, anyway. Because he was hit by a cavalier that night. He's a vegetable."

The attorney grew quiet. Greg continued.

"There's always a chance that a father will do the irrational when it comes to protecting his baby... you have kids, right? A boy and a girl...?"

Tom hesitated, the weight of the detective's words setting in.

"I'll see what I can do, there's a judge I can call if you have reason to believe this has federal jurisdiction."

"No, this is local. I don't want the feds involved."

"Greg, work with me here. Give me something to work with. Put away your pride."

Greg leaned back in his chair with a sigh, staring into space at Molly's desk. The mess of papers out of character. He reached through them and scanned the notes and an entry caught his eyes.

'July 19th, Hunter wears a mask.'

"One second Tom."

Greg grabbed a note pad from his desk and then walked over to Molly and opened the drawer, retrieving the journal.

He opened the book to July 19th and read the entry.

'His words are profound... it almost hurts my soul with how sincere and deep he is. I asked him the other day why I'm not allowed to see his face. But he says it's because he doesn't have a face like I do.

That his real face is earned when he makes an angel. That his face takes the form of the angel he made. The mask he wears isn't very nice. It's just a black ski mask. But he's showed me pictures of how it'll change once he makes an angel. He's showed me some of the others who have already made their angels.

The was so many. The Rabbit, The Bird, The Fox, The Chipmunk..

He says his angel will be a deer. But deer are hard because those forest angels get away sometimes. He had one before, but she got hurt so he needs to find another.

He said I can help!'

"What the fuck."

Greg quickly flipped through his own notepad and found his follow up with old lady Timm's

'Following the hit and run, the Timm's residence has had an additional issue of harassment. Mrs. Timms states a masked individual can sometimes be seen watching her home. Will follow up with additional information.'

Demmer thought a moment about the missing Clarey girl. The masked man. Hunter and Garret, the forest angels, it was all spiraling in his head.

'Connect it, Greg. God, damn it connect it.'

Thats when the detective remembered something Molly said during the search Roosevelt Field when they were talking about the Clarey girl.

"It's a good possibly that the Clarey girl limped away and hid in fear and bled out in the forest somewhere."

"Forest angel."

Tom broke his thought.

"What?"

"Tom, call your federal judge. It's all circumstantial, but you're right. This is bigger than my pride and I think. This may be bigger than Cherish County."