Seeking Justice

Chapter 1

Thirteen Years Later.

"Get down on the ground, now!" Sara Williams yelled, her gun pointed at Shemar Cunnings, a local drug dealer they had been tracking for months now.  Her partner, Adrian Monroe, was on the other side of the cop car, his weapon also drawn. "I'm not going to tell you again, on the ground!"

Shemar, sensing he wasn't going to escape this situation, dropped flat on the alley pavement. Sara and Adrian quickly ran over, Sara cuffing him while Adrian picked him up and patted him down, making sure there were no concealed weapons.

"What do we have here?" Adrian asked, taking a small pouch containing white powder out of Shemar's pocked.

"That's none of your damn business." he retorted angrily, which only made Sara roll her eyes.

“Just get Mr. Smart-Mouth in the car.” She ordered, putting her gun back in her belt. It was just another day on the job, another criminal being put where he belonged-behind bars. She knew she should feel more satisfied about it, but the truth was, she never really felt completely satisfied. Sara never understood why, shouldn’t she be happy that they caught another criminal?

Deep down she knew the real truth though, she would never be truly satisfied until she caught the bastards that killed her father. The New York State police department had given up on the case, but she never would.  Every day she kept eyes out for the two men, looked over her and her father’s file, though by now she had it memorized like the back of her hand. Every day she went home, feeling like a failure.

“Hey, Sara, you alright?” Adrian asked from the other side of the cop car, a worried look on his face.

“What? Oh, yeah.” She shook her head, waking herself up from her deep thoughts. “I’m just tired.” Sighing, she opened the passenger door and got in, ignoring Shemar’s complaints coming from the back seat. Her partner looked at her, not quite believing what Sara said, but not questioning it as he got in the car and drove off to the station.

Sara went straight to her desk when they reached the NYPD station, leaving her partner to lock up Shemar while she filed the paper work. Adrian and her had been partners for six years now; they were assigned together when she got out of the academy. They worked well together, though at first they didn’t get along. Sara was very young when she graduated the academy, due to her graduating high school when she was sixteen, and Adrian had been jealous at first. That was shortly outgrown though, much to Sara’s satisfaction. He could be a pain sometimes, but she liked him, and had always thought of him as the older brother she never had.

Paper work was never any fun, but Sara knew how much Adrian hated it, and so she took on the load, letting him do the easy work. They had an agreement though, one she didn’t know they would ever fulfill at this rate, that if they ever caught the men that had murdered her father, she would be the one to lock them up. Sara wanted to see the humiliation in the men’s eyes, and finally feel the satisfaction that she had been longing to feel since her first day on the job.

Adrian took a seat at his desk across from her, and Sara could tell he was looking at her, but she kept her eyes on the paper work. She didn’t want to explain anything, at least not yet. Adrian had always been understanding about the whole thing though, and never pushed her to talk about anything she didn’t want to. That was another thing she liked about him. Sara finally felt Adrian’s gaze move off her, and she let out a small sigh of relief, not wanting him to ask her if she was okay again.

After a good thirty minutes, she finally finished the paper work. Tossing the pen on her desk and leaning back on her chair, Sara finally smiled. She would be able to go home early today, something that she was looking forward to.

“Here, let me turn that in.” Adrian offered, reaching a hand out for the papers. “You go home, get some rest; you look like you need it.”

Sara smiled, gratefully handing over the paper. “Thank you.” She replied, reaching over to her drawer to take out her purse. Her long, auburn, hair  slipped over her shoulder, but she brushed it out of the way. What had made her grow her hair out, she had no idea, and she reminded herself to get a haircut if she ever had the time.

“See you tomorrow.” Adrian smiled as she turned to leave. Sara returned the smile and then walked out of the station, thankful to be going home.

*                *                 *

Her apartment wasn’t much; she didn’t see the need of living in a big place if it was just her and her cat, Sebastian. It was home though, and that was all that really mattered. It was a place she could go to, slip off her shoes, and try to forget about what she had witnessed at work. Don’t get her wrong, she loved being a police officer, but she didn’t like what she saw. Every morning she woke up for work, praying to God that it would be an easy day, that the worst they would be called in for was a cat stuck in a tree. But she knew, better than most, how cruel the world was. How sick people could be. That never stopped her from hoping though. Call her an optimist, but she didn’t view herself as that. No, she wasn’t optimistic. Sara knew that the hearts of men, when corrupted, were sometimes stained so badly, there was no getting better. She also knew though that there were good people in this world, some that had bad pasts and had overcome them. It all depended on the person.

After seeing her father murdered before her eyes, Sara knew she had two choices. To either become the criminal that she so desperately despised, or become the person that would hunt them down. In her mind, the choice was as clear as crystal. Her mother didn’t agree so much, the excuse was that she didn’t want to lose Sara after losing her husband. It was understandable, but Sara ignored her mother’s wishes. Becoming a police officer was something she had to do; to fill a hole that the men had left when they took her father from her. At least, that was what she convinced herself. In reality, a truth that Sara would not even admit to herself, she was out for revenge. For blood. She wanted to see those men pay, and she wanted to be the one to make them do just that.