Collateral Damage

- FOUR -

It was always a relief talking to Adrian. When I saw him and we talked I knew Matilda was safe. She is the most important thing in my life and protecting her is my number one priority.

I sat up from my bed and went for a shower. When I realized the time I raced around the house. Once I was ready, breaking my personal best of eleven minutes and ran down the driveway, struggling to zip up my boots. I drove to school, making sure not to break the speed limit. I swung into the car park outside the police station and sped walked to the front steps.

I walked in the front door and past reception, behind the desk sat Meredith who was like a mother to me, "You're late," he voice sang as I ran toward my office.

"I know Meredith," I could hear her laughing as I opened my office door. I placed my handbag on my desk and my coat on the back of the chair. Before long Meredith was walking in the door with a file in her hand. She handed it to me quickly saying that the out of state police were called due to the nature of the crime. I thanked her and waited for her before opening the file.

What was inside shocked me. Four victims were found dead in an apartment. Three of the four had lightning bolt tattoos on the back of their necks and the fourth was a tall lanky man. From the pictures shown, the three men with the tattoos were guardians and the other one was a moroi. Images of Mason and his horrific death was the first thing that came to my mind. These men were killed by a strigoi, but what was odd was that no one had made an attempt to clean this up. Which means that no-one knew these people were there.

I made my way out of my office and into the conference room to discuss the latest case. A group of people sat around the table in the middle of the room. I sat in an empty seat next to my boss Andrew Pierce.

It was quickly explained that early this morning a cleaner went into the room after noticing a bad smell coming from the room and went in to find the smell was four decaying bodies. Photos were passed around the table of the people who we deceased. I almost burst into tears when I noticed that one of the guardians that had been killed was Guardian Stan Alto. I put the photo down on the table and slipped out of the room unnoticed.

I sat in my office, wiping tears from my eyes. Stan was very stern and tough on the novices but when it came to it he was a good man and a damn good guardian. I would have trusted him with my life if I ever got the chance.

Two quick knocks broke me out of my thoughts, I looked up to be met with Andrew's tall, broad frame. He was tall but not quite as tall as Dimitri. He was very handsome, he was muscular and roughly my age. Andrew was like a brother to me and I cared for him very much. "You right Hathaway," I nodded, wiping away a few tears. He came in and sat in front of me at my desk.

"I knew one of the deceased," I whispered, "His name is Stan and he was a personal trainer that I had when I was finishing up at high school," Andrew nodded. I knew this conversation wasn't over and I knew that I would have to come up with a better and more detailed story but right now I just needed to grieve for my friend.

"Take the rest of the day off," he said, "We'll continue this another time, when you get back I'll fill you in,"

I shook my head, "I'm okay sir,"

"That wasn't a suggestion. It was an order Hathaway," I nodded as he exited the room.

I made my way home slowly but surely. One thing I knew for sure was that I needed to find out what was going on. But first I needed a coffee. After stopping off at Starbucks I made my way home.

I sat on the couch waiting for Scott to get home watching The Big Bang Theory reruns. I was lost in thought so I didn't really take that much notice in the television.

I didn't realise that I had fallen asleep until I was pulled into a second spirit dream in two days. I recognised the place we were at as the first place I had ever met Adrian. At the ski lodge we stayed at days before Mason died. "Just who I wanted to talk too actually," I said turning around to face Adrian. His face was pale and he looked like he was about to cry. "What?" I asked walking towards Adrian. He took a step back. "What is going on Adrian?"

"It's Matilda," he said in a low serious voice. My heart began to pound in my chest and my hands shook at my sides.

"What do you mean Adrian?"

"Tilly is missing," my whole body began to shake and I could feel myself waking up from the dream. I seemed to be out of breath and I couldn't make out where I was. I felt like I was about to faint but I knew that I was going to wake up.

I opened my eyes and paced in the living room. I threw a few changes of clothes into a bag and flew out the door and into my car. I needed to be there, she is my daughter. I looked up at my house and knew that Scott would understand. Just in case I left him a note on the fridge.

I had never sped in my life because I know being a cop it would be harder for me to talk my way out of it. I got on the first plane to Montana.