The Story of Silence (Book 3)

Chapter 13

Sunday, March 12th, 3:00 AM:

A phone rang in the bedroom of Inspector James Holland, known to every officer of the entire police force in the country, as Dastardious Hollow.

A hand reached out from under the large pile of sheets on the bed, and picking up the phone from the bedside table placed it against the side of the head that had emerged.

'Hello?' growled Dastardious sleepily as he reached out another hand and turned on the lamp beside his bed, sitting up as he did so. He was a handsome man, in a tough fierce way, and he didn't look to be the sort of man you would trifle with. His hair was dark brown which matched his eyes, which were still closed even though he was awake.

As he listened to the nervous voice on the other end of the line he grinned broadly, the light from his lamp illuminating only part of his face, making it appear strange and wicked.

It was his name that brought about how people talked to him. Well, it was his reputation that brought upon the name, and everybody dreaded hearing his name because it meant that the actual person was close behind.

Dastardious Hollow was known all over the station not for the fact that he got results, or how he got results and solved cases, but for the fact that he once cracked.

It was a long story and he was supposedly better now, but the memory of how he acted and the appearance he gave off still was enough to make most of the station fear that he wasn't actually better and that they would be next.

After the...accident...that killed his wife and daughter, Dastardious lost it. He decided that he didn't care about whether he lived or died, or if any of the people he knew lived or died. So when he got called in to help with a hostage situation, he went straight to the source of the trouble with the aim in mind to put a stop to it or die trying.

With the seven hostages in peril of losing their lives and the killer starting to lose his head with the tension of a cop ignoring his cries to stop and heading towards him, the cops on the ground had to act and rush in. This resulted in not only the death of Dastardious's partner, Jimmy Craig, who Dastardious shot himself so that Craig wouldn't drag him away, but in the death of the killer and his seven hostages.

After that Dastardious was brought in and arrested for recklessness in the call of duty, and murder. Despite being the best, the Commissioner had to let him go and he was taken to Stateside Penitentiary where he was kept under the close watch of various doctors for two years.

As the amount of unsolved crimes grew higher and higher the Commissioner couldn't bear to be without his best man and ordered Dastardious's release.

After the end of a careful interview with him the Commissioner decided that Dastardious could return, and promoted him back to his old rank of Inspector.

They started calling him 'Dastardious Hollow' when it became apparent that he had come back to the force a dastard and seemed to hold not a care in the world for anyone or thing.

So unlike the Commissioner who was happy on having Dastardious back, the station wasn't as Dastardious seemed to blame and hate everybody. They've all been on tight terms since with every one of the opinion that Dastardious would one day crack again, as he sometimes showed signs of doing. The questions being when, and who would suffer next from being in the way?

So Dastardious liked his nickname, he felt it spoke true of what he was, and so did everybody else. He didn't mind it when people called him 'Dastardious', in fact he preferred it to his real name.

'Suck it up, Whimsy, and just read me the damn order!' Dastardious barked suddenly into the phone, tired of hearing Officer Paul Whimsy on the other end of the line stuttering nervously. He sat up further in bed and opened his eyes as Officer Whimsy reached the point of the conversation.