Chapter 5
Meanwhile, Rachel herself was thinking about Ethan. It was the morning after the Museum robbery and she was in the shooting range. As she unloaded her clip into the target at the other end of the lane she thought about him. She was still wearing the necklace that he had given her. After the first time she saw him she couldn’t help but wonder.
‘What is he like normally? Is he always that serious looking? Was he already involved with someone? Did he constantly think about her? When will I see him again?’ these thoughts kept her awake at night and plagued her dreams when she did finally fall asleep. And then after last night, that kiss. It was almost as if she could still feel his lips on hers. He was rugged yet smooth and charming.
“That criminal must be stopped!” her father had said after both heists. The first time people had been hurt. Not many actually died, most were just strategically hit in a place that they would survive but be incapacitated for a while. They must have a really good shot with them. The funny thing was that the people running the warehouse weren’t government agents. They were actually a gang that the police force had been trying to bring down for months. No one was hurt the second time. Rachel was grateful for that. The last thing she wanted was to love a ruthless killer.
As Rachel unloaded her next clip another cop walked up to her. He was handsome, but not in the way that Ethan was. Ethan was confident but this guy was overly cocky. His whole personality reeked with self righteousness. He obviously thought that he and Rachel should be together. It wasn’t actually his idea in the first place. You see, his dad and Rachel’s dad were partners and from a young age he and Rachel had been forced together.
“What do you want Thomas?” Rachel said unloading the empty clip and removing her noise canceling head phones. As she turned to face him Thomas leaned against the wall and looked her up and down with that overly-confident smirk plastered on his face.
“So, how about we get dinner tonight?”
“How about no?” Rachel returned to reloading her weapon.
“C’mon, I’ll pick you up at your apartment and then we will go out and have a nice dinner.” Thomas took another step closer. He dwarfed Rachel in most aspects. He towered over her. He wasn’t beefy but definitely fit. Rachel, however, had a slightly petite physique. His shoulders were bold and boxy while hers were small and rounded. Make no mistake, Rachel could hold her own and was not as shy as her appearance made her out it be.
“I have plans,” she sighed and turned away. Rachel decided that she had already wasted enough breath on Thomas for one day.
“You always ‘have plans’,” he whined.
“I’m a busy person, besides I don’t want to date a coworker.” Rachel reloaded and put her ear protection back on, “Good bye,” Rachel started firing just to cut off Thomas from speaking. Thomas winced and reached for his ears as the painful sound of gun shots continued. He walked away visibly defeated.
After morning target practice Rachel went on patrol with her partner Caroline. Caroline was a little spastic but also really shy. She and Rachel had been partners since their first day of training and they had been friends ever since. As Rachel drove around town she felt herself looking down alleyways and on the rooftops. Looking for him made her work harder at her job than she ever had before. Apparently it was obvious because after about a half an hour Caroline asked her about it.
“What’s with the intensity, it’s just a daytime patrol. Everything that has been happening lately has been in the dead of the night and is usually a few days apart.”
“Oh, it’s nothing,”
“No it’s not "nothing"! C’mon tell me! Don’t you trust me?” Caroline looked at Rachel pleadingly but Rachel new that she couldn’t tell anyone, even Caroline, about her criminal crush.
“Um, well… it’s just… my dad said if I catch these criminals I might get promoted and then I would finally be above Thomas and he wouldn’t hit on me anymore.” Rachel lied as she made a right on the normal route.
“Oh I know! He is kind of creepy about the whole thing! You have to admit though; he is kinda cute, even just a little.” Caroline said and Rachel just shrugged, “Oh what do you know, you wouldn’t know a cute guy if he kissed you!” Rachel slammed on the breaks and stared at Caroline.
“What did you just say?”
‘How did she know that we had kissed? How did she know that I was there? Did she see us?’ Rachel’s thoughts raced faster and faster with even passing nanosecond.
“It’s just an expression, you don’t have to get mad! Jeez! Relax! Seriously, if you’re this high strung you won’t get anything done.” Caroline just stared back at Rachel like Rachel had lost her mind.
“You’re right,” Rachel realized that she was sitting in front of a green light. Cars probably would’ve honked at her if she wasn’t driving a police cruiser.
Caroline and Rachel finished their patrol with little extra chit chat. Caroline was worried about Rachel and Rachel was worried about him. She knew that she had to get back to the crime scenes. She wasn’t and investigator but she had to do all that she could to make sure that she tracked them down before anyone else did. She didn’t want to be the one to catch them and get promoted, even though that would be nice. Part of her wanted to find him and join his crew but another big part of her knew that she couldn’t do that. Not only would she break the law but that would be the ultimate betrayal of her father since he was the sheriff.
When Rachel got back to her apartment she wrote down everything she could remember about those two nights. When she had her list finished she made a plan. Tomorrow night she would go out and investigate the crime scenes. She thought about taking Caroline with her but decided it would be better to go alone. Rachel wondered what it would be like to finally spend more than a few moments with him and she wondered if he thought of her.
‘He obviously cares,’ she thought and touched the necklace he gave her. She went to bed that night dreaming of him.
Tuesday
The next morning was about the same and yesterday. Thomas asked her out during target practice, she said no, and then Caroline and she went on their patrol. Rachel was even more anxious today because nothing had happened recently. At around two o’clock the radio crackled to life. Rachel half expected it to be Thomas, it wouldn’t have been the first time that that had happened, but instead it was a call to go to the jeweler’s three blocks over. Rachel turned and pulled up to the store. Caroline was almost already out of the car before Rachel parked it. Caroline got really excited when they got a call in the day time. Rachel jumped out of the car and went to inspect the scene. Something dark flashed in the corner of her eye but when she turned there was nothing there, only an empty alleyway.
