An Arrest of the Heart

This book is dedicated to My three daughters. Raine, Storm, and Ivy, Mommy loves you, girls, to the moon and back. You three, are my Brindle.

Chapter 1

1

"Gerald," it was Susan Saplinger, she sat behind me in the outward officers' class, where they taught us how to endure the streets, and what you will encounter on the job.

"What Suzy?"

"Congrats on being top in our graduating class!" "Thanks." Something not really acknowledged at the top of my list. I never knew, my whole life, how to show gratitude. That is always what it was like being first, in anything. Here I was, readying myself to graduate the academy, and as well I am top in the class, which makes me first again. ​

2

That was now just two years ago, still, the memory remains clear as crystal glass. I was the youngest in the academy majoring in the crime investigations field. I was just twenty-four when I started at the office here in New York city. So young and fresh, never knowing what the reality of my job was like. I was naïve, I guess you could say.

"Gerald, there is a call for you on the red line."

"Okay. I am coming, I will take it why the red line?"

"It is a serious call by the sounds, saying they will only speak to you."

"Okay."

I began to run without noticing much. The red line was for dire cases only, the mass murders, and the extreme abandoned baby cases, the ones that leave you sick in the pit of your stomach. I had just finished paperwork on the rape robbery that was targeting  women of little to no power or position. This could be a break from the countless, meaningless cases I had been doing.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Gerald?"

"Yes, this is Gerald Spencer, how can I help you?"

"Gerald, its Susan, we went to the academy together. IF you do remember me great, but that is beside the point. I was on patrol in Long Island and found a yellow truck I didn't recognize. So, I called headquarters to run the plate, by the time I looked up to get the numbers, the truck was gone."

"Okay, why are you calling the redline? This is for emergencies and the bigger cases only."

"Let me finish Gerald, you see, I grew worried for the family, I know each house and person within my watch route. So, I placed my hand firmly on my gun and went to look around. The house immediately seemed unscathed, but when I glanced into the sun porch window, I saw her on the floor,"

"Susan, who?"

"The daughter, Gerald, she is twenty-seven, her father and mother own her house. Gerald, it is far worse than that, she has two children. I am not sure where they are, I didn't go inside to see."

"Give me the address, I will call forensics, I am on my way."

As soon as I had hung up the phone a wash of anxiety and excitement came over me. My first real big case, Susan Saplinger, from the academy wanted to talk just with me about it. I told my captain what was up, he was calling the forensic team, as I was out the door. I knew it would take me longer to get there than it would the team, so I headed out first. My first real case, and I was not about to lose this.

When I arrived, the forensics truck pulled in behind me. I started by talking to Susan, as they began blocking the place off with bright yellow crime scene tape. I wanted to be the first inside, but I knew that was not the way it had to be done.