Illusions

Chapter Nine

"Where the hell have you been?" Her Captain growls into the phone, mixed with the distinct sound of his papers rustling together and she sighs.

"I'm sorry," she whines knowing that he always settles down and eases up on her when she uses this certain tone that sounds like a teenager begging her dad for the car. "I kinda got sidetracked."

The papers crinkling together desists immediately.

"What do you mean? You never get sidetracked," he sternly says and she can just imagine him, ramrod straight in his chair, not moving a single muscle as fear strikes within him.

"This kid..." she groans to herself as the idea of her actually caring for a child washes over her again and makes her blood all prickly and hot. "I don't know, he's in my head now and I just feel this need to protect him and help him."

"What you need is to stay focused. Do I need to send Jones to get you back on track?"

"No!" She hastily fires off without a moment of hesitation. "God, no. I got this. I promise."

"Man, she really changed you, huh?"

"She didn't change me," she hastily defends with enough sourness squeezing from her lips to express just how defensive she's becoming to hide away her true feelings. "It was just a rude wake up call that reminded why I keep my distance."

"It was too soon wasn't it? I knew it the day you came into my office. I knew you needed time-"

"Stop," she coldly commands, "I'm fine," she vows as a flicker of light flashes across her bedroom window. "This kid just needs some help and he's opening up to me," she begins to explain as she crawls out of bed and heads toward her window to investigate that beam of light. "The poor guy hasn't talked in over a year." She gently pries apart the blinds and peeks out into the midnight serenity engulfing the quiet neighborhood. "And he finally spoke, to me," she proceeds with her story, but her eyes and mind are somewhere else.

She squints, intently observing as a random car kills its headlights as it pulls into the driveway next door. Her skin prickles as a bitter cold chill trickles down her spine and persuades all the little hairs on the back of her neck to stand to attention.

"I get that this kid needs help, but he isn't the case."

"I know," she mumbles incoherently and continues to study the strange scene playing out before her.

"You need to focus, we need to catch this guy. Enough is enough..." and her Captain proceeds with his rambling, but she knows everything he is about to say and slightly scold her on by now.

But her attention is elsewhere, more specifically it's outside, where Gideon Gold steps out of the dark car and slowly walks toward the mayor's front door. Emma is on high alert, but because of the extravagant porch decorating the neighbor's home, she loses sight on Gideon Gold, like he's some ghost vanishing into the night.

"Dammit," she hisses and snaps the blinds closed.

"What?" David replies, dragging her back to the conversation she was engaging with before her main suspect showed up at the mayor's house at ten o'clock at night.

"No, it's nothing...well maybe not nothing...I gotta call you back."

"Of course."

She quickly ends the call, rushes out of her room and down the stairs, taking two at a time. Her heart is racing from the adrenaline coursing violently through her bloodstream. She's usually such a good judge of character and she truly thought that Regina was a genuinely nice person.