Into the Unknown

Liz

Liam greets me with cups of freshly made coffee in hand. The scent travels through the bedroom, slightly intoxicating me in a way that only coffee can attest to. My plants surrounding the room along all the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and my babies outside on the balcony, sunbathe in the light of the morning sun, causing my normally tan walls to turn a light green color. It's lovely; one of my favorite things to wake up to.

It's Saturday and the first thing I want to do is curl back up under my blankets and forget about the day. But I have work to do and right now with a case, working is all I can think of. Without months of personal recreation, I've been left feeling emptier and more hollow than ever. Not burnt out because of pure exhaustion; I'm not to that point. But there's a limit to how much work a person can push themselves to do within a certain amount of time. A murder case, for instance, is the perfect example. 

For nearly seven months, I've been pushing myself beyond my normal limitations. Liam gets worried, yet sometimes he can be worse than me, in terms of stress. The determining factor of our continuation is the want to search for whoever harmed and murdered Shelby. Melissa deserves to know the truth, and so does everyone else in Princelan.

"Have you heard anything about where Nancy might be?" I ask Liam as he gives me one of the coffee mugs.

For a second, those blue eyes flicker in the morning sunlight. He says, "No, there's only been silence. I think we've reached a dead end."

Sighing, I had hoped there would have been at least some good news to deliver to the other officers, or at least receive.

"Liam, what do you think caused her to run off like that? I've never known Nancy to cower away, or pull on a gun on someone nonetheless."

He brushes a hair away from my face and smiles warmly, shrugging slightly. "What it was, we'll never know."

From the bedside table, my cell phone rings. The phone number is unfamiliar to me.

"Hello this is Liz."

The voice at the other end of the line is speaking quickly, out of breath, mixed with the sound of choking from crying. "You have to get here right away! Please! I need you to come!"

"Okay, I need you to calm down. Can you do that for me?" As I say those words, my own heart starts beating faster, the adrenaline and panic energizing me. 

I hear them take a couple deep breaths, along with a few sniffles. "It's James. He's dying. The doctors are doing all they can, but they don't know what's wrong. Liz, I need you here."

Liam's looking at me questioningly, trying to figure out what's going on. I point towards the dresser, silently commanding him to grab me some clothes quickly, raising my eyebrows for emphasis. He hops right off the bed and grabs me the first handful of fresh clothes that he finds; none of it matches but it'll have to do. 

With my phone to my ear, I slip into the clothes, reassuring Shannon that I'll be there as soon as I can. Sadly, my house is out of town, so no matter what, my travels will be delayed by the distance. Shannon hangs up before I'm able to say my last bit of reassurances. The last thing I hear when she hangs up is the panicked beeping from the monitors and other machines as the nurses and doctors are speaking but the words are not understandable.