State of Shock

Elizabeth

After visiting the hospital, Elizabeth pulled into the precinct. She walked toward her desk, her partner was sitting on his desk on the phone. Roger was a tall slim guy who was all business. His bleached blonde hair and his Hawaiian shirt said something entirely different. Why Captain let him get away with that kind of work attire was beyond her. It was because of this that nobody took him seriously. He had good instincts though. He was smart, and often came up with things that Elizabeth wouldn’t have thought of. He hung up the phone when he saw her coming.

“Have a good lunch?” he asked, sliding off his desk and moving to hers.

“Eh. Not really.” She was pensive.

“Still in the coma huh?” She looked up at him. “Man, you have to stop beating yourself up about that case. She’ll come out of it. And then we can lock this case up tighter than an offshore submarine.” He had a flare for the graphic. 

“I’m sitting at a dead end. There’s more information out there, I just know it. I’m not sure where, but it has to be there. She can’t be our only lead into this.”

“Have you tried the FBI’s domestic terrorism division?” He asked.

She looked at him like he was asking the dumbest question on the planet. “Of course I have. They’re keeping pretty tight lipped about the whole thing. They have their own investigation and they aren’t divulging any details. I’m not even supposed to be investigating “The Institution.” I’m just supposed to keep an eye out for any other things that might be similar in nature. And if or when Stacy wakes up. What’s similar about a group of kids burning and blowing up an office building?”

“Good luck with that. You know what you need?” He said leaning towards her. 

Elizabeth sat down at her desk and looked down at her paperwork, “What do I need?”

“A good old fashioned homicide. You know, the one where the butler did it. It’ll get your mind off of things.” He sat on her desk, placing his bottom on a stack of papers.

“I hardly think wishing murder on someone so I have something to do is considered good Karma,” Elizabeth tried to take the papers out from under him. As she tugged, one came loose and she smacked herself in the face with the paper.

“Karma, Schmarma.” He said. “Well if you’ll excuse me, I have some phone calls to make. You would be good to take my advice, work on something else. You’ll feel better.” He slid off her desk dumping her pile on the floor. “See, now you have something else to do.” He walked to his desk by stepping over the pile. 

-Bastard, Elizabeth thought to herself. The stack had several case files include those pertaining to Stacy and “The Institution.” Elizabeth put the stack together and placed it back on her desk. She began leafing through some of the cases. A robbery of a hardware store, a drive-by, a purse snatcher, and several other petty crimes, that hardly demanded her attention. 

She pulled out the files on “The Institution” case. The symbol that Stacy and her cohorts had on their left shoulder caught her attention. A close up photograph of the symbol dominated the file. Along with notes from Sarah about the symbol. It looked like just an arrow that pointed up. But it was so small that it was hardly noticeable. What did it mean? This was the one thing they knew the least about. Her notes concluded that Stacy had to be the only one that knew what the symbol meant, what it stood for, and why they were sporting it. Elizabeth closed the file and started to fill out paperwork for other cases on her desk.