Love Between Law and Life

Chapter 20: Dark Dates

            They’d talked into the late evening, the both of them sitting on the hood of Bobbie’s van and leaning back on the wind shield. It more for the enjoyment of the peace and quiet of the late afternoon than a need to discus anything important. Florence couldn’t help but feel a little miffed at having to admit that Kahula was right. Right off the bat, they made a promise to each other that if the relationship didn’t work out, they’d still be friends.

            They had to be because Florence wouldn’t know what to so if she lost the one thing the has brought colour into her life for the first time in a while. The psychic couldn’t help but smile softly as she replayed all the events that’d happened since the day she met with one Bobbie Rhodes.

            She was in the empty bookstore, night arriving with the gracefulness of a cat. The heat of the day was giving way to a cool breeze and it made her rub her hands over her arms in the darkness of the closed store. With the late evening, Kahula had taken Leo with a smirk on their face with promises to return the next day with Kaleo. The store was hers to close and prep for the next day.

            It’d given her something to focus on, something to calm her nerves for the evening… because this was going to be different. Tonight, she and Bobbie were going out on an actual date and her mind couldn’t settle. This would be the first time in a while, if ever really, that she was going out on a proper date, and honestly? She doesn’t feel like she could’ve chosen a better person as her second.

            Bobbie walked into her life like a storm, and instead of breaking everything down, she built. One meeting, one chance, walking into Captain Akamu’s office because she was angry at a ghost. Then came the stake outs, the lunches that turned into breakfasts, the car chases. Meeting Kaleo, who was comfortable both with Bobbie and at her house, something Florence never thought she would see.

            Florence fastened the spare keys to the inside of her wallet, taking another sip of the cup of tea she made. The darkness of the bookstore was comforting, and she couldn’t help but take one more look around as she neatly places the last set of papers on the desk. It was time to go, Bobbie would be at the restaurant waiting for her in the next ten minutes.

            The psychic flinches as the crash of broken glass, whirling around in the direction of the sound. Something swirls in the darkness and she takes a startled step back. Her heart starts thundering in her ears and she doesn’t get the chance as the moonlight from the windows light up cold green eyes.

            A pain lanced in her head and the ground sways beneath her, rushing up to her without warning. The green-eyed creature walked forward, like a predator stalking prey and she couldn’t help the small, terrified sound that made it out of her throat.

            The beast stooped down to where she’d fallen, eyes boring into her and she hated it instinctively. She hated the way a hand was resting in a mockery of soothing on her head, like a father trying to calm a terrified child. Florence tries to pull away as the world fades away around her. A soft, heavy voice that was much too familiar but much to strange reached her ears her eyes finally close.

            “Do not worry, my child. You will not hurt anymore. You will be safe.”

            Bobbie growled under her breath, angered at the way the tears in her eyes blinded her as she tried to drive. Two hours, two hours the psychic had her waiting at that damn restaurant. Sitting like a fool with everyone watching her with pity in their eyes. The one time she’d had the confidence to ask someone out, and that someone had been a person that became someone that she could call a best friend without hesitance, she’d gotten stood up. Stood up.

            So yea, she was driving back to the book store to give the psychic a piece of her mind. This wasn’t some joke, and she was definitely not humoured. Either she got a damn good explanation or she was cutting ties for good, screw remaining friends. Not even a text message or a call, an excuse would’ve been just fine.

            The detective’s anger fell for a moment, worry flashing almost painfully on her chest. A million questions that she was trying to suppress was fliting through her mind. What if Kaleo was hurt of sick in some way and Florence hadn’t had the chance to reach yet? What if Kahula or Leo had gotten hurt? No. Anger… anger was easier to deal with right now, it gave her the energy to keep going. She couldn’t keep going if she had to pull the car to clear the black dots filling her vision.

            The lights of the bookstore were off, the building in darkness aside from the streetlights and moonlight that reflected off the outside walls. Bobbie slammed her van door, short heels of her shoes clicking as she marched up to the door. She’d stopped in front of the building, anger blindly leading her to the path she more commonly took to get to the place. Bobbie was sort of grateful, it gave her chance to put a speech together in her mind.

            Bobbie couldn’t help but look at the store in hopes that it would give her some sort of answer. An answer as to why Florence would do something like this. Something that could justify why Bobbie spent two hours in a restaurant with a glass of water in front of her and her fingers tapping out short messages every fifteen minutes. She hated been mad at Florence.

            Her prayers had been answered… but in the last way she’d ever wanted. Bobbie’s heart felt like it froze into a lump of ice, a painful chill running down her back. She had to remind herself to breath, eyes already glancing around that the empty streets around her. She hand fell on the gun that never left her person when she was outside her house.

            Florence had a sort of chainmail sheet that was lowered over the glass windows at the end of the day. It protected the store from both anyone looking for easy cash or kids who decided that playing ball by the street was a good idea for the night. Today… today, the latch was always carefully in place the moment the store closed was broken, and forcefully if the little shards of metal on the ground was anything to go by.

            Behind the still fallen fence… was a broken window. One that Bobbie honestly would have missed in all the darkness if it weren’t for the sudden dread that took over all her actions. The detective’s hand shook for a few seconds before she gritted her teeth and stalked forward, weapon on hand.

            She suddenly praised the little flashlight that came with it on top, it wasn’t powerful, but it was enough to see movement… or rather lack of it in the store. Bobbie carefully took one hand off her weapon, raising the chain and stepping over the broken glass. She hissed as her elbow is caught on the edge of the wall of glass still standing, the sheet of metal falling behind her still a far too loud thug, but she refused to take her eyes off from the scene, not willing for someone to get the drop on her.

            With the little light from the streetlights blocked out, she felt like the darkness of the store was stifling, almost crushing. A brick lodged into a shelf of now ruined books sat innocently, glass embedded in it glittering as she flashed her light on it. She couldn’t help the odd thought that ran through her mind at the sight, Florence would be so mad at the damaged books, she’d be ranting for days.

            Glass cracked and crinkled under her heels, her heart still tugging hard in her chest. Boot marks… boot marks with small amounts of dirt were imprinted on the ground. It led her to the cash register up front, but with the pit of despair building in her chest and the undamaged register told her that the attackers were not looking for money.

            As did the broken cup of tea, the wallet with contents scattered on the ground and small amount of blood that was dried into the floor.

            Bobbie is sitting on the pavement, her mind oddly blank as the multitude of noise around her entered one ear and left through the other. A blanket from one of the police cars had been draped over her shoulders at some point. She knew the looks she must be getting right now, worried with a side of regret as they recognised her.

            Recognised her as the silent but dangerous New Jersey detective sitting quietly with crusted blood running down her arm from her shoulder and once fancy clothes now crinkled and dusted with glass and dirt from the sidewalk. Recognised her as the detective who was always accompanied by the loud but well-known psychic.

            But now she was here alone, and her partner was missing. Now she was here and the only evidence they had of self-defence was the blood now dried into the wood. Bobbie lowered her head into her arms, eyes squeezed shut as the world was a little too loud and the lights of the cars were a little too bright.

            This was her fault. Florence was a civilian, what was she thinking, dragging her into this. This was her fault because she’d brought someone who wasn’t even trained in her line of work into her business. Her fault because now she didn’t even know where she was going to start, start in telling her son that his mother was missing.

            “There wasn’t anything you could have done, you know.” Footsteps stop just shy of her unprotected side, the owner shuffling just to the side that he could sit on the pavement beside her.

            “Yea?” Her voice was hoarse, and it cracked and wobbled with emotion. She wanted to cringe at it, but she couldn’t seem to care. Couldn’t seem to care when the one people in the world who truly cared about her was missing all because of her.

            “Florence has been in this since you would’ve been a rookie. If you’re replaying ‘Oh, how I should’ve never let her on this case’ in a mindless repeat, I suggest you stop.” Captain Akamu leaned back with his palms flat on the ground behind him, head titled to the moon now high in the sky. “I’ve been through this a million times.”

            “Kidnaping? Injured, missing, possibly…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it, thankfully Akamu cuts her off before she could finish that thought.

            “No… probably not that, but I’ve worked with Florence on more cases than you could imagine. She puts her heart into each and every single one of them. She may have walked into my office that day with an irritated look on her face, but I would bet my bottom dollar that a week later she’d have come back to me demanding she be put on the case to solve it.” The Captain chuckle as if replaying events in his head where similar had happen and Bobbie couldn’t help the small smile that twitched her lip. “I’m saying that you wouldn’t have been able to pull her off this case even if you wanted.”

            “No?”

            “Nope.”

            “She could be dead.” Her voice falls apart at the last word and a warm hand is resting heavily on the back of her neck. It’s overwhelming and comforting all at the same time and she couldn’t help the sob that ripped past her throat.

            “But she’s not.” It angered her, how sure that voice was, unwavering and solid in the face of all the evidence laying around them. But at the same time, it sparks hope in her chest, a need to believe.

            “And how do you know that?”

            “Because there’s not a body. They didn’t hurt her as much as they could off, they just knocked her out and took her. And Bobbie, we will find her.” Captain Akamu shifts to a kneel beside her, head titled low as he raises her head to look him in the eye. “Florence is a fighter; she will not go down easily. I can promise you that with my soul.”

            “I need to be the one tell him.” Bobbie rubs her hands together  to hide the way they were shaking as Akamu kept his comforting hand on her shoulder. They were outside Kahula’s house, the address on the phone that should’ve been on Florence. Her heart beats even harder as her ears picked up the muffled sound of laughter.

            “Are you sure, Bobbie, you don’t have to do-“

            “I do.” She didn’t mean to be short with him, but if she talked him out of this, there was no doubt that she would take it and Kaleo didn’t deserve that. Captain Akamu seemed to understand anyways, squeezing her shoulder but she tried to rectify her statement anyways. “I just - I lost her, I have to be the one to tell him.”

            “You didn’t lose her, we’ll find her.” He whispers as he knocks on the door. A loud voice raises to quiet the kids, replying to the door with a short ‘just a sec’. It was distinctively Kahula and Bobbie could feel her heart breaking all over again, because she just realised that she wouldn’t be telling one kid that Florence was missing, she’d be telling three.

            “Good nigh – Bobbie?” Kahula’s voice stutters as they open the door, the divider pushed aside to get a better look. The bookstore worker’s smile turn into a painful frown and Bobbie gives them a second to take in her rumbled clothes and stark white bandage plastered on her elbow. “Bobbie, what’s going on?”

            “I-“

            “Kahula, you good?” Leo is walking over, one of his hands holding a bowl of popcorn and the other with his phone. He’s caught between humour and worry as his fellow worker doesn’t move to greet him. “Kahula, what’s going on?”

            “I think Bobbie was just about to tell us.” They step back a little shakily, showing him the few just on the doorstep. Akamu takes a step forward to talk but Bobbie changes the grip, holding his shoulder instead. She needed to do this, and this conversation included them.

            “Bobbie, what the hell is going on?” Leo places the bowl on the ground without much grace, walking up to them.

            “It’s Florence…” It’s all she could manage before her throat feels like its closing up again, she clears it, staring at the ground with wet eyes.

            “Bobbie, you’re scaring us. Is she okay?”

            “As of an hour ago, Florence Lowell was labelled as kidnapped, forcefully taken from her own home.” Said and done but Bobbie only feels worse as the words seem to slowly register in their minds. She could hardly bear to watch them in their eyes, wasn’t able to see the hurt she knew was in her eyes reflected in theirs. A loud thump had her absently noting Leo’s slack grip and fallen phone.

            “You’re kidding…” Bobbie could only manage to shake her head, unable to say much more without the imminent breakdown waiting in the back of her throat. The shaking in her hand is worse and it graduated to the rest of her body. Thankfully, Captain Akamu takes over the scene as a more familiar voice and the one of reason the moment he sees the varying states of denial and dispare.

            “The bookstore was broken into, we believe that the kidnapper either had her schedule mapped out or they had close eye on her. As of the moment, we do not have any leads, but we are trying everything that we can.” Akamu’s solid voice is soothing and like a cooling balm on frayed nerves. “We just ask… that with talk to Kaleo”

            “I’m here.” The voice is small but it’s enough for all of them to turn, to see the tiny eleven-year-old standing with tears in his eyes. Bobbie loses it, her knees buckling under finally as a pained sound tears through her already sore throat. Kaleo doesn’t hesitate to run towards her, wrapping his arms around her. Bobbie doesn’t feel like she deserve the comfort but couldn’t help the selfish need to wrap her arms around him, burying her head in his tiny shoulder.

            “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Kaleo.” She sobs even harder as he rests his head next to her ear, small hand resting on her back. Kaleo just hugs as tight as he could, and she could feel more than hear the way Kahula and Leo joins them. The family she’d broken up comforting her when they should be yelling and angry. She didn’t deserve this, but she didn’t have the willpower to pull away.

            “She’s okay.” Kaleo mutters and her heart stutters in her chest, before she could ask, he mutters it again. “She’s okay.”

            “W-what?” Bobbie pulls back to put her hands on his face, wiping away tears and looking him in the eyes for answers. The others pull back slightly as well as they register his words. Captain Akamu kneels beside them, getting as close to the kid as he could manage to hear the whispered words.

            “Mom and I can always tell if the other is okay.” He explains and Bobbie suddenly has to will herself to breath calmly, her heart hurts, it hurts because she forgot that Florence and Kaleo were connected by their abilities. Connected in the way that told her that she was still alive, connected in the way that would break Kaleo’s heart if she no longer with them. “She’d okay. Confused, worried, hurt, but okay.”

            “Kaleo, I promise you. Kaleo, I promise you I will find your mom. I will bring Florence home.” Bobbie’s voice is the most determined for the first time tonight and she could hear the power in it. It was more than just a promise made of pretty words, this was a promise solidified in blood, a promise that she would take to the grave if she had to.

            She will not let Kaleo feel what it’s like to lose his connection to his mother, she will not let this tiny little, beautiful family be broken up. Bobbie is going to do what it took to reunite them and there was nothing to step in her way.