Outside In

Chapter 3-3

The two weeks after she had first met Maggie passed quickly. For Cameron, it was a time of burning the candle at both ends. Each night, when her shift was over at the precinct, she’d grab a quick bite to eat then meet with either Maggie or with Craig’s assistant, Wendell Adreopolous, at some predetermined place for a training session. And each night, from the different meeting places, she’d been taken by some circuitous route to a safe house where she underwent several hours of training or testing. The nights with Wendell were never the same. One night it’d be investigation techniques, another, technical surveillance devices, the next, a review of pertinent laws and prior case studies until he’d finally drop her back where she’d left her car and she crawled home to bed. Her mind was reeling. She hadn’t worked this hard in graduate school, but then, she hadn’t had a full-time job at the same time either.

Her sessions with Maggie had gotten harder and had filled every other night. Question after question after question. And then start all over at the first one. What was Maggie looking for with her questions? Why ask the same ones over and over again? Cam couldn’t figure out what this was all leading to. The only thing that made it seem easier was that bed in the guest room of Maggie’s apartment, which had become her second home.

She was weary. She’d explained her family, she’d explained her education, she’d explained her job, she’d explained her relationships…well, most of her relationships. She’d never be able to explain Karen.

Beautiful Doctor Karen Amos. They’d met while Cam was working in Virginia and Karen was in her last year of medical school. A gorgeous blond with a body that left most fashion models in the dust. Men immediately assumed that she was straight and fair game and that they’d found an easy mark. That was, until she unleashed her magnificent mind on them and left them with their mouths hanging open. Karen was more intelligent than anyone Cam had ever met. She inhaled the written word and could spit it back out fully digested and defined at a moment’s notice. She adored opera and ballet and loved to jog and play volleyball. She loved living and she savored the day that she could find a cure for something or make someone’s life easier.

Karen and Cam had lived together for over three years. Cam had even made the commute every day from Baltimore to Langley, Virginia just because Karen did her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Cam thought it better for her to commute on her regular nine to five schedule, than for Karen to have to worry about driving home after late night or double duty shifts at the hospital.

Karen had brought Cam to Baltimore. It was then that she’d decided to apply to the Police Academy rather than sit behind a desk and stare at cryptic notes day after day.

Karen. Cam hadn’t thought about her for a long time. Oh, she’d passed through Cam’s mind now and then, but Cam had learned not to let her dwell there. She’d spent two years trying to decipher that relationship and still hadn’t gotten past square one. She’d probably never be able to forget that day.