Dinner, interrupted

Kathryn had just finished chopping vegetables for dinner when her phone buzzed. It was Julie.

“Hey babe,” Julie said, “how’s the second week been? Any more workplace safety videos from the 1980s?”

“No, thank god.” Shitty safety videos were one of the mysterious and incurable quirks of government work.

“So, are we still on for this weekend?”

“Yeah, about that…” Kathryn started. She knew that Julie would pick up on her tone immediately. The number of times she’d had to cancel a date or a weekend for work was inexcusable.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I’m so sorry, Jules, but it’s a missing person. A kid.”

“Shit, really?” she’d modulated her voice to sound sympathetic rather than angry. Kathryn believed it. Julie was able to summon empathy almost on command.

“Yeah.”

“What, like a runaway, or like a kidnapping?”

“We don’t know. Everyone around here says this girl ups and leaves on a regular basis, but she always comes back eventually.”

“So a runaway.”

“Well, yeah, that’s what her dad thought so he waited forever to call us. But now it’s been longer than she’s ever been gone before.”

“So, a kidnapping.”

Kathryn waffled between her two spice choices - “Garlic Fries” or “Mrs. Dash No-Salt Original Blend” –grabbed the Mrs. Dash from the otherwise empty cupboard and shook it generously over the chopped vegetables while she countered her girlfriend’s assessment. 

“You’re being a bit hasty, aren’t you? For all we know she could be absolutely fine,”

“Of course, I’m jumping to conclusions,” Julie said, “But Kat, you’re not just saying that because you want it to be true, right? I mean, she really could be fine?”

Kathryn sighed loudly. They’d had this conversation so many times over the past year, starting when Kathryn was assigned her first major crimes investigation in Minneapolis. Though she loved the job, she’d been constantly on edge, crying at random moments and incapable of thinking about anything other than her cases. She’d always had the feeling that if she had just tried harder, worked longer, she could undo the tragedies that had been handed to her. She’d routinely forgotten that eating and sleeping were also part of the job.

When she’d been offered the job as an investigator in Beaver Creek, Wisconsin, she and Julie had agreed that it would be a good chance for her to keep doing investigative work in a less intense environment. More property theft, less personal crime. It was a demotion, but worth it if it meant she wasn’t crying every day after work.

Of course, there would be some sort of emergency the minute she got here.

“Yeah well, regardless, we’re working this weekend,” she said, inserting her tray of vegetables into the oven, “We’re already borderline too late.”

“I know, I know, the forty-eight hour rule, right? I remember you mentioning that, oh, once or twice.”

Kat knew the comment was meant in jest but with her tension over this new case, and her guilt about the number of time’s she’d used that line to justify another late night at work, it fell flat.

“Anyway, you’re going to sleep this weekend too, right? And eat?” Julie’s worry had shifted from the missing girl to Kathryn with the ease of someone practiced in the art of sympathy.

Kathryn sat down on one of the barstools that had come with the apartment, spun herself around.

“Yeah, actually, I’ve got food in the oven right now. You’d be proud of me.”

“Roasted veggies with Mrs. Dash?” Julie guessed. It was one of the only meals Kathryn knew how to cook.

“You know me so well.”

Kat managed to turn the conversation towards Julie – her summer school students and, of course, the ongoing conflict amongst the neighbors about whether or not Mr. Kinsey’s fence was too tall for neighborhood ordinance (‘I mean, what’s he doing in there that he needs so much privacy? Someone should fly a drone overhead just to see. It’s not illegal if it stays on our property, right?’).

She found herself relaxing into the conversation, forgetting for a moment her anxiety about the fact that she wasn’t, at this precise moment, working to find the missing teenager. She alternated between pushing herself in aimless circles on the barstool and poking at the vegetables in the oven, checking if they were soft enough to eat.

Julie was in the middle of a cheerfully-aggravated monologue about having to intervene in some inappropriate text messaging among her students that day when a message buzzed into view on Kat’s phone.

“David’s cousin requesting presence at the house. Possible evidence retrieval. Meet there in 15.”

“Shoot, Julie, I need to go. The aunt of the missing girl needs us to

come over.”

“The aunt? Does the girl live with her? Doesn’t she have parents?”

“I'm pretty sure the aunt isn’t usually there.”

Kat considered whether to skip the next part, but knew Julie would find out anyway. She’d be looking up web articles about the case as soon as they hung up from their phone call. If nothing else, Julie was persistent.

So she continued, “The mom disappeared twelve years ago, and since then the dad’s been taking care of the kids by himself. Unfortunately for us, he left yesterday to go looking for his daughter, and now his cousin’s at the house taking care of the younger child. His nephew actually, I’m not sure about his adoption status at this point. He calls the dad ‘dad’, anyway. I mean, I understand wanting to find your daughter, but it’s highly inconvenient, not being able to ask him any questions.”

“Wow.”

Julie was silent for a long time. Kat wasn’t sure if the call had been disconnected.

“Kat,” Julie finally said, “This sounds suspicious.”

“Julie, don’t.” She was pretty sure she already knew what Julie was thinking. It was one of the less savory rumors circulating around town. 

“I mean, what kind of parent leaves the moment the police get involved in looking for their kid? It sounds like he wants to find her first. What if she knew something about her mom’s disappearance, so he disappeared her too? Or what if she ran away to hide from him and now he’s going after her?”

“Julie, there’s no evidence that he did anything to his wife.“ She wanted Julie to stop. She knew Julie was wrong, couldn’t articulate why.

“But you’re in a small town, aren’t you? There wouldn’t be the same kind of evidence as if you were here, in a big city with all the resources you need for a proper investigation!”

“That’s true, but –“

“But what?”

Kat tried to organize her thoughts, failed. “I just don’t get that feeling from him. I don’t think he’s capable of thinking like that.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t. Listen, Kat, I’m done teaching summer school this Friday, and then, if you won’t hate me for it, I’m coming to stay with you for the rest of the summer. Just until you figure this thing out.”

“I don’t need protecting,” Kathryn said, “I’m the one with the gun, remember?”

“Yes, but you’re also alone. Until you know what’s up with this guy, I’d rather be close by.”

Kathryn couldn’t keep the smile from stealing across her face in spite of her annoyance. She knew Julie was misguided, but she was pleased anyway by her gallantry. Also, two weeks was the longest she’d lived apart from Julie in more than two years, and she didn’t like to admit that she was starting to get a bit homesick for her company.

“Well I’d love to have you,” she said, “but be prepared to be completely bored. Whatever’s going on is much more mundane than you’re making it out to be.”

“Somehow I doubt that.”