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“What is taking them so long?” Kate wondered as she waited impatiently inside her squad car that was parked down the street from Jerome Johnson’s house for Marcus, Big Mike and Trey to show up. She had only been there for three minutes, but the anxiety and apprehension she felt made it seem so much longer. She was so nervous about walking up to the house and nosing around outside of it; she feared what would happen if Rob was there…and if he caught her.

A moment later she saw headlights coming up behind her parked car, and then they quickly disappeared. They flashed on and off two more times, the signal to Kate, and she quickly exited her vehicle and walked towards the car that parked a few hundred yards behind hers. Now that she was not by herself anymore a wave of confidence washed over her, and she began feeling excited about the police work she was about to partake in.

“Hey guys, thanks for coming,” she whispered to Marcus, Trey and Big Mike as they exited their vehicle and started walking with Kate back towards Jerome’s house. “From what I’ve seen so far, the house is completely dark and I haven’t noticed any signs of movement coming from inside.” Marcus nodded his head, his way of acknowledging what Kate had said and then he pointed to Trey and Big Mike.

“You two go around that way,” he instructed, pointing his finger away from them and towards the right side of the house. “Kate and I will go around this way,” he explained, pointing around the left side of the house. The foursome split up and the two groups cautiously slipped out of sight around the corners of the house.

As Kate and Marcus approached the backside of the house, a sudden movement caught the corner of Kate’s eye, causing her to turn abruptly with her weapon drawn. In one swift movement, she was facing the unknown suspect with her gun pointed at the person’s head yelling for him or her to get down on the ground. Hearing her yell, Big Mike and Trey came bounding around the house to see what the commotion was about.

“Dale?” hissed Kate as her eyes focused in dark night on the person standing in front of her. “What are you doing here?” she asked him, knowing he was not on duty right now. Dale, or Officer Brooks, as he usually went by, swallowed hard as Kate slightly lowered her gun and waited for an explanation.

“I came here to see Rob,” he began, lowering his hands from the air and picking up the bag he had dropped.

“I knew it,” barked Marcus. “I knew you were dirty; you’re working with him aren’t you?”

“I was helping him; but I’m not anymore. I didn’t know it was going to go this far!”

“How were you helping him Dale?” Kate prodded, stepping in between him and Marcus, who was ready to right cross Dale in the face.

“He said he needed me to make sure nothing fell back on him if some criminal activity started happening around him. He just said it would involve his girlfriend and he was trying to teach her a lesson. It was supposed to be pretty harmless stuff though!” His voice was pleading, the desperation he felt was apparent as he tried his hardest to convince his audience of the truth.

“You call burning down an entire apartment building HARMLESS?” Kate screeched, not buying his innocent behavior. “You are a police officer and a grown man! What were you thinking?”

“I didn’t know it would come to this,” he insisted. “If my wife pulled the stunts that his girlfriend was, I would want to teach her a lesson too! I was just trying to help him out!”

“What stunts was Roslyn pulling?” Marcus asked, skepticism clinging to every syllable. He was sure that whatever Rob had told Officer Brooks was a blatant lie, and he was more than ready to set the record straight for this shady cop.

“He said she was fooling around on him and disobeying him, lying to him, stuff like that. Stuff that no man should have to put up with from the woman they love!”

“You are such an idiot,” chided Kate, shaking her head in astonishment and beating Marcus to the punch. “Did you know that none of that is true? Did you know that Rob abuses Roslyn? Did you know that her ‘disobeying’ him means that she didn’t cook the vegetables the way he wanted for dinner?” Dale stood there, unmoving and silent, ashamed at what he helped facilitate.

“I didn’t know any of that,” he whispered. “I can’t believe he lied to me.”

“Did you really think that someone who wanted the law to turn the other cheek when crimes are committed would be a very honest person?” Kate retorted, unscathed by the remorse in Dale’s words.

“I came here to tell him I wouldn’t do it anymore. He almost killed that poor girl tonight for Christ’s sake!” Officer Brooks spoke quietly, almost as if he was telling himself the story instead of everyone else. He held up the bag that was dangling in his hand for Kate to take. “This is the money he gave me for helping him.” After she took it from him, he turned around, putting his hands behind his back and waited for the inevitable.

“Dale Brooks, you have the right to remain silent,” Kate began, slapping a pair of handcuffs around Dale’s wrists and leading him to her squad car. By the time they reached the vehicle she was finished with her legal spiel and he silently slid into the backseat of the squad car.

“Now what?” asked Marcus as Kate shut the car door and leaned against it. “Obviously Rob isn’t here, and that dipshit must not know where he is because he came here looking for him too, so where does that leave us?”

“Well, I’ll get a warrant to check his and Jerome’s credit card activity; hopefully it will lead us in the direction they went. Other than that, I don’t know.” She was being glaringly frank and honest, and it pained them all to know what she was saying was true. They all knew they had nothing to go on, no way of knowing where Rob was, and no way of protecting Roslyn any better than they already were.