CHAPTER 30

     After Dylan left the station on Sunday morning, she headed straight to the apartment she had rented in town.She had left it in a mess after eating take outs for the whole weekend because she hadn't been in the mood to cook.Ever since her mother's death two years ago, home cooked meals never tasted the same.She did cook but rarely and only because her friend Carl always pushed her,telling her that eating out everyday wasn't good for her health.

         Her fur baby,a big German shepherd dog met her at the door wagging his tail in excitement. She had gotten the dog after her mother was murdered and he had been great company to her.On many lonely nights, he would lay beside her and at least that gesture made her feel less lonely.

          "Hi boy," she greeted scratching behind his ears softly. "You wanna go for a walk?"

   The dog barked loudly twice and jumped. She made a quick sweep around the house,left over pieces of pizza were still lying in a box on the table. An empty beer bottle stood beside it and further along, some chips wrappers from Friday night lay.She made the calculations of clearing the mess and cleaning the apartment in her head.She had left work knowing she wouldn't manage to do anything significant but she also knew that if she stayed inside her apartment the whole day, she would go crazy.She needed to do something, clear her head and get herself together for the next working day.On a table in one corner of the room sat a huge file. It was uncommon for officers to be given cases to work on,especially a case like this particular one and the truth was, none of her coworkers knew she had been working on it.It was a case of a teenager who had disappeared mysteriously from her home and up until then,there had been no leads as to where she might have disappeared to.The detectives at the station had tried every angle but two months later,they had given up and discarded it.She hadn't told anyone that she had taken it back on and she wanted it to remain like that until she got a breakthrough. She knew that she was going against protocol by doing that but it didn't bother her.She was doing a lot of that lately.

        Dylan shifted her eyes from the file back to the wrappers on the table.She moved forward, gathered them and threw them into a waste bin under the kitchen sink. She opened the box containing pizza,took a piece then put the rest in her empty fridge. Shopping wasn't something she did regularly knowing that cooking for herself would be rare.

      A few minutes later,she led her dog outside,locked up and headed to her jeep.She started the engine and drove away.

                   *****

      It didn't take her long to get to the other side of town.She knew Carl didn't go to work on Sundays and therefore he was likely to be home. The surprising news he had left her with at the station were still in the forefront of her mind.She didn't know if she wanted to be around him after all that but he was the only friend she could go to about anything.The truth was that she needed his support, she needed to hear his thoughts about the sudden turn of events.

    He answered the door after the third knock.When he appeared at the door with a towel around his waist and another drying his hair,she shook her head.He grinned upon seeing her.

         "Look who is looking for me now," he said. "Or are you on official police business?"

         "What possibly could be police business inside your apartment?" she replied and pushed past him.

        "Fair warning if you didn't notice,I'm naked," Carl said a matter of factly.

       "I noticed that."

        "Oh,does that mean you are finally curious about the manhood and all?" he teased.

   She glared at him and he laughed.

        "What?I wouldn't mind a little gay action. My sister was stupid to let all this beauty and charm go.It's a pity you don't play for both sides like her."

  Dylan shook her head,"Just go get dressed  Carl." She didn't take any offense at what he said. She had gotten used to his teasing and sometimes even teased him back. "Even if I was a little bit curious, I don't think I would bang my ex's twin brother," she added with a smile.

         "Ouch,that hurts," he replied then disappeared from the living room to go get dressed. Dylan sat down on the only couch in the room.Carl's apartment wasn't any different from hers except that even though she sometimes lived in a mess,Carl's was much worse.At least one could differentiate the guy's from the girl's.

        "So,what's up? I thought you would be working at least until four in the evening."

        "Apparently, my week has decided to begin in the worst way possible," she stated then laid full length on the couch.Carl pulled an office chair from a desk in a corner and placed it beside her.

        "Are you upset that I didn't tell you about Carly sooner?"

    She shook her head,"No.Why would I be upset? What we had ended years before she left the country and so there's nothing about her leaving that would make me upset that she's coming back."

           "It might have ended then but I know for you it never did.I'm fairly certain that you're somehow upset about this too."

          "I am not still holding on to her.I came to terms with it and moved on."

         "Then why haven't your relationships lasted for more than three months?" he challenged her.

         "Because...," she began but stopped. She didn't know how to explain that fact.She had dated,the first few weeks were always the best but after some time, the connection would start slipping away and it would eventually end.Carl was right,none of her relationships had lasted for longer than three to four months except two.One,an year after she had completed college,it had lasted for over six months and the other one,well,she didn't want to go there because she would prove Carl right.Even her longest relationship had ended because of her.She hadn't managed to give enough and the girl,Iris had eventually given up on trying.She knew she had hurt her and she had vowed to not let something she was aware  wouldn't last long to escalate that much.

         "Dylan?" Carl's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.She looked at him,"Are you still in love with my sister?Is that why you are upset she's coming back? "

          "I will always love your sister,always have despite  everything that happened. She was my first love," she admitted. "But being in love with her,honestly I don't know. It has been eleven years since we broke up for good,seven years she has been in another country and we both have been living different lives.Maybe it took me a long time to get over her but I have no reservations about her coming back.This is her home and I have no say as to where she can live."

   Carl looked at her curiously even long after she had finished her lengthy explanation. If he didn't believe her,then she would not blame him.She didn't know if she believed herself either.

         "If you say so," he said eventually and she sighed with relief. She didn't want to continue with the conversation so she changed the subject the first opportunity she got.

          "Kelley Smith got out," she stated.Carl frowned."I just received the news this morning. She got out yesterday for good behaviour, "she said with a scoff.

 He looked at her in disbelief," The Kelley I know of.The woman you said owns half of the women in the prison upstate? The big bad butch you believe  was the one that murdered your mom?" he asked in quick succession.

          "Yeah,and I don't believe so.I know so,a hundred percent sure because all the evidence connected back to her even though she didn't do it personally.She somehow managed to manipulate everything and set herself free and now she's out so,I have much more worse things going on right now."

           "What did you do Dylan?"

    She sat up and said in a low tone, "I might be on her target list for revenge on what happened some months ago.The victim I shot and maimed was her pet.Lover,girlfriend, whatever.She most probably knows I was involved in the shoot out and I was her worst enemy when they sent me there to invade their privacy."

       "Oh no,let me guess.You stole her girls from her and became a threat to her reputation. "

         "I had to fit in and the only way to do that was become popular among them so that I could get the answers I had gone to find."

            "You could have gotten the information from several other people who weren't in her circle since it wasn't her you were investigating."

    Dylan was quiet for a while as she remembered back then. She had just gotten her job at the station but she seemed promising and that was why they had chosen her.She had jumped into the opportunity to prove herself even though her mother hadn't been too happy, knowing the kind of people who were locked in there. Dylan had convinced her and she had eventually agreed,only that some time later after she had gotten the information she had gone to look for,by some bad luck her cover had been blown.She had managed to escape unscathed but a week later,they had found her mother and killed her instead.

         "Anyway I'm not worried about what happened back then.I'm worried that she knows I'm the one who pulled the trigger that maimed that young lady that we eventually came to learn was related to her."

   Carl stood up and began to pace around the room nervously.

         "This is not good at all.What if she followed you here,what if she's outside waiting to pounce. Please tell me you carried your gun with you," he said but instead of replying, Dylan laughed at him.He really was scared, making it seem like he was the target.She understood why though because she knew by staying around him,he also became the target and she wouldn't want anything to happen to him.

         "Of course I have my gun but Kelley surely isn't that stupid to look for me on the first day she was released. She is a planner and even though she is mostly not an executor,she is going to take some time to plan everything so,relax you are safe."

   He sat back down and faced her but the worried look was still in his face,"But you are not.She's going to come after you eventually. "

         "We don't know that yet," she replied even though she was fairly certain Kelley would come after her.There was no way she hadn't used her sources to know who was involved in the bust that changed the life of one of her favorite people. "

        "But what if she does,you need to be ready for anything."

         "I know and that's why I'm going to try and locate her.Observe her movement and that way,I'll know how to go about it."

   Carl shook his head in disapproval, "That's not what I mean.It's much more dangerous.What if she discovers what you are doing. She will kill you without thinking."

         "What should I do,sit and wait idly until she strikes?I I'm not sure what she knows and what she's going to do but I'm not going to just sit and weight."

         "You will get killed Dylan."

   She shrugged, "I have no life whatsoever. It ended completely a while back. If I die,then I escape from all this,if I don't and she does,then I'll have helped the society get rid of  a bad person and then I'll find the purpose of living."

         "You do that every single day,your job involves helping people every turn you take."

        "It's not enough Carl.I want something more.I want my life to make sense."

         "You are broken Dylan. You don't have to do all this so you can prove a point."

          "It's not a point I'm trying to prove," she rose up. "I'm just trying to do something good and maybe the universe might give me back the sense of belonging."

  Carl looked at her as if she had just lost her mind.And maybe she had.The last time she was blubbering like this was the weeks that followed after her mother's death.She hadn't been herself for so long and she was almost committed to a rehab facility.Luckily, Carl had been patient with her,he had nurtured her back to normal like his own sister and she would forever be grateful.

         "You are not yourself Dylan. Something is really bothering you and it's leading you to think all this."

   She could hear the fear in his voice, she could see how scared he was and somehow that touched her.She didn't think she wanted to take him through what had happened all those months back but also,she knew she had to do something before anything happened. She however said what she thought would make things lighter.

         "Maybe all  I need is a drink and I'll forget all this.You wanna come with later?"

        "Definitely. I don't want you to go making bad decisions on your own."

          "At what time are you supposed to go get your sister?" she asked trying to make it sound like a normal question.

          "Not until around eleven tonight.It's gonna be a long flight from Australia to the airport," he replied. "Let's meet this evening at five."

           "Okay,sounds good."

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