Find Her (The Erodium Trilogy Book 1) by Kenneth Zink

Author:Kenneth Zink [Zink, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Fahrenheit Press
Published: 2021-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

10

They would find her. They would actually find her. Finally.

Through the twilight, Robin stopped the cab just before the crest of a hill that overlooked an abandoned factory by the shore. It was a quick find, only one of it on the east coast, a derelict relic of manufacturing, such a neglected lot that the local municipality hadn’t even deemed it worthy of demo. Backup was on the way. Local PD and SWAT. Called in by Tim after she triangulated the location. She and the kid didn’t know what they were getting into. Now though, minutes ticked by like notches carved into stone, impossible to take back, forever etched while they waited for an hour and hoped the time they were losing wouldn’t be the difference between life and death. Finding the girl was just the first half of their job. She had to survive too. She had to.

They didn’t say anything because there was nothing to say, not during the tense preamble to the possible closure of the case, when it was easy to lose themselves in their heads. They would succeed or fail. That was it. She could tell the kid was nervous though. Felt it more than anything, as much as she hated to admit it, even if only to herself. Empathy was only ever useful when it provided crucial information that led to more crucial information. This was just awkward. Uncomfortable. An insight without a purpose.

While they leaned against the cab, staring out at the forest that flanked the road, waiting for reinforcements, the darkness dissolving alongside the spur of dawn, Tim held his gun against his thigh, flicking the safety back and forth.

“Breathe,” Robin said.

“We’ll find her. Alive.”

“We will.”

“I shouldn’t be feeling this way,” he said.

“What way?”

“Scared.”

“You’ll be fine,” she said.

“No, not me, I’m scared for her. The girl.”

“Oh.”

Wind blew in from somewhere else, whistling through the trees, cutting down the empty hill and across the open field and through the factory itself. She imagined the rusted husk emitting a haunting shriek as the gust lanced through its corroded bones.

“I know I’m not supposed to care,” Tim said.

Robin didn’t say anything. She no longer knew how she felt about the idea, caring, if it was as dangerous as she’d always thought, or if the lack of it was as toxic as the cancer lodged upstairs, something that protected you now but killed you later.

Earlier, when they’d gotten out of the cab, their doors had slammed shut around the same time. The sound was becoming familiar. She didn’t like that, even though she did. It was repellant and enticing. Not being so alone. Tim wasn’t the person she’d imagined as her partner, closer in age to the girl than to Robin, but he would do. Maybe, after this was all over, they could take more cases together. She could work until she couldn’t, resign with dignity once she stared coughing blood, stick around as a consultant, spend the time she had left helping rookies like Tim find their footing as fragment detectives.

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