Day 923: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: deplete

When you deplete your own resources, you have to do what you have to do.

Karen Rowan's upsetting and confusing day was getting worse every minute.

She had pulled the files she needed from the record room at police headquarters, made her copies, scanned them and sent them to her division captain, and made her report.

The lieutenant had said nothing to anyone yet about Captain H.F. Lee, the man she hated more than any other, surprising her there … and actually being nice to her.

The man had killed her lover, Commissioner Orton Thomas, as the latter was resisting arrest after years of corruption.

Lt. Rowan would never forgive Captain Lee for that. Ever.

But he was called the “Angel of Death” for a reason … he was angelic in his every day interactions, a Southern gentleman of the old cut, and also an officer, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, and beloved by those who had served with him.

His own cold case division members worshiped him, one and all.

No one had complaints about how he had treated them in person at police headquarters.

Captain H.F. Lee had destroyed five commissioners in total, and still, there were a ton of people who acted like he could do no wrong. Like the infamous Confederate relative he most resembled (although in his middle forties still), he just glided above it all.

Lt. Rowan hated the man for all of that … but now, she had encountered him, and she too could find no personal fault in him.

When she got by herself, she actually burst into tears – the encounter upset, confused, and angered her that much.

Then, Captain Garrison, her division leader, called.

“Good work, Lieutenant – I think we have now done all that we can do in pulling things together from our end. This looks like a copy-cat case with our serial rapist suspect, but we have to find out if there are any links between this suspect and the man he may be copying – or, it could be the same man, but if so, he's covered himself well.

"The case I'm referring to was never solved, though, and it was ten years ago. That's a cold case link. I've just got off the phone with Captain H.F. Lee and he is expecting you. Go see him; his division is going to help us with this one.”

Lt. Rowan's heart fell into her shoes. The problem was that she wasn't quite bad enough to get out of this. Women and girls were at risk in Big Loft and Lofton County like she had been, growing up – and if that other case had never been solved, there was a whole different bunch of women and girls waiting for justice.

She got through her moment of dread by realizing: just as Orton Thomas had been her rescuer, it was time for her to step up and do what she had to do in order to save others. If the road had to go through H.F. Lee, so be it.

Mrs. Thornton had once described Lt. Rowan as a big spoiled baby … but all of the sudden, she was growing up.

“Yes, sir, Captain Garrison. I'm on my way.”

To be continued...