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Thalia loved being a cop. But family came first. Family always came first. She would worry about her career once she’d found Kay.
Thalia nodded once.
“And you will give up your search,” Omale added.
Thalia shook her head. “Can’t do that, sir.”
The chief sighed. “I understand your desire to find your sister, but you have no leads, no proof she’s even been taken.”
She turned around and looked out the window of her ninety-fifth floor office in the two-hundred story skyscraper just as a marked anti-grav car connected to the landing pad reserved for the police.
“You know the statistics as well as I do,” she continued. “Women who are not found within the first twenty-four hours are usually found dead. If they’re even found at all.”
Thalia knew that of course. She’d spent the last three months researching everything she could on kidnapping.
She wasn’t part of that department on the force. She specialized in corporate crimes. She hadn’t worked on a missing person’s case since her rookie days.
“That won’t stop me searching for her,” Thalia said, her voice raspier than she’d like. “If she’s dead, I want to find the people responsible. And if she is suffering somewhere…”
Thalia could not finish her sentence. The very thought of Kay being held captive somewhere and abused was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She imagined Kay crying and wishing her cop sister would find her already. Too bad for her that Thalia sucked at this.
She’d collected information on women who’d disappeared around the same time as Kay. The lack of evidence left behind suggested it might have been a professional job. Some of the women’s cases led her to an underground sex trafficking ring. She’d hunted down a guy who’d kept coming up in her investigation only to realize too late that he was an undercover cop investigating those very cases. The only way to preserve his secret persona and his spot in the illegal organization had been to lock him up in jail for ten months. He would be able to continue his job where he left off then, but in the meantime, he would be completely out of touch with the illegal organization, not to mention wasting time in jail. How many women would suffer because of her actions?
Thalia wasn’t usually one for beating herself up, but this particular mishap tore her up inside.
Omale turned back toward her, the anger gone from her face. “Thalia, any more mistakes like this and evenIwill be powerless to save your career.”
Omale cared about the people in her command. And she cared about putting competent people in high places. They’d talked in the past about Thalia’s aspirations to move up the chain of command, but that was before.
“I understand.”
The Chief dismissed her, and she walked back to her office. Her friend and partner, Lily Dalton, waited for her in front of her office door leaning her shoulder against the wall.
Lily wore a baggy shirt and some loose pants that she must have found in the pajama section of whatever discount store she’d shopped at. Lily was a computer programmer analyst and not an actual police officer, so Omale let her get away with wearing whatever she wanted to work. It wasn’t like she ever had to go out on the street, and besides, it was a perk of being the best at her job.
“I have something for you about…” She looked around at the curious eyes, and ears, who must have heard Omale dressing her down. “A case.”
“Not now,” Thalia said.
She’d asked Lily to look into her sister’s disappearance, and while she was dying to know what she’d found, she couldn’t disobey Omale only seconds after leaving her office. “I’ll come by after work.”
She walked around Lily and entered her office, shutting her door on the whispers of the other cops.
* * *
It wasn’t until evening that Thalia finally got a moment to herself. The instant Omale left for the day, she rushed to Lily’s office and found her hunched over her desk, fingers flying at her holo-display.
“What did you find?” Thalia asked, not bothering with small talk. They’d already spent most of the day working on a case together.
“That doctor your sister saw just before getting kidnapped, the one who mysteriously disappeared at the same time,” she said.
“Dr. Elizabeth Wells,” Thalia answered.
“She resurfaced.” Lily pointed to the holo-display in front of her. Thalia’s heart beat too erratically for her to make out what she was seeing.
“Where?”
“She arrived on Minas yesterday.” Lily pointed at the display again, and Thalia realized she had logged into the Minas border control website.
