Recruit Training Command - Great Lakes, IL

Nana, I miss you.

Tears welled up in her eyes as Jennifer stared down at the ring sitting beautifully on her middle finger. It’d been a gift from her grandmother, Diana. Sometimes she would absent-mindedly play with the ring, spinning it in place with her thumb. Today hit a tad harder once she caught herself in her habit because it would have been Nana’s 88th birthday. Her first heavenly birthday now...if there was a heaven.

“GIU23, show my arrival on scene.”

The dispatcher acknowledged her transmission, and her status changed in her mounted laptop, beeping once accordingly before it was closed shut. Jennifer didn’t want to leave the warmth her vehicle was providing, but her couple of minutes were up. Pocketing her phone, she exited her undercover unit and walked into the security building.

“Detective?”

Some balding and slightly overweight serviceman greeted her almost immediately, extending his hand as he approached her. Jennifer glanced at the anchor on either collar of his uniform. “Chief, I’m Detective Jenkings with the General Investigations Unit,” she introduced herself, shaking his hand. “I’m here to take your statement.”

“Of course, right this way.”

She followed him into an office on the far end of the hall, not bothering to remove her coat. The case was quite simple and so she wouldn’t be there long. Some recruit possibly not adjusting to all of three weeks in boot camp felt the need to off himself in front of the others all while making a statement about life at home in the city. In Chicago, that is. He wasn’t far; he was a quick drive away. But it was done, and now she needed to follow up and type up some reports to have them turned in by the end of the week.



Home

The advertised product looked promising, in a science fiction maybe. Even Sienna saw right through it. She shook her head, rolling towards the edge of the bed to plant her feet on the ground. She left her phone on the bed and lazily walked towards the ensuite bathroom, dragging her slippers across the hardwood. Reaching the doorway, her hand stilled on the light switch when she picked up on some ruffling from behind the curtains.

Sienna listened for what seemed like an eternity before finally taking a silent step forward. She readied a flame from her palm and as she was ready to pull the curtain aside, her mother called out to her.

“Sienna, honey, come out here please.”

With a gasp, the girl quickly pulled on the curtain and looked in the bathtub to see none other than her yorkie messing with one of his toys. “Milo, really?” she exhaled, closing her hand and dropping it by her side. Sienna left him there, even as her dog barked in protest to such an abrupt invasion of privacy.

“We need to give him his own room, seriously.” There was no context needed; her mom was well aware of what Sienna meant.

Laughing it off, Elizabeth walked an envelope over to her daughter’s dresser. “This arrived for you, looks important. Also, we have dinner with the Dunns tonight.”

“Mom—”

“Your father isn’t taking no, why are you surprised? Go on, wash off the sleep from your face. Don’t take too long, you have an hour.”

She watched as her mother left her alone in her room. Tonight would be torture, and that was no secret to anyone in the Callahan-Henley household.