You've Been Tagged

6:41 pm

6:41 pm, September 9th, present year.

          Mom, Dad and I were all sitting in the living room, when there was a knock at our door. We all shared a glance, then Dad got up and went over to the door.

            I heard Dad say, “Well, this is a surprise.” Dad moved aside and in walked Sergeant Daniels.

            “Sergeant, what are you doing here?” Mom stood up.

            He took off his hat and said, “I came back because I would like to offer my condolences for your case not being accepted. I am truly sorry. And I wanted to know if there was anything else I could do to help.”

            We were all very confused, especially me. I thought this cop was a joke. It seemed that he didn’t really try to gather evidence, and that he wouldn’t present our case very well to the chief. Maybe I was wrong.

            Mom asked, “Do you have any ideas on what we can do to secure our safety more? I mean, we can lock our doors, but Chase’s window is broken, and anybody could just come in. Speaking of which, if you have time, Chase found something on his bed that might be useful.”

            I looked at Dad, who gave the bullet and note to Daniels. I recounted the tale and Daniels listened intently.

            “Hm…this is interesting. I may be able to take this back to the lab and see what kind of gun this guy bought based on the bullet. I could even search to see where that type of weapon is sold and ask some questions.” He turned to me. “I’m going to call the chief again and see if this changes anything. I’ll be right back.” He flipped out his phone and walked into the kitchen, out of sight. Pretty soon I could hear his muffled voice.

            My cell phone buzzed. I pulled it out and saw a new text message. From restricted number. I opened it.

            “Say hi to Daniels for me. He’s such a nice cop. And don’t expect much to turn up from the bullet; I wouldn’t purposely give you anything useful, would I?”

            I looked at the sent time. Zero minutes ago.    

            I jumped up and ran over to Dad. I showed him and Mom the text, and then quickly looked into the kitchen. I saw Daniels pacing   and heard him say into his phone, “Chief Sawyer, I believe this is enough evidence!” He sounded irritated. He seemed sincere now, when earlier his body language showed nervousness and anxiousness. Weird. Maybe he’s bipolar or something. Poor guy.

            He hung up and came over to us with a disappointed face.

            “My superior said that I could scan the bullet, but unless something substantial came back, a case couldn’t be opened.”

            “So if the bullet comes up empty, there’s still no case?” Mom questioned.

            “Correct.”

            I held my phone toward him, with the text facing him. “Would this help any?”

            He snatched the phone and read the text. “When did you get this?”

            “While you were on the phone.”

            “I wonder how he can be so sure that the bullet won’t provide anything significant.” Daniels seemed to be talking to himself.

            “I don’t know, but can you use this text?”

            “I’m not sure. The number is restricted, and I tried calling it before, which didn’t help. I could try and trace it, but I won’t be able to unless my chief gives the ‘okay’”.

            “Which won’t happen unless this bullet proves useful.”

            “Which this guy has said won’t happen.” Daniels finished our joined thought process.

            I nodded. Daniels was growing on me. He seemed heartfelt now.

            Dad said, “So you’ll take it back to the station and do your tests?”

            “Yes, and once results come back, I’ll call you. Hopefully it won’t take too long.”

            Mom walked up to Daniels and shook his hand. “Thank you so much for coming back. We really appreciate it.”

“No, thank you for letting me help more after this afternoon. I don’t know what gets into me sometimes.”

Nobody said anything. This was the part where Daniels was supposed to leave.

Finally he spoke up. “Well, I’ll be in touch.” He shook hands with all of us, and then left once again.

We all looked at each other, and none quite knew what to take of what just happened.

Dad shook his head. “Well, as strange as he may be, he’s trying to help, and that’s all that matters.”

I guess I agreed. Hopefully he would get results soon.

“Well, your mother and I are tired after today. We’re going to lie down until Sergeant Daniels calls back. Are you going to be alright being alone for a bit?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” They retired to their bedroom, and then it was just me.

I wandered into the kitchen and pulled out a cup, filled it with some fruit punch, then searched for a snack. I just ate, but I was hungry again. Blame it on a growing body.

I found a granola bar in one of our cabinets. It was peanut butter chocolate mix. I didn’t know we had this kind. I broke the wrapper and popped half the bar in my mouth.

I started thinking about how Daniels changed in only a matter of hours. It was truly weird. But I tried not to think about it too much.

Hmm…this granola bar tasted strange.