Safe Place to Hide || Chenford / The Rookie

Chapter 8

Lucy's first call, once she's recovered from her shock, is to Jackson. She briefly contemplates calling Nolan, knowing that this is something he needs to be aware of, but she's so intensely rattled that she needs to talk to someone who can be objective and who won't be similarly distressed about the implications of this for their jobs.

"Lucy? Lucy, what's wrong?" he asks immediately. "Is it Tamara? Should I come back?"

Lucy shakes her head, miserably, struggling to find the words to explain, when she herself hasn't quite gotten her head around what any of this means, "I got another note."

"Another 'Liar. Liar.' note? What does it say?"

Lucy takes a deep breath, trying to quell her rising panic, "Hypocrite."

Jackson frowns, concern marring his normally relaxed features.

"But that's not all. There was a piece of a photocopy with it — the header of the IA memo on the investigation into Nolan's shooting of Alex Montgomery."

Jackson's mouth drops open, "The internal memo?! But who could — Why would... why would someone send that to you?"

Lucy sighs deeply now that they've arrived at the part of the conversation that she's dreading most. "Because I lied," she says simply.

Jackson's brow crinkles, "What do you mean? Why would you have lied during an investigation into Nolan's on-duty shooting?"

"Because I was there, with him, at the house, when Kyle broke in. And I was so worried people would find out we were together... Oh my God. It all seems so stupid now," her voice breaks as she pushes her hand back through her hair.

Jackson nods with understanding, "That was right around when you two called it quits, right?"

Lucy nods, "Yes — and it was just... He was so upset, and I wanted to be there for him. It was one weak, stupid moment. And now somebody knows about it. And... and... I don't know. Are they trying to blackmail me?"

Jackson frowns, shaking his head, "I guess it's possible they sent it as a kind of threat — they know you lied during the investigation and they want you to know? But why send the IA file and not include some evidence of your lie? They can't blackmail you with a file that IA already has.

"Let's take a step back and think about it — the first note seemingly accused you of lying. And now the second note is clearly letting you know that they somehow have a copy of the IA file; if that's the case, maybe there's actually something in that file that indicates you lied."

Lucy can feel the blood draining from her face, "You think IA knew that Nolan and I were lying and that they put that into the report?"

Jackson shrugs, "It's possible. But if that is the case, then the IA investigators already decided it wasn't relevant or worth pursuing further, even if there was some kind of inconsistency flagged in the interview process. Do you remember specifically what you said that was an outright lie?"

Lucy pauses, trying to remember, "I think — I think I just said that I didn't think Nolan was dating anyone or going through a breakup, when obviously I knew that wasn't true. And I can't remember for sure, but it's possible that I lied about having seen him outside of work or having talked to him about the investigation. It was really Nolan that had to cover for me actually being there by saying that he was alone that night with the TV on or something. And I think they asked him about the shower."

Jackson sighs, "They asked me similar questions... you know, now that I'm thinking about it, I think they even asked me about whether you and Nolan were close. I didn't think anything of it at the time; I said we all were close from the Academy. But I'm sure you and I aren't the only ones they asked — they probably would have asked the same things to others they interviewed — Talia, Tim, Angela, probably even Ben... If your answers — even on small things, like whether we thought Nolan had been seeing someone or going through a break up were inconsistent with everyone else's, and everyone also attested to the two of you being close, then..." he pauses, "Lucy, you should know, I said I thought he might be seeing someone when they asked, because, well, I thought he had been."