The Truth (Mommy's House 2)

Part Seventeen

I stared in thought at the photo of my son, Benny, sitting on the corner of my desk. My mind continued to revolve around what those children went through, and a stomach-dropping thought moved to the pit of my stomach. There was no way I could protect my son from something like that.

I just wished that I could call him, and have him over for one night. Just one night. Just one night to catch up on how his life is, on how his sports are going.

Shaking my head, I looked back down at the paperwork I was shuffling through from another case I was given - a hit and run case. I felt the irritating, piercing sting of tears in my eyes, so I rubbed my hands over my face to suppress them.

There was a knock at my door, and I quickly rubbed my eyes and sniffled. "Uh, come in," I called to them.

Liv peeked in, before fully opening the door. She focused her dark eyes on me with a puzzled expression.

"Are you all right?" she asked, stepping into the room.

"Of course," I answered. "Just... reading about this new case."

"There's somebody I think that you should meet," Liv told me, and I settled back in my seat.

"Can it wait? I'm sorry, Liv, I really have to-"

"No, it can't," she answered almost immediately. "You really should meet her."

I sighed heavily and stood to my feet, rubbing my eyes again before I followed her out of the room and into her office, where an elderly woman was sitting on the couch. Her hair was white and thin, falling to her shoulders. A large sweater engulfed her brittle and skinny frame. When she heard us walk in, she whipped her head around to lock eyes with me.

"Hello," I said, trying to mask my confusion as I had no idea who the woman was. I reached my hand out, "I'm Officer Rocklin, pleasure."

"Hello, Officer, oh, you're so handsome!" the woman exclaimed - her voice was high pitched and sweet.

I looked over to Liv with my eyebrows furrowed, before laughing with discomfort. "I'm sorry, have we met before?"

"No, we have not. My name is Lettie O'Hara," she told me, and I nodded, still puzzled.

Liv walked past me and sat at her desk in front of the woman, her eyes flickering from the woman to me.

"It's nice to meet you, Lettie," I responded. "What can I help you with?"

She rested her purse on top of her lap as she crossed her legs. Wrinkles lined almost every area of her face, besides her dark eyes which locked onto me with worry embedded in them.

"Well, I should probably let you know that I, unfortunately, am the mother of Rosemary O'Hara," she told me, and I blinked in response.

"Rosemary O'Hara?" I repeated in a whisper.

"I just discovered that she committed this repulsive, recent crime of kidnapping three children just a month ago, and now she's dead," she responded, heartache embedded in her tone. The minute she told me that, my stomach dipped.

"Oh, wow, I'm so glad to meet you, Ms. O'Hara," I spoke with utter disbelief swarming through my head.

"I wanted to give you all as much information as I possibly could about her, I would love nothing more than to help you with this," Lettie said, her eyes genuine.

I nodded and moved to sit in a chair beside Liv. "We appreciate this more than anything," I told her. "Let me start by asking, how are you doing? How are you handling all of this?"