Possession: Callie Douglas - Book 5

Chapter Nineteen

Gabe woke me up at seven thirty. As I sat up and pushed my hair out of my eyes, Gabe handed me a cup of coffee. "How did you sleep, darlin'?"

"Not bad. It didn't even hurt that much when I woke up this morning."

"That's probably because you haven't stressed it at all. Let's see how it feels after the hot water runs on it in the shower."

"True."

"What do you have scheduled for today?"

"I'm not exactly sure. I know that I have a follow-up appointment at some point with Owen, and I think Addison mentioned that I have a lunch appointment to make up for taking so much time off last week. What about you?"

"I'm meeting with Kim to short-list our interviewees and getting those resumés to HR so that they can set up interviews, I'm meeting with Tara to go over our progress on the child pornography case, and I've picked up another drug case. There's a drug dealer who the education division has identified as selling marijuana to elementary school children. Not high school. Elementary school. Isn't that disgusting? Making weed available to eight and ten-year old children. We're trying to find him to make an arrest."

"That's terrible. I'm glad you're there to arrest him. If kids are smoking pot at the age of eight, what will they be doing at the age of eighteen? And what kind of impact will that have on their developing brains?"

"All good questions."

"Have you made any progress with the children in the pornography case? Did you find a psychologist to work with the victims?"

"I did. I went to the hospital and started working with one of the psychologists there. He's been excellent. He was able to restore faith in the police, but he hasn't been able to find out any further information. He's still working with the kids, as he also thinks that they know more information but are just unwilling to come forward and talk about what they know. Tara and I are keeping our fingers crossed that he'll come up with something."

"Did you get him to agree to talk to the parents of the community about how to talk to their children about what's going on?"

"I did. I worked with the school and the Education Unit to set up an information night. He'll be coming to speak at the school on Wednesday. We also have the Education Unit sending in Officer Rob to do a blitz talking to the kids about stranger danger."

"That sounds positive. It sounds like you've been doing a lot of good work."

"Thanks", he said, draining his coffee. "If you want to have a shower before breakfast, you need to get moving. Do you want a boiled egg for breakfast or would you prefer toast and peanut butter?"

"Do we have time for poached eggs on toast?"

"Absolutely. They don't take long to make. I'll boil the water and, when I hear you get out of the shower, I'll crack the eggs into the pan and put the toast down."

"Sounds perfect. Give me five minutes and I'll be there."

"You can't get ready in five minutes", said Gabe with a smile. "I know you get ready fast in the morning, but five minutes is impossible."

"A challenge? I like it. See you in five." I got up and raced into the bathroom, turning on the hot water in the shower to come up to the proper temperature as I undressed. I put on a shower cap and jumped in the shower, wincing slightly as the hot water rained down on my burn. Within two minutes I had washed and rinsed myself. I jumped out of the shower and towelled off, wrapping myself in my housecoat and taking off the shower cap. I brushed out my hair and ran downstairs. "Four minutes", I said.