In one swift motion, she cracked the glass against a table. It created a jagged shard.
“Angela!” I jumped up from the card table. “Put that down. No one’s going to take your baby anywhere unless you let her go.”
“This bitch is trying to ruin my life.” She glared at the DGF agent, gripping the broken glass so tightly it cut into her hand. “First, she lets me sit in Claymore three days past my date, then she won’t let me go home to my mom. Now she’s trying to take my baby girl.”
I nodded, peering into the teenager’s eyes. “First, you gotta lay down the glass,” I said. “You know that, Angela.”
The DCF worker took a step, but I held her back. I moved slowly toward Angela. I took hold of the glass, then I gently eased the child out of her arms.
“She’s all I have,” the girl whispered, and then started to sob.
“I know,” I said gently. “That’s why you’ll change some things in your life and get her back.”
Dee Collins had her arms around Angela, a cloth wrapped around the girl’s bleeding hand. The DCF worker was trying unsuccessfully to hush the crying infant.
I went up to her and said, “That baby gets placed somewhere nearby, with daily visitation rights. And by the way, I didn’t see anything going on here that was worth putting on file… You?” The caseworker gave me a disgruntled look and turned away.
Suddenly, my beeper sounded, three dissonant beeps punctuating the tense air. I pulled it out and read the number. Jacobi, my ex-partner in Homicide. What did he want?
I excused myself and moved into the staff office. I was able to reach him in his car.
“Something bad’s happened, Lindsay,” he said glumly. “I thought you’d want to know.”
He clued me in about a horrible drive-by shooting at the Harrow Street church. An eleven-year-old girl had been killed.
“Jesus…” I sighed, as my heart sank.
“I thought you might want in on it,” Jacobi said.
I took in a breath. It had been over three months since I’d been on the scene at a homicide. Not since the day the bride and groom case ended.
“So, I didn’t hear,” Jacobi pressed. “You want in, Lieutenant?” It was the first time he had addressed me by my new rank.
I realized my honeymoon had come to an end. “Yeah,” I muttered back. “I want in.”