“It should be a crime to make someone work during a snowstorm,” I said, loudly, and very pointedly, in Ash’s direction as I slid off my coat.

  She looked up from her stack of paperwork and grinned at me, then gestured toward the second coffee cup on her desk.

  “If only someone knew your exact coffee order and was generous enough to get it for you, knowing you'd be cold and cranky when you got to work,” she said, winking at me.

  I sighed and picked up the cup, warmth instantly thawing my freezing hands.

  “Thanks, I guess,” I said, jokingly, rolling my eyes.

  I took a sip and my eyelids fluttered. It was perfect. To the last drop, perfect.

  “What's on the agenda today?” I sighed.

  Ash straightened in her chair and halved the stack of papers in front of her, handing them to me.

  “We need to run through these statements from the witnesses and pull the ones that are even somewhat viable,” she pressed her fingers against her temples as she leaned against her desk. “I'm gonna be honest with you, some of them are pretty out there, but it's nothing we can't handle.”

  I took the stack, intrigued.

  “This is a lot for a domestic violence case,” I mused, quietly.

  “Because it's not,” Ash said, bluntly.

  I looked at her, confused, “I don't follow.”

  “On the night of the dispute, the victim alleges that she was saved from her aggressor by a man in a mask,” Ash said, sighing. “She says that she has no idea who it was, but these are all witness statements from her neighbors who saw the man who - well, stopped the dispute.”

  My eyes went wide, “Do we have a description?”

  “Boy, do we ever,” Ash grinned. “Take a look at the statements and tell me what you think.”

  I nodded and walked, somewhat dazed to my office. I sat at my desk and opened my laptop, prepping annotations for the statements.

  I started with the top of the stack and worked my way down to the end, forgetting my coffee almost entirely as I read each word. Every statement was like deja vu.

  My heart was in my throat as I read each statement. There was nothing to annotate. Nothing to interpret. The message was pretty clear.

  Someone didn't like what had been happening to our victim.

  I took a deep breath and stood to warm up my coffee in the microwave. To be completely fair, I needed something a lot stronger than coffee.

  My hands trembled as I pressed the buttons on the microwave, lost in thought.

  “Pretty weird, right?” I heard Ash ask from behind me. I jumped out of my skin.

  “Jesus!” I said, panting. “Announce yourself, woman!”

  She chuckled but pressed again, “Some wild shit, huh?”

  “Yeah,” I said, catching my breath. “Sounds very premeditated, but from the wife's injuries, it also sounds like her husband got what he deserved.”

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Ash nodded and a stray lock of her graying brown hair fell in front of her narrow red glasses. She pushed it back behind her ear, “I thought you'd think so.”

  It was quiet between us for a moment, both of us wrapped in thoughts of what might have happened that night.

  The microwave beeped, and we both jumped, then she laughed, “I know we're not supposed to have opinions about this stuff, but I hope he never gets caught.”

  Ash’s words stuck with me for most of that day.

  I was so engrossed in the statements, reading them over and over again, looking for something, anything unique or different, that as it came time to pack up for the day, I was startled by the time.

  Ash tapped on my office door and softly trilled, “Quitting time, Talia.”

  I sighed, mentally exhausted, and leaned far back in my chair. My mind still raced but I willed it to slow.

  I stood from my desk and grabbed my coat.

  “Soooo…” Ash prodded, “What do you think?”

  I paused, “There has to be some sort of connection between the victim and the masked man. This doesn't sound random.”

  “I agree,” she said firmly.

  “Do you think the police are going to treat this as a vigilante situation, or are they gonna dig deeper into the husband’s background?” I asked.

  “I don't know,” she sighed, thoughtfully. “It feels like they're leaning vigilante, although they should be pulling everything, down to traffic tickets on the guy, in my opinion.”

  I shrugged into my coat, not ready to face the stark white hell that waited outside. I shook my head.

  “I wish I could say I was surprised,” I said disappointedly.

  “Same,” Ash nodded.

  I said goodbye for the day and trudged through the slush, eager to be home.

  The drive generally was uneventful, aside from a skid at a red light that made me have to gulp my own stomach back down into my abdomen. The roads were shit, but that's Denver in November for you.

  As I pulled into my driveway, thoughts of my cats and a warm blanket clouding my judgement, I narrowly missed a long shadow when my headlights snaked across the garage door.

  It almost looked as though there was someone standing near my garbage cans.

  My stomach tightened and I did a double take.

  I slammed my hand against the fob on my sun visor and waited as my garage door slowly raised. I pulled in and pressed the button again, heart racing. I turned off the car and waited in the quiet for a few moments before exiting, fully planning a dash to the door before getting a hold of myself.

  I thought, rolling my eyes at myself.

  I slid out of the car and shut the door, then headed into the house. I slid my bag off my shoulder and it landed with a on my kitchen floor.

  I sighed, exhaustion and cold hitting me all at once. A shiver ran up my spine.

  My cats padded quickly toward me, mewing and purring. I sighed again, dropping to the ground to pet them.

  “It's been a tough day, guys,” I breathed.

  Gem and Niko bumped against my hands and purred happily. I smiled.

  Niko was a skinny black and white cat with the sweetest disposition. I'd found him as a kitten, creeping around a convenience store parking lot some years back, skinny and yowling for food. I didn't think twice, I just scooped him up and brought him home.

  Gemma was a different story entirely. Back when I was still in the mood for roommates, I had invited a friend to live in my spare room. Big mistake. After months of refusing to pay rent, I had to kick her out. She trashed the place, and left behind the surliest, sassiest, fattest, orange tabby. Along with the rest of her shit. Over time, Gem and I bonded, and I was able to bring her out of her shell a bit. She still had a bit of a mean streak, but only when the food bowl was empty.

  “Thank goodness for you,” I said, smiling again and scratching behind their ears. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

  Soft waves of happiness broke on my heart, unwinding my stress.

  I stood and shuffled to my couch, kicking off my shoes. I pulled a blanket around myself and fell back into the cushions, unlocking my phone for the first time since that morning.

  My thumb scrolled through the apps without thinking, quickly hunting down my favorite anonymous app and clicking it.

  Several new posts were up as I scrolled, but it was all the same as usual.

  Until one post stopped me in my tracks. My breath hitched in my throat as I read the words. Tears sprung into my eyes as I stared down at the post in shock.

  My phone fell from my fingers and slid to the carpet in slow motion. My hands shook and my vision tunnelled.