Spare Time
It was another one of those rainy nights where the office was empty with the exception of the two team members that always work late into the night. Sometimes they even stay the night. Carine and Marco were known to be the first ones in the office and the last ones to leave most nights.
Marco was often trying to find leads on his sister when he stayed late which was often. He refused to give up believing that she was still alive. He always wondered what she would look like now since it had been years since he last saw her. Carine on the other hand was working on the current case, but she was also working on other things as well. Little did Marco know that she too was looking for leads on his sister as well.
"Soothing isn't it?" Carine asked her partner as she put a mug of coffee next to him as she took a seat on the table. Marco nodded. The rain actually helped him focus on the work he was doing.
"Thanks." He replied as he took a sip of coffee. He smiled when he realized it was not the coffee that they keep out in the office. "Yes the weather is soothing. The sound helps me focus actually." He added before taking another sip.
"No problem. Do you like it?" She asked hoping that he liked the different coffee. He nodded as he looked at the computer screen.
"It's better than the stuff we keep in the office." He laughed as he took another sip. He put the mug to the side after finishing the coffee. She laughed knowing that the coffee that they kept in the office wasn't that great. It was good enough to keep them going though.
"I have a secret stash of good coffee that I keep in my office." She admitted as she took another sip. "It's a blonde roast so it's really strong. How else do you think I manage to keep going?" She laughed knowing that the entire team lived on coffee. Their job was never done when one case was solved another one was opened.
"We need it. It's not like we ever really get much downtime to do anything." Marco admitted as he typed another name into the database.
"It seems people like me and you spend our spare time at work." Marco nodded in agreement. He wondered what she liked to do when not at work.
"Carine, what do like to do when you aren't working?" He asked hoping that he would get an actual answer. He works with her the most and he knows so little about her. The rest of the team talks about their hobbies and plans, but Carine never really says anything.
"What do you mean by that?" She asked confused as to what he meant. She was always working, but there had to be something that she liked that wasn't work related. It took her a few seconds, but she finally caught on and realized he was asking if she had any hobbies outside of work. "I love reading and keeping up with what's going on around the world. What about you?" She went on about how she loves knowing things for the sake of knowing. Carine was curious as to what Marco does as well.
"Before I moved here, I used to help my wife who made ceramics." He replied as he looked back at the screen hoping she wouldn't notice the hurt look on his face. His family was torn apart due to his sister's kidnapping, and his wife left him shortly before he moved here. Carine instantly felt bad for asking him.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to" He spoke up before she could finish what she was about to say. He didn't want her to feel bad for asking a simple question.
"Don't be. I do believe someone told me not to let my past get to me." He chuckled reminding her of the time she helped him through a tough situation at work. She remembered that incident too.
"You know it is okay to grieve. I too have dealt with a lot." She reminded him that they weren't talking about a work situation. He realized that maybe she keeps to herself because she's just like him. That's probably the reason they work well together.
"Did you lose someone too?" The look on her face answered that question for him. Before he could say anything else she nodded.
"I did, and there's not a day that I don't think about it." She admitted as she got up to go get another mug of coffee. She offered to get him some more as well. He gladly took her up on that offer. "That's why I want you to find your sister so badly." She added, leaving out the part about him getting closure rather than finding her if she was no longer living. Carine knew that Anna may have met a terrible fate, but she didn't want to believe it either. She had a situation similar to Marco's, but it didn't end so well. She did however get the closure she had been looking for.
"I'm here for you if you ever want to talk." She nodded as she left the main office to head to her own.
She went back into her office to make their coffee. While waiting on the coffee she got on her computer and started looking for leads on Marco's sister. When the coffee was done she got up and went back to where Marco was sitting at the computer still looking for leads.
"We're going to need this I we want to stay awake tomorrow." She chuckle as she handed him a mug. She was ready to open up to someone, and she figured Marco was the best person to open up to. He would understand because he too has lost a lot. "While I do love to read and keep up with current events, that's not what I have been using my spare time for lately. I have also been trying to find anything I can to help with finding your sister." She admitted.
"Thank you." He replied truly grateful that she was doing all that she could to help him find his sister.
"My daughter Katrina would have been 7 next week." Carine revealed something about herself that she hasn't told any of her co-workers before. She knew she could trust Marco.
"Is she the reason you are in law enforcement as well?" He asked as he looked up at her noticing tears were starting to fall. Carine nodded as she tried composing herself.
"She's the reason I worked my way up to where I am now." She took a sip of coffee before continuing. "I may come off as cold, but its hard to trust anyone after what I have been through. The person closest to you may be the one to stab you." She muttered.
"What happened, if you don't mind me asking." He asked as he waited for her to say something. "You don't have to if it's too much." He added. She shook her head. She's been grieving in silence for too long, and now she had someone that could understand her pain.
"First of all the man that I married turned out to be someone I truly didn't know." She stated before taking another sip of her coffee. "When I was working with the Chicago PD I met someone. We hit it off from the start." She went on about how she fell more in love with him as they got to know each other more. They eventually got married.
"Did he do something to Katrina?" Marco asked dreading what the answer to that would be. She nodded as she gathered the courage to tell him the rest.
"Everything seemed perfect at first. We celebrated our first anniversary. He was excited when I told him her was going to be a father." She continued as she took a deep breath. She still couldn't say his name it still hurt to even think about him.
"You don't have to continue if you don't want to." He reminded her noticing that she was starting to breathe heavily. The blonde shook her head. She needed to get this out.
"Two years passed and I thought things were going well. He was excited about his new job. Later on I found out he never worked at any of the places he mentioned." She explained how things started going downhill from there.
"How did he get income?" He asked.
"Let's just say he was a criminal." She said sparing Marco the details.
"I'm guessing he found out that you caught on to what was going on." The blonde nodded as she took another sip of coffee.
"That's an understatement. Not only was he a criminal, but he also had issues with alcohol. I was aware of that and was helping him work through that. One night it got out of hand and things got physical." She went on about how that was the first time he had hit her. He always apologized for it after. She wasn't going to let him walk all over her like that and wanted out.
"I'm guessing he found out that you were going to leave him, and that would ruin his plan?" Marco asked now in investigator mode. Some of the cases he had solved involved one parent running off with the child as a bargaining chip to not end a marriage. He was hoping that this wasn't Carine's case. She shook her head. That wasn't exactly what happened with her.
"He was never violent towards Katrina." She stated as she went on. "I wasn't going to take his child away from him." She explained how she didn't want to keep her from him if he wasn't a threat to her. "I had her during the week and every other weekend. He had her the weekends I didn't. I figured if he got better she could be with him more often." She continued. Marco didn't like where this was going. He noticed that she paused for a bit. He saw a side of Carine that no one else ever got to see.
"Did he take off with her and you never saw her after that?" She nodded, as she looked him in the eye.
"The worst part was he was the one that reported her missing. He had one of his drug dealing friends do the deed so he wouldn't get the blame." She went on about how their entire relationship was for him to help his friends stay out of jail. He let her continue to search for Katrina knowing she wasn't ever coming back. He didn't truly love her or Katrina.
"Did he walk away free?" Marco asked hoping that awful man was put behind bars. She shook her head.
"No but he did not get the sentence he deserved. He was only charged with conspiracy and second degree since he got someone else to do the crime." She replied trying to calm down. It still infuriates her to this day that her daughter did not get justice she deserved.
"I know that feeling all too well." Marco replied knowing that Carine knew about the case that they had worked on and the case with his sister.
"If she were still around I would be spending my free time with her." Carine spoke softly trying to compose herself. Not like it mattered he had already seen how vulnerable she truly was.
"I'm here for you." He reminded her as she embraced him and cried into his shoulder. It was at this point that she realized was not alone in this situation. They had each other when it came to dealing with loss.
"I stay here late every day because it takes my mind off of it. I'm also trying to stop people like him from getting away with crimes like that." She admitted as she sat back down on the desk.
"I'm sure Katrina would be proud of you." Marco replied as he sat on the desk next to her. He did not think that small talk would have turned into this deep conversation. The more that they talked the more respect they had for each other. They were more alike than they though, and that is why Marco and Carine worked well together.