Thanks to everyone whose taken the time to review or added my story to story alerts, it is truly appreciated. It's not getting any brighter yet...

I hope you have a good day,

Sairs


To protect innocence

Chapter 2 – From bad to worse.


Andy collected the tape from the back of the cruiser then went over to Mrs. Danziger, who was waiting patiently.

"Can I take your details, Mrs. Danziger?" she asked, pulling out her notepad.

"Of course, Dear," Mrs. Danziger replied, before giving Andy her contact details.

Andy smiled thinly, "If you would like to go home, someone will be around later to take your full statement."

"There really was a body?" Mrs. Danziger asked nervously.

Andy nodded, "Thank you for your assistance, take care on your journey home."

"You're welcome, Dear; I'm pleased I could have helped."

"You did, Mrs. Danziger," Andy watched as she walked away, passing through the small crowd that had been drawn to the scene by the sudden convergence of police cars. Andy turned back towards the scene, crime scene tape in her hand; she walked forward, looking for the best place to start securing the tape.

Finally deciding on a lamp post she walked over and tied the tape, working her way along the edge of the street, keeping the ever growing crowd out of the sight of the grisly discovery she had made earlier.

Oliver and Dov had just pulled up and Dov came bounding over to her, to help her with the tape, he couldn't help but grin as he stated, "A body, huh, Andy?"

Andy nodded, unable to formulate the harsh response she should have given him, she just wanted to take her mind off what she'd discovered, she handed him the end of the tape and indicated for him to carry on sealing off the area. He nodded and wandered off to the next post.

"Officer?" a man called at Andy from the crowd, waving to get her attention.

She turned toward him walking over to him, "Yes, sir?"

"Is it true you've found a body?" he asked.

Andy wanted to roll her eyes and say something totally inappropriate but she didn't, instead she turned to him, "I am sorry, Sir, but I cannot make any comment about an active investigation."

The man looked annoyed and retorted, "It's our neighbourhood, don't we have a right to know what's going on?"

"I am sorry, Sir, but I cannot give out any information at this point in time. An official statement will be released later," she explained.

"McNally!" Sam's voice called from behind her.

For the first time that day she was relieved that he wanted to speak with her. She turned and walked over to him, leaving the simmering crowd behind her.

"Sir?" she asked when she stopped in front of him, her eyes avoiding meeting his, she couldn't help but look over his shoulder at the small army of forensic technicians, police officers and coroners team working the scene.

"Did you speak to Mrs. Danziger?"

She nodded, "She's gone home, I told her to expect someone to call by for a full statement."

"Good, 'cause Callaghan," he nodded his head towards Luke who was busy organising his scene, "Wants us to go and take her statement."

She nodded, "Do we know who she is?" she asked quietly, knowing she wouldn't be sleeping well tonight. It wasn't as if she hadn't seen a dead body before, she had, but this was different. That poor girl had been treated like a piece of trash, just dumped when she'd served her purpose, whatever that purpose was.

He could see that she'd wandered off into her thoughts; "McNally!" his voice was harsher than he'd intended. He noticed her jump slightly at his voice.

She looked at him sheepishly, "Sorry."

His face softened, "No we don't know who she is, apparently no ID on her. Not that we'd expect it on a body dump."

She shook her head, "That was it, wasn't it?"

"What?" Sometimes a conversation with Andy never led where you thought it would.

"She was somebody's trash."

He was at a loss of what to say, so he relied on procedure, "Come on, we've got a statement to take."

She nodded, following him back up the bank towards their cruiser.


Ten minutes later they pulled up outside a run down apartment block, the street littered with trash.

Andy checked her notebook as they walked up the path to the front of the apartment building, "Apartment twelve," she stated.

Sam pressed the intercom button for apartment twelve. He waited, there wasn't an answer. He pressed it again, holding it down for a longer period of time. "Did she say she was going anywhere?" he asked tersely.

She shook her head, "She said she was going straight home."

At that moment the door opened and two men came out, they nodded at Sam and Andy, "Need to get in?" One of them asked.

Sam nodded, "Thanks," taking the open door from the man he held it open for Andy. She stepped through and walked towards the stairs.


They turned the corner and walked along the short corridor, "Twelve should be along here," Andy stated, signalling with her head.

They walked along the corridor, Andy stopping a few metres from apartment number twelve. She gestured to Sam who noticed what she had, the door to Mrs. Danziger's apartment was slightly ajar.

They both instantly reached for their weapons, pulling them out of their holsters. They then began a silent dialogue that they had developed working together. The approached the apartment slowly, both positioning themselves either side of the door frame.

Sam reached out with his arm and knocked on the door, "Mrs. Danziger, Police!" He waited; no answer. He shook his head, meeting Andy's eyes, hers filled with concern.

He held up three fingers so that she could see them and he silently counted back, bending down one finger at a time. When he dropped the last finger, Andy swung around slowly as Sam pushed open the door, Sam leading the way as they entered Mrs. Danziger's apartment.

They moved through the apartment in perfect harmony, checking each room that they came to along the dimly lit corridor. Finally Andy led the way into the last room, the living area. Andy quickly holstered her weapon and hurried towards Mrs. Danziger's prone form; she was sprawled on the floor, her face battered and bruised.

Tentatively Andy reached forward with two fingers, depressing them against Mrs. Danziger's neck, feeling for a pulse.

"Andy?" Sam asked from behind her as he finished checking the room.

Andy shook her head, "I can't find a pulse, Sam," she stated, her fingers still pressing gently against Mrs. Danziger's neck.

Sam knelt down opposite Andy and checked for capillary refill on Mrs. Danziger's forehead. He shook his head before reaching for his radio, "Officer Swarek, 10-44 at my location," he waited for the dispatch operator to reply, confirming their location. He noticed that Andy was very quiet, "You okay, McNally?"

She finally removed her fingers from Mrs. Danziger's neck, meeting his gaze, "An hour ago I was talking to her, she was so pleased that she was able to help us."

Sam nodded.

"This isn't coincidence is it, Sam?"

He shook his head, "I don't believe in those. Whoever did this didn't want her to give us a full statement. Whatever she saw this morning led to this."

Andy shook her head, "What have we stumbled on?" she asked nervously.

"I don't know, Andy. But whoever it is, they don't want any loose ends."


Half an hour later Mrs. Danziger's apartment was a hive of activity. Andy had been posted at Mrs. Danziger's front door. She let a small smile cross her lips when she saw Luke walking towards her.

"Hey, Andy," Luke said cordially in full professional detective mode, "Body inside?"

Andy replied tersely, "Yes. Mrs. Danziger's is inside."

He turned, moving closer to her, his voice dropping conspiratorially, "Probably won't make it home tonight, new case, leads to chase…" he paused nodding towards Mrs. Danziger's apartment, "So don't wait up."

She shook her head, "Okay," was all she could say. It was becoming the familiar story of her life, Luke working all hours and she after shift ambling around a house that certainly didn't feel like home.

Without a further word he left her in the corridor and went inside.


"McNally, you ready to go?" Sam asked a few minutes later when he left Mrs. Danziger's apartment.

She shrugged her shoulders; "Sure," she paused as Sam moved to one side, allowing two morticians to pass by with a gurney and a black plastic bag into the apartment. She couldn't help but follow it with her eyes, poor Mrs. Danziger, all she wanted to do was help and look where it got her.

"Andy?" Sam asked touching her shoulder to pull her out of her thoughts, "Come on, let's get back to the barn," he rolled his eyes, "We have lots of reports to write."

She nodded, following him down the corridor to the stairway and out of the building.


The reports filed, her day was finally over, she headed for the locker room, in need of a shower to wash away the horrors that she felt were clinging to her body and skin. She quickly stripped out of her uniform, grabbed her towel and wash bag and headed into the shower.

A few minutes later she was standing under the cascading water, letting its warmth wash away the any remnants of the crime scenes that could be clinging to her skin.

When the water began to run colder, Andy reluctantly turned off the water and grabbed her towel. She quickly dried herself and changed into her street clothes. Putting her wash bag away in her locker she turned and sat down on the bench, she leaned forward running her hands across her face and into her damp hair. Today had been one of the days when she questioned why she chose to do this job. Had she managed to help anyone today? She asked herself, no. If anything she'd failed. She had failed Mrs. Danziger. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear the locker room door open.

"You decent, McNally?" Sam asked as he peered around the door into the room and saw her sitting on the bench, her hands running through her hair. He could tell she was lost in her thoughts as he walked over to her, she didn't even notice him when he sat next to her. He could completely understand why she was lost in thought; today had been a shockingly bad day, one that even he was finding difficult to process.

"Hey, Andy?" he asked quietly, gently touching her shoulder with his hand.

His touch cut through her thoughts, bringing her back to reality, "Sorry."

"Don't be, rough day, huh?"

She nodded, "Definitely one I wouldn't want to repeat…" She paused trying to find the words.

He waited her out.

She turned her head slightly so that she was looking at him out of the corner of her eye, "We didn't help anyone, if anything we helped get Mrs. Danziger killed."

"Andy," his tone was sharp, "We did not get Mrs. Danziger killed. The low lives that killed that young woman, killed Mrs. Danziger. We did not know that she was in danger. We followed protocol, as we do every other day. We didn't know…"

She sighed, "But…"

"But nothing, McNally," he silenced her, "We did our job; we didn't get the results we wanted."

She nodded, "It sucks."

He agreed, "Yeah it does." He paused for a moment, weighing up whether he was going to ask his next question, "You waiting for Luke or heading home?"

She looked at him, "Heading home, Luke's probably not going to make it. He has a double homicide to keep him occupied," she stated dryly.

"Want a lift?"

"It's out of your way," she pointed out.

"It's the least I can do after the crappy day we've had."

She smiled, "If you're sure."

"McNally, I wouldn't offer if I wasn't sure. How long?"

"Give me two minutes."

He smiled, "Two minutes it is."


Half an hour later Sam pulled up outside her house, she turned to him, "Thanks, did you want to come up?"

He shook his head, "Don't think Callaghan would be too impressed."

"He's not here to care and you're my friend."

Sam smiled wryly, "And you know how much Luke likes our friendship."

She shook her head, "It's his problem. The offer still stands though."

"Thanks but I have plans with Jack tonight."

She smiled, "Don't get too friendly with him, because I do not want to have to ride with a hung over Swarek tomorrow. The grumpy one I spent this morning with was bad enough," she pointed out gently.

Sam held up his hand, "I promise to go easy with Jack…" he gave her a sheepish look as he continued, "Sorry about that. I got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning."

She grinned, "You must be feeling guilty if you're apologising. You never apologise!"

He returned her grin, "That's because I am hardly ever wrong!"

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah right, it must be really great to live in the world of Swarek."

"Sure is McNally. You just don't know what you're missing."

"I have a pretty good idea," she said softly before opening her door, "Thanks, Sam, have a good night."

He watched her climb out of the truck, "You too, Andy. If you need to talk…"

She nodded, "Thanks, Sam. Night." She closed the door and walked up to the entrance of her building, turning once to look back, giving him a quick wave, before she opened the door and went inside.

He watched and waited for her to get in safely before starting the engine and heading home.


She had cleaned the kitchen, put her clothes in the laundry and tried to watch a random programme on the television. But all she could see when she stopped was what was inside the plastic sheet; the hollow glassy blue eyes of the dead woman invading her mind.

She stood up and began to pace, with each step she tried to push the vivid image from her mind.

She looked at the bottle of Scotch that sat in the middle of the coffee table an empty glass next to it. It would be all too easy to pour the amber liquid into the glass, let it burn down her throat and hopefully if she drank enough of it, push the images from her brain. But she resisted the urge, if she took that step, then next time she'd had a bad day at work, she might head for the bottle and its liquid relief. Just like her father had.

She carried on pacing around the starkly furnished living room that felt cold and heartless. As she paced she began to analyse her life, if she died tomorrow would she have lived well? She asked herself.

The more she paced the more she thought about everything that had happened in the past twelve months. She'd always wanted to be a police officer to help and protect others, but today she'd failed miserably. But it wasn't just at work she was a failure, she glanced around the room, this was supposed to be the right choice, Luke was supposed to be the good choice. But was he, was this?

She wanted to throw something, but the room was sparsely decorated there was nothing to hand, so she settled for throwing herself on the sofa grabbing a cushion in her hands and rubbing her face into it, before screaming.

She was a complete mess and so was her life. She answered her question, she hadn't lived as well as she could have and she certainly wasn't happy. She was going through the motions of living, pretending everything was alright, but it wasn't. But at that moment in time she hadn't got a clue how to fix anything. She was confused, upset and she felt completely lost and alone.


I hope you enjoyed ~ more hopefully tomorrow.

Sairs