Chapter 2
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7:50am
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Joe and I looked up the name "Chloe Steele" in the police data base. She was 19, a former college student. No criminal record before the great dissapearances. Like many since then she fell in with radical groups, latched on to whatever made her feel safe. Chloe was listed as a possible terrorist for anti-abortion protests, but so far she hadn't done anything violent. Perhaps she was escalating. Michael provided us with her daughter's cellphone, it proved that Bianca had called Chloe mere hours before her murder.
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8:07am
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We went to speak with Chloe at her house, she was alone.
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Joe: Ms Steele?
Chloe: Yes.
Joe: I'm sgt Joe Friday, this is my partner Bill Gannon. We're police officers.
Chloe: What can I do to help you?
Bill: We understand you participated in a demonstration outside a women's health clinic yesterday.
Chloe: Yes I did. I tried to convince these scared young women that they had options, other than killing their children.
Joe: Did you speak to a 13 year old girl named Bianca?
Chloe: Yes. I regret that I did not reach her before...
Bill: Did you speak with her after?
Chloe: Yes, she called me. She was scared that she was damned because of what she had done. I told her it was not too late, that her baby was now in Heaven, and she could still join them one day. I helped her to pray, to accept Jesus Christ as her savior.
Bill: So, if I understand your beliefs correctly, all her sins, past, present, and future, were all forgiven.
Chloe: I can't say for certain that her salvation was sincere. If it was, then yes.
Joe: And when you said she could get to heaven "Someday" how soon were you thinking?
Chloe: In less than seven years Christ will return. If Bianca is still alive at that point, everyone, including her child, will come back. I hope she makes it, but the sad fact is a lot of us won't. Maybe one in four will make it to the glorious appearing.
Bill: Bianca won't make it that long, she's dead.
Chloe: I'm sorry to hear that. How did she die?
Bill: She was murdered. Maybe you could help us find out who did it.
Chloe: All I can say with absolute certainty, is I didn't kill her.
Joe: But perhaps one of your friends might have.
Chloe: Our main mission is to protect life, so that seems unlikey.
Bill: Some have been known to murder doctors and blow up clinics.
Chloe: But even the extremist elements have never deliberately targeted the women seeking abortions.
Joe: Not yet, but there's been a lot of escalation since the "rapture."
Chloe: Have you considered that maybe you're asking the wrong questions?
Joe: What does that mean?
Chloe: Maybe you should be asking how a 13 year old got pregnant. I saw her with a man yesterday, might have been her father.
Bill: If a father takes his 7th grade daughter to terminate a pregnancy, that doesn't make him a child molestor.
Chloe: Fine, maybe I'm biased against the guy, and maybe he's biased against me. But whoever got Bianca pregnant, maybe he was worried that she would go to the police.
Joe: We've considered that possibility, did she tell you who the father was?
Chloe: No, believe me if she had I would help you arrest the child molestor.
Bill: Where were you last night?
Chloe: Home alone. I spoke with Bianca on the phone, then I went to sleep.
Joe; Have you ever used a gun before?
Chloe: Yes. Ever since the rapture, my father wants me to be able to protect myself. Do I need a lawyer?
Bill: You have that right. For now we have no evidence of your guilt. We'll keep looking for evidence, regardless of where it leads.
