Excerpt: The Fifth Time

I shook my head to clear it. As much as I would love to take the law into my own hands, I was instead the hand of the law. My uniform, my badge are more important to me than revenge on the most pathetic soul I've ever encountered in all my twenty five years. Tempting though it may be, there would be no long term satisfaction in ending that cretin's life on my own. He would get what was fairly coming to him. I had to take comfort in that.

It was time for a deep, calming breath. I felt resolution settle over me. I felt it bring clarity along with it. I knew what I had to do. I knew what it was right for me to do. I would follow the letter of the law and abide all of my training. And when all was said and done, justice would be served. I would make sure of it. He would never lay a hand on my Joanna again.

For the first time since the call came in, my breathing steadied. The spike of adrenaline was starting to wear off, and in its place came anticipation. It was not anxious anticipation, but rather the kind that you feel when you just want to get to the glorious end of something. The glorious end of this, for me, would be dragging that worthless gutless puke of a human being into my jail wearing a nice pair of shiny metal bracelets. He would be hopping, spitting mad. And for once, he wouldn't get his way, and there would be no one he could backhand about it.

As I approached her tranquil home full of secrets, memories from when I first met Joanna poured forth like a tidal wave. I tried not to let it pull me under, lest any aspect of this most important rescue mission be compromised, but the more I resisted, the more it gained strength. As I raced the last few blocks, I succumbed to the urge. In my mind, once again, Joanna was seven.