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Chapter 7
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Using Your Rules Against You Chapter 10
Over the phone, I asked, "How old are you?""N-Nine."Nine years old. The same age I'd been."Did you get the license plate?""Yes! I wrote it down in my homework notebook!""Good." I grabbed my car keys. "Where are you? Stay where you are. I'm on my way."She gave me an address. It was to a security booth outside an old apartment complex on the north side of town.Ten minutes later, I was there. A small, thin girl was crouching by the booth in her school uniform, tear streaks all over her face, clutching a crumpled piece of notebook paper. The second she saw the squad car, her eyes lit up, and she ran toward me."Ma'am!"I knelt so I was at her eye level. "Let me see the plate number."She nodded hard and handed me the paper. The writing was shaky and crooked, like her hands had been trembling when she wrote it.I picked up the radio. "Dispatch, this is Avery, badge no. 4712."I need an APB on a silver minivan, plate number 7-Bravo-Kilo-November-3-4-2. Suspected abduction.
Using Your Rules Against You Chapter 9
"Quinn," Frank said my name, his voice so raw that it sounded like it was being scraped out of him."Frank," I said his name.He was quiet for a long time."Your sister... What was her name again?""Allison.""Allison." He repeated it and nodded. "Allison."He was quiet again."I can't sleep," he said suddenly. "Every night, I can't sleep. The second I close my eyes, I see a young girl on her knees, begging and crying so hard that she can barely breathe. I can't remember her face anymore, but the sound..."He paused. "The sound won't go away."I looked at him. "So now you hear it?"He didn't answer. His hand kept shaking."I want to tell her I'm sorry," he said, even quieter. "Your sister."I stood up. "It's too late for that."I turned and walked toward the door. When I reached it, I stopped but didn't look back."Frank, what you owe my sister can't be paid back in one lifetime. But you've got six years. Start there."I then left the visitation room. There was no sound
Using Your Rules Against You Chapter 8
I didn't know what was going through Frank's mind. Maybe he'd finally remembered the young girl who knelt on the floor in front of him 32 years ago. Or perhaps he was just thinking about the woman who had ruined his life. Nevertheless, I didn't care.The prosecution read the charges: dereliction of duty, abuse of power, and bribery. Each one was delivered slowly and deliberately.Frank's lawyer mounted a defense, and the core argument boiled down to one thing. Sloppy casework was standard practice back then, and it wasn't fair to hold a cop from decades ago to that day's standards.On top of that, Frank was elderly and in poor health; thus, the defense requested leniency.The judge asked Frank if he had anything to say. He got to his feet, shaking as he rose."I... I plead guilty." His voice was so hoarse that it was barely audible."But I ask the court to consider... I gave my whole life to this department. Even if I didn't accomplish great things, I had put in the work."I a
Using Your Rules Against You Chapter 7
The trending list told the whole story."Frank Holt's Dereliction of Duty Led to a Death.""Frank Holt Stripped of Retirement Benefits.""The Dispatch Log from 32 Years Ago.""Allison Avery, Age 17.""Female Cop's 32-Year Fight for Justice.""Frank Holt Referred for Criminal Prosecution."The comment sections flipped completely. People who had been tearing me apart were now deleting their posts, issuing apologies, or digging through Frank's career history.Someone unearthed a local newspaper clipping from August 1992 about an unidentified female body found by the highway. With no ID and too few leads, the case had been dropped without resolution."Dropped without resolution." Those words were back in the public eye again. But this time, there would be no dropping it.The state police department assembled a task force to reopen the 1992 kidnapping and death investigation. The van driver had long since disappeared and was likely dead, but every piece of the case was reexamined
Using Your Rules Against You Chapter 6
Denise burst into the studio."You're lying! You're making this up!"The color had drained from her face, and her eyes were rimmed red. She jabbed a trembling finger at me. "My father is not that kind of man! You're framing him!"She turned to the camera, her voice pitched so high that it nearly broke. "Don't believe her! This is revenge! She's using my daughter's life to get revenge!"I stood up and faced her. Denise's legs buckled slightly, and she took a half step back.The studio door swung open again. This time it was Frank.He walked in slowly, one step at a time, leaning on his cane. His face was twisted into something ugly. "You ungrateful little nobody!"His voice was ragged, and his cane hammered the floor with every single word. "Do you have any idea what you've done to me?"I looked at him. "What I've done to you?""I gave my whole life to this department! Do you know how hard I fought for my retirement benefits? And now you've destroyed all of it!""Clean years?"
Using Your Rules Against You Chapter 5
The live viewer count jumped from three million to five.I pulled the yellowed dispatch log out of the envelope and held it up to the camera."This is the dispatch log that Frank Holt wrote by hand 32 years ago, when he was deputy station chief. It reads, 'Domestic dispute. Advised to resolve privately. Request denied.' His signature is at the bottom."My hand was steady."I've had this piece of paper for 32 years. I fished it out of a trash can, hid it under my pillow, carried it with me through the academy, and brought it into the detective division. The paper is barely holding together, but the words are still there."Frank probably assumed that this thing disintegrated a long time ago, the same way he assumed my sister's life wasn't worth remembering."I turned the paper over and held it toward the camera. The handwriting, date, and signature were all unmistakably clear."32 years later, his daughter walks into my precinct and reports that her daughter has been taken. So I d
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