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Back 3 a.m.
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  67. 3:46 a.m.

The front door opens. It’s Ingrid.

“You are not gonna believe this,” she says.

::::

Ingrid woke up next to Henry for the first time in over ten days. It felt so good to sleep next to him. To feel the heat radiate off his body. Lassie was sleeping on her chest, nestled between her boobs — his new favorite spot — and she lifted him up and moved him to Henry’s chest.

She then gave both her ‘guys’ a quick kiss on the forehead, then jumped out of bed and threw on her clothes.

Jeans and a gray top.

Homicide Detective chic.

On her way to the Alexandria Police Department headquarters twenty minutes away, she chatted with her dad over the phone.

Her mother had just been released from the hospital and her parents were driving back to their house. She was in good spirits though she would get frustrated whenever she tried to speak. Her first speech therapy session would be the following afternoon. Ingrid spoke to her mom briefly, telling her she would be screaming answers to Jeopardy in no time at all.

Her mother mumbled back something that sounded like, ‘A boov yoog.’

“I love you too,” Ingrid replied, hoping that’s what her mother was trying to say.

Ten minutes later, she pulled into the parking lot of the police department.

By the time she reached her captain’s office, more than fifteen people had asked her how her mother was doing. She gave the same reply to each: her mom was doing great, she was out of the hospital, and she was expected to make a full recovery. Ingrid had never been hugged so many times in her life.

She opened the door to her captain’s office, stepped through, and let out an audible exhale.

Captain James Marshall was behind his desk. He was an impressive looking man in his fifties with the buzzed hair of a lifetime military man, of which he never spent a day in his life.

“I swear,” Ingrid said. “If one more person asks me—”

“How is your mom doing?” the captain asked with a big smile.

Ingrid flipped him off.

“Oh, and thanks again for the four a.m. wake-up call two nights ago. That sure went over well with my wife.”

“You’re a police captain. You should be used to getting calls in the middle of the night.”

“Not on the landline in my house.”

Ingrid laughed. “Did I really call your landline?”

“Sure did.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Water under the bridge, though remember you promised to go to Linda’s next Tupperware party.”

“I will, I promise.”

“Oh and you owe me a hundred bucks for the Nationals tickets I had to buy.”

“What?”

“For the commissioner, for waking him up at four in the morning.”

Ingrid opened her wallet and tossed a hundred dollar bill on the desk. “My dad gave me that two days ago to buy some duty-free stuff at the airport.”