On the bottom of the screen were the words SUSPECT CAUGHT IN TRAIL KILLER CASE. The reporter stood in front of an entrance to the trail, detailing that someone had been caught, but the trail remained closed as the investigation was still ongoing.

Tara turned it off. This is crazy, she thought to herself. Her blood boiled, as she thought of people assuming the trail might be safe now, even though there was a killer still out there.

She reached for her phone and checked the time. It was late, but she decided to text John. If anyone could calm her down and coax her to sleep, it was him. He had a track record of doing so and would always talk her back to sleep when she had a nightmare.

Are you up? she texted.

Seconds later her phone rang. She quickly picked up.

“I hope I didn’t wake you,” she said.

“It’s all right. I’m just happy to hear from you,” he replied as he yawned into the phone. “I was pretty much up anyway.”

Tara knew that he had trouble sleeping too when he was worried about her.

“Why are you up so late?” he finally asked.

Tara sighed. “We had a long night. I just got back about a half hour ago.”

“Wow, that is a long night,” he agreed. There was a brief pause and then he spoke again. “How are you doing?”

Tara had been with John for three years now and he had learned her habits of internalizing everything. Most people would never pick up on her being upset about something, but he could sniff it out like a trained bloodhound.

“I’m okay. This case is just a lot harder than I thought it would be,” Tara said as she stared at the blank screen on the TV.

“Well, I’ve been watching the news. It’s sounds like you caught someone, right?”

“Yeah, we caught someone, but we’re not convinced that it’s him,” she confirmed. “This whole case is just crazy…I honestly didn’t think my first case would be this hard.”

She let the words roll off her tongue and when she was finished, she felt a sudden surge of relief. It was the first time she admitted how helpless she felt to someone other than herself and it felt good to confide in him, even if he might not fully understand.

“I hear you.” John let out another yawn. “But remember, they wouldn’t have put you on this case if they thought you couldn’t handle it. And, if they thought differently after all you’ve shown so far, they would’ve pulled you by now, right?”

Tara was silent as she mulled over his words in her head. He always knew the right thing to say—to remind her of things she easily and quickly forgot.

“I guess you’re right,” Tara finally replied.

“And your partner, how many years has he been doing this?”

“A very long time.” Tara could already see where he was going with it.