Page 8 of Saving Meadow

“We already did that.” He rolled his eyes.

“Victims that lived.”

I opened the file and sucked in a breath. I knew her. Well, I didn’t know her personally, but she was a regular at my favorite coffee shop, Sam’s. Her hair was longer now than it was in her driver’s license picture, but it was her. Long, sexy red hair, creamy pale complexion, and the most beautiful piercing green eyes.

I thought about the last time I saw her. Mike and I went in to grab a cup of coffee after an early morning basketball game, and she was sitting in her usual spot in the corner. Unapproachable, closed off to the world. Meadow Holiday did not invite conversation.

“Shit.”

“What?” Ben asked, and both men looked at me.

“This.” I held the photo up for them to see.

“Holy shit, is that the girl from Sam’s you drool over?” Mike asked.

“I do not drool over her,” I corrected.

“Then what do you call it?” he laughed.

“Admire from afar. She’s standoffish and refuses to make eye contact. Sits in the same corner with her back to the wall. The first time I saw her, she didn’t have the scar. It must’ve been a month, maybe two later, she appeared again, and the scar was there. That was about five years ago. I hadn’t started the academy yet. I think I was waiting to class up.”

I scanned the report, no ketamine. Damn.

“Hey, Ben. What is maprotiline?” I asked.

“A tetracyclic antidepressant. Why?”

“No ketamine in her tox report, but maprotiline was present. Goddamn.” I shook my head at the image of Meadow.

“What?” Mike asked. I held up the new image for him to see.

Meadow’s face had a single slash mark, from her ear down across her cheek, ending at the corner of her jaw. Her pretty face was marred with black stitches. The image ignited a blaze in my chest I’d never experienced before. I’d seen hundreds of pictures of victims, and sadly the image I was holding up was mild in comparison. Seeing her like this was different. Something clicked, and a side of myself I’d never known came to life. I wanted to find the person who’d dared to hurt her, not to put behind bars, but to beat the shit out of them, make them feel the same pain she had.

“Earth to Nick…” Mike laughed.

“What?”

“Damn. Boy Wonder is day dreaming about the pretty vic,” Mike smiled.

“Don’t call her that. Her name is Meadow.”

Meadow.

Beautiful. Unique. Just like the woman herself. The name fit.

“Are we going to talk to her?” Mike asked.

“Yeah. I think we should visit her at her work. We’d scare the shit out of her if we showed up at her house,” I suggested.

“I agree.”

“I’m going to cross reference doctors prescribing both ketamine and maprotiline. I’ll update Joel and Mandy. When you get back, we’ll call in Kilby and fill him in.” Ben said, not looking up from his tablet.

“Great. Let’s go.” I grabbed my cell and keys off my desk and headed for the door.

6

Nick