***
The next morning Becky woke up feeling even more tired and frustrated than she had when she went to bed. She hadn’t slept well at all. When she first fell asleep, her dreams were pleasant and wonderful. Dreams filled with discovering magic, meeting people that could move objects or make light fly from their fingertips, and encountering a whole world of magical creatures. Then suddenly, they morphed into images of people chasing her and trying to kill her with some sort of dark magic. Angry Wizards were throwing fireballs at her and evil people began to morph into the people she loved. She knew that all of her dreams were ridiculous, both the good and the bad ones. She was only dreaming about the things she had seen on TV or wished for as a child. However, she had no control over her dreams and the bad ones had really taken a toll on her sleep the night before.
Waking up on time, but dragging her feet due to of her lack of sleep, she went about her morning ritual much slower than usual. Thankfully she was too tired to spend much time on herself anyway, so she just went through the necessary routines. Grabbing a much needed cup of coffee, she got dressed and brushed her hair. That was it. She didn’t feel like applying make-up, straightening her curly hair, or doing any of the other labor intensive morning tasks. When she was finished, she grabbed her stuff and left her apartment. Not wanting to deal with the mass amount of people on the subway given the mood she was in, she hailed a cab to take her to work.
She waved to Ralph when she entered the building. He raised an eyebrow at her odd mood and appearance, but didn’t comment as she hurried by and stepped onto the already waiting elevator. She was grateful that Ralph had let her slip past without any questions. Sadly, she wasn’t as lucky with Helen.
“Are you feeling okay this morning Becky?” she asked in concern as Becky approached her desk.
“Yeah, I just didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Are you sure you need to be here? You could work from home for the day if you wanted to. It shouldn’t be too busy since you got everything caught up yesterday.”
“No, I’m already here so I may as well stay,” Becky offered her a reassuring smile, “I’ll be fine Helen, but thank you for your concern.”
“Okay dear, if you’re sure. I’ll try to get as many of the calls as I can and help as many of them as possible so you don’t get too overwhelmed. The last thing you need is to overwork yourself when you’re already exhausted. You’ll end up sick,” she said as she patted Becky affectionately on the hand.
“Yes ma’am,” Becky answered obediently. She couldn’t help but to chuckle at the old school theory as she made her way back to her office. Helen was such a mother hen sometimes and Becky absolutely adored it. Having grown up here at the office, she sometimes felt like she had multiple parents. Helen and Ralph were the main ones though. Becky loved them just as much as they loved her.
Becky took her time on a small trip down memory lane as she started setting up her desk for the day. Unfortunately the trip was a really short one. She hadn’t even powered up her laptop before her office phone was ringing. Knowing Helen would keep her word and try to run as much interference as possible, the ringing phone told her that this call was either one of her parents or extremely important. Taking a deep breath because she really didn’t want to deal with either just yet, she answered the phone on the second ring.
“Good morning, this is Katherine. How may I help you?” she answered pleasantly as she took a seat at her desk and pulled over a pen and pad of paper, just in case she needed to jot down some notes.
“Good morning Miss Wellington. This is Detective Hopkins. I’m in charge of your case and was calling to discuss a few things with you. Do you have a moment?” The Detectives voice was deep and professional but he also sounded polite and pleasant, which effectively put Becky at ease.
“Of course Detective, how are things? Did you catch the guy?”
“Yes ma’am, we think so. That’s why I’m calling. I was hoping you could come down to the station this morning and identify him for us. There isn’t really any doubt that he’s our guy, but we need your confirmation.”
“Oh, I understand and yes, I can. What time would you like me there?” she glanced at her calendar just to make sure there wasn’t anything on it and then at the clock to see what time it was now.
“How about in an hour? Would that work for you?”
“Yes. Umm, I’m sure my father will want to come with me. Will that be okay?” she asked hesitantly, feeling like a child for having to ask. But she knew the moment she told her father where she was going, he would insist on escorting her there.
Detective Hopkins chuckled in her ear, “Yes that would be perfectly fine Miss Wellington. I’ll see you in an hour. Thank you.”
“Thank you Detective,” she said before hanging up. Then she picked the phone right back up and dialed her father’s number.
“Wellington,” he answered briskly, which immediately made Becky feel bad. He was busy today and sounded as if he were already having a bad day. She hated dumping more problems on his shoulders like this.
“Morning, Daddy.”
“Oh, morning honey,” his voice instantly became softer. “How are you? Is everything okay?”
“I’m fine Daddy. I just wanted to let you know that I got a call from the Detective that is over seeing my case. They caught the guy that tried to rob me and want me to come down to identify him in person. I have to be there in an hour.” She didn’t bother to ask him if he wanted to go because she already knew what the next words out of his mouth would be. He didn’t disappoint her.
“Okay, I’ll be there in thirty minutes to go with you. Don’t leave without me.”
“Okay. Love you.”
She could hear the smile in his voice when he responded, “I love you too munchkin. Bye.”
She hung up and savored her happy moment for just a second before picking up the phone once again and calling Helen.
“What did they need?” the woman asked as soon as she picked up the phone.
Becky laughed. “I have to go down to the station in an hour to identify the guy that tried to mug me. Can you handle things while I’m gone?” Becky already knew the answer, but it was still polite to ask. She never took Helen for granted.
“Oh, of course! I already told you to go home. I’ve got this,” she reassured Becky then asked in a much more serious tone, “You’ve told your father right? I do not want to be on the receiving end of his anger if…”
Becky quickly cut her off. “Yes, Helen. I already called him. He’ll be here in thirty minutes to go with me.”
Helen let out a relived breath, “Good girl. I’ll call you when he gets here.”
“Thanks Helen.”
She hung up and stared into space for a minute. At least this would be one less thing she had to worry about now. She would identify the man, he would go to jail, and her parents would feel marginally better that he was off the streets. She was surprised that she wasn’t even the least bit nervous about what she had to do either…only relieved. She had been raised with attorney parents, they had a lot of friends that were attorneys, she went to law school, and was now an attorney herself. So she wasn’t a complete stranger to the law, criminals, or the processes all who were involved went through. Even so, she had only been a licensed attorney for a few months and hadn’t actually worked in the field yet so she hadn’t actually dealt with a hardened criminal yet either. In fact, her only appearance so far at the police station was to get her fingerprints done for a back ground check while she was in school. She should have been nervous.
She shook her useless thoughts away and put her laptop to sleep. She didn’t bother packing up though, because she had every intention of returning to work. She wasn’t going to stay home just because she had a rough night. The last thing she needed was her peers thinking she was getting special treatment just because she was the boss’s daughter, even if th
at were a little true sometimes.
Her phone rang and she glanced at the clock. That would be Helen calling to tell her that her father was there. She picked it up and didn’t bother with a greeting. “I’m on my way out Helen.”
“Okay sweetheart,” she responded and they both hung up.
She pushed away from her desk, grabbed her purse, and walked out to meet her father. He looked worried but smiled and scooped her up in a great big hug when he saw her.
“You ready for this honey?” he asked, concern lacing his voice.
“Yes, I am. I’m surprisingly not nervous about it,” she reassured him as he set her on her feet.
“Okay well I am, so let’s get this over with shall we?” he turned and motioned for her to step on the elevator before him and she did so with a small chuckle at his admission. They both waved goodbye to Helen as the doors shut and the elevator made its way downstairs where Ralph already had a car waiting to take them to the police station.