NO CLOSURE NO FORGIVENESS by Pawan Verma Read Free Book Online Page B

injury. Then she waited quietly for a few moments for the sound of
an alarm.
    Nothing. That
meant a silent alarm. She couldn’t imagine that the office would keep the
building so unsecured in a city plagued with recent crime waves. Quickly, she
took a few steps back, ran forward, and jumped upwards. Her gloved fingers
barely caught hold of the bottom edge of the windowsill. She used her strength
to slowly lift herself up towards the window, silently thanking the
self-defense instructor who had prepared her to never allow another man to do
her harm.
    It took about
twenty seconds, but Jessica managed to lift herself up over the window sill and
down into the office. Her feet landed on the floor with a thud. She’d
successfully managed to break into the office building. That meant she could
add another felony to the list of crimes and human rights violations she’d
committed in the last seventy-two hours.
    Remaining
crouched, Jessica reached towards her police belt and removed her flashlight.
She’d only brought the essentials, leaving her gun and badge behind in case she
was caught. As if that would make her actions look any less disturbing.
    Jessica
scanned the room with the flashlight and suddenly realized she’d made a serious
miscalculation. There was no telling how long it would take to search the
office for the information she sought. And already she could hear the
approaching sirens, or was that paranoia?
    Jessica
remained motionless, straining her ears for any sound of danger. She could have
sworn she’d heard something from inside the building. But there was no
reason to think anyone was still working this late. Certainly, she had to be
the only intruder.
    Jessica moved
through the room quickly without turning on the light switch. Cardboard boxes
lined rows of shelves. The room seemed far colder than it should be. Storage
room. She moved out into the hallway, shining the flashlight at the walls to
guide her through the building. The place was structured like a maze and it
took another ten minutes of searching frantically through the dark before she
finally managed to find Doctor Chapman’s office.
    The door was
locked. And she didn’t have a key. She did, however, have a lock pick set and a
great deal of determination. Another few minutes passed before she gained
entry. Finally, she walked inside the doctor’s office for the second time of
the week.
    Once inside,
Jessica shut the door and switched on the lights. The light was brighter than
she’d expected and she squinted until her eyes adjusted. Time was running out.
Shouldn’t the cops have shown up by now? She’d never considered herself to be
very lucky.
    Jessica
hurried around to Chapman’s desk and began flinging open unlocked drawers and
cabinets. Frantically, desperately, she searched through what seemed like
dozens of pages of paperwork but found nothing pertinent to her investigation.
She scanned as many files and papers as she could, knowing the moment she
attempted to switch on the computer, the situation would go from bad to worse.
    Jessica wiped
sweat from her forehead and took yet another deep breath. The illegal search
had proven futile. And it was too risky to stay any longer. A burst of energy
combined with anger exploded through her veins and she picked a cushioned chair
off the floor and brought it high over her head. The thought of diminishing the
entire office was both delightful and terrifying.
    Abruptly,
Jessica stopped and replaced the chair in its position. She hadn’t considered
looking through her own records for anything that could point her in the right
direction. Overwhelmed with new inspiration, she resumed her search, searching
again through drawers and cabinets for written notes on the patients under
Chapman’s care. Finally, she found a red binder with her name taped to the side
of the notebook. She flipped the notebook binder open and scanned its contents.
    It didn’t
take long before she found what she was looking for.