CHAPTER TWO
1968 Words
CHAPTER TWO
Two days later.
Stella walked through the front entrance of the FBI headquarters in New Haven. Taking the step through the doorway felt like a life-changing moment. And it was. Over the past few months, her life had changed course in a way she’d never believed would be possible. From today, she was an actual employee here. Ten days ago, she’d graduated from the FBI Academy after winning the Directors Award. Now, she was a field agent in her first-ever posting. It still felt surreal.
As she headed to the security desk to show her new, shiny badge to the guards and complete her sign in process, Stella acknowledged that she wasn’t feeling as together as she’d hoped to on her first working day.
The confrontation with her mother had given her confidence a major blow. Rhonda Fall had seemed to be taunting her with the secrets she kept. Her adamant refusal to answer any questions had caused Stella to doubt her own instincts and skills. Stella had left feeling that she was not only a useless investigator, but also a bad and uncaring person. Self-doubt and dark self-criticism had gnawed at her the whole way back to the airport.
Before she boarded, she’d sent her mother a message apologizing for the shortness of her visit and for bringing up the subject of her father again. She’d said she would visit again as soon as she could, and that from next month, she’d be able to wire more money home.
Rhonda had read the message but hadn’t responded, and the lack of response was tearing Stella apart.
She didn’t want anything to distract from her focus on the first day of such a challenging new career, which would test her abilities and mental strength in every way. She’d hoped that after visiting her mother, she would start her job with a feeling of calmness and a sense of closure. In fact, the disastrous opposite had occurred.
She told herself firmly to get over it. By now, she should know the effect her mother had. There was nothing she could do except wall off the torrent of negative thoughts that overwhelmed her whenever her mind veered in that direction.
“Good morning. I’m New Agent Stella Fall,” she introduced herself. The guard passed her the iPad for her to complete her digital registration.
“Morning, Agent Fall,” he said formally.
Stella completed the data input, and handed the iPad back to the guard. While he was processing the information, she stared around, taking in the size and scale of the building that was her new workplace.
From now on, if she wasn’t out in the field, she would enter this pristine four-story building every day. She guessed its modern and sleek brick frontage had been totally rebuilt from the original offices, constructed in the 1940s.
It was an immaculate, bustling place. A sense of pride emanated from every part of it, the modern reception, the gleaming tiles, the attitude and bearing of the guards and agents. It was thrilling but intimidating to know she was a tiny cog in this giant machine of justice. If she worked her hardest and used her skills to their utmost, she could make a difference in fighting for what was right.
Her signing in was done. Stella realized she wasn’t sure where to go now. She’d arrived very early. Supervisory Special Agent Roth, who was her new boss, had said he would meet her at eight a.m. and it was only seven-thirty.
Stella knew where in the building his offices were. Recently, she’d arrived here by helicopter, whisked away from her final week of study at the academy because Clem, her mentor and an ex-FBI special agent, had thought she would have relevant experience in solving a case.
In fact, Stella had ended up solving the case. Roth had praised her highly and as a result, she had earned herself a job working as part of his team. He had needed her skills, and in particular, her psychology background.
Stella headed along the corridor to the section where Roth and his team were stationed. Not that they spent much time in the offices, Roth had emphasized to her. His view was that a field agent should be out in the field. But she was new, so she’d probably not be allowed straight out on cases yet, Stella thought, wondering what the next few months would bring.
She walked into the small lobby where an agent was busy rummaging through one of the filing cabinets. He wasn’t someone she had seen before. He looked focused and preoccupied. He found the file he needed, gave her a quick nod, and rushed out again.
There was nothing she could do until Roth arrived. Everyone was busy and she would rather wait for him to introduce her than start roaming around and poking her head into offices to say hi to strangers.
She felt every inch the new girl as she perched on one of the chairs. It brought back old memories of being in high school, and with those in her mind, an idea suddenly occurred to her.
Taking out her phone, Stella scrolled through her messages. She wasn’t going to give up on the situation with her mother. She was going to keep demanding answers.
Quickly, she typed out a message.
“Mom, I know you know where Dad is. Don’t you think it’s unfair to keep it from me? Why would you want to do such a thing? Wouldn’t you rather I confronted him in person and found out the real truth? Please, please can you tell me? Because I feel very unhappy and uncertain not knowing.”
She read the message. It wasn’t the exact tone she wanted, it felt too personal, but she didn’t know what the right tone would be. Perhaps confessing to her own vulnerability would touch her mother’s heart. Quickly, before she could rethink the idea and decide to abandon it, she pressed Send.
Watching carefully, Stella saw the message had gone through. Her mother had read it, she saw, with a quickening of her pulse. What would she think? Would she reply instantly or would it take a while?
Hearing voices from outside, Stella put her phone away. She jumped to her feet as Roth strode into the room.
Roth’s air of harassment preceded him as he rushed into the office. His worried frown didn’t ease as he gave a quick nod in her direction. His chestnut brown hair was longer than when she’d last seen it and looked even more overdue for a cut. In the past weeks, Roth hadn’t even had time to visit the barber.
She guessed that being a Supervisory Special Agent in this large field office came with more stresses than she could imagine.
“Agent Fall. Welcome to your new workplace. You’ve arrived on a very busy day.” Stella suspected all days were the same as Roth continued hurriedly, “Most of my team are out on cases. This is where you’ll be working for the time being.”
He indicated the small desk in the only corner of the lobby that was not crammed with wall-to-wall filing cabinets.
“Thank you,” Stella said, glancing excitedly at her assigned place of work, and wondering what her first job would be. The desk was completely covered in piles of files. She wondered where they could be moved to.
“As a new agent, I’m sure you want to make a difference.”
Stella nodded eagerly.
“However, as a new agent, it’s going to be routine for you to handle the day to day tasks that nobody else has time for. Starting with those files.” There was a note of humor in his voice as he pointed to them.
Stella looked at the desk again, this time with more concern. What needed doing to these mountains of paperwork? She’d be up for the challenge, of course. It just – wasn’t a challenge she’d expected. But Roth was right. Someone had to do the work, and if this was what it took to keep the New Haven office running like a well-oiled machine, then she was the person for the job.
At any rate, Stella tried to cheer herself with this brave internal dialogue.
“These are all recently solved cases, but with our offices going digital, all the information needs to be checked, and then scanned so that there’s an online version of each file.”
“I see,” Stella said, feeling intimidated by the mammoth scope of this task.
“Go through these files and look at the list of contents in the front. Then make sure that all the contents are, in fact, in the file and correctly arranged according to the numbered list. You can’t believe how this makes life easier when we urgently need to find a piece of evidence or a witness report – or how much it complicates things when items have gone missing. Then, finally, you can use the computer and scanner in the next-door office to scan each page. Once they’re scanned, you save them on the system according to year, month, case name and case number. You’ll see how it’s done when you start working.”
“What do I do if there are any pages missing?” Stella asked.
“The name of the agent in charge of the case is on the front of the folder. Follow up with that agent and ask him for the missing info. Then, once the folders are scanned, they can be manually filed according to the case number.”
“I’ll make a start now,” Stella said, not wanting to show how worried she was by these head-high piles. Instead, she tried to fill herself with positivity, thinking about what a good grounding this would give her in the case histories, and how she’d also get to know the agents in charge if there were any missing pages. So she’d be meeting her colleagues, too!
She looked up, but Roth had already rushed out, leaving her to tackle the first one on her own.
Lifting down the first of probably a hundred folders, she realized the desk was so crammed she couldn’t actually work there, so she spent some time rearranging the folders to free up a corner of space. Now the remaining piles were even higher, but in a short time, she would start making a dent in them.
As Stella had the thought, a stressed-looking agent rushed in. Without really looking at her, he raced over to the desk and deposited five new files on top of the pile.
Stella watched in dismay as he hurried out again.
And then, something even worse happened.
From down the passage, she heard a distinctive voice. Sharp and high and resounding with confidence, it sent prickles of instant, unwanted recognition down her spine.
“Where’s Supervisory Special Agent Roth? Is he in here? I was told to introduce myself.”
Stella felt like taking cover behind the mounds of paperwork. She couldn’t, of course.
Instead she watched, appalled, as her tall, lean, confident nemesis strode in.
This was the woman who’d done her utmost to sabotage Stella’s journey at Quantico and make sure she didn’t qualify as an agent. This was the woman who, shortly before graduation day, Stella had punched in the stomach and knocked off her feet; the gesture causing a bitter and lasting enmity to add to the grudges she already carried.
She’d never dreamed that she would ever see Carrie Potts again!
And, from her equally outraged expression, it was clear that New Agent Carrie Potts had never expected to see her again, either.
- Writer
