To Calliegh's surprise a small cute face met hers through the thick window glass. Quickly Calleigh opened the window and as she did show a gray and white mottled streak burst in under the sash and promptly leapt onto Calleigh's bed. "Muffin!," Calleigh squealed in excitement as she hurried over and snuggled the purring ball of fluff. Mittens was a small patchy gray and white cat who had become Calleigh’s first friend when she'd moved into the town of Whistlesend, which felt more like a city than any town and was slowly becoming one.
When Calliegh had first moved here Muffin was a very feral but hungry alley cat that would root through the trash bins that were in front of Calleigh’s apartment building. It had taken a lot of work and effort for Calleigh to befriend the fuzzy terror and to steadily coax her near enough that Calleigh could touch her. But after she did, Muffin began to watch and wait for Calleigh and found her own way up to Calleigh’s apartment window.
Now the two spent mornings together like this off and on. On mornings like this Calleigh would always make sure to cook an extra egg without seasonings for Muffin and would then start on her own breakfast. They would then sit at the small breakfast counter that divided Calleigh’s kitchen from her living space and would eat. After breakfast Calleigh would wash dishes and the two would relax for a short while on the couch until Calleigh had to begin doing her daily chores. On some of those days, like this day, Muffin would occasionally choose to stay and snooze on the small sofa in Calleigh's living room as Calleigh puttered around the apartment cleaning and straightening before taking time to wash up.
By the time Calleigh was finished washing up and was ready to leave Muffin was on the window sill sunning her fur. “Well I’m glad you’re content.” Calleigh looked out the window above Muffin as she felt the breeze on her face and she closed her eyes soaking up the sun. “Well Muffin it's time for me to go and I need to shut this window.” Calleigh looked down at Muffin as Muffin looked up at her. Then Muffin stretched and yawned before hopping down to the roof outside. Once she was out Calleigh shut the window and tamed her wild red hair putting it in a tight bun with two hair ties. She sighed as she headed out the door and down the stairs, steeling herself for her shift. She had a million thoughts still running through her tired brain. However, her foremost thoughts were on how she was going to get ahold of the photos to take to Mode. Once down the stairs and outside in the warm sun she began walking toward the precinct building.
Upon arriving at the precinct building Calleigh had decided that it might be best to just ask for the pictures right out and pushed the door open where her ears were assaulted with the chattering of other officers, the rustling of papers, and the off and on ringing of phones. After she had punched in on the time clock she found her way to her desk where officer Frank Bradford was standing nearby. He was tall with short curly hair and deep chocolate brown skin. Officer Bradford’s smile was enough to light up a whole room and it wasn’t just his mouth that smiled but his whole face. He was talking to another young officer when he saw Calleigh walking over. “Hey Calleigh, you look rough. Not sleep well?” “Calleigh rubbed the back of her neck a little bashfully and with a side glance not directed at any place in particular simply replied, “Something like that. Hey Frank, is there a chance I could see those photos again from the River district murders?” She asked him confidently, looking him right in the eyes. “Sure let me go grab them real quick,” officer Bradford walked over to his desk just a few feet away and picked up a small pile of pictures and brought them back to Calleigh’s desk.
“Here they are. I’ve been looking at them but I’ll be honest I’m not sure if I’m really seeing a connection between them. These are copies though and I’ve got a couple more so you’re free to keep them as long as you need. We probably need to go do our patrol here in the next hour though.” Calleigh nodded and gave a small grin trying not to give away the immense relief of it being so easy to get her hands on the photos. The next trick would be for her to get them out of the precinct building at the end of her shift. Calleigh looked down and sifted through the small pile of photos in front of her and cringed as a small shudder ran down her spine at the sight of them again. The murders had been especially gruesome and she was only glad that she hadn’t had to be one of the officers on the scene of the crime.
After looking through a few of them she decided she couldn’t look at them anymore and put them in a small tan envelope and set them in the right hand drawer of her desk. She looked through a few of the new papers that had arrived on her desk but there wasn’t anything overly thrilling in any of them. Some of them were citations that had been paid that simply needed to be processed which was one of her least favorite job at the precinct but since she was one of the newest officers these found their way to her on a regular basis. She was just glad she had gotten pretty quick at processing them since she had so many of them show up so often. After about fifty minutes or so of processing the paid citations Calleigh got up and walked over to a counter to grab a cup of coffee where officer Bradford was standing. “You ready to go Calleigh?” “Yeah Frank, just let me grab this cup of coffee so I can drink it while we do patrol.” Frank just chuckled and nodded, pulling his cap on and heading toward the door. He was just stepping outside as Calleigh caught up to him, paper cup with coffee in hand. Calleigh ducked just under his arm and hurried down the stairs and with a teasing tone headed down the street that they regularly patrolled, “Well come on slowpoke.” Officer Bradford just chuckled as he adjusted his hat and followed her down the street.
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