When Night Breaks

"Why didn't you tell me you knew the hot professor?!" Lacey asked.

"Because I knew you'd make a big deal out of it!"

"Well he seems pretty cool. You should hook me up," Lacey winked and smiled.

"What about Clay?" I inquired about her love interest of the last few months.

"Clay's cool. But Leo's like, super attractive."

"Leo is also almost 30 years old."

Lacey just frowned and shook her head. After staying with Jay and Leo the night before, Lacey and I decided to try the roads back into town. Luckily, the morning sun had melted the ice enough for us to drive. We had went to the mall to our favorite food court restaurant to get brunch.

As we sat eating our breakfast sandwiches, three girls around our age sat at the booth across from us. Loudly, they began gossiping. I paid little mind to their chatter until something caught my attention.

"My brother said that Ian's death was no accident," I recognized the girl to be Allison Wilson. Her brother was a patrol cop in Elliot Springs.

"They found some, like, weird DNA at the scene. He said they have no idea what it was from," Allison's brother shouldn't have disclosed such information to his chatty sister, and she shouldn't have told her friends. None the less, the mention of strange DNA peaked my interest.

"Sam, what are you doing?" Lacey asked.

"Shh. I'm listening to their conversation," I told her.

"Oh okay. Eavesdropping!"

Allison told the girls with her that the police departments lab couldn't identify the DNA sample. They concluded it was either from a strange animal or it had been corrupted at the scene. I looked down at my sandwich and was suddenly not hungry anymore.



I rushed up to Jay and Leo's and knocked loudly. Leo opened the door and ushered me in.

"What's up Sam?"

"Is Jay here? There's something that's...come up."

"No he's not here right now. What's going on?" I wanted to just scream out and tell Leo everything I had heard. But I took a deep breath and tried to be calm.

"I overheard some people at the mall today. They were talking about Ian's murder. Apparently, the cops found strange DNA at the scene," I waited for a response.

"Strange DNA? Like..." his sentence trailed off.

"Like Jay's."

As if he had heard us speaking about him, Jay walked through the front door.

"Oh hey, Samantha. What's going on?" His brow furrowed as he saw the stress upon my face.

"Jay we have to talk," said Leo. "There's gossip around town that strange DNA was found at Ian's murder scene."

Jay quickly snapped his head to look at me. I wanted to speak but no words would make their way from my throat.

"And you guys think it's mine, right?" he asked, angrily.

"No, but..." I stuttered.

"But what? I promised both of you I had nothing to do with it!"

Jay began to pace, running his hands through his thick hair. I wanted to justify there being DNA at the scene. I wanted a scenario that didn't involve Jay.

"Look man, I believe you. But there is something going on. Sam, we need your help," said Leo.

"Of course. Anything."

"We need the full report to see exactly what sort of DNA was found."

"There's no way we can even get close to the report," I told them.

"No. We can't. That's why you're going to steal it," Jay spoke up.

"Steal it?!" I asked in shock.

What they were asking of me was preposterous. To steal, or at least look at, the medical examiners report I would have to deceive my own father. Besides that, it was illegal.

"Sam, we need that report. Obviously something is going on."

"I know we do...I know."



I pulled into the underground garage of the police department. Sitting for moment in my car, I tried to calm myself down. What I was about to do was risky; if I got caught there would be consequences. And serious consequences at that.

I walked into the police station and saw Detective Jones. An old friend of my dad's, he stopped and said hello.

"What are you doing here, Sammy?"

"Just came to bring dad some lunch!" I held up the takeout boxes I had picked up.

"How sweet of ya. Well you take care!"

"Thank you! You too!"

I headed towards my dad's office and breathed in deep. His door was open and he was sitting at his desk. I knocked on the doorframe before entering.

"Hey darlin'!" He exclaimed, "what are you doing?"

"Brought ya some lunch!"

Dad stood and ushered me in. He walked over and gave me a hug. Smiling, he went on and on about how sweet it was I had thought of him. If you only knew why I was here. I thought.

"I'll go out to the soda machine and get us some drinks. What do you want?"

"A coke's fine."

He left his office and I promptly pushed his door up, without closing it all the way. A file sat on top of a stack of papers. I saw Ian's last name written on it. I opened the manila folder with shaky hands. Pulling my phone out, I began taking photos of each sheet in the folder. I made sure each photo was in focus and readable. Quickly, I shut the folder back, opened the door, and sat back down. Dad walked back in a minute later.

"Here ya go, kiddo," he handed me the can of soda.

"Thanks," I smiled.

We opened the takeout boxes and began to eat. I tried not to act nervous; the deed was done so I had no reason to be. I still felt extremely guilty to sneaking around my father's official detective files.

But I knew how important it was. Something strange had happened at Ian's crime scene. If there was cross species DNA found, it could only mean something drastic and something terrible.