The Fogged Mirror

Graphic by Tejal Kawachi

This is a story about a Cop gone rogue who had killed his daughter. A bit too much? Let me tell you all about it from the beginning.

It was 1 am as Heather returned from a party.

That night, she lay on her bed wearing her worn out Converse and dirty old H&M clothes she bought from a Black Friday sale. She was still high and felt like she was walking on the walls. 

Life’s been this way since her mom passed away from breast cancer last summer. She had been living on the fringes of humanity, her soul lost.

The straight A’s student had started a drug ring in school and also sold test papers as a side hobby.

Did I tell you about her dad? He’s a cop and a double agent at that. He never showed this side to his family because he was afraid of risking their lives. But all this wasn’t worth it and I’ll tell you why in a second.

It was Friday the 13th, around 11 pm. Tom was sent on a mission to expose a drug crime ring which traded a new pill. He lurked around in the dingy alleyway in Marina del Rey with his partner, Sean.

The guns were locked and loaded, in case anything out of the blue happened. 

A well built man, wearing a black sweatshirt carried a duffle bag. Tom and Sean slowly approached him. When the man caught the two coming towards him, he bolted at full speed. They started shooting at empty places to scare him but he didn’t even stagger and kept at his speed. He threw his bag over a wall and jumped, missing the cops by a second. 

Tom woke up the next day to find his daughter nowhere to be found. He asks all her friends and they say they haven’t seen her anywhere. He files a missing person case and continues his own investigation but he only hits deadends. No one really knew her. She had no close friends. 

3 days later, “UNIDENTIFIED BODY FLOATS ON LAKE TEXOMA” made the headlines. A 16- year old female was shot and walked up to two miles before collapsing and falling into a lake. It also happened to be that there were no CCTV cameras for the entire distance she walked.

Tom really wished it wasn’t her. It couldn’t be her. 

Tom wanted for all this to disappear for a second, a long second. Just long enough for him to feel the emptiness in its purest form.

He decided then to join a drug ring in the local neighbourhood to learn the questionable things his daughter did. How did he know that her daughter did drugs, you ask? Well, the news report revealed that her blood had traces of drugs. 

He wanted to seek vengeance for his daughter. Tom wanted to know who was behind that gun who was merciless enough to shoot a depressed teenager.

They never talked about the shooting. Heck, they’ve never used guns. He was confused. It seemed like this was the end. 

He kept training in the studio and went to bed everyday with bloody knuckles. Scars soon took over his entire body. He was always in the fighting ring, winning and losing. Tom ended up killing an innocent person to win the trust of the gang.

Two weeks pass by.

He looked at previous case files to figure out a pattern. He was looking for teenage serial killers who were bailed out. None of them had used guns as they mostly raped and killed them or killed and sold their organs. 

There he saw it. 16 year old murder case in the oldest Manila folder a police station could ever have even though it was reported only 2 weeks ago. It was estimated that the death happened on the 13th of Friday around 11:15 pm. The only lead was the ammo found in her shoulder blade. It was a Speer G2. An ammunition that only the LAPD were authorized to use.

He refused to believe it could be him. The guilt blinded him and fogged up his memory. He was convinced it was his partner Sean who shot that bullet. 

Tom was sent on a mission with Sean, which will presumably be the last for both of them. They were sent on espionage for a special dealing on the Venice beach boardwalk. They both were dressed on black and lay low with their caps covering their whole face. Tom waited and waited. Until the dealing was done and it was reported to the police station. 

Tom post-haste pulled out his gun and pointed it at Sean temple.

“Did you shoot her?”, as he asked his voice trembled but he quickly covered it up and ended the question furiously. 

“Tom, what are you talking about?” Sean’s face made it seem like it was the first time for him hearing the word ‘shoot’.

“Yes or no?” Tom’s face wore a disgusting and an exasperated look while searching for truth in Sean’s face.

“I honestly have no idea who you’re talking about!” Sean was taken aback with the false accusation.

“My daughter. Heather. Did you shoot her?” Tom’s voice cracked when he said her name aloud for the first time after her death. It was too much to bear for him. He gasped for fresh air in the dingy car which smelled musty.

“Tom, why would you even think it was me? I know you’re in grief and I know you’re in a vulnerable state but you’ve gotta trust me, I didn’t shoot her! And I didn’t even carry my gun the day your daughter died.”

That leaves only one possible explanation – Tom shot his own daughter.

The engine started and none of them spoke a word. They took off into the starry ink black night. That night, not one, but two agents had gone rogue.

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