Janie’s Got a Baby

She was only fourteen. Her body was found in an alleyway behind a smoke lounge. Stabbed multiple times in the chest, abdomen, and throat. Such a damn shame. The police shook their heads. Just another tragic statistic of a sex worker. So young too. However, there’s something else.

The cops heard a baby crying. Huh? That can’t be right. The cops looked around. Where was the crying coming from? They walked closer to the dumpster. No… Don’t let it be…

One of the cops looked inside. Whew! No baby in the dumpster. But the crying got louder. The cops looked next to the dumpster. There it was. The baby lay bubbled up next to the dumpster on the ground. Now, things got worse. There was a baby involved. A teeny tiny orphan. The cops cursed themselves. Now what?

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That child will end up in the system. Maybe she go to good family. Maybe she’ll have a beautiful life. Maybe the cycle will repeat again. Who knows? There’s a bigger issue at hand. Who killed that baby’s mother?

Vince combed through the nothing. The PI sighed. This shouldn’t have happened. She was only fourteen. Pretty Janie shouldn’t have turned to this life.

“What happened to you?” Vince asked. He turned his head when he heard a knock on the door.

“Yeah?” he asked. The door opened a crack.

“Is this a bad time?” a small voice asked. Vince shook his head.

“Nah. Come in,” he said. He turned back to the screen as footsteps walked up to the side. Another one of the cops joined him. The woman with her strawberry blonde hair swept to the side had been on the force for six months.

“Hello, Grace,” Vince said.

“Hey,” she said. The rookie turned to the screen.

“Poor girl,” she said as Janie appeared into view. “Where were her parents?”

“Not in the picture,” the PI said. “Mom was always high on drugs. Dad wasn’t around. You can guess the rest of the story.”

“Damn shame,” Grace said.

“Did you want something else?” he asked.

“Oh!” she said. “We managed to get enough DNA to test. The child hadn’t had sex before she died.”

“Okay… Anything else?” he asked. Grace took a moment to think.

“No…” she said. “Oh, there was this.” Grace reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper with Vince’s name on it. The PI froze.

“Where did you get this?” he asked.

“One of the other detectives found it on the body,” she said.

“Why does it have my name on it?” he asked. The rookie shrugged and shook her head. She handed him the folded-up piece of paper. No sooner had Vince touched the paper, than his body froze. White noise filled his ears. That voice cut through the emptiness.

Wake up!

Meanwhile, a shadow followed Janie on the screen.