Page 3 of Cipher

“What’s your name?”

“Nina.”

“You’re doing great, Nina.” It was a good thing I was ambidextrous because it allowed me to jot down the vital details on a pad of paper, locking them into my memory. “Do you know the intruder?”

“Yes,” she sobbed. “He’s my ex-boyfriend. I have a restraining order, and my address is protected. I don’t understand how he found me.”

Her voice had crept up to a shrill yell. “Nina, I need you to stay as quiet as you can and tell me exactly what you’re seeing.”

“I’m sorry,” she cried.

“It’s okay. I understand. You’re scared, but if he gets in before the officers I’m going to route to you, we don’t want him to be able to find you.”

“Right. Quiet,” she echoed.

“Where is your ex right now?”

“He’s still outside the window.” Her words came out soft but rushed. “He’s got something in his hand, and he’s forcing the lock. It’s going to give, and then⁠—”

She broke off on another sob.

“I hear you. Help is coming. Are you somewhere he can’t see you right now?”

“My bedroom closet. I can see through the slats.”

I typed fast and wrote notes just as quickly. After nearly a year into my probationary period, the dual notetaking was automatic. “Does he have a weapon that you can see?”

“I…I don’t know. He’s big. And angry. His fists are bad enough.”

“You’re doing really well, Nina. Keep breathing for me,” I urged. “In through your nose, out through your mouth. I’m staying right here with you.”

I finished building the call in the computer-aided dispatch system, marked it priority, and requested the nearest unit. The system showed 2-Adam-9 only three minutes out.

Glass shattered in the background, and Nina’s breathing hitched. “The window just broke.”

“Stay silent if you need to. I’m still here. Units are rolling.”

She let out a terrified sound, and the line went dead.

“Crap.”

I had her phone number, but it wasn’t safe to call back right now because that would give her location away. All I could do was hope nothing horrible happened to her in the next four minutes. But as I stared at the screen, the incident I’d just created blinked once and vanished.

I pulled up the active screen, and it showed no live calls currently. “What the heck?”

Then I checked the CAD log, but the incident wasn’t there either. As I blinked at the screen, 2-Adam-9’s status flipped to a rollover call six miles in the opposite direction. I checked the active screen again, and the rollover looked like it had been there all along even when I knew darn well nothing had been there a minute ago. It didn’t make any sense. I would’ve thought maybe there was a computer glitch, but that wouldn’t explain a new call suddenly appearing out of thin air.

Something was very wrong here.

I looked down at the legal pad. Every detail I’d written was still there in black ink. Nina was out there, waiting for help that wasn’t coming. I needed to do something for her. Now.

And I knew exactly who to call.

I snatched my personal cell out of the drawer and hit my dad’s number. He answered right away. “Bex? Everything okay?”

“No.” I kept my voice low so the other dispatcher across the room wouldn’t hear. “I just had a 911 from a protected address. Woman named Nina, ex forcing entry through the back window. She’s in her bedroom closet. The entire incident vanished from the system like it never existed, and the unit got flipped to a rollover six miles away that wasn’t there a minute ago.”

“You’re sure?”