Hoot Owl Diary part 2

Back again, my dear readers? As it turns out, the little owlets were curious what happened next as I'm sure you all are, so I decided to continue this little narrative. *hoot!* I didn't get as far as I planned today, but I'll have more for you next week. Gather around the fire, and enjoy!

Nick slept fitfully, visions of the past coming back to haunt him. The summer months had been quiet, unusually so. Criminals were abiding by the laws, traffic incidents were at an all time low, even repeat offenders like Weasleton weren't causing much trouble. The precinct decided to reward its officers with 3 day weekends until the end of summer. Nick was quite content to spend these days lounging around, and exploring the new shopping center. Judy on the other hand, couldn’t sit still. She persuaded him to begin looking through cold cases at the precinct looking for new leads. After a few weekends of this, Nick was getting bored. He just didn’t see the point of sitting in the basement for hours looking through case files from 5 years back. That last weekend, he planned a lake picnic excursion for the two of them to get some fresh air. Judy said she would meet him there at 1:00, she just had something to check up on. 1:00 came and went. At 1:30, he decided to give her a call. No answer. He called again, a little anxious. Still no answer, but he thought he heard her ringtone in the distance. Curious, he hiked along the trail until he came to a cliff. The scene was so clear, Nick doubted he would ever forget it. The sun was shining on the lake. Judy’s backpack propped against the tree near a ledge. The ledge was partially eroded, and looked like it had just fallen in. Judy’s phone was in the water, partially floating and still ringing. A small snap of a twig in the distance.

He woke sweating and shaking. The same dream every night. Nick cursed under his breath and looked at the clock. 4:09. He sat up, placing his head in his paws trying to calm his breathing. He had lived so long burying his emotions and now he awoke shaking every night. Judy had meant a lot more to him than he had ever let on. While he tried to compose himself, Nick reflected back on that day.

He had called in backup the moment he saw the cell phone. They had searched until sundown, with no luck. The search party was out again the next day, and the next. A week later, Chief Bogo called off the search. There was no more evidence,  nothing to point to what had happened. Judy had evidently dropped by the precinct on the way over, but there was nothing to indicate what she was doing, or what she may have found. Her death, no, disappearance he corrected himself, was ruled accidental. He wiped the last of his tears, resolving once again to keep at it until he found her. With those last thoughts, he rolled over, to catch a few more hours of sleep before roll call at 7:15.