Every day on officer Sebastian's route, he sees the same girl waving at him through her window. So when one day this is not the case anymore, he just knows that something has gone wrong and breaks every rule in the book in order to check it out. When he eventually manages to make his way into her room, he finally gets the answers he was looking for.
But now he suddenly wasn't so sure anymore if he even wanted them…
When Sebastian gets the door slammed in his face, he knows that something is not right. He doesn’t care anymore if this costs him his good standing with the bureau. He is ready to go out on a limb and calls for backup to come and search the house…
Minutes later he and 10 other officers forcefully make their way into the house putting the man that first opened the door in handcuffs. Sebastian himself immediately runs upstairs to the room from where the girl was always waving. He has to know what happened to her.
When he opens the door, he can barely believe what he sees. Now he understands why she was not waving at him anymore that day…
But what had happened to the girl? Why was Sebastian so sure that something was not right and would be proven to be correct?
Sebastian has been on the force for the better part of two decades. He's dedicated to his job, respected by his peers, and has good relations with the locals. Many have called him a hero and his actions have given him quite the resume. Little did he know he was about to add to that resume.
Sebastian has worked hard on the force. He's been on dangerous assignments, but he's left most of that behind now. He's gotten older and has too many responsibilities now. He's not as ambitious as he was when he was younger. He might've been done with the danger, but the danger wasn't done with him.
He's quite proud to be a cop. Sebastian has a wife now and two children that he loves very much. He left dangerous assignments because he couldn't imagine leaving his children without a father. Unfortunately, being a police officer does mean putting your life in danger no matter when and where it shows up.
Now that Sebastian has moved on from being a street cop he works behind a desk. He doesn't mind doing paperwork. He also enjoyed going on rides with rookies, just to teach them a thing or two. Along the route that the rookies would take, he'd gotten to know most of the people. Some would grow very special to him.
Some of the people on the routes would talk with him and others acknowledged that they saw him. A lot of them were kind shop owners and further down the route, homeowners. They didn't mind having the police patrolling around and it made them feel safe, especially with friendly Sebastian on the route.
There was a bigger house on the corner of one street that they passed on the route. It was one of the few houses where Sebastian had no idea who the owners were. There was never anybody outside and he almost thought it was abandoned. Except there was one thing to show someone was home.
Every day that Sebastian would take the rookie route he'd be driven past this house and every time there was a young girl standing in the window on the second floor waving to him. Always the same girl. Always the same window. It never changed and she never failed to show up when he came around.
The first couple of times he saw her, Sebastian did not pay the girl any mind. It was nice that she was waving, but he was more focussed on coaching the rookie cop or interacting with people who actually came out to talk to him. But as more time passed, this started to change...
The more he saw the more, the more she would stick around in Sebastian's thoughts. He could not explain why, but something was drawing him towards her. No romantic feelings, no specific concern (yet). It was a feeling that Sebastian could not explain but it was getting stronger and stronger nonetheless.
By this point, Sebastian had actually even ordered some of the rookie cops he was with to slow down when they passed in front of the house or even come to a full stop. Just to see how the girl would react. But whatever he did, the behavior of the girl did not seem to change one bit...
Sebastian secretly hoped that one day he'd be able to meet her. After all, they always waved to each other and he was curious about her. He hoped that maybe she'd come outside when he drove by and he could get to know her and maybe her parents too. He wanted to be sure she was doing alright. But that would never happen.
After one day of driving along the rookie route and waving at the girl, Sebastian became too curious. He was done with not having answers. So he did what any good cop would do and he started to do some investigation. Little did he know what he would find would change his life forever.
He first just wanted to go with the most straightforward method of getting answers by ringing the doorbell and simply asking the girl or her parents. Whoever would open the door. He could not do it while he was on duty however unless he had probable cause. And so Sebastian went after his shift
The people in the neighborhood were very surprised to see Sebastian here at this time and in his normal clothing. Was something going on or was he just here to meet with somebody? Logically a couple of the locals asked him these questions and they actually ended up having some very useful information about the house...
Apparently, the people in the neighborhood had almost never seen the girl outside of the house. They did not quite know what to think about the situation, but they had no way of getting answers themselves, as nobody ever opened up the door.
And this was no different when Sebastian tried. He knew the girl was home as he had seen her a couple hours ago and nobody here had seen her leave, but nobody opened up for him no matter how long he tried. He needed another way of getting information and going down. that rod would prove a lot more successful...
Sebastian decided to check the police database. It held the answers to pretty much everything in their town. It could look up the house, the owners, the neighbors, the history, everything. Not everybody could just get into these files but he mostly worked behind a desk and thus had more access to them.
After a search of the address in the database, he found out that the house had been purchased almost 50 years ago. The owner of the house had died 25 years ago and had left the house to one of her children, a son. There was nothing about a little girl or why she was there. So what next?
Sebastian went to the database again and looked up the son. He found his name and some basic information, but nothing truly helpful. He was stumped. Could it be the son's daughter who he saw waving in the window? Or was she someone else? Maybe she lived there alone? Sebastian had too many questions and not enough answers.
He checked the man again but came up with the same information. Doing a quick internet search he found out that the man had never been in contact with the law, hadn't made any government requests and he had no social media presence. He was off the grid. But that still didn't explain the girl.
Searching the internet through and through Sebastian couldn't find anywhere where it said this man had a daughter or even a kid at all. If she was his kid, the man didn't have her registered anywhere, not even a school. So either, she was his daughter or something else entirely was going on.
Sebastian wasn't done looking for answers. He couldn't give up. Now that he was curious he was also concerned. If the girl wasn't registered for school that could be counted as criminal. If she wasn't registered as his daughter that could definitely be criminal. There were too many options leading to danger.
Unfortunately, Sebastian didn't know where to look for answers next. He didn't have any probable cause to enter the house or even go to ask questions. Technically, the man had done nothing wrong. Sebastian couldn't prove she was in school, but she might be registered under a different name. But still, she waved at him every day without fail.
With no probable cause, Sebastian really couldn't do anything but go about his normal life. He was sure as long as the girl was waving to him she was fine. At least, that is what Sebastian kept telling himself. But he knew very well that this did not have to be the case...
He decided that all he could do was keep making the rounds and checking if she was still there waving at him. And he consistently did this for weeks on end until one day something suddenly changed. Was this what Sebastian had been waiting for fr all this time?
It had been a day like any other. Sebastian was on the rookie route. His rookie was nervous being on the route for the first time and Sebastian was doing the best he could to keep him calm and collected. After all, it was only a practice drive and nothing ever happened on this route.
Sebastian looked out the window and greeted all the familiar faces that he usually saw on this route. A lot of people were out and it put him in a fairly good mood. This would be changed as they passed the big house on the corner when Sebastian noticed something amiss.
Scanning the house for the window he looked up expecting to see the girl, but she wasn't there. There wasn't anybody that he could see there. This had never happened before. She'd always been there. Every day. Without fail. Something was off about the whole situation and he was gonna figure it out.
He noticed right away that a car was still in the driveway. It was likely that somebody was home. After all, the little girl wouldn't drive off on her own. She was probably still in the house along with whoever could drive the car. So what should he do? Ring the doorbell? Why did everything feel wrong?
In any other situation, Sebastian wouldn't be so concerned. It wasn't a big thing. So a girl isn't waving at you from her window. She could be in the bathroom or taking a nap or out for a walk even. But deep down Sebastian knew that something wasn't right and he was going to do something about it.
He told the rookie cop to stop the car and wait for him while he went to check out the house. The young officer was very confused but of course, he listened to his senior colleague. But afraid that he might get in trouble for this, he did nervously ask Sebastian what he was planning to do here?
Sebastian didn't feel the need to tell the rookie why he had ordered him to stop, but he did understand why the young man was confused. This was completely against protocol and he knew he'd have to explain it all later, but he didn't care at this point. He needed answers and the rookie would just have to wait...
Sebastian knew that ringing the doorbell would probably not get many results, as nobody answered the door for him last time, but he still had to try. It could make his case on why he needed to take action stronger as right now it was still based on basically nothing...
Walking up to the door, Sebastian rang the doorbell. Nobody answered. He tried the bell again and then knocked hard on the door. He was ready to walk away and make a call back to the station where he wanted to go and check out the house when something unexpected happened...
Out of seemingly nowhere, someone answered. Like that person felt like he left Sebastian hanging he was going to be in trouble. But it wasn't who he expected to see at all. This was all very wrong and now he was more than suspicious. And his suspicions would turn out to be right.
Sebastian had been able to get ahold of some pictures of the man who supposedly owned this house. The man who opened the door looked nothing like him. He was wearing a suit and he glared hard at Sebastian. He was angry, but Sebastian wasn't leaving without answers. He was going to know if that girl was okay.
But the suited-up man was not going to work with him here. Sebastian was ready to ask him a million questions, but all he got in return was that he needed to leave immediately. What was happening here was not of his concern at all. This all only made Sebastian more suspicious
But the more he was pushing, the more he got pushed back by the man until he started to threaten to call his police chief and report Sebastian for his behavior. A part of Sebastian wanted to just let him do it and see what would happen. But he knew that might not end well for him...
Sebastian wasn’t sure what to do next. He didn’t have the warrant to search the home, and he knew that he’d never be able to able to convince his superiors to listen without concrete proof that someone was in danger. All he had was his gut feeling that something wasn’t right.
Plus, waiting for a warrant would take too long. Sebastian was right there, and he had to act quickly. But it was a gamble. If he followed his heart and took action, it could cost him his job. The thought was enough to make him hesitate for just a moment. Was it worth it?