AfterNet 01 - Good Cop Dead Cop

pointed to a poster showing a group of skydivers, holding hands to form a ring as they were falling. The caption read, “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”
    “Seems appropriate for a church, don’t you think?” he asked.
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Now, what do you and your partner want with me?”
    “Partner?” she asked. “You know …”
    “I recognized you from the TV last night. You and your partner rescued that boy last night. That’s why you couldn’t make it, correct? Oh, my manners, please sit down.” He grabbed an uncomfortable metal chair and offered it to her while taking a slightly more comfortable vinyl backed one. They sat in front of his desk, illuminated by a pool of light from his desk lamp.
    “Yes, sir,” doing her best not to wince. She’d managed to avoid the topic during the day. Because they started the day early and didn’t need their car, they hadn’t been to the department yet. And the courtroom intrigues left little time for small talk.
    She had seen the paper that morning, however. The story was on page one: “Disembodied cop rescues trapped boy.” There was a photo of the fire department carrying the boy out on a stretcher and another photo showing the crack. The story was pretty straightforward, not sensational at all. Even Munroe had said that despite the headline and the inevitable ribbing he’d get because of it, he thought they’d come out ahead.
    The story was fine. The photo of her on an inside page, however, was another thing. “Denver Police Officer Linda Yamaguchi, runny nose on left, animatedly explains how she and her disembodied partner, Officer Alex Munroe, rescued Jason Acevedo from the crack from hell,” the caption read, or should have read. The photo had that kind of iconic look to it — like the picture of Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot. It was taken during the impromptu press conference. She was not quite in the center of the picture because the photographer had framed it to include Munroe, represented by the odd gap between her and the public affairs officer Chavez.
    But despite not being the center of the picture, she was definitely the most interesting thing about it. She had some kind of demented expression and her hands apparently had been waving so wildly they were blurred. “You look fine, Linda. I mean you take a good photo. Not like me,” Munroe had offered, when she showed him the picture.
    “Uh, we’d — that is my partner Officer Munroe and myself — would like to ask you some questions about a woman, a disembodied woman. She had arranged to meet someone here at your church.”
    “Oh, the missing Sgt. Johnson.”
    “You’ve obviously talked to Ms. Miller.”
    “Yes, I did talk to her. I mean we’ve sent e-mails back and forth. I’m afraid I can’t be of much help. For one thing, it’s been a number of years since Tralawna was a member of this congregation.”
    “Yes, sir, I …”
    He interrupted, “Call me Chuck, if I can call you …”
    “Linda. Did you know her well when she was alive?”
    “I was the one who baptized her, but there’s not much to say, a likeable kid, athletic. Looked just like her mother, which meant she didn’t date a lot.” She looked at him oddly, not accustomed to such bluntness from a minister. “I know her mother, Evelyn Johnson, very well.”
    “Oh, great,” Yamaguchi said. “Maybe we can talk to her about her daughter.”
    He shook his head. “I’m afraid that won’t help you much. Evelyn … apparently she didn’t want to believe that Tralawna was her daughter.” He sighed. “She’s one of the people who doesn’t believe in the afterlife … in the disembodied.”
    “Ask him what he believes,” Munroe urged her. She shook her head slightly.
    “So they had no contact?”
    “No, that’s why Tralawna had contacted me. She wanted me to talk to her mother for her. But I never knew that she had made an appointment to meet Ms. Miller here. She probably never thought about making an appointment to see me. She’d know I’m always here.”
    “Ask him.” She shook her head again.
    “Do you have anything else you can tell us? You haven’t heard from her since her friend reported her missing.”
    “No, I haven’t heard from her. Is there something wrong, Linda?” he asked when she shook her head again.
    “I’m sorry. It’s my partner. He wants to know what you think … about the disembodied.”
    “Where is he?”
    “Just to my