Nancy Rish is dreaming.
In the dream, Benji is graduating from high school. She is sitting in the stands with Danny. They’re older. Danny’s hair is going gray at the temples. She’s put on a little bit of weight and has a few wrinkles around her eyes. But she’s still pretty. And they are happy together.
There’s a gold wedding band on Danny’s ring finger and a pea-sized diamond on hers. As Benji takes the stage and receives his diploma, Danny reaches over and takes her hand. They smile. This is it: the life she always wanted.
Then a loud noise—like a car crashing into the house—jolts her awake. She sits up, trying to orient herself to where she is. She’s in her bed. The room is dark, but the curtains of her window are pulled back, casting a bluish light into the room. The sun isn’t up yet, but it’s close. She can tell by the soft morning glow.
She feels for Danny in the space next to her. He’s not there.
She hears yelling coming from downstairs. Lots of voices—deep and loud and full of authority. Danny’s voice, defiant but scared, is mixed in with the other voices.
Nancy’s first thought is that the drug dealers Danny used to work for have come for him and they’re going to kill him.
She is frozen with fear, unable to get up.
She thinks of Benji. She must protect him. Then she remembers that he is at his father’s.
Thank God, she thinks.
But her relief is short-lived. Loud footsteps stomp up the stairway. The bedroom door bursts open, slamming against the wall. Nancy jumps and lets out a short, clipped scream.
Two men step into the room. They’re dressed in black, with combat boots and bullet-proof vests. Both are holding military rifles, and they aim them at Nancy’s face.
“Danny!” Nancy screams.
She doesn’t know what else to do.
She gets no answer from Danny.
Instead, one of the SWAT agents pulls her to her feet. He is forceful but doesn’t hurt her.
“Ma’am,” he says. “You can put on some clothes before we take you in.”
Clothes? she thinks. Take me in?
She doesn’t understand what is going on.
She looks down at herself and sees she’s wearing Danny’s T-shirt, the one she uses as a nightgown. She has no bra, no underwear.
She looks around the room, trying to find some clothes to wear. She grabs a pair of jeans lying on the floor. Then something out the window catches her eye.
She walks to the edge of the window and looks out. The road is filled with police cars. Blue and red lights flash in the dim morning light. Two officers dressed like the ones in her room are leading Danny across the lawn to a police vehicle. His hands are cuffed behind his back.
A female officer arrives in the bedroom and keeps an eye on Nancy as she gets dressed. Nancy pulls on the pair of jeans and puts on a blouse. The officer is wearing street clothes and her black hair is in a ponytail, but she has a pistol clipped to her belt. Nancy thinks she looks familiar. She just isn’t sure from where.
Then it hits her like a bucket of cold water dumped over her head. She saw the woman last night driving the car that was behind them.
Danny was right. They were being followed. Now Nancy is more confused than ever.
“Can you at least tell me what’s going on?” Nancy says.
The woman answers by instructing Nancy to put her hands behind her back. The woman clips on handcuffs and leads her down the stairs and into the yard. Blue and red lights flash from the police cars.
The garage door is open, and police are inside, looking around. One uniformed officer is standing before a man in a suit, showing him a sawed-off hunk of two-by-four and a short length of PVC tubing. Two plainclothes detectives are kneeling over Danny’s duffel bag. They pull out a motorcycle helmet Nancy has never seen before. Then a pair of bolt cutters. A flashlight.
Finally, one man pulls out a pistol. He holds it between his thumb and forefinger, like it’s something he doesn’t want to touch.
“Someone tell me what’s going on,” Nancy says, practically shouting.
“As if you don’t know,” the female officer says, opening the back of a police cruiser and gesturing for her to get in.