In the early morning hours, as people were coming to work at the building across the street from the old City Standard building, a small figure appeared perched on the rooftop ledge. The nine-story building was scheduled for demolition in the coming weeks and had been securely padlocked to prevent entry. Which made it all the more puzzling how the young woman pacing along the rooftop ledge got there. At first, no one noticed. But gradually, a crowd started to gather to watch her occasionally teeter on, but not fall from, the rooftop. By midday, the crowd of onlookers had filled the street below blocking traffic. This was the complaint that police officers Grey Walker and Lucas Marshall were responding to when they arrived on the scene.
Several other units had already responded to the call and were busy redirecting traffic around the area. Grey and Lucas had to park on a side street a block away from the crowd and walk in to where they had gathered. All of their faces were raised to the sky and many of them had their hands clasped as in prayer. "Are they waiting to be raptured?" Lucas joked.
Grey glanced up to see what they were looking at. "Dispatch, we need a fire rescue team and a Crisis Intervention officer at the old City Standard building. There's a woman on the roof ledge." Turning to Lucas, "we need to get this crowd out of the street. Any ideas?"
The arrival of the Fire Rescue truck was enough to move most of the crowd onto a sidewalk. Lucas and Grey started to herd the people standing on the City Standard side to the opposite sidewalk. Once the area was clear, the firefighters set up an air mattress in front of the building. The Crisis Intervention officer notified Grey that he would be delayed. The woman had been up there for several hours, and the crowd was reluctant to disperse.
"Lucas, I need you to hold the fort."
"What have you got planned, partner?"
"I'm going up there to talk her down."
Grey headed down an alley toward the back of the building. Every door and window at street level had been boarded up and padlocked. The lower portion of a fire escape had been removed making it out of reach for a normal person. But Grey wasn't a normal person. Lucas came running down the alley in time to see Grey leap into the air and grab the third-floor railing of the fire escape. "Seriously?" Lucas yelled up at Grey. "You couldn't wait to give me a boost?"
Grey pulled himself up and over the railing onto the landing. He looked down at Lucas and smiled. "Bring the car into the alley. I'll wait for you." Lucas stared for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and running off for the unit. True to his word, Grey had waited for Lucas to pull the car into the alley. Grey was hanging upside down from the third-floor deck of the fire escape. "Grab the emergency chain ladder and toss it up to me. I'll hook it on for you."
After climbing to the rooftop, the two officers separated with Lucas acting as a distraction trying to talk her down from the ledge while Grey crept up on her and pulled her to safety. At least that was the plan. Grey moved slowly at first being as quiet as possible while Lucas spoke to her. "Hello," he shouted. "My name is Lucas. What's your name?" She didn't answer, but she did turn to face him. "Oh, good. You can hear me." He took a step toward her. "What's your name?" he asked again. She turned her face back to the crowd below and extended her arms. Concerned that she was about to jump, Grey rushed toward her and grabbed and arm. As he attempted to pull her back onto the roof, she twisted her body. Grey was surprised by her sudden move and was pulled off the roof as she fell backward away from the building.
Several minutes later, Grey landed on the air cushion that fire rescue had deployed. The crowd that had gathered slowly dispersed. And Grey was being read the riot act for his "stunt". The young woman who had stood on the roof ledge had disappeared during the fall. No one at street level remembered her, despite having watched her a good part of the morning. Grey was afraid to ask Lucas about her, but it wasn't necessary. "It was weird," Lucas commented. "Halfway down the building she just disappeared, like she had never been there."
"You remember her?"
"There was something creepy about her, makes her hard to forget."
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