31. The Chase

Ben

I must have paced back and forth around the house a million times. The shiny gloss tiles that Lisa once chose started to become opaque. Or maybe it was my lack of sleep. Sleep was a foreign word these past couple of days. Or rather years. Ever since the divorce, the days became longer whilst the nights became shorter. Life became duller each day.

"I don't understand", I said, frustrated and angry.

"Nobody's heard from her since last night. She's missing for christ's sake", I yelled. I looked at officer Rogers, hoping he could sense the desperation in my voice.

When I woke up this morning, I thought it would be just another miserable day with silence being a reminder of Lisa's absence and my unemployment.

Until Clark called. Lisa never showed up last night and didn't answer his phone calls. At first, the envious part of me enjoyed hearing the news. I thought that maybe she lost interest and was trying to let him down slowly. But the worry in Clark's voice made me think otherwise.

I called the police straight after the phone call, and soon enough, officer Rogers was knocking on my door, followed by Clark.

"You know as well as I do that I can't declare her as missing at this point. It hasn't been twenty four hours yet", said officer Rogers.

"Unbelievable", I scoffed. "Are we suppost to just sit here and stand by in the meantime?"

"Look Mr Martinez, there is an abundance of possibilities here. Maybe her phone died, or was stolen or lost. You said you were in contact with her last night?", the officer questioned.

"I was", Clark interrupted. "We spoke briefly at around 6pm. She was supposed to text me the address so I could pick her up. We had a wedding event. But then she never replied, didn't answer the phone ... almost like she'd vanished ...".

"I'm sorry", the officer began, "and you are?".

"Clark Reed".

"And your relation to Ms Dunn is?".

Clark cleared in throat before saying, "she's a friend and my employee."

"Right", said Rogers with uncertainty evident in his voice.

"Anyway, as I've already said. I can't file a missing report until 24 hours have passed since last contact."

"However", he continued. "I'll alert all units and check nearby cameras. It would help if we knew where she was staying". His last statement was directed towards me. He was right, she was under my care. I was supposed to protect her, and I failed.

"She was staying with her parents", Clark said.

"Impossible", I intervened. "Lisa doesn't get along with her parents".

"Yeah well she's been living with them for the past week. I know for a fact since I sent my driver, Raoul,

everyday to pick her up and drop her off at the same location", Clark explained.

Of course Clark Reed had a driver.

"Well, was she at work yesterday?", officer Rogers asked.

Clark took a moment to think. "Strangely enough I sent Raoul to pick her up, but I didn't see her at work".

"Could you ask Raoul where she went?", I asked.

"Already on it".

As we waited for Clark to get hold of his driver, I tried not to think about the fact that Lisa had gone back to the place she swore she'd never return to. Was being with me that bad?

I guess I already knew the answer to that question.

"I got an address. It's about three hours away from here", Clark explained.

"Well", I said, "we better get going then".

____________________________________

Being in the same car as the guy who was sleeping my wife, ex-wife, and the police officer who thought I was involved in her attack, was not how I thought my day would plan out to be.

I let my anger, or rather jealousy, for Clark take a back seat for the time being. After all, we had one thing in common.

Lisa

I only hoped that our little trip would give us the answers we were looking for to finding her.

"Where are we going anyway? Did your driver mention anything?".

Clark glanced at the never ending road ahead of us. "Only that it was a house and that she was reluctant to go inside".

I raised an eyebrow and wondered what on earth Lisa was doing this far away from the city.

"I gave the address to the station", said officer Rogers, distracting me from my thoughts. "It's a small cottage house next to a farm. It belongs to an old couple. But someone from the station said they're renting it out".

"This doesn't make any sense. Why the hell would Lisa come out here?", I questioned, desperatation evident in my voice.

Officer Rogers finally pulled over to what looked like a house, literally in the middle of nowhere. "I guess we're about to find out".

I examined the surroundings for any signs that may have showed that Lisa was here. There wasn't much to go on. The house looked run down from the outside and the grass was definitely left unkept.

I heard Clark and Rogers ring the doorbell, but I was distracted by the playground which made part of the house. It was the only thing that seemed well kept. Did children live here? Surely, if they did then the people living inside couldn't have possibly hurt Lisa. Otherwise, what would the world have come to?".

"Of course, come on in"

I heard a voice say from the front porch. I knew that voice. I just couldn't wrap my head on whom it belonged to. I turned around to face the front door, and came to face with a ghost from the past. A ghost who was very much living. A ghost that I had hoped to never see again.

"Torvi?"

"Ben?"

"You two know each other?". It was officer Rogers who spoke this time.

But neither of us answered. I guess were were both in shock. Torvi quickly broke eye contact to answer his question.

"Yes, erm, well we knew each other".

My senses quickly returned and I clenched my fists in anger.

"What did you do to her huh", I said as I marched towards her. "What did you do to Lisa!" , I yelled.

"Nothing", she cried whilst trying to back away from me.

"Woah, calm down", Clark said whilst trying to hold me back.

"Calm down??? Don't f*cking touch me?", I retaliated.

"Listen son, I got a pair of new handcuffs in my pocket dying to be used. Don't make me use them now", said officer Rogers.

"This isn't helping get Lisa back", Clark whispered low enough for me to hear him.

F*ck. He was right.

"Torvi is ... Lisa's estranged sister", I began.

Officer Rogers took a moment to process the information. "Well, Torvi, we got information that your sister was here yesterday".

"Yes, that's right". She paused. "I'm sorry, what's all this about?"

Rogers looked closely at his watch. "We haven't heard from your sister for approximately 24 hours."

He sighed and looked at both me and Clark.

"She's officially a missing person".