The Runaway Slave Part 1

Chapter 4

Back in Silver city. 3 hours away from Albuquerque.

"Do you think we should contact the police?" Grace's mother, Betsy called out.

"God dammit Betsy! Ring them!" her husband and also father shouted, making her shudder.

"Okay okay."

She nervously rang them and waited for a response..

"Hello Silver City Police department. What's your query?"

"Yes, hi. My daughter is missing." she announced in panic

"Okay ma'am. Has it been over 24 hours?"

"Yes."

"Okay, do you know when the last time someone may have seen her?"

"I.. I'm not sure." and she looked up at the father, Adam.

Adam then took the phone off of Betsy.

"Hi, I am the father. Our daughter's name is Grace Hillbridge. She has been missing for over 24 hours, she tried to call us on a withheld number, and didn't give out detailed description of where she is."

"Yes sir. Well, now that we know that, we can send out a search team to investigate. If you give out your address, name and phone number we can get back to you." the man instructed.

"Okay." Adam followed to give out he's information and Betsy ran off to the bathroom to calm herself down.

She was angry and lost as to how Grace may have ran away. She envisioned the last time she saw her, which was when she left for school. She had a slow motion image of Grace stomping down the stairs and out of the house. The thought that Paul may have caused this didn't slip her mind. Seeming how honest and caring he was to Grace, she had no thought as to what may have went on behind closed doors.

She rinsed her face with cold water and went back down to Adam yelling and throwing furniture around. Despite the smashing and clanging going on, the house felt empty and silent without Grace's presence and Betsy felt desperately alone.

About an hour later, which felted like ten times longer, the phone rang.

"Mr and Mrs Hillbridge, it's me Deputy Stranks. You contacted me earlier about your missing daughter, I just thought I would call to say that we have traced back her call to you. But it keeps giving us bad reception, so we need to update our system and get back with you. It shouldn't be too long.

"How very unprofessional of you." Adam boomed.

"All I can say is that we are trying our hardest to find Grace." Stranks said in defence, Betsy then yanked the phone from Adam's ear and pulled it to hers.

"How long do you think it will take officer?"

"About 2-3 days tops. We are going to take this case on air so the public can track her as well. In the meantime, try and find witnesses and whoever spoke to her last."

"I guess we could try and do that."

Good. Oh and was your daughter in some sort of a relationship?"

"Yes."

"Was the relationship bad at all?"

"No that I was aware of.." Betsy assumed and a tear fell from her right eye.

"I need the name of the partner so we can interview him."

"Paul. But we don't know he's last name."

"Okay. We need you to come down to the station to give us an interview, to give us some description of him and answer other questions based on your daughter."

"Yes, I will do anything to have my baby home again." Betsy cried out.

"We understand, Just come down around 10am tomorrow, ask for Deputy Stranks, and they will put you through to me."

"Okay, see you then." the call ended, and Betsy flew into Adams arms, moping.

"I think we should talk to Paul." Adam suggested.

"We don't need to talk to him. We just need to tell him that she is missing and that he needs to be interviewed." Betsy said with a whiny yet serious tone, pointing her finger at Adam.

"I know that, but I wish we were closer with Grace. We have no clue about why she ran away!" Adam yelled and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut.