Murder She Wrote (Book 2)

16. Missing Person

Ryan's POV:

"She's been missing for 24 hours now," I tried explaining to the police officer that was in front of me. "It isn't normal of her to just disappear like that."

He closely listened and wrote a few things down onto his paper. I was taken to a single empty room, it looked like an interrogation room if anything. Yesterday, I filed a missing person report on Veronica because she didn't come home. I called everyone on her contact list to see if anyone knew where she was. No one seems to know where she ran off to. I even called my family members, just to make sure if they had any idea where she was. After many hopeless attempts of trying to find her, I ended up making a late night 911 distress call. There were a million thoughts running through my mind at once and I can't seem to focus on anything else but this.

"Your wife, does she have any close family relatives around that she visits frequently?" He asked.

I shook my head, "No, she doesn't have family in Denver. She told me she lived here alone."

"Have you tried contacting her friends? Work?" He continued to question.

"I've been making calls to everyone and going door to door. No one knows where she is. That's why I'm here today so we can figure something out," I told him. I was exhausted. I've been in this room for an hour now. The first thirty minutes, I was waiting on someone to assist me and now I'm being asked unnecessary questions instead of receiving some actual help.

"I understand how stressful this process might be for you but I'm really trying my best to help out. I'm only asking these questions as protocol. We get missing person cases almost everyday of the week. We usually wait 48 hours since the last day the victim was present to move forward to serious measures like a search party. However, before I can do any of that. I need valuable information to make this an investigation."

"I have work. Making time to be here and take care of my child at the same time is difficult for me already," I sighed.

"I understand that. So let's try and speed this process up. From what I know, every case has a motive. Is there a specific reason or incident that might've happened prior to your wife disappearance? Has she been stressed? Were there any fights?" He asked.

I pursed my lips together, hesitant if I should mention the incident that happened to Dr. Lanchester. It would only make things worse if i told because Veronica would then be a suspect of a different crime case. So I decided to fabricate the truth. "Well, her therapist passed away a few days ago. She's been really emotional and hurt by that. We got into a small fight the night of my birthday, and I'm assuming she left the house moments after the fight, to probably cool down."

"Did you see her leave the house after the fight?"

"No, but my cousin who was at the party also, witnessed her leave."

"Did she see anyone else go after her or?"

"We were all drinking at the time. None of us have a clear memory of exactly what went down that night. All I know is she was really frustrated," I explained.

"You've mentioned therapist, is your wife diagnosed with anything?" He said jotting down as much information I was spilling from my mouth.

I paused at his question because I didn't want to admit how "messed" up Veronica really is. She has multiple diagnosis of mental health issues and I don't think I know another calm way of admitting that she's capable of killing people to. I could see him catching onto my hesitation.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked confusingly.

"I'm just so tired," I lied to him. "I need to pick up my son soon."