Missing

Chapter 3

Paul joined Rick back in the room and sat down in the chair next to him. He swivelled his chair around to face the technician. Paul started, "Jeanne gave me an idea about the cameras, you thinktomorrow you can look into the school's cameras, starting from the day she was missing from?"

Paul waited for his answer keenly, to which Rick only beamed at him proudly, "Definitely, it's my speciality, by the way what are you gonna do? "

Paul replied with serious thought, "I'm going to speak to the parents more thoroughly and get everything checked, there's bound to be a clue in the house, if there's anything missing, she could be a runaway, so we need to rule that out before we do anything else."

Rick nodded to him, as he was once involved in missing cases until he transferred onto the tech side of the profession. Paul left Rick alone in the room to gather his belongings from his office to go home, which he wasn't looking forward to. Tomorrow he would go and speak with the parents, and look through Emily's room. Hopefully something would give him a lead to work on, and in a teenagers room, there was always clues lurking about.

Rick immediately turned around to face the computers and began to type a chain of codes, which was too fast for a normal human to follow. In front of him was Emily's case which he flipped through to look at the date and time. He bookmarked the page, along with adding a few other notes, making it easier for when he came back tomorrow. He closed down the computers and said bye to the others that worked there, making a last stop to grab his bag and coat.

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All three were back in the station, looking tired as hell. There were quite a few officers at the front who were responsible for filing complaints and then appointing the case to the team where needed. The police station was not quite large, but big enough to make it feel comfortable. At the main entrance were a few desks for those who came in to file a complaint which was a large space.

At the back was a door which lead to four rooms each managed by the senior police officers, each studying their own cases in peace and quiet. Small cases were handled by the ones at the front as well, and major cases handled by the ones at the back. There was another room at the back divided into smaller sections, each section filled with many computers, all controlled by whoever worked there. Rick maintained one of the sections, his filled with multiple high quality computers, the only lighting the dingy room ever saw.

Jeanne worked with Paul in his room sorting out various papers, filing them away in the correct cabinets. She had her own small desk in the corner with everything neatly sorted and a photo frame of her standing with her parents, who tragically had died a few years ago due to a car accident. Jeanne worked under Paul who passed on small cases to her which she could handle with exceptional skill.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, "Come in," Paul said without looking up. In came a woman that immediately caused Jeanne to plaster a scowl on her normally pretty face. The woman had straight black jet hair, which magically stayed put throughout the whole day. Your attention was first captured at her red ruby lips, her flawless complexion, then to her bright blue eyes shining even more through the thickly coated eyelashes. Her uniform was a tad bit too tight, and she was fully aware of the fact the dark clothing hung perfectly on her sculpted curves. Her hat was placed on her head as though it belonged there since the day she was born.

Her silky voice demanded to be the centre of attention, but to her dismay Paul did not look up from his work, causing her to slightly narrow her made up eyes, "Paul darling, " Jeanne rolled her eyes, "All police stations have been informed of the girl and nearly all posters have posted in surrounding areas, should be done before lunch."

Not skipping a beat, he replied, "Thanks Kirsty, you can go now." It was only then he decided to look up, eyes moving from her to the door. Jeanne inwardly smiled when Kirsty's fake smile dropped into a snarl, and opened the door to walk out. Jeanne caught sight of Mick who was waiting patiently outside for Kirsty, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. They both looked at each other, eyes widening at the former, before glancing away from each other, one fisting their hands and the other who started to play with their fingers.

Kirsty noticing the exchange, gave Jeanne a perfected nasty smile, then stood as close as possible to Mick slowly dragging her hand down his arm stopping at his elbow to encircle it possessively. Mick smiled nervously at the curvy woman, then gave a quick glance to Jeanne, who noticed the knuckles of her hand were turning white from gripping the edge of her uniform too tightly. Both officers walked away, with Mick trying to keep up with Kirsty's pace.

Jeanne shut the door a bit too hard and cursed herself for even knowing the bastard. She collected herself and turned around to face Paul, who smiled softy at her, then putting his head down. The brown haired officer could feel tears forming at the corner of her eyes, only realizing until one slowly rolled down her face. She hastily wiped her tears away while walking to her desk, breathing deeply with shaky hands picking up her papers and placing them into her black bag along with other important things.

How can he, after everything we did?

Does he not remember?

She closed the zip, wore her jacket and walked to the door opening her mouth to say something, but nothing came out except for, "Bye Paul I'll see you later."

The senior officer looked up once more to see hurt and anger written on her face. Not letting the confusion show on his face her replied with normalcy, "Good luck, I'll be expecting nothing else but positive results from you, like you've always proven."

Jeanne smiled, one that did not reach her eyes, opened the door and closed it quietly behind her. Unknown to her Paul sighed and leaned back into his chair, rubbing at his temples, too early for a headache.

Jeanne cleared her head of the negative memories swarming around and sat in the police car. She looked into her notepad to clarify the address once more and started the engine. The low thrumming of the engines felt nice to Jeanne, being the only thing that never changed and never will in her chaotic life. She fastened her seatbelt and drove away from the station.

Rick meanwhile was hacking into the school's computers. He waited for his connection to bypass into the school's network and into the cameras. Luckily for him, there was quite a few, so each camera could be seen on every computer of his, showing five cameras per screen at high quality.

The footage of all cameras was zoomed backwards at fast speed until the numbers at the bottom read 9:00AM-9.10.2012. Rick pressed a button, which made the footage go slower. All the cameras showed no movement, as all teachers and students were in class, expect for the latecomers who rushed into class with books in their hands. Rick watched and waited patiently, finally a camera outside a class showed a girl with blond hair and a red headband coming out of a class. Rick immediately recognised her as Emily as her face was printed inside the file, along with the physical description given for the day she was missing.

The cameras picked up Emily walking out the class into the main corridor. There was a camera in the corner where the toilets were so if Emily did go into them, Rick would immediately know. He sat there waiting, not moving a muscle watching the girl's every move. She made a few moves around the first level until she reached her destination. The first level were the year 7, 8 and 9's, the second floor were for the years 10 and 11's, with an additional space for their learning and extra facilities only available for them.

After a few minutes, Emily had walked out the toilets, her shoes making squeaky noises against the shiny blue floor. As Emily had made a turn into one of the corners Rick gasped loudly at what the screen was showing. His body shook with tremors, unable to believe what his eyes had seen.

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