Discombobulate

Chapter Fifty-One

"You don't look much better," Mullen grumbled. He shoved the oversized black sunglasses on his face. "Oh, this is much better, thanks."

"You didn't know about this, did you?"

Mullen shook his head, "not a clue. I woke up at noon and was met by Emily at the foot of the bed. She told me to get up and look presentable. She organized a search party and it started at three."

"And you're back here because?" Winston pressed.

"I look like shit, I feel like shit. I don't want to say it Winston, but I don't think this is going to end the way we want it to."

Winston's heart sank to his stomach. "Don't say that," he tried to comfort him. "We'll find Adeline, we're doing our best."

"I had a nightmare last night. We found her dead. I'm trying to hold myself together around Emily. It's starting to get hard. I want to put on a brave face for her, but I'm so close to cracking."

"We're going to find her. Try to focus on something else for now. Did you apologize to Denise yet?"

Mullen shook his head. "I called her phone, but she never responded."

"Why don't you try calling her again? Maybe she'll answer this time."

"I think she hates me."

"I don't think so. She might be upset for a while. She hadn't seen Andy in three years and they're friends again."

"Andy never hit her," Mullen pointed out.

"It was worth a shot. Try calling her again and leaving a voicemail or something. I'm going to try to find your wife and see if she needs help with anything."

"She's up at the front of the crowd. They're splitting up into groups. We're going to cover different parts of town. I'll find you when I'm done."

Mullen stepped away and pulled out his phone. Winston made his way toward the front of the crowd. The groups were color coordinated. Every group had a certain colored wristband on their wrist.

One member of each group had a paper map. There was a lot of chattering happening. Most people dressed for the occasion. People had tennis shoes and a few had hiking shoes.

One girl was wearing slip-on flats. Winston shook his head at the sight of them. Searching could take hours. Proper footwear was important. Nobody wanted a twisted ankle or blisters.

Something moved out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't help, but sigh at the sight of her. The same newswoman, that had showed up at his apartment, was coming towards him. The same cameraman followed her.

"Sheriff Winston, what do you have to say about all of this?" She asked.

Winston kept walking, "I have no comment about this. If you'll excuse me, I'm pretty busy today."

"Don't you work with Detective Mullen? Do you think he had anything to do with the disappearance?"

Winston stopped in his tracks. He turned around to face the woman. She shoved her microphone into his face.

"Detective Mullen and his wife are lovely people. They loved Adeline with every fiber of their beings. To accuse them of having something to do with her disappearance is outrageous."

"So you don't think they did this?" She asked.

"Someone snuck into their house and kidnapped their child! Of course, they didn't do this!" Winston flung his hands out. "If they had something to do with this, why would they have created a search and rescue team?"

"An anonymous source told us that Detective Mullen put his hands on a civilian yesterday. He smacked a woman in the face and knocked her to the ground. If a man would do that to a woman, what would stop him from hurting his kid?"

Winston froze in his spot. It felt like the world crashed around him. A chill trickled down his spine. He finally got out his words after a long pause. "Who told you that?"

"So it's true?" The woman asked. "Detective Mullen hit a woman." Her eyes lit up. She had a new piece of information to work with.

Winston had fucked up. He fucked up big time. A slew of curse words flew around his head.

He took in a deep breath before he started to speak. "You know what? I have places to be and I need to go. I can't continue standing here and wasting my time."

The woman ignored him and turned back to the camera. "Did you hear that ladies and gentlemen? That seemed like confirmation to me."

Winston spun and sped back to where he last saw Mullen. He'd get Mullen and they'd find Emily. He'd take them back to the motel. One of the other officers could take over the search. They didn't need this; they didn't need to be harassed by the media. Their daughter was missing. They just wanted their daughter back.

Winston spotted Detective Mullen after searching for a few minutes. He was shoving his phone back into his pocket. Winston reached him and yanked him by the front of his shirt.

"Woah, what are you doing?"

"Don't talk to anyone. We're going back to my car. Call Emily and tell her to come to the parking lot. Tell her to ignore the media. Tell her to not talk to them."

"Why? Winston, what's going on?"

Winston let go of his shirt. "I'm taking you and Emily back to your motel."

"What the hell is going on?"

"Someone leaked something to the media. I don't think you want to know. It's something you shouldn't have to worry about. You need to focus on finding your daughter."

"Would you just tell me what it is? I want to know what it is. If it's about me and my wife, I need to know what it is."

Winston took a deep breath. "Someone leaked information, they know you hit Denise. They know you assaulted her."

Mullen's mouth dropped open, "huh?"

"I don't know how. Someone knew about it and they leaked it. We have to go before they start harassing you. Hurry up and call Emily. Tell her we'll meet her. I'll tell her what happened when she's here."

Winston ran a hand over his hair. Things were really fucked now. The whole case would be messed up. The attention wouldn't be on Adeline. Now, everyone would be focused on proving Mullen was a bad person.

How much worse could things get?