gone

--3--

DAY THREE; 42 HOURS SINCE ELODIE HAD BEEN HEARD FROM. I opened my eyes, wishing I'd see Elodie being annoying over top of me, or pulling my blinds up. I didn't set an alarm. I tapped on my phone which sat beside me in the bed and realized it was dead. "Fuck." I bent down and grabbed the charger, plugging it in. That was the moment I realized I didn't have an actual clock anywhere in my apartment. I didn't even wait to check the time on my phone, I knew I way overslept. I threw the covers off of me and ran to the shower—I smelled like alcohol and felt like a hangover, so I needed to freshen up.

I turned on the shower to the hottest temperature it would go to and let my clothes fall to the floor. This time, I did pick them up and throw them in the bin along with the set I'd left there prior. I wondered if the police had already been to the nature reserve. I wondered about the DNA, if they'd heard back about it yet. I was so pissed I didn't charge my phone last night and that I'd overslept. I felt like I was failing her.

I'd never taken a quicker shower in my life. I didn't let myself enjoy how nice breathing in the steam felt, or how the hot water burned my skin as I rinsed out my shampoo. I shut the water off, threw my hair up in a towel and flung one across my body as I darted into my bedroom again. My phone was on and the screen read 11:07 in the morning. I had a missed call from Mark roughly forty five minutes ago. I couldn't have been doing worse. I knew I was taking it too literally, but I felt like there were only six hours left of the first 48 that were crucial in missing persons cases. Elodie could be anywhere now.

I slid the missed call notification over, calling Mark back. He didn't even get a word in before I said, "I'm so sorry. I can't believe I overslept. You all already went, right? Did you see the footage? What kind of car did you find?"

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Elsie. We're the ones investigating this for you." Mark didn't sound like he had good news. "There is only footage directly at the park ranger's office, to record who comes up to the office and pays for passes. It's an overhead camera looking down mainly at the money or the cards used to pay for the passes." My heart sunk.

"What fucking place doesn't have security cameras in the parking lot?" I scoffed. I knew plenty didn't, but I felt like everything was pinning up against me. It's like the universe didn't want me to find my sister. I hit the speaker button and tossed my phone onto the bed. I pulled the towel off from being secured around my chest and began to dry myself off hastily.

Mark also knew that I knew it wasn't a requirement to have security footage, so he didn't even entertain my commentary. "We're still waiting on the DNA but should hear back this afternoon if we have a match in the database."

I doubted they had access to a good database. "What if nothing comes up in your system? Can it be sent elsewhere, where there's more resources available?"

"If you're asking if we can send it to the FBI to run it through CODIS, the answer is no. Crime scene samples are not authorized for that, unless they were to have reason to believe it were a serial crime."

"Jesus Christ," I slipped on a baby blue t shirt over my light blue bra and grabbed a pair of spandex to wear under the giant shirt. I then sat on my bed, setting the cell phone on my thigh. "Don't you think the same person who did this to Elodie did this to your case a few years ago?"

His voice became hushed. "Just because I personally believe that doesn't mean there's enough evidence to back that. There's no body."

I thought back to what Mark had said at the bar. Didn't he say the previous missing girl's body was found a week later? I didn't want to wait a week to find out if the cases were linked. I needed to not get ahead of myself, but all the what if's were building in my head.