Alone In The Darkness

Chapter 15

Officer Conners stood on the street corner with his hands pressed against the small of his back. He gazed up the street where the navy Civic once stood. His eyes traced the path from where the car stood to the front door of the bar. Conners was flanked by two police officers holding notebooks in their hands.

"Shall we go in?" Conners asked.

"It's your show, boss," responded one officer.

Conners walked the sidewalk to the front door. The officers were bathed in the light from the neon orange OPEN sign that was mounted alongside the door. The street was quiet this late at night, but when the officers entered the bar they were greeted by TV screens and the remnant of a darts game. A lone drunk sat at the bar nursing the last of his whiskey.

Amy was behind the bar cleaning glasses from the night. She looked up to see the officers. She walked down the bar line to greet them, "Hello gentlemen, is there anything I can do for you?"

Conners answered, "I know some officers came by earlier this evening when we searched a car outside. We came back to ask some additional questions. Do you have the time to talk?"

"It's getting real slow here so I think I can help you out, no problem."

"So we were originally interested in the owner of that car that we found, but we are also interested in the woman who had the earlier shift, Jennifer?"

"Yes, she works the shift before me. Is she ok?"

"We don't know anything right now, but we're asking people who have seen her tonight."

"Wait, wait, is there something wrong with Jenny?"

"We just want to know if you knew where she might be heading this evening when she got off."

"Well, I think she usually heads over to the bank to deposit her tips from the night."

"That confirms what her grandmother said."

"I'm sorry, I'm not following. You seem to be talking like she didn't come home tonight."

"We were called by her grandmother when she didn't come in this evening. She placed a missing person's report and happened to mention the bar. The dispatch knew the bar from earlier in the evening and called me up."

"She didn't come home?" The bottom of Amy's eyes turned to a soft red color. She looked down as the first tear rolled down her cheek. Officer Conners pulled an unused napkin from the bar top and handed it to Amy. She took the napkin and blotted under her eyes so as not to run her mascara.

"As far as we know she is hasn't come home yet. I spoke with her grandmother a little while ago to hopefully find out where she might've gone."

"I don't know, we didn't talk about that. But I know she heads to the bank after work." Amy was fighting back more tears as she thought about Jennifer and what might be happening to her.

"Alright." Conners moved his hand through his hair as he thought about his next question.

"Do you think it might be related to the car you guys looked at?"

"That is an avenue we are looking at, but we're still unsure. Do you know anything about her old ex-boyfriend down in Portland?"

"She told me a little bit about him. All I know is that she described him as one super douchebag." One of the officers behind Conners smirked.

"Did Jennifer mention that she had been in contact with him recently?"

"No, not that I heard of and she would have told me," replied Amy.