Fragile (Always Be My Never)

Chapter 13 | The Missing Piece

***

The Present

"Josh Bishop is missing?" Michael asks Edward Johnson, the administration section of the Victim Assistance Department.

"Exactly, which is why it's strange," Edward replies. "I guess humans are really something, huh? Once the wife ran away, and now just when she came back, her husband is missing."

Michael curls his eyebrows. "No record of credit cards? Or phone signal?"

Edward gives him a shrug. "There isn't any record for the whole month. But I bet he must be somewhere near that witch, perhaps in her house."

"Watch your words, Edward," Michael reminds him. "But Kate and I went to her house, and there was no sign of Josh Bishop there."

Edward raises an eyebrow. "How can you be so sure? Women like Rossie Miller are scheming, but unfortunately, smart. She will hide him well."

Is this the answer to the wrong feeling Michael has in his heart?

Michael carefully puts the document to his bag and takes it with him when he walks through the door.

"Where are you going?" Edward asks, stopping Michael's move.

"Miller's house."

Edward raises an eyebrow. "But Kate isㅡ"

"I'll go alone." He shoots Edward a sharp glance and walks past him.

***

"Ah, Mr. Greg," Rossie Miller smiles at him, and then she moves to let him in.

Michael looks around as Rossie is preparing a cup of coffee for him. Moving like a burglar, he quietly opens door to door but gets nothing. Rossie's house is small, it has only one floor with two bedrooms and one bathroom.

"If I'm about to hide here, hm," he pondered, turning his head around. "The garden?"

"So, what brings you here, Mr. Greg?" Michael can hear her voice from behind the wall partitions.

Michael quickly puts his hands on his back and smiles at her. "Well, we are wondering if you know where Josh Bishop is," he speaks slowly, studying the change of her expression.

She looks at him in the eyes and her tiny lips slowly curl up into a smile. "Is he missing?"

Michael notices that Edward may be right. Her behavior is bizarre and suspicious. If Rossie Miller didn't hide Josh Bishop, she wouldn't be smiling at him right now. She will raise an eyebrow or widen her eyes instead.

"Well, can I use the bathroom? It's urgent," Michael responds, knowing that the bathroom is near to the garden.

"Oh sure, here, I'll show you the way," she says.

Michael smiles. "I can see the bathroom from here, Ms. Miller. I can go on my own."

"Oh, that isn't a bathroom. The bathroom is back in the garden," she says.

Michael raises an eyebrow. Then it means Josh Bishop is somewhere near the room he thought was a bathroom, or he is hiding in there.

Rossie guides him to the garden to a secret bathroom behind the oak tree that she has. It's strange enough that a small house like this has a big garden and an oak tree in it.

"I guess you love to plant," Michael comments as they head back to the living room.

Rossie smiles politely. "To be honest, I rent this house, so I have no choice but to take care of these plants."

"Ah, I see."

"So, Josh is missing?" Rossie repeats her question.

Michael doesn't answer right away. As they pass the room that Michael thought was a bathroom, he sees that it's opened and she doesn't lie to him. It's an empty odd-looking cupboard.

"Well, our investigation leads us to that conclusion," he says.

She sits down and takes a sip of the coffee. "Then he must be on the run from his wife."

"Do you by any chance know where he may be right now, Ms. Miller?"

She frowns until it shows some wrinkles she has as if she tries to remember a childhood memory. "Well, I guess maybe he will stay in a hotel?"

"Ms. Miller, you can trust me. I'm trying to help you." Michael leans forward. "I know that Sophie Bishop is blaming everything on you and she wants you to suffer in jail so that she can live with Josh and their child."

Rossie raises an eyebrow. "I don't understand what you are saying, Mr. Greg."

"Where is Josh Bishop?" he asks slowly, but there is a fierceness in his eyes.

She turns away. "I don't know."

"I guess you do."

"No!" she exclaims. "We never exchanged a single word after she came back, Mr. Greg, so how would I know where he is?"

Michael clasps his hands together. "We all know that even though Sophie is Josh Bishop's legal wife, he's in love with you. So you must know him the best. And it means you're the only one who can help us find him."

Rossie doesn't reply.

"You, of course, don't want us to charge you like Sophie's wish and let her have Josh and live happily ever after, do you?" He smirks. "I doubt that's what you want, Ms. Miller."

He notices she squeezes her thighs. "So now, if you don't want that nightmare to happen, you must help us. Where. Is. Josh. Bishop?"

Rossie presses her lips together, but then she lifts her chin and speaks, "In my mother's house. In North Carolina."

***

Thursday, February 1, 2018. 9.45 p.m.
Edited on July 18, 2018. 7.30 p.m.