One Lost Dreamer

2

I sat at the diner table, looking at the newspapers scattered in front of me. I chewed on the tip of the red marker as I scanned the articles of missing girls and I circled them.

          “Another coffee sir?” The waitress asked quietly.

          “Uh, sure,” I smiled back.

          The waitress poured the coffee and left. I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. Thunder struck loudly outside. “Damn.” I muttered to myself.

          I threw a tip on the table and left out to my car. And the second I got to my car, my phone went off.

          “Hello?” I asked.

          “Mark, we’ve gotta missing person’s report. The girl’s name is Skylar Blake.”

          It feels like the whole world stopped. The girl I interviewed just early that morning. “You better get your ass over here.” Jameson said.

          “On my way,” I said as I hung up.

The police had their dogs out looking when I got to the house. The mother and son were standing on the front porch talking to one of the officers. I got out of the car and walked up the steps.

          “May I have a word with them?” I asked the officer.

          He nodded and left.

          “I’m Detective Mark Foster. May I ask you a few questions?”

          The mother nodded and let me come into the house.

          “When did you find out your daughter was missing.”

          “Well, my son was the one who found out.” She looked over at him.

          The son rubbed his hands nervously. “Well, I heard someone calling my name from alley behind our house. When I went out front, I noticed my car door was open. I realized that my sister was the only one who drove the car today. When I went to the car, I noticed the keys were still in the ignition and the flashlight in the cup holder was gone.”

          “What else did you see in your car?”

          “Her messenger bag was still the passenger seat. That’s the only thing that was left.”

          I sighed and wrote it down. “Did you decide to go to the alley?”

          “I did go back. I noticed the flashlight was lying on the ground and I saw someone was on the ground. I know it wasn’t my sister.”

          “Did the girl tell you anything?”

          The son sighed. “She told me ‘The Marker took her’. I then helped the girl to our house.”

          “Did she say who The Marker was?”

          “No, but I am assuming he is the man who’s been on the killing spree for the past few months.”

          I nod. “Well, I’ll leave you two be. If you notice anything,” I handed them a card, “let me know.”

          “Thank you Detective. By the way, I’m Marie and this is Randy.”

          “It’s nice to meet you. One more quick question, why was your daughter out late?”

          “She went to a friend’s house after school.”

          I nod. “Well, I’ll leave you alone.”

          I got up and left the house.

When I walked up to my house, I unlocked the door and went in and immediately fell on the couch. Footsteps came down and walked up to the couch.

          “Another rough day?” My wife asked.

          “Yeah, another abduction,” I said with a sigh.

          I sat up on the couch. “You’ll get him, I promise. You’ve caught all the other psycho’s out there.”

          “That’s not my job. I’m just a detective.”

          “So? That doesn’t mean you do nothing all day. You help so many people.”

          “This guy has been runnin’ loose for six months and we haven’t had one lead.”

          “You’re getting stressed again, Mark. Get some sleep.”

          I nod and got up. “Yeah, okay. Good night, Jill.”

Over the next couple of days, I have been looking around the abductions to see where most of them have been happening. They all seem live around the same neighborhood. All the girl’s looked the same age and have the some eye and hair color.

          I sighed and sat back in my seat.

          “Foster, come here.” Jameson’s voice said behind me.

          I sighed and got up. “Yes?”

          “We might have something. Remember that girl you were telling me about? Apparently, she was dumped out in that alley because she didn’t follow some sort of rules. We brought her in and she didn’t remember much.” Jameson tossed down a paper in front of me. “This girl disappeared shortly over two months ago.” I picked up the paper. “Her name is Louise Manners. The girl’s this guy takes drugs them and takes blood from the body.”

          “Why? I mean, what is he gonna do with blood from random teenage girls?”

          Jameson shrugged. “Who knows? Like I said, the poor girl remembers nearly nothing.” I put the paper back on the desk.

          “She doesn’t remember anything about the guy? What he looks like?”

          “No. Why?”

          “I remember when I was talking with Skyler’s brother; he told me that when he found Louise, she said the man’s name was The Marker.”

          “You see? He’s trying trick us. Louise had brunette hair and brown eyes. All of his other victims had blond hair and green eyes. He’s trying to fool us.”

          “The Marker has been running around for six months and there have been no leads. Is he waiting for us to dig up yards?”

          Jameson looked back at the paper. “Let’s just hope someone can find that girl.”