Cradle Angel

Chapter 3

Report Finish Date: October 27, 1991 @ 8:47 P.M.

More and more evidence of Amy’s disappearance was recovered around the house and the Ansley property, but never any remains of her. That’s what the public started to call it as, since everything that was found had at least a small amount of her blood on it.

            “Chief, yo man come look at this!” Officer Sanchez (the newest one) sprouted off of the ground like he had just been shot.

            “Matthew Sanchez, what have I told you about talking like that on scene?” Chief Rhodes shook his head in dismay as he got up and walked over to the post.

            “Sorry about that but look, this dirt is pretty… I don’t know, loose?” He moved the dirt around a little bit with his foot.

Chief Rhodes put his hands on his sides.

            “We can’t be positive yet because of animals out here, but get the shovels; we are going to dig folks!”

Every officer was given his own shovel to dig with. Dirt was dug over 3 feet deep before they took their first break.

            “We can’t just dig a random hole in their yard,” Officer Malcolm said aloud.

            “Well of course not Mal, but we need to take this to the last bit of extreme measures we can, so this mother can be brought home safely to her husband and daughter or laid to rest peacefully without disruptions.

The break was again over, and they all went back to work. Three feet, four feet, then five were dug until something sticking out of the dirt gave them a sigh of relief.

            “Chief Rhodes! We found something!”

The chief, along with three other officers, sprint down the hill in search of whatever could have been found.

            “I’ll be darned.” Chief Rhodes put his hands on his hat.

The hand of Amy Ansley was found cut clean off, her wedding ring still intact on her left ring finger. No other body parts were found, nor organs, jewelry, or clothing. The hand was taken in to the facility to be examined just like the rest of the evidence.

            “Hello?” Mark answered his phone in a more abrupt voice than usual.

            “Mr. Ansley? Sorry if this is a bad time, this is Chief Rhodes from…”

            “Yeah I know where you’re from. Any news? Leads? Have you found my wife?” The crying baby in the background quickly gave Chief Rhodes the reason why Mark was in such a negative mood.

            “Not… Exactly…” Chief Rhodes stopped.

            “What do you mean, not exactly?”

            “We found… Well, her hand. We found Amy’s left hand with the wedding ring still on her finger in the far back of your yard. Farther digging was taken place but no other evidence was found.”

Mark kept quiet. He knew now, that Amy was, in fact, dead. Wherever she was, she was gone. They were married for 30 years, defied the odds of having a child at such an old age, and more than anything he knew that she was the love of his life. Looking down at Adaline, though, he knew that the growing infant would soon need a mother.

That night as Mark went to lay Adaline down in her bassinet, he noticed something. Adaline was born at 5:55 in room 555, he was 55 years old, Amy’s birthday was May 5th, and every time the police seemed to find a piece of evidence, it always had something to do with the number five. All of the five fingers on Amy’s hand were still perfectly intact and barely rotted. So far five pieces of evidence has been claimed with blood of hers on it, and it was almost every time the police found something was on or around 5 o’clock in the evening. Mark paced back in forth in his daughter’s bedroom wondering what it could be that the number five had such an occurrence with Adaline and Amy. That gave Mark a tiny bit of hope that maybe Amy was still out there. Maybe she’s stuck, and only has 5 hours, days, weeks, or months to live. Maybe she is going to return whenever Adaline is five years old safe and unharmed. Whatever the situation may be, Mark knew that he had to get justice for what has taken place. Not only for him, but for his daughter. So she can have her mother in her life and Mark could work more to keep food in the fridge and clothes on their back.

He stayed awake most of the night to ponder in Adaline’s room about the strange activity. Why was Adaline brought back completely unharmed? Would she know where her mother was? Would she know what happened? Nonsense. She was just a month old; she would’ve forgotten it by now.

The next morning Mark filled Adaline’s diaper bag up. All the diapers, bottles, formula, pacifiers, and clothes he could fit into there.

            “Excuse me sir, where are you going?” The housekeeper, who normally kept quiet, asked.

            “Umm…” Mark tried to look for an excuse.

            “I am just taking Addie to her grandma’s for a little while.”

The housekeeper slightly gave a smile then turned back to her chores.

Mark was in fact bringing Adaline to her grandmother’s house, but nobody at this point knew when he would be back for her. Anywhere from an hour to a year, if not more. He needed out. He needed to breathe and to get away, but also wanted to make sure his one and only child was safe too. If there was a predator out there, he/she wouldn’t know where to find Adaline now. If whoever it was tearing the family apart wanted to come out, Mark knew he wouldn't be even a little scared. He was done sitting back and letting everyone else do the work, that is his daughter and his wife getting messed with.