Missing Like You

SIXTY-TWO

DETECTIVE GABE GIBBONS
FRIDAY JULY 1, 2022

I stand off to the side, watching the lieutenant converse with a few officers. The ambulance is parked to the side, and I watch as the EMT's carry out the body on a stretcher. I walk forwards and observe as they stop and slide it inside the ambulance. As I get closer, I notice that the body-bag is zipped up all the way. I'm tempted to pull down the zipper and peer inside, but I refrain.

The entire area is canvased off with police tape. I observe my surroundings for the tenth time, looking at the small cottage surrounded by trees. The sun has now set and everything is almost swallowed by darkness. It's an ominous scene playing out in front of me. Everyone is busy and occupied, trying to keep this under wraps and move through the remainder of the crime scene methodically.

A black SUV pulls up and before I even get a chance to wonder who's inside, the back door opens and Scott Donovan gets out. He's running towards the lieutenant. I hear him yelling, "Where is she?"

My heart stammers in my chest. I feel for him. I really do. Regardless of the fact that he's somehow caught up in the midst of this investigation, he didn't need to be put through hell these past two weeks, not knowing where his wife was. And now... now we know the truth.

"She's inside," the lieutenant tells him, and he rushes in through the front doors. I stand back for a minute, then decide to follow him inside.

I enter the cottage just as he reaches her. She's seated on the couch in the living room, a blanket draped around her shoulders. I note that she's still covered in blood and the blanket does absolutely nothing to hide this.

He's on his knees in front of her, cupping her face in his hands. "Are you okay? What did he do to you?"
"I'm okay," she says, her face bunched up in an attempted smile.
He pulls her towards him and holds her close.

I head back outside and continue watching everyone do their jobs. I've already done all that I can here, so there's really not much use for me anymore. I could leave, but I choose not to. Instead, I go over her statement once again in my head.

"He kept a gun with him at all times," she said, staring off into the distance, as though in a trance. She had just killed a man.
"How did you get the gun?" I asked her. She looked at me then, and I saw the color of her eyes. Light green with tiny brown specks.
"I don't know," she said. "It all happened so fast. We were fighting, he attacked me. I was doing everything I could to get it from him. I didn't think I'd actually be able to. But somehow I got hold of the gun and I..." she paused. "I didn't hesitate. I shot him. I had to. He was going to kill me. That's self-defence, right?"
I didn't answer her, just continued taking her statement.

We got the call a couple hours ago. We had setup a trace on Mark Chambers' cellphone, but it hadn't been turned on in over a week. When I first suspected he had something to do with Isabelle's disappearance, I did everything I could to locate him. He had been on a leave of absence since the seventeenth of June, the day that she went missing. That was no coincidence, given the fact that I had just connected the two cases together. Scott was having an affair with Alexandra. She disappeared. Mark believed he was responsible, and therefore, took his wife. I tried to prove this at the time, but couldn't. Mark was MIA. We set up an APB for him as well as a BOLO for his car. That's when he magically resurfaced, walking right into the police station and telling me that he'd answer any questions I had in regards to the investigation. He told me that he had nothing to hide and that this was one big misunderstanding.

As I sat with him in the interrogation room, he answered every question meticulously. There were no irregularities in his story and he had an alibi for the time of Isabelle's abduction. Or so he claimed. It wasn't until later that I discovered the holes in his story. But by then, it was already too late. He disappeared again and no one could reach him. He had gone off the grid, disconnecting his phone so we had no way to reach him or track him.

Until today.

The cellphone was powered on, and seconds later, the call came through. It was Isabelle Donovan, telling us that she'd been kidnapped by a man named Mark Chambers. She told us she was being held in a cottage somewhere deep in the woods. We ran a trace and found her location immediately. She wasn't far. A two hour car ride at most.

Mark was pronounced dead on arrival. Isabelle sat on the floor of the living room, covered in blood. The gun sat between them. We inspected the cottage, which was heavily secured, the doors locking from both inside and outside. We discovered that there's a security system in place, and the windows are bullet-proof glass. Mark inherited the cottage a few years ago from a relative, but sold it shortly after. Looks like he still had access to it.

Once Isabelle was looked after and examined, I took her statement, the husband was called, and now here we are.

We did it. We found Isabelle and she is safe. That's every detective's dream when it comes to a misper. My only regret is that we didn't find her sooner. So much despair and anguish could have been prevented if I would have just done my job properly the first time. I have so many regrets in the Alexandra Chambers' case, and now my biggest one is that I didn't connect the dots in time. Perhaps I could have saved her as well.

I'm still not sure what Scott has to do with the disappearance of Alexandra Chambers, but I'm sure I'll find out eventually. Mark, on the other hand, is taken care of and won't be harming anyone else anytime soon.