The End Of The Road | HEROPHINE

Chapter 11

Hero's Pov:
My head spins with variations of what I should say to whoever is behind the bar. This feels strange, especially walking in 10 minutes after opening time.
When I enter the pub, I get an immediate feeling of unwelcoming, like there's a strange atmosphere in here. It's like my body can sense this is where Jo was last seen or something. It sounds crazy but I just feel totally uncomfortable. My palms begin to sweat.
I take a deep breath and look around. The only other people here are a pair of teenagers in the corner, playing cards at a table over a glass of coke. Then, a young looking woman emerges from the back room.
'Can I get you anything?'
'No, thanks. But I was hoping you could help me out with something.'
'What is it?' She asks, as I step closer to the bar.
'My wife was here with some friends last night. She never came home, and this was the last place I'm certain she was at.' I explain, praying she has some information to help me find Jo.
'Well, I'm afraid to say I don't work Thursday nights. I only do morning shifts actually. It's quite refreshing.' She rambles.
'I'm not interested.' I snap, 'I'm sorry but I don't have time for a chat.'
The girl looks as though she's in her early 20s, possibly even younger. She seems like a bit of an air head if you ask me, and I'm disappointed that she can't really offer any help. I guess it isn't her fault.
Her cheeks turn pink with embarrassment and she twiddles her hair round her fingers.
'Sorry, I'm just really stressed.' I say, trying to ease the awkwardness.
'It's cool, I understand. Once my boyfriend didn't come home and—'
I raise my eyebrows and she stops mid-sentence.
'My bad, side tracking again. Is there anything else I can do for you sir?'
I roll my eyes. She hasn't done anything to help me anyway. I'm about to turn and leave when a thought pops into my head- a smart one.
'Actually, there is. I need to see your CCTV footage from last night.'

...

I find myself in a small cramped room behind the bar, where a dusty looking computer sits undisturbed in the corner on a deep brown table.
'Sorry, it's not often we have people back here.' The girl says, neatening up a few items on the jumbled shelves.
'Yeah I can tell.' I half joke.
She smiles awkwardly and pulls a string which turns on the flickering lights. Eventually the room is illuminated and I can take in the room more clearly.
Piles of paperwork clutter the wooden furniture and the tiled floor looks dull in colour. I can't decide if it's because of the owner's disliking of bright colours, or if the floor is just that dirty. Either way, it looks like this place hasn't seen a dustpan and brush or cleaning spray in at least a few months, probably more.
I hadn't noticed that the girl left the room until she returns with a chair in her arms. She places it down next to the office chair in front of the computer and gestures for me to sit there.
We wait a few seconds for the computer to turn on. 'What did you say your name was?' She asks while wiggling the mouse impatiently.
'I didn't. It's Hero.'
'Hero.. Hero? You're not—'
'Hero Fiennes Tiffin, yeah.' I interrupt, looking away. I immediately feel uncomfortable again. I hate announcing myself like that and I never know how to react when I'm recognised for my job as an actor. It still feels surreal having so many fans. Jo feels the same.
'Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or something. My name's Heidi.' She says, showing her only sign of competence since I arrived.
'It's fine, I just really need to see the CCTV.' I reply, shaking off my weird feelings in this situation.
'Wait, your wife is missing? So Josephine is missing? Oh no, I'm so sorry. I really do love her and her work..' She trails off again and I try not to lose my patience with the young girl.
I take a deep breath.
'Yes, well I love her too, a lot. And I need your help if I'm going to have a shot at finding who is responsible for this. And finding her, too.'
'I understand,' she says, reaching under the desk to pull out a box. 'My boss likes to save the footage from each day to a disk and stores them here. Then every 3 months, we clear out and start again.'
'That explains why there's so many of them.' I say, eyeing the large stack of disks in clear film cases.
Heidi finds the disk labelled with yesterday's date and puts it into the player connected to the computer. I crack my knuckles anxiously and she gives me an odd look, so I stop.
'So this is camera 2 inside the pub. The other two are behind the bar in the bathroom, so this one is probably our best bet.' She explains.
'She arrived at about 7:30, I think.' I say, feeling nerves fill up inside me.
Heidi clicks the mouse a few times and flicks through the footage until I see her appear. My wife. It partially shocks me to see a real image of her on the screen before me. It's the closest I've been to her since she went missing and my heart skips a beat.
'That's her?' Heidi asks, clocking my silence and facial expression.
'Yep.' I breathe, focusing on the screen.
I see Jo sit down at the table with her two friends, and everything looks normal so far. I'm thankful to Heidi who sits in total silence, allowing me to analyse every second of what I'm seeing. Then all of a sudden, another figure appears in the camera shot. He's a man, thick set, maybe only a little shorter than me. I've never seen him before. He takes a seat at the table but doesn't seem to interact with Jo. She's just watching him quietly. Of course, those cameras don't pick up audio but I can tell the guy is talking to Clara, the friend of Jo's who I haven't run into yet. I guess she's next on my list of people I have to go and visit. Eventually the guy leaves and the video continues as normal for a few minutes.
I notice Clara look down at her phone and say something to the other two girls before getting up to leave. A few moments later I'm horrified to see Jo get up and follow her. I glance at the time stamp and see that at this stage in the footage it was just before 11pm.
I comb my fingers through my hair to stop my hands from shaking as I wait through the next 3 minutes before Clara comes back into the shot- without Josephine.
Heidi continues flicking through the video and even checks the bathroom camera for a sign of Jo, but there's nothing. Half an hour of the video goes by before Allison and Clara get up and leave. Well, Allison's story does check out. Jo did leave before she did. But, that doesn't mean there's anything normal about what I just watched.
'Maybe she just got in a cab and left?' Heidi suggests, snapping me back to reality.
'Yeah but a cab to where? She wouldn't just abandon me. And plus, 11pm is when my calls and texts weren't going through. That can't be a coincidence.. it was while she was outside! And then she never came back.'
Heidi hangs her head and takes in a deep breath.
'Could I have the mouse for a sec?'
She obliges, handing me the mouse.
I flick back to a frame containing that guy who sat at the table with them.
'I'm certain this guy had something to do with it.' I declare, pointing him out. 'Thanks for your help.'
'Well do you want the disk? I'm sure the police will want to look at it, too.'
I accept the disk and tuck it into the large pocket of my joggers.
'Don't lose it,' she says, as I head for the door.

When I'm about to exit the pub, I turn back to see her stood behind the bar.
'I'm sure you will find her, Hero.' Heidi says with a hopeful smile.
'I suggest you get some cameras installed out front.' I reply, before leaving this pub with some concrete clues, at last. I'm getting closer, and I'm certainly not giving up now.