Sinking Like A Man Wrapped In A Tarp

He Reports His Missing Wife

Natalie obviously goes straight to Betty's house to see Este and confirm that Este is actually at her house and NOT dead in a ditch somewhere.

But of fucking course, when she arrived Esther's car is not there.

She is invited inside by Betty, who (again, quite obviously) hasn't seen Esther anywhere. She has not spoken to Este in 4 days, and had just assumed she was busy at work (very swag receptionist).

There was a moment of silence (lol wtf) as they looked at each other and realised they both haven't seen her in a long time. There was no other option: they must go to the police.

They don't bother calling 911, instead they go directly to the station. Again, it only takes a few minutes because this is conveniently a small town.

They start to file a missing persons report. Este is officially MISSING. Gone. Disappeared. Vanished. Lost. Absent. Evaporated. Dissipated. Other synonyms in the thesaurus on my chromebook.

Natalie tells the Officer everything, about how they have been looking for her, how she hasn't shown up for work, how it is totally unlike her to not show up at Olive Garden...

...And Natalie also tells the Officer something else. How Este had mentioned during their conversation last Tuesday that she suspects Brandon is hiding something (or someone).

Now, Esther didn't outright SAY the word infidelity... but it was pretty clear that she believed her husband was cheating on her, even though there was no actual LEGIT proof.

"You don't need to report Esther as missing, because she has already been reported missing by her husband, Brandon" (yes yes I used quotation marks)

Natalie and Betty are SHOOOOOOOK. (Not that I used quotation marks, but that is also shocking)

According to the officer, Brandon had come in and explained that he and Esther had a massive argument one night and it got super heated (Este insulted his ugly fucking shoes, he shot back with a nice "so's your face"). So Este took off.

Brandon had waited around for a few hours, and when Este didn't come back, he started to worry. He filed a report just in case she showed up in a hospital or a jail or something.

The officer basically says that they should all just wait it out and be patient. She hasn't really been gone THAT long (5 fucking days, my dude). She'll probably be back as soon as she calms down.

This all feels really wrong to Natalie and Betty.

If Brandon was genuinely worried about her being missing, why wouldn't he have called either one of them to ask if they had seen her? (because he clearly killed her, no shit sherlock)

No matter how much they keep repeating that something is TOTES wrong, and plead with the po-po (thats police for cool people) to start an investigation into it, the officer just doesn't give a shit... he's only here for the donuts and shiny badge (plus he gets his very own gun!)

They eventually give up trying, because this sorry-ass guy is never gonna take their word over Brandon's. Brandon got that *smacks lips* male privilege. But also... Brandon is a local prosecutor and this again, is a small town where all the cops know him (how useful for the plot).

So of course they are gonna listen to their great buddy Brandon.

All they can do is go home and pray that maybe the cops are right

(SPOILER ALERT: They fucking aren't)

Authors Note Thingy: Ok so I forgot to describe how all the characters look, and honestly I don't actually know so give me a second to make it up.

So I imagine Esther to look like Mazikeen from "Lucifer" (I love that show btw) and she is all grunge with a leather jacket and stuff

Natalie just looks like Natalie Portman

Betty has got like blonde hair and glasses and she wears skirts and that's all I know.

Brandon's ugly ass looks like fucking Ben Shapiro or something.  Just basically imagine an ugly shit ball.