FORBIDDEN

7. Missing

It was the middle of the night after she got home Esther was a mess, she had thought it was a prank at first, Naomi being as childish as she was once in a while but this was no prank, Naomi was missing. Her phone was on her bed, that thing was part of her also, there was no way in hell she wouldn't have told her before leaving to go anywhere and there had been no plans made beforehand and her car was outside.

She quickly called up Naomi's parents but they hadn't heard from her, all she succeeded in doing was getting them worried. She dropped the phone and decided to look at the time, it was 1 am, if she was not back in an hour...it was search time.

After consistent repetitive calls to the police got her doorbell ringing an hour later.

She rushed to the door and was confronted by two police officers one was lanky with acne riddled face and was leaning with one hand on his gun and the other was just positively handsome she had to look at him twice as her cheeks heated up but it died out as soon as it started, they were both men who legitimately looked a bit exhausted but were here for a reason.

"Hello ma'am we'd like to check out a possible missing person reported from this address. May we please take a look around?"

She watched not moving far from the main door as they took a quick look around pausing a couple of times to question her about something that looked odd, till they got to Naomi's room.

Esther quickly ran after them to see what they were seeing maybe get a second opinion. She had scattered the room a bit searching for Naomi under the bed and in other places.

They looked around for a bit and decided everything seemed normal and all they had to do was wait for Naomi who was an adult and could make her own decision time to come back and could only make an official report if the person has been missing for 72 hours.

Esther was frustrated, they were not making any sense. If something had happened to her, it was best to start looking now.

She did not mean to do it but after walking them out, she slammed the door in their faces before making her way to sleep in Naomi's room.

***

Three days had passed in what seemed like an instant and Esther was facing the detective who kept asking her the same questions over and over she felt. She was bored, they needed to go out there not stay in here, she knew nothing! All she knew was that her tax was going to shit right now with every hour of the past three days she had spent waiting for the 72 hours timeline to get exhausted. She glanced over at the two seats containing Naomi's Michael and Ola Naomi's parents. They had arrived at the house the very next day, and she had taken an urgent leave from work to take the lead on this issue. She couldn't imagine how they were feeling because she couldn't even put her feelings into words.

The detective had gone through his list of questions for all three parties and then an official search was launched finally.

The police were back at the house this time in quantity. The acne officer was also back. He kept asking her the same stupid questions.

"No, she doesn't go anywhere, know anyone not has she met anyone new recently, she'd tell me." She shouted at the officer whose facial expression didn't change in the slightest in light of her outburst. He just nodded before walking away.

Her house was being turned upside down as clues were being searched for. Michael stood in the middle of the room, a usually lively man had but spoken a few words since he'd arrived with his wife.

Esther didn't know she needed it but welcomed the warm embrace from Ola when it came as they shared the turmoil they felt without words

Another police officer approached the three of them, a female this time. She was compassionate and spoke in a calming voice and Esther relaxed a bit talking to her. She was fairly sure she'd been sent by the acne-riddled officer.

"We understand you feel a little unhelpful sitting down, so one way you could help us is going around with this to see if anyone has seen anything. " She handed Esther a stack of papers with Naomi's information. Esther nodded in acknowledgment as she passed off some to Ola and Micheal and they quickly headed out the house agreeing to go off in different directions to cover more ground and meet back at the house in two hours.