Missing

Chapter 3

At the end of a tiring cold day after speaking to a few more teachers he still found no new evidence. The students were less hesitant in speaking to the police, and a few were quite nice to speak to. While a few others... maybe not so much. He managed to talk to the cleaners, blatantly ignoring the glares one cleaner was giving him for even suggesting he has was involved with the missing girl. Just because he was a cleaner after school with none else around except for those in detention, did not mean he kidnapped little girls, or boys for that matter.

He headed to the police headquarters and strolled into the building, welcoming each one of those he wandered past and into the back where Rick was, encompassed by PCs with green codes blasting in the obscured room. He walked quietly behind Rick who was absorbed deeply into whatever he was working on and leaned in close to his ear.

"Hi Rick!"

Rick jumped in his seat, both hands fisted on the arm rest, trying to steady his fast heartbeat. He turned around to face Paul glaring at him from on top of his glasses, which only caused the officer to laugh at him.

"Thanks Paul, the things I do for you man and this is what you do, see if I do any favours again for you," he said sulking manly as he could. Paul chuckled and raised his hands in the air, "Sorry, just messing with you."

"You best apologize," he then said smirking at him.

"Anyways," his face taking on a more serious expression, "I've found something on the lady of yours," It was Paul's turn to glare at Rick, "She was a waitress at a bar near where she used to live at sixteen. Got employed at a stripper joint and got kicked out when she got pregnant. She aborted it and lived in a rented apartment. She became a teaching assistant at a school and then joined there full time. The school had shut down for more than one reasons. The bar and stripper joint have closed down years ago as well. She still contacts her old friends from the stripper joint, one lives in Manchester and the other one working at bank around here. There's no connection with her with any missing children, as far I can tell."

Rick turned his head to look at Paul, who looked disappointed, not because Hannah was safe for now, but because they were back at square one, which was very common in cases like these, just meant more prodding around. Rick got up from his comfy seat, placing a heavy hand on Pauls shoulder before walking out to grab a drink. The officer leaned back into his chair and sighed heavily, thinking of where to go next from here. After a few moments of silence he got up from the chair and walked out to see Jeanne coming in, face a little flushed and red from the cold air.

She called out to him immediately, "Ah Paul got some news for ya, don't know whether it's good or bad," She walked over to him and handed him her notepad, him looking through it while she talked, "The black van had robbed a house nearby while the residents were on vacation. Natalie and K have got that sorted out and will be arrested once they are caught. The neighbour had a camera installed to see all this luckily. The address of the neighbour is in there as well."

Paul looked up from the little book and smiled gratefully at her, "Thanks Jeanne, that's one thing solved," She shyly smiled back, "Just doing my job, but what now?"

"New plans for tomorrow, Jeanne I want you to bring a copy of the footage if you can," before she could answer, both officers turned to see Rick coming out the little room with a hot coffee in his hand.

"Rick I need to talk to you for a few minutes before I leave," Rick looked up from his coffee to nod at him and left. Paul twisted his head back to Jeanne, "I'll catch you later then, if I don't see you before I leave."

She responded, "Yeah same here, I'll see you tomorrow in the morning before I go do the visit." The hazel eyed woman watched Paul walk away and her cheerful façade dropped. She walked out the building, eying the room Paul and Rick were in before she did.