Winning her back

31. The Chase

Ben

I must have paced back and forth around the house a million times. The shiny gloss tiles that Lisa once chose started to become opaque. Or maybe it was my lack of sleep. Sleep was a foreign word these past couple of days. Or rather years. Ever since the divorce, the days became longer whilst the nights became shorter. Life became duller each day.

"I don't understand", I said, frustrated and angry.

"Nobody's heard from her since last night. She's missing for christ's sake", I yelled. I looked at officer Rogers, hoping he could sense the desperation in my voice.

When I woke up this morning, I thought it would be just another miserable day with silence being a reminder of Lisa's absence and my unemployment.
Until Clark called. Lisa never showed up last night and didn't answer his phone calls. At first, the envious part of me enjoyed hearing the news. I thought that maybe she lost interest and was trying to let him down slowly. But the worry in Clark's voice made me think otherwise.

I called the police straight after the phone call, and soon enough, officer Rogers was knocking on my door, followed by Clark.

"You know as well as I do that I can't declare her as missing at this point. It hasn't been twenty four hours yet", said officer Rogers.

"Unbelievable", I scoffed. "Are we suppost to just sit here and stand by in the meantime?"

"Look Mr Martinez, there is an abundance of possibilities here. Maybe her phone died, or was stolen or lost. You said you were in contact with her last night?", the officer questioned.

"I was", Clark interrupted. "We spoke briefly at around 6pm. She was supposed to text me the address so I could pick her up. We had a wedding event. But then she never replied, didn't answer the phone ... almost like she'd vanished ...".

"I'm sorry", the officer began, "and you are?".

"Clark Reed".

"And your relation to Ms Dunn is?".

Clark cleared in throat before saying, "she's a friend and my employee."

"Right", said Rogers with uncertainty evident in his voice.

"Anyway, as I've already said. I can't file a missing report until 24 hours have passed since last contact."

"However", he continued. "I'll alert all units and check nearby cameras. It would help if we knew where she was staying". His last statement was directed towards me. He was right, she was under my care. I was supposed to protect her, and I failed.

"She was staying with her parents", Clark said.

"Impossible", I intervened. "Lisa doesn't get along with her parents".

"Yeah well she's been living with them for the past week. I know for a fact since I sent my driver, Raoul,
everyday to pick her up and drop her off at the same location", Clark explained.

Of course Clark Reed had a driver.

"Well, was she at work yesterday?", officer Rogers asked.

Clark took a moment to think. "Strangely enough I sent Raoul to pick her up, but I didn't see her at work".

"Could you ask Raoul where she went?", I asked.

"Already on it".

As we waited for Clark to get hold of his driver, I tried not to think about the fact that Lisa had gone back to the place she swore she'd never return to. Was being with me that bad?