A Little Insane: Building A Monster

Chapter Six - Photographs

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   “It's been four months, and what have you done?” Fiona questioned the officer with the annoyed expression on his face. They were both sitting at his office as they discussed yet again the problematic topic of her brother, Riley.

“Fiona, we've done all we could,” said Officer Jon, folding his arms over the pile of unattended papers on his desk.

She leaned closer and stared directly into his eyes. “Really? Because as I recall, there are still hundreds of fliers with people's faces who have been missing for months stuck to every post in this damn town.”

The officer sighed deeply, pulling his hands back as Fiona dropped a yellow folder on top of his desk. He looked up at her confused, and she just raised her eyebrows.

“What's this?” he asked as he picked up the light folder.

“Photos.”

“Of?”

“Of the man who kidnapped my brother,” she said with great confidence.

His eyebrows creased as he opened the folder, taking out the first photo of a man in a black suit walking down the sidewalk during the annual parade. The photo only showed his back, so his face was still a mystery. The next photo looked like it was taken from a different camera, and a large red circle was drawn over the man who stood by himself watching floats go by. Unlike the other people in the photo, his face was blurred, disfigured, like if a three year old had smudged black paint over his face.

The officer looked up as if this was some kind of joke.

“I know, I know,” Fiona immediately responded, reading the officer's mind. “For some reason we can't see his face in any of the pictures. But I know it was him. Look at the last one.”

He flipped through the pictures quickly and got to the last one, holding it out in front of him. On the picture, in the background, fireworks had exploded beautifully in the sky in the shape of a star. At the bottom of the picture was none other than Riley Aster Hamilton accompanied by the man in the dark suit.

“He was last seen with this man. He kidnapped my brother. We finally have a lead,” she said happily, almost at the brink of tears. She only wanted to see her brother again, know that he was safe and not hurt. So many sleepless nights finally paid off.

“How is it a lead? We can't even tell what he looks like,” he said.

“There are not many people in this town who dress in a black suit and wear leather gloves. Why was he wearing leather gloves, Jon? Maybe he didn't want his hands dirty, or maybe he just didn't want his fingerprints found by the police, because he's the guy who took my brother!” Fiona was getting angry, and her patience was wearing thin. The evidence she had bought was pure gold and he wasn't even showing any interest in it. She knew they had all given up like they had with the other missing people. She knew they dropped her brother's case when they searched and searched and found nothing. But it didn't mean she stopped, she never did. Riley was her responsibility, and now he was gone. She couldn't even remember the last time she hadn't spent a day without at least shedding one tear.

“I'm sorry, Fiona. I just can't do anything with this,” he said as sincerely as he could, but no matter how he said it, she still felt like she had been slapped in the face.

“You don't understand,” she said quietly, her voice so low and so soft that the officer mistook it as whimpering and handed her a napkin. She took it anyway, for future caution. “It's my fault my brother got kidnapped. He wasn't even supposed to be here. I dragged him here because I wanted him to stop distancing himself from people. I wanted him to live, not to simply exist. I worried a lot about him. He was my brother after all.” She noticed what she had said and almost burst into tears right there, but she fought them back. She had spent so much time trying not to cry in front of people that she learned the ability to hold it, even if it hurt. “No, not was, he is my brother, because he is alive and I can feel it. And if you won't help me, then I'll just have to find him myself.”