Missing

13

Chapter Thirteen

The Next Day

I had left the station before even having a conversation with Mark, the thought brought shivers to my spine and bad taste to my mouth. I had told the police office to deal with him themselves rather than calling me every five seconds to give me updates- I made it specifically clear that I wanted nothing to do with the case anymore.

But the next day I woke up feeling empty inside, like I had lost a part of me; I told myself it was because I had to adjust to normal life again. The past weeks had been filled with anything but the norm, I had been dealing with a serious police case after all. Suppressing the urge to call the police station, I went downstairs to make myself breakfast hoping that it would take my mind off the gnawing feeling inside me.

When I finally went back upstairs I sighed when I saw that I had twenty two missed calls, it meant something had happened.

"If they called 22 times then it must be important, one more day on the case can't hurt- can it?" I asked myself and although I had a bad feeling at the pit of my stomach I found myself dialling the number to the police station before I could even rationalise with myself.

"Kansas?" An urgent voice on the other end practically shouted my name and I began to feel queasy- something had definetly happened.

"Yes," I said nervously, I wasn't sure that I wanted to hear what she was going to say.

"Mark has been talking more, he keeps talking about this place. In the woods, some kind of cave. Everyone has brushed it off as gibberish but there are some that think he's being serious. Please come down, he'll talk to you," the person on the other end hung up and I realised that she was probably calling without orders, she was part of the few that were listening to his words with caution. It worried me that people weren't acknowledging what he said.

The same rain that had covered the whole of Britain drummed on the car windows as I raced to see what was causing such a dilemma. It sounded like something serious but I prepared myself if it turned out to be something stupid- I would be mad. Really mad.

When I walked through the doors of the police station that had become my second home, I was greeted by a worried looking woman who began to guide me through the building without saying a word. I followed her silently,hoping that I wouldn't get in trouble for doing so.

Narrow corridors winded round corners and twisted and turned unnaturally; I was beginning to question whether we were actually going to see Mark or if she had another agenda. Just as I was considering running back, we faced a set of metal bars and behind them sat a despondent Mark with his head in his hands.

"Mark," the lady said softly and he looked up with innocent eyes, they didn't look as crazed as they had done the day before. He had showered and didn't have a pungent odor coming off him.

"Kansas!" His genuine happiness to see me almost made my heart melt, it almost felt like old times. I stopped myself before I opened some old wounds, Mark and I were in the past- that friendship didn't exist anymore.

"Hey," I took a seat on the chair that was placed outside his cell, he had obviously had a lot of visitors that wanted to talk to him without getting 'too close' to him.

"Have you come to talk about the place?" He obviously knew that the topic was one of speculation.

"Yes," I mumbled and then met that intense gaze that had made so many girls fall for him. So many girls.

"In the woods, I found a cave," his eyes lit up as he spoke, "I think you should look there!"

A childish energy came off him as he spoke, it unnerved me to see the 'cool' guy who managed to appear effortlessly older than everyone else act like a child. I indicated that he should carry on, tell me more.

"Its by the large oak tree where we used to pretend to be jungle children although it was blocked off when we were kids..." I shuddered and backed away from him when he said it. The cave was used to store the victims of the serial killer that had used the woods as a hunting ground, my mother had cried for days when she found out that I had been playing near the mutilated bodies of the victims. If we had ever tried to move the large stone that blocked it off...

"Mark was that the place where that serial killer stored his bodies? " I couldn't help but sound disgusted as I said it.

"Yeah but its cleared now, or at least was cleared before I came..." The last part intrigued me, what had he done in that cave?

"What do you mean by 'was cleared before I came'?" I asked, leaning closer to him.

"I guess you'll have to go and see what's there now," he gave me a sickening grin that confirmed my thoughts. It was a bad choice to enter back into the case.