Puzzle Pieces [#Wattys2016]

4 | The Hunt

Claire decided to go out to the bar to look for Max herself.

She drove to the bar to ask around and see if anyone had seen him come in here at any time last night. After being assured that he had been there at one point, she left and called the officer. He thanked her, but advised that she should go home and take a rest, as the days events have most likely taken a lot out of her. She decided to go home and call around to any of Max's friends to see if he had talked to any of the in them past 12 hours.

After calling all of Max's friends and anyone else he had any relation with, no one had seen him or heard from him. She sighed. She laid down, and after crying softly for another hour, she drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

She woke the next morning. She got up, changed and went out to resume her looking for Max. She searched for hours, all over town, the park, she even went into the city to search. No one had seen him. She called all of her friends, his friends, family, everybody she could think of. Nothing.

This went on for weeks. Every night, she would come home late, change and go to bed with a heavy heart, as there was never anything new to find, it seems as though Max had simply... vanished.

She decided that checking the same places over and over again, with nothing new, wasn't helping anyone. And it certainly wasn't helping Max, wherever he was. She had stopped praying for him every night. She had stopped hoping that he would simply walk through the door one day, and that everything would be the same. She knew she had to look deeper.

She took a walk to Max's old apartment, which was in an old run down building. It was the one that he had illegally owned when he was 15. He had never actually lived there, but he went there frequently, as that was where he and his clients and dealers met. She had been here once, to check up on the place when Max was out of town with his mother.

The place was at first, how she expected; empty. Then, she saw the blood. Not a lot, although there was a fair amount. As she got closer, she could see that it was recent. She walked around the corner of the island,
only to see a small animal. She breathed out a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding. She decided that it may be best now to alert the police about this place. As she started to dial the police station, she seen a small note attached to the top of the counter. She picked it up with shaking hands. It read:
You're lucky Lunn, that the only thing I found here was this little creature. If you had been hiding out here, maybe this creature would have had a better ending..
                                 -M

Claire was shocked. She called the police and informed them of the note and the location of the apartment. She waited outside the building until Officer Leroy pulled up, and she led him up to Max's apartment. The officer told Claire that it would be better if she didn't visit this place for the time being, and she gave him the keys. Officer Leroy called to have the critter removed and turned to Claire.
"Now, I'm going to tell you one more time," he started. "I am working very hard to find Max. And especially now, seeing the circumstances, I would highly advise you to stay out of this, it's not safe anymore. We will call you if we find anything."
"Okay," Claire agreed.
With that, she left.