I'VE SEEN HER! (COMPLETE)

Chapter 18

Back at the hotel I headed up to my room. Lauren saw me and asked me to join them. I refused as I was tired but said ‘I’ll be down in an hour after a nap.’ I had no intention of going down. I had remembered a few things like the way Emily had played with a colouring book and crayons. Today I saw the same one on the tables of a local cafe, they were put out for children to colour as their meals were prepared. She must have eaten there. It was near the dock so the chances of her being on a boat rose significantly. If I could go back, find the log of who paid to dock there I might get the name of the boats during that time. Be able to find another clue.

My phone bleeped, ‘Are you coming down?’ James text.

‘Not at the moment. I need to concentrate.’ I replied.

‘Do you want me to send you up some food and drink?’

‘No thank you. I’m ok for now.’

He text back a ‘heart’, making me smile. I text back a kissing smiley face.

Then rest of the evening I was researching my ass off. If there was one thing I was good at it was this. Oh and remembering images. Not faces on missing posters... I kicked myself for the millionth time for my stupidity.

I was flying through the data, using my research grant to access info as I would work out some way to incorporate it into my work. I had also ensured all our luggage was depersonalised and our escape plan ready.

The door opened and in walked James, taking a look around the room at the papers everywhere. I was a research slob.

“I’m just dropping this drink in,” he said stepping over pages on the ground. Placing the drink on the side between two pieces of paper. “Do you want to text me when I can come to bed?” he asked looking at the mess.

“Oh, erm... I can move things,” I reached out to do just that.

“Not now, text me.”

“Ok,” I said as my mind was distracted by the image on the screen.

It seemed like barely an hour later when he returned to the room but it was in fact the early hours of the morning. I moved some of the pages so he could climb onto the bed, he was drunk and asleep in seconds. Well he had been drinking since midday.

When he woke to use the bathroom I was still up.

“What the hell babe? Get some sleep,” he said walking off to pee like a horse before returning to the room and downing my drink from earlier that remained untouched. “Can you get under the blankets with me at least?”

I shuffled under, replacing my laptop on my knee as he snuggled up, stole a kiss and was back off to sleep. It was strangely comfortable as I carried on. The answers I needed would be here somewhere. People were snap happy on holiday... tumblr was a wonderful resource and I had taken to emailing ‘private’ users who had been on holiday the same time as me, claiming I lost all my photos which I needed for work. I had discovered who they were through my earlier research. Hopefully those boat owners would get back to me and have some images or information I could use. I was blagging that I was researching migration and what brings people back to the same holiday destinations. Was it the climate? The coastal lines? The location? The food? The language? The heritage?

I had my ‘in’... finally I knew what I could use to find her without alarming her kidnappers. I carried on looking at pictures I could access, my eyelids getting heavy and twitchy but I promised myself only a few minutes more. Each photo had me making the same promise. I would go for a wee and wash my face that would wake me up a bit.

After one very much needed wee that was far too noisy for my liking when sharing a room with someone, I put the water in the sink to wash my face and looked down into it, every blink reflecting images into it like a mirror. Damn I had over done it. Stay still, sit down... the darkness at the sides of my eyes swept in as the sparkles shot like fireworks across my eyes.