Turn for the Worst

Chapter 39

Gwendolyn is pacing inside a quiet room at the police station. Waiting for the phone to ring, which sits on a nearby table. She's too nervous to touch it. Her mind races about where her children are... they sounded fine on the phone, happy even, but she's learned not to trust her husband, trust him to take care of their children. She hasn't stopped crying quietly to herself the entire time. It's like waiting for a bomb to go off or a rabid wild animal to pounce.

The police have installed a tracker on her phone so they can track Arthur, that is if Gwen can keep him on the line long enough. It's like something out of a spy movie or some thriller. Gwen even recalls a horror movie that used this trope too.

David stands outside the door with Nova guarding it to make sure no one tries anything. David is equally nervous, maybe more so, but also hopeful. He wasn't sure what this man Arthur was going to try to pull, but even if Emma was not with the children at the rendezvous, they would still be able to track his phone and rescue her. Wherever she is, he hopes that she is well fed and at least warm. The conditions in the house that she'd been kept in were almost inhumane, but not the worst. David had once read about a case where a man kept women in a pit in his basement and filled it with water when they disobeyed him.

Nova has a list of police stations in the nearest states. David had a hunch that he might've fled to Connecticut, as it would've been the easiest way to go, but he had written several others for Nova to call the minute the address was said.

Both officers wait with bated breath. That is until Jack brings Mary Margret and Henry down the hall.

David rushes over and embraces his wife, kissing her and holding her tightly. This was sort of difficult considering how pregnant she was, but he held her as if she might disappear suddenly. Henry stands by, his face filled with concern, but there was an appearance of hope there too. David reaches over and ruffles Henry's hair like his mother used to do.

"We'll find her kid," he says. "I promise. How's Killian?"

"Feeling incredibly guilty and upset that he can't be here," Mary Margret answers.

"Well serves him right for making such a stupid decision."

"Don't blame him too much David, he wasn't thinking, everything has been so overwhelming and emotional, at some point one of us was going to snap and do something crazy."

"I was thinking crazy being more along the lines of marrying a total stranger in Vegas or moving to Cuba suddenly, not nearly killing themselves," David sighs.

"We all cope differently," Mary Margret says sympathetically. "Besides, I already gave him a lecture about his reckless decision."

"And everyone knows that your lectures are the most insightful," David says in good humour.

The three of them hear a snort of derision from down the hall and they spy Gold walking along with a cup of evening coffee. Obviously, he was eavesdropping on their conversation and couldn't wait to put his two sense in. This irks David quite a lot. The Commissioner still cared very little about Emma, even though he had been proven wrong in terms of the theory that Emma had run away. David was still quite worried that Gold might try to shelve the investigation too early, leaving Emma in the hands of a maniac. It had also become apparent to David that Gold had wanted to arrest Killian for what happened last night. It took David, Nova, and Jack to stand up to the commissioner and tell them there were more important issues to deal with than a drunk driver. The worst-case scenario would be that Killian had his license taken away and his car impounded, but the poor man was suffering enough; the docks man didn't need a stuck-up commissioner on his back. Plus his car was undrivable anyways.