Emma's P.O.V

RING! RING! RING!

The faint buzz of the door bell met my ears from the other side of the door as I pressed the bell switch on the wall outside the house. 

I looked at my watch and the time read 7 pm.

I sighed. Today has been a long day.

I flinched at the memory of me torturing Jason when the door opened and a middle aged lady stepped out. She had dark rings around her eyes. Her face was creased with weary.

"How can I help you?", the lady asked as she eyed me suspiciously from head to toe.

"Mrs. Owen, I'm Emma Parker from the IAE and I have some questions to ask about your daughter", I told her softly as I flashed my ID, afraid that I might hurt her by reminding her of the torturous memories.

I watched the woman move aside, making space for me to enter.

"Please, come in", she said.

I stepped inside and removed my shoes, placing it on the shoe rack which was placed by the door.

"Please do take a seat. Give me a minute and I'll be back", she said in an emotional voice and walked away without even waiting for my reply.

The lady's eyes were brimmed with tears. I assume that she went to muster some courage to answer my questions. I shook my head to get rid of the guilt that was clawing the insides of my heart.

Emma you have to do this if you need to crack up this case!

I shook my head to get rid of my own emotions and then looked around to see whether I could pick any useful clues.

The house was well maintained from the inside. It was an average house that any person would love to live in. It seemed to have all the facilities. Photo frames hung from the walls of the living room. They displayed happy moments of the family. I knew the faces because I did my own research. Ella was their only child.

She seemed to not have any family problems from these photos, I mentally noted in my head.

I was brought from my reverie as I heard Mrs. Owen's voice from behind.

"I'm sorry, did I take long?"

I turned around to watch her enter the living room with blood shot eyes. They were swollen and glassy.

I pushed away the guilt that was resurfacing again and gave her a genuine smile as I shook my head in negative.

"Ma'am, I know that this might be hard for you. But, I need your help to crack this case. This case was handed over to the IAE very recently. And I promise that I will perform my best to find out these criminals as soon as possible to bring justice to your family", I told her confidently and gave her cold trembling hands a reassuring squeeze.

She nodded at me and pursed her lips into a thin line as she tried her best to suppress the tears from spilling.

"Did your daughter have a boyfriend?", I asked her as I watched her reaction carefully.

The woman nodded at my question and then sighed.

"She did have two. Not more than that. I know her, because she tells me everything. She started dating at the age of 17", she then continued with white trembling lips.

"How long was the first relationship?", I asked as I jotted down on my notebook hurriedly.

"It lasted only for two months", my eyebrows shot up as I heard her reply.

I looked up at her from my notebook in curiousity. I was about to open my mouth when the lady beat me to it.

"He was caught cheating on her", she stated with a shrug.

Seems like she guessed what my next question was.

"Did he bother her after the breakup? I need his name and his details and everything else that you know of him", I told her softly.

Mrs. Owen's eyes glazed over as she stared at the wall behind me as if in a trance.

"His name is Tony Jason. He was 18 years old at the time. They met at high school and they instantly hit it off. She asked my permission first and I granted her after talking with the boy. He seemed pretty decent to me. Then almost two months later she saw him cheating on her with another girl at a bar to which she attended with her girl-friends. She seemed to have slapped him at that moment itself and has left the bar. She came home in tears and narrated the whole story to me. I some how managed to console her and put her to sleep. She's a very strong girl. She got over him in a couple of weeks. One day, she mentioned that Tony asked for her forgiveness and that she rejected him in front of everyone. A couple of months later, she started dating Matthew Rider who was the same age as hers and they were a lovely couple till she--", the lady's voice cracked as she broke into sobs, her body shaking uncontrollably.

I couldn't help but pity her. What the criminals did to this poor woman was unforgivable.

I rubbed her back soothingly and gradually the sobs ceased.

"I'm sorry if I'm annoying you", she told me as she blew her nose into a tissue.

"It's okay, Mrs. Owen. I understand", I told her with a reassuring nod.

I patiently watched her till she composed herself before shooting my next question.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Matthew went to the same high school as Ella right?", I asked, writing down the points which seemed important to me, now and then.

"Yes", she replied with a nod.

"How did Matthew react after Ella's-", my voice faulted as I couldn't bring myself to finish the question.

"He hasn't gone to school since then. Word has spread that he isn't mentally prepared to face the society yet", she told me as her eyes welled up with tears again.

"Have you noticed any recent odd behaviour from Ella?", I asked her cautiously.

The lady thought for a minute or two and then shook her head in negative as she wiped the two traitor beads that escaped her eyes with a tissue.

I sighed and stood up as she followed suit. Now comes the hardest part.

"Ma'am, If you don't mind can I search Ella's room", I asked her with a guarded expression, mentally praying that she would agree.

To my relief, she nodded her head without any fuss and led me towards the room.

"The room is left untouched since that day", she told me emotionally as she opened the room door for me.

"If you need anything, call for me. I'll be in the living room", she told me and then turned around to leave.

I cleared my throat making her halt on her tracks.

"Ma'am, I will need to check her social media profiles by using her laptop to see whether she has received any threatening messages. Is that okay?", I asked her nervously.

To my surprise, she threw me a nod over her shoulder and then left.

Ella's room was a typical child's room. It was very neat. The walls, table, books cupboard, closet and the floor were all painted in pink. So much pink started hurting my eyes. To be honest, I hate that colour. My favorite is blue.

I searched her room thoroughly. I even searched among her stuffed toys which were neatly piled on the head board of her bed. I came up with nothing.

I opened her laptop which was on her table and switched it on. Luckily the laptop wasn't password protected. I connected to the home Wi-Fi and clicked on the link, 'facebook'. Fortunately, the laptop was already logged into her profile.

Woah! Seems like today is a lucky day for me. Hopefully it continues to be like that throughout this investigation.

I skimmed through her Fb messages, newsfeed and notifications quickly. I found nothing suspicious. She wasn't on twitter. I checked her mails too, but came up with nothing. I sighed in frustration as I leaned on her chair.

GREAT! I find literally nothing in any of her social medias to support my theory. Her phone would have been helpful if I hadn't found it lying burnt and broken in a ditch somewhere without any trace of who did it.

I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration and disappointment. I started spacing out as I continued staring at the pink wall in front of me when suddenly a bulb lit inside my head.

My heart raced as hope clouded my mind again as I clicked on the link 'Google Plus'.

She has been last active a couple of hours before she went missing. My fingers scrolled, typed and skimmed through her profile excitedly with hope that I might find something useful.

THUD!

THUD!

I smashed my fist on the pink wall in anger.

NOTHING!

I find literally nothing useful at all. All my excitement and hope had gone to waste. I shut the laptop and took my belongings in hand to leave, when something caught my eye.

It was her bed. The bed was not made. The sheets were all over the bed. The bed was unmade to an extent that it was hard to believe that it was an innocent girl like her who had slept on it. I frowned in confusion. I took a picture of the bed using my mobile phone.

"Something doesn't make sense", I muttered under my breathe as I entered the living room.  

The lady was watching the news telecast.

She looked up as I entered and switched off the television. Her eyes were redder than before.

She hurried towards me and gently held me by my hand.

"Did you find anything?", she asked with a flicker of hope in her eyes.

I looked into her eyes as pain shot through my heart as if it was stabbed by a sharp knife. The lady looked so broken and vulnerable to the extent that it broke me to see her like this.

I blinked away the tears that started building in my eyes and cleared my throat, trying to compose myself.

I had to stay strong for her.

I shook my head negatively in response as I watched her eyes lose the little light that appeared a few seconds ago.

"But, I have a few more questions for you. And I need to video it. Is that okay?", I then quickly asked her before she broke into fits of tears.

She looked at me as if I have gone crazy and then nodded at me nevertheless.

"You said that your daughter did not return from work that night, right?", I asked her in confusion.

"Yes", the lady replied and nodded again confirming my statement.

"Does she usually have the habit of not making her bed the next morning?", I then continued curiously.

"No. She makes her bed every morning. That is the very first thing that she would do when she wakes up. Why are you asking? Has she not made her bed that morning?", she asked me with confused wide eyes.

"No she hasn't. How do you know that she didn't come home that night?", I asked her hurriedly.

"She texted me saying that she was going to come home late from work. She sometimes works till midnight. Those days I go to bed early, and I gradually fall asleep in a sub conscious state while worrying about her. Since my husband works abroad most of the time it's just the both of us. So we had an agreement that on the days that she works late, she should text me that she's back as soon as she enters the house. Normally, I hear the message alert since I ain't fully asleep. So I check it and fall asleep again but this time not sub-consciously. But, that night I remember waiting as usual. The next thing I knew was me waking up the next day at ten in the morning. I have never slept that late. I wake up by six usually. I checked my phone and there wasn't any message. I went to her room to not find her there. I immediately called the police. And she was later found with the same work clothes that she wore that day", the woman was hysterically crying as she finished explaining.

I couldn't help but tear up too. I mustered my courage and consoled the woman with soothing words as I saved the video in my phone.

"It isn't your fault, Mrs. Owen. And I do have a theory on how your daughter got abducted. I need to make a phone call to confirm it. Please excuse me", I told her as I patted her back reassuringly.

I walked away from her and dialed Director Williams number.

"Hello?", I heard his voice from the other side of the line.

"Mr. Williams, I've found a lead. I need you to send a forensic team and an expert hacker to No. 21 A, Jumping Avenue, Song Street", I told him hurriedly. 

____________________________________________________________________________
Hey guys,

So how was the chapter?? Did you guys enjoy it?? 😊

I ofcourse smell something fishy here. <Sniffs> Do you? 😱

Anyways, here are the questions! <Drumbeats please!>
1) Didn't Ella really come home that night?
2) Do you find her boyfriends suspicious?
3) Do you think it was something planned by both of the boys?

Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!
Shoot me your wonderful ideas you wonderful people.

And oh! Who else hates pink?? (Pink lovers! Don't kill me now!! 😅 )

And here goes a HUGE HIGH TEN for the blue and red lovers!! 🙌

And let me leave you all in peace now. But before that,

If you liked the chapter,

DONOT FORGET TO VOTE!! 😁

Love,

Ranna