“So, Jack. Apparently you saw Clara that morning?” The cop’s posture was relaxed and interested. Jack nodded and the cop went on. “You followed her down the street right?” Jack nodded again in confirmation. “Where did you first saw Clara that morning?”

“She probably had nothing to do with this. She probably just went on holiday or something. Its not like her to do this.” was his first response. His head shaking in disbelieve.

The cop noticed Jack was panicking and tried to comfort him. “No worries. I’m not saying she is the offender. I’m only asking what you did that morning with her?”

The cop was waiting for his answer and already started to formulate the next question. As the cop opened his mouth, Jack finally found the words. “Well, we live in the same street, you know. We often travel together to school. So this morning I knocked on her door and that’s when she acted weird.”

“In what way ‘weird`?” The voice sounded relaxed and friendly. No hurry just two guys talking.

“Well, her bag was bigger than usual and it seemed like she was in a hurry. I asked her what was going on but she only told me she had to go. But I’m sure she wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Jack held his tongue again trying to remember that morning.

“Did she say where she went?”

“No not really. Oh wait, she muttered something about an adventure. I didn’t think much of it at the time.”

“Yeah that’s what she said too. Can you tell me what happened next?”

Jack gave an almost invisible shrug. “Clara probably doesn’t even know that I heard that.” said Jack responding one more time to the earlier question.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Did she do anything suspicious in the days previous to the event?”

Jack needed a moment to think again. His mind was trying to go through everything he saw from her. The blouse she was wearing came to mind, the fact that they had lunch together came to mind. But Jack couldn’t remember what they talked about or what she had done. Only the sweet woman she always was.

“Anything that stood out?” The cop said to fill the silence.

“Not really, she talked about the boredom she experienced and was talking about taking a longer leave. But nothing I haven’t heard from others. If something like this was on her mind, she hid it well.”

“How well do you know her?”

“Well, uhm, we do work together. I have helped her with her pc problems. You see she doesn’t really know how they work, so for every little thing I can come and help her. Further more we do talk when we meet outside of school. But that’s about it.”

“Okay, let’s go back to that day. She opened the door and talked to you while packing a bag? What happened then?” his curiosity was professional but Jack felt bad talking about her without her knowing.

“Well. Uhm.” Jack’s hand shook a bit and he needed some time again to find his voice. “She started walking down the street. A different street from the one we normally take. I still wanted to walk together and thought she had found a new way. But then she started to run.”

The cop leaned forward, “why did you chase her?”

“I, I, I thought she was in danger I wanted to help her. She just said that I had to go away.” His voice broke a bit and the cop saw in Jack’s eyes that she had hurt him in that moment. But why did he care so much? It almost seemed like their relationship was more then he had let on.

“Is there anything else you remember from that day?” the cop asked a bit tired.

Jack started to shake his head but then stopped. “speaking of it...” Jack let a silence fall again while he tried to remember. “I vaguely remember her dropping something. I think I ran after her to give it back.”

“What did she drop?” The cop stood up from his chair and started walk back and forth, not being able to contain his eagerness for the answer.

“I think I have it still. It was a phone.”