"Is dinner ready yet," Tony asked in an aggravated voice before sipping on an ice-cold beer from his glass bottle. He was also watching the news, or more precisely, the news was watching him. He was one of those types who would always have the television running in the background. "I worked all day while you're here doing nothing and now, I have to wait for my dinner," he grumbled under his breath, glancing back at her in the kitchen as she stood over the hot stove. His pet Pitbull, Butch, laid down next to his feet fast asleep.

She heard him and his grumblings while he sat on the almost deflated grey sofa, but she chose not to answer him accordingly. Instead, she just said, "Just give me a minute, Tony. I'm almost finished," she began, sharing his food out onto a flat plate. She had prepared mashed potatoes, string beans and chicken fried steak, which she then placed before him on a low table.

"Wait, no gravy?" He instantly complained, looking at the dry chicken fried steaks that were on his plate and looking up into her face with much displeasure.

At the same time, Jessica's phone, which was on the kitchen counter, began to ring. Remembering that she had also left the gravy boat on the kitchen counter, she opted to kill two birds with one stone. Therefore, at the same time, she quickly went for her phone and took up the gravy boat by its handle.

"Hey," she shortly answered her phone while walking over to Tony and pouring the cream-colored gravy onto his meat and mashed potatoes.

"Jess, I'm already parked outside your gate."

"Hold on, I'm coming out now," she ended the call, putting down the gravy boat on the table in front of Tony and hurrying back into the kitchen to take up a single-strap backpack loaded with papers of sorts.

"And where do you think you're going?" He questioned her after sinking his teeth into one of the chicken fried steaks, causing many crumbs to fall all over his stretched-out white T-shirt.

"If you hadn't noticed, Laurel and her friend have been missing for three days now. I'm going out with Pauline to post more flyers around the neighborhood."

"I say you let them be. They're probably hung up with one of their boyfriends somewhere."

For a good long minute, Jessica held onto the doorknob with tears shimmering in her eyes as she tried to process his diatribe remark. "Tony, I'm not even going to bother to process what you've just said to me. I'll be back," she finished, opening, and walking out the door.

But Tony's whole face reddened while he tightened his grip on the beer bottle.

With some few minutes to burn before sunset, the ladies worked hard to make use of the available daylight to staple Laurel's and Nelly's missing person fliers onto light poles, bus stops and notice boards.

"So how have things been, Jess?" The chocolate-skinned woman asked as they walked to the next light pole.

"The usual... Tony giving me a hard time. He always says things that get under my skin. Sometimes I wonder why I bother..." She zoned out a little after stapling one of the fliers on a post.

"I wasn't talking about Tony," Pauline leaned against the post and folded her arms.

"I know, but what do you want me to say? I don't sleep. I barely have any appetite to eat. Just the thought of her being out there...alone… I can't eat because I'm not sure if she has eaten. I can't sleep because I'm not sure if she has a pillow to lay her head down on. Pauline, to be completely honest with you, I'm really four, five seconds from losing my shit."

"I know what you mean. Without my Nelly, I feel like half a person...like a part of me is missing...like there's a void in me and nothing can fill it but seeing my baby girl again. I want her back, Jess. I want her back alive." Pauline started to break down in tears, putting her hand over her mouth, which unintentionally muffled her voice.

Jessica then went in front of her and held her shoulders. "Hey, she is alive. Both of our girls are alive, and they are out there... Somewhere... We got to be strong for them. If anyone's going to freak out and lose their shit, it'll be me. Got it?" She said, making Pauline chuckle a bit even though the tears were still flowing.

"Okay," Pauline replied later, finding the strength to wipe away her tears.

"There you go," Jessica smiled, "now we need to hurry and finish doing this street before it gets dark. You know that this is gang territory," the two women walked down the street to the next corner.

Jessica, while walking, began digging into her bag for another flier when Pauline suddenly said, "Jess, look."

"What?" Jessica eventually looked up and there it was like it was not there before. A big noticeboard at the side of a Café shop with many fliers of missing people. There was hardly any space left on it for them to staple their flyers on.

"Jess, there must be at least a hundred of them missing here. Who are all these people?" Pauline asked, leaving her mouth open and feeling minuscule in front of the huge board with flyers.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling our friends at the BCPD may know," a wrinkle appeared on her forehead.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Sometime later at the police precinct, Detective Reynolds had his head down in a pile of files when he suddenly heard a commotion at the front desk. "I need to see him..." He heard a familiar voice shout. So, he stood up and looked to see that it was Jessica and Gladys at it again.

"Gladys, let her through," he quickly interrupted them.

So, Jessica proudly walked past the receptionist's desk to the detective's desk.

"How may I help you this evening—"

But before he could finish, Jessica emptied her backpack with the other missing person flyers on his desk. "You have a lot of nerve, asking how you may help me. How 'bout telling me the damn truth for once? Is this the reason you haven't found my sister?"

"What are you talking about and where did you get these flyers from?"

"Oh, I didn’t have to walk too far. For close to a week now you haven't given me any update on my sister's investigation. I'm just left in the dark hoping for the best. I tried calling your extension many times, but I always ended up getting that bitch over there," she gave Gladys a dirty look. "But I think I've finally found out why you've been hiding from me. These are fliers I've found on Seventh Street; fliers of missing persons with an overwhelming majority of them being young girls. Young girls who look like they're in Laurel's age group. What the hell is going on in this city? Why are there so many young girls going missing and why isn't nobody talking about this?"

"Jessica, I know you have a lot of questions and I know this looks fishy, but it is very complicated."

"No, I don't want to hear that from you. I want a straight answer. Who are all these missing girls?"

"All I'm at liberty to tell you right now is that these are all open cases that the BCPD is currently looking into," he said to her quietly, choosing his words carefully.

"Bullshit!" She exclaimed with tears in her eyes, drawing some of the attention of Detective Reynolds's colleagues. "Bullshit...bullshit!" She repeated spitefully, drawing more attention to them.

"Jessica, I know you're hurt, but will you please keep your voice down," he leaned over his desk to her.

"You don't know how I feel," she continued at the top of her lungs. "This whole precinct is bullshit! You're bullshit," she ended, walking away.

"Jessica," he said, trying not to shout. But she continued walking until she went through the door.

Still enveloped with anger, Jessica pounded her way down the street to a bus stop. It was now dark outside, and Jessica was the only one at the bus stop. It was mostly quiet except when a sky train zoomed over her head hanging onto its track; never actually stopping in the Gutters. Even a train feared the Gutters. Perhaps that was for the best, Jessica thought as she now looked up. Then suddenly a black car drove up on her with the car glass winding down. At first, her heart thudded in her chest. But when she looked further, it was the detective. "Hop in, let me give you a ride home," he offered her, leaning back in his seat with one hand on the steering wheel.

"I think I'll wait on the bus," she folded her arms, looking up the street for the bus.

"You know our bus system is crap. Come on. It's getting late."

"No. I would rather take my chances waiting on a bus that will never come than to depend on a lying cop."

"Look, I'm sorry...okay? Now, will you get in the car? Please?" He later asked with a sympathetic undertone.

Jessica seeing that the street had become a ghost town, slowly gave in to the detective’s offer. "Don't think for one second that I've forgiven you," she went into the car and slammed the door.

"Fair enough," he drove off. "Where are we heading?"

"I'm heading to Mareland Close," she folded her arms and looked to her right through the car window, unwilling to look at him.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? The truth is your sister's case was lost on my desk with the other missing person cases I'm dealing with. That's all I've been dealing with since I started working at the precinct..."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing right now," she looked around at him with piercing eyes. "You're telling me all this time my sister's case has been sitting idle on your desk while she is out there suffering and God knows what else!?"

"You got to understand that I'm faced with cases like this every day and, like always, they lead to nothing. I mean it's like these girls just disappeared off the face of the Earth."

"Well, you're the cop here. You tell me where all these girls are going."

"I don't know, but we're following a couple of leads."

"What leads?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm—"

"Not at liberty to tell me. Figures," she said with a disappointed voice. "This is my stop."

Mario then stopped the car at a two-story house where the porch light was on. Yet even though it was night, he could see that the house had not been painted in years, with large areas where the paint had been worn away by the elements. But despite this, he turned to her and said, "You're still with that douchebag who hit you?"

"Yes, and it's none of your business," she proudly replied.

"Okay. Tomorrow I'm going to that club you said your sister last visited. If you want, you can tag along."

"Are you inviting me out, detective?" She looked at him keenly.

"Yes," he leaned towards her as if he was going to kiss her, but instead he opened her door for her to get out. "Hope to see you tomorrow."

Jessica shook her head in realization, then got out of the vehicle and walked around it to the pathway leading up to her porch. After that, Jessica turned around to watch Mario drive off.

After he did, she proceeded to open the front door and went in. But on closing the door and turning around inside the living room, she was met with a hard hand to her face which instantly sent her falling to the ground, breathing deeply, and holding her right cheek in terrible fright.

"That's for having me up waiting for you. You were gone three and a half hours and now you have the nerve to pull up in front of my house in another man's car! Who is he?!"

"What..." Jessica tried to make sense of the situation.

"The man that gave you a ride home..."

"Mario."

"'Mario,'" Tony was flabbergasted.

"He's the detective I'm working with on finding Laurel."

"You, lying whore!"

"What are you talking about, Tony?"

"Before you left, you said that you were going out with Pauline to paste some stupid flyers around the goddamn neighborhood!"

"I did, but then I went to the precinct."

"I swear to God, Jessica, if you're lying and I find out you're sleeping with this man, I will put a bullet through your skull. Then I'll cook you and feed you to Butch," he said, advertently causing the Pitbull to rush after her.

"Tony," she scurried backwards on her hands into the closed door. "Tony, please...I swear!" She cried out when the dog locked its jaws on her hand, just above her wrist. "Tony my hand...call him off! Tony!"

Also breathing deeply with uncontrolled hatred, Tony then realized he had gotten his message across. "Come on, Butch," he tugged heavily on the dog's collar and his very muscular beast of a dog released her hand from his jaw. "Let's go to bed," he said, and they both strolled their way up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Jessica was left with her bleeding hand shaking and her other hand over her mouth as the tears flowed; wondering what the hell she did to deserve this.

Up next: Chapter 4: Do Not Judge Me