The room was grey, dimly lit by the singular hanging bulb and scarce amount of sunlight begging to be let in behind the barred window, all it did was highlight the emptiness, nothing but a table and chairs set in a breeze block room, adding even more of a bleak, lachrymose tone of loss.
"So, set the scene for me, what happened the day Tim went missing." Detective Holden said.
"What's this got to do with anything?" Ty asked.
"Just routine, gives us some- background information if ya like." Holden replied.
"It was like any other day, he just went out to play with his friends but didn't come home for dinner, and hours later called you guys but we were rejected and told a search was sent out." Janet stated.
"Hmmm..." Fernando said as he shook his head.
"What was that?" Ty exclaimed with anger.
"Nothing... Nothing." Fernando replied blankly.
"Sure as hell didn't seem like nothing."
"It's just a little corny, a little movie-esque." Fernando forwarded.
"Ah... That's all this is a movie, we're being paid to pretend our son has gone missing, the hell is wrong with you?" Janet said with annoyance.
"And why is it that we were turned down by the police?" Ty questioned.
"Just policy, it's be-." Ty interrupted Holden becoming more stern and frustrated.
"Wait wait wait, policy? My son is out there and we are in here discussing a policy, we are sat doing nothing with giggly guidance councillor here and some freak has my son!" Janet reached over to calm and pecked him on the cheek.
"Sir, I understand you are upset but-..."
"Upset!? Upset is a god damn understatement!" He said as he launched out of his chair. "What the hell are you doing? You are the police and I understand you have some-some procedures of whatever but they don't get my son back."
Holden stopped him whilst Janet sat her husband back down.. "Sir, this world is full of sick, sick people and it's my job to stop them, catch them and lock 'em up, so families like you can sleep at night, and I assure you I will try damn hardest to get your son back. I have to follow rules, I have to, but if it were my son Id be tearing down buildings looking for him as I'm sure you would." He quieted his tone. " I am going to find your son... I promise."
Fernando spoke up... "Huh! Rubbish."
"Stop it!" Holden retorted.
"'Stop it?' Come on let's be realistic here, kids recently have been going missing like pennies in my pocket, we can't find who ever did this? That one kid from ten years ago hasn't been found!" Fernando shouted, going against his title.
"Woah what! No..." Janet spoke up as her and Ty sat up in shock. "Th-there's a possibility Timothy won't be found? Why weren't we told?!" She shouted! The room suddenly felt closed in, constricting and suffocating.
"Well, there has been a spate of abductions that have been rather odd and-..." Holden was stopped by Ty clapping, sarcastically. "God damn brilliant... You lie, he gives it away, meanwhile my son is still missing."
"It didn't do anything!" Fernando exclaimed in defence.
"You can shut up, you have been no help."
"Been better than him!" Fernando aimed his insult at Holden.
"Say another damn word you will be missing." Said Ty.
"Is that a threat?"
"Ah... There's the brain that got you qualified."
"Shut up!" Janet screamed. "You are insignificant and inadequate for the job of a guidance councillor and quite frankly have done nothing but sit there and comment like a judge and we are the ones being put away, and I'm sorry Detective Holden, but we should have been told about this." Janet explained.
"Yes... Yes, I-I'm sorry."
There was a silence as the tension strangled the room...
"We're going. Come on Ty." She said gesturing her open hand to Ty. He grabbed her hand and followed her out, leaving Holden and Fernando behind.
Ty fell, leaning his back against the wall and broke down, Janet gently held his face as he stared aimlessly at the ground, she also shed a tear. "We got this, we will find him." She said softly. She leant in and kissed him. "Let's go sign out."
The car drive back home in the grey weather, unclear and wet to fit their moods gave them no comfort, the trip was silent, no one spoke but inside both partners were screaming patients trapped by shackles on a stone wall.
Home was not too dissimilar. The sound of no child, caused a silence in them. Going home and living was just cramming their grief-stricken minds with awful thoughts; the empty third chair at dinner, not kissing Tim goodnight, and half-eyed waking him for school and making him breakfast, not having that extra body comforting them in that car. The concept that something that was preserved for nine months, then raised eleven years, gradually growing to a good, stable citizen and has all of a sudden vanished like a ghost. And the possibility that is was through to force and eerie eye of a stranger, creepily luring in Tim, wrapping him in false trust, and snatching him in one movement, pulling him into the gates of hell, no return tickets there. Simply terrifying.
