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And I wanna cry, I wanna fall in love, but all my tears have been used up. - another love, Tom Odell.
Agnes and Giorgio Chester sit fairly far apart. Each times their bodies make contact for less than a second they pull away, like one another is a disease they do not want to catch.
Rossi sits down in the armchair beside me, and flicks away loose strands of his black hair. Someone once told me they knew Rossi before he had a moustache, and that image has haunted me for the last year.
The clock signals that it is 11am. Approximately 8 hours since Maria was taken. We could be looking for a body if we do not find her in the next 40 hours.
"We understand how hard it must be for you, but we need you to answer some questions for us." I say to the couple, who certainly are not acting like one. "We've told you everything we can." Agnes replies. "Our unconscious brains pick up details that our conscious does not. If you'd both like to just close your eyes." I request. They both seem reluctant, but they do as suggested.
"Think back to when you last saw Maria, what time was that?" Rossi asks. "Around 1am. She couldn't get to sleep, kept complaining something was.." Giorgio's face seems to fall momentarily, "tapping on her window." "Did you check the window?" I say. He shakes his head, "no." "I told you to. You told me you did, I trust too easily. Don't I, Giorgio?" Agnes' eyes snap open, and she looks accusingly at her husband.
"Agnes, don't be getting defensive over me not opening a curtain-" "Oh, but you still told me you did?" I can tell this isn't about the case, but about something else that happened in the past. "Our daughter is missing, and you're bringing up that shit?" Giorgio spits, crossing his arms. "May I ask what's going on here?" I pipe up, a reminder that Rossi and I are still in the room.
"Giorgio is a very good liar, lied to me about who he was seeing on the side for years. Why don't you interrogate him a little more and find out what else he's hiding?" Agnes responds. "Mrs Chester, I know what it's like to love someone who would rather be with another person. I know how badly it hurts, but at the moment you need to just think about Maria." I comfort, reaching out to clasp my hand over the woman's. Her green eyes meet mine, and she sits back. "Okay."
"Now, what time were you both up until last night?" Rossi asks the pair. "I went to bed at around 3:30, Agnes went at about 2." Giorgio answers for both of them. "I was awake when she was taken." He realises. He clasps a hand over his mouth. "You didn't hear any movement, or Maria's screams?" I ask. His eyes stay focused on his hands, and tries not to maintain contact with mine. "No, I had music on really loud- or tv was too loud- I don't remember."
"How did you not wake the rest of your family with loud music? Surely you would have been told to turn it down?" "I was wearing earphones." "The unsub took Maria out through the living room. Giorgio, tell us where you really were." Rossi demands. Giorgio's eyes flicker over to his wife, and he begins to bounce his leg. "I was with Nicole, my girlfriend." Agnes lets out a choked sob, and rests her face in her hands.
