Missing

Chapter 4

Uncle Gerald,family friend and dads business partner,tugged at the knees of his suit trousers as he sat on the cream leather arm chair in the Lucas lounge room. His round stomach strained at the buttons on his waist coat.
"What is it raven?" He asked "what's happened"
"It sounds stupid. It sounds tiny. It sounds paranoid..."
"Okay I have the general idea.And lots of adjectives. Now give me the facts"
"I met a man who was wearing dads black coat and hat,you know the black one"
Uncle Gerald froze.
Raven always thought those books with lines about people 'freezing' were ridiculous. People didn't freeze. They gasped, there eyes popped wide open. they said things like 'your kidding ... no was ... Are you serious?' Whatever. But freezing? Never.
Until tonight.
Uncle Gerald didn't sway or blink. For a few long moments, he didn't even seem to be breathing.
" tell me about it" he said at last.
Raven told him everything in a rush of words,then held out her phone "see,I have this photo".
"You have a profile shot of a stranger in a bus queue,and he's not wearing a coat or hat"
"He'd taken them off by then.thats what's strange about it"
Uncle Gerald sent her a look that suggested she was strange.
"What's this mans name?"
"I don't know"
Where does he live?"
"I don't know that either"raven shrugged.
"So if we reported this matter to the police,what could we tell them? How could they find this man?"
"I know which bus he got on"
Uncle Gerald's eyebrows rose."a bus route has at least twenty or thirty stops. And it might have been the first and only time he caught that bus. Did he tell you that he'd met Elliot?"
"Not exactly" Raven felt the ground sliding out from under her feet.The man hadn't told her anything. "we could track him down and ask him,or we can get the police to find him. We have to do something"
Uncle Gerald chuckled "your father loved your feistiness. He said you were like a dose of vitamins"
"I hate vitamins"
The sound of pots banging told Raven that mum was in the kitchen. She was a good cook. Even when she was upset she seemed to produce meals by instinct.
"Have you told Stephanie" Gerald looked at Raven so intently that she felt uncomfortable.
"She's ... mums not well. I tried,but I couldn't get through to her" "Stephanie is delicate" uncle Gerald added "like a crystal vase"
Oh great she's a crystal vase and I'm a vitamin.
"Dads alive I know it" she insisted " this is a clue"
"It's a clue to your state of mind" said uncle Gerald. "Your anxious we all are when someone goes missing that we love, we think we see them in a manner of places, in a crowd, on a train. We imagine we've heard their voice or their footsteps. Its a sign of our affection for them, rather than a sign of their presence"
Raven sat back over whelmed by disappointment.
"Perhaps you should get some counselling"
"I don't want counselling" said Raven "I want dad"
It was clear that uncle Gerald would not help,Mum couldn't and the police would probably have the same reaction as uncle Gerald. Raven had very little to take them other than a hunch.
I need evidence, she thought,and im going to find it.