Hard to Speak || l.h.

Twenty-four

            "Sir, how can we help you?"

            The lady's thick eyebrows are raised, and her lips are pursed, coated in dark red lipstick that contrasts her dark skin. I put my hands on the desk between us and say what I had rehearsed on the walk- run- over.

            "I would like to speak with the officer at the head of Raine Chambers's case," I say clearly, keeping eye contact with the lady. She looks down at the computer and types a few things.

            "And who are you?"

            "Luke Hemmings, her boyfriend."

            The lady's eyes flick back up to me with a frown. "I don't have time for pranks, kid."

            "Pranks? I-"

            "Honey we've already spoke with Raine's boyfriend, Brent Richards," the lady went back to doing what she had been doing when I walked in, checking emails.

            "He's not her boyfriend! Hell, he's the one you should arrest!" I slam my fist on the desk.

            "Sir, I'm going to need you to calm down."

            "No, dammit! He's still out there, he's been stalking Raine for a long time!" The woman won't look up from her email. "Listen," I take a breath and lower my voice. "Just call Mr. and Mrs. Chambers and ask them the name of their daughter's boyfriend," I place my palms down on the desk, trying to control my anger. "Please."

            The woman sighs and mumbles something underneath her breath while dialing the number. I watch, not anxious because I know I'm right.

            "This is Carla with the NYPD, sorry to bother you again Mr. Chambers, I was just wondering if you could give me the name of your daughter's boyfriend…okay, there seems to have been a misunderstanding…thank you, we're working to find out who did this to your daughter…okay, buh-bye now." The woman looks up at me, then stands up from her seat. "Sorry about that, it seems we talked to wrong guy."

            "No kidding," I roll my eyes as she leads me back past police officers in desks until arriving at a back room with a small conference table, where a group of people with various papers were speaking.

            "Detective Mitchell, this is Luke Hemmings, Raine's boyfriend," Carla turns to leave.

            "Carla, we've already spoken with the boyfriend, and this isn't him-"

            "The guy you spoke to," I interrupt, "is the one you should have arrested."

            Carla makes a face and leaves the room with the slam of the door, leaving me with the group of detectives. Detective Mitchell, who had I guessed was in charge, runs his hand over his face and sinks into his chair.

            "Mr. Hemmings," he begins with a large exhale of breath. "How did we make this mistake?"

            "That's exactly what I was wondering," I take the empty chair in front of me and sit. "I was also wondering why the hospital staff wouldn't tell me anything about what happened to Raine, why they keep calling it an accident, and why all you official-looking people still haven't pieced together what happened." I knew I wasn't being respectful, but I wasn't feeling very grateful for their efforts thus far.

            Mitchell shakes his head. "So that man we spoke to, Brent Richards-"

            "He did it," I say without a doubt in my mind. "He's Raine's ex-boyfriend, he was abusive and controlling. He still stalks her and he was jealous of her happiness, so that gives him motive, am I right?"

            Mitchell and the others just stares at me. I shift in my seat, "I watch a lot of NCIS, alright."

            "You're right though, he did seem obsessive when we spoke with him. Kept using 'we' and 'us' but never referred to Raine as a singular person. He was a pretty severe narcissist disorder, one of the worse I've seen," a woman to the right of Mitchell with red hair pulled back in a slick ponytail speaks. She reaches across the table to shake my hand. "I'm Doctor Morris."

            I shake her hand with a nod. "What do you have about her- her case?" I ask.

            "A garbage man called it in. She had been partially submerged in the water for most of the night with trauma to the head from her fall. It seems she had hit against a piece of metal that had fallen in the pond. We did a sweep for fingerprints but didn't find any. We've classified the case as an attempted homicide, but now that you're telling us these things…"

            "This is just domestic abuse and stalking to the extreme," Morris finishes, scratching the back of her pen over her chin. "Richards did have some Anti-Social Personality Disorder traits too, but they were faint. I believe he has Obsessive-compulsive as well. He makes for the perfect suspect, if I'm honest."

            "Well, what are you waiting for?" I raise my hands, not understanding half of what Doctor Morris had said. "Just arrest him!"

            "Kid, these things aren't that simple. If I arrest him right now without any solid evidence that he's done any of this, then he could sweep a lawyer in here and be back on the streets. We need more time," Mitchell shrugs, looking genuinely apologetic. "Thank you for helping us out, but there's nothing you can do now. Go be with your girlfriend, give her parents my goodwill."

            And I was dismissed. Once I was back outside, I stared up at the still gray clouds. They were never going to find any evidence; Brent covered his tracks too well. Now Raine was in a coma, and he had her pinned back in his control, just like he had always wanted. Right when I was about to punch a streetlight, my phone begins to ring. I answer it, not moving out of the way of the people walking around me on the sidewalk.

            "Luke? Luke there's a problem," Mr. Chambers sounds panicked, and I can hear the sound of Mrs. Chambers crying in the background. My blood turns cold and my feet feel like they're melting into the sidewalk as I fear the worst.

            "What's happened/" I ask, my voice foreign to me.

            "She's disappeared," Mr. Chambers's voice is on edge, and I hear voices in the background of nurses arguing. "Raine is missing."

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raine just cant get a break

hello yes im still here

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