Morana Barnes: Murderous Love

3. Morana Barnes

August 29th, 2022

Missing Person:

"Did you guys argue that day?" I asked while sitting on the couch across from them with my notepad and pen out. We had come to inspect the house to see if their missing daughter, Sydney Riker, had maybe left a note behind or something that'll tell them where she had gone but nothing came up. They called yesterday to say they haven't seen or spoken to Sydney since she left home and they were worried.

Although Sydney was a grown adult and could've just been living her life. Her parents still wanted us to come and try to find her. They said it wasn't like her to not answer her phone or stay out all night especially since she had class today. It was very uncharacteristic and also really strange considering she was a college student studying to be a medical surgeon. When we checked the house everything looked normal.

In her room, her bed was made from the morning she left, her backpack wasn't anywhere in the room so we can assume she went to school, her keys, her wallet, and everything she'd normally take with her when she left the house was gone. Her bathroom was clean and nothing seemed to be touched as of late and it just seemed as though she spent that night out.

That's exactly what her parents -at first- assumed, that she'd gone to a friend's house but after three days of her not answering her phone and finally calling her friend to see if she was with them, they called the cops. "No, everything was fine the last time she left," her mother said, tears on the verge of spilling and falling on her delicate skin. She was worried which was understandable. It's her daughter that's missing after all.

"Do you guys remember what Sydney was wearing that day?" my partner of two years, Nicole Chaset, asked. Nicole was a real black-and-white kind of person. When she saw something that she deemed was evidence there was nothing you could say to make her see otherwise. She didn't do grey areas which was a problem Nicole and I had constantly.

She wants everything to be straight cut and unfortunately, they aren't, especially not with the kind of job we have. We're homicide detectives, nothing is straight cut over here. A lot of people get wrongly accused during cases that don't seem to have a clear answer and since we're always on borrowed time most pin it on the first person they suspect so someone can be arrested for the crime.

It's not right and I do my best to make sure I'm not like that. It's a real shame a lot of cops are like that. I always felt like there was more to the stories than meets the eyes and Nicole would always tell me, "The evidence is right there Barnes, there's nothing more to it."

Every time the case was dismissed and closed. Even though I felt as though there was more after the case ended I never went and did more research because what would that do? The person was already locked up and it's really hard to change a judge's mind once the person has already been through the first trial and was found guilty, especially in popular cases. No one will believe that person is innocent anymore once it reaches the news that they've been found guilty.

"She was wearing a red top, one of those crop tops," her mom said trying to recall what she'd seen Sydney wearing the day she left. "She had on regular blue jeans and was wearing her red strap-on heels. She also had on a butterfly necklace. I bought it last year for her birthday,"

"Was Sydney planning on meeting someone that day?" I asked. Although she could have just gotten dressed up for another day at school, Sydney also could've been planning on meeting up with some friends and going out later but just never made it there. It was a possibility we couldn't rule out.

"Um, not that we know of, and if she was going out she was probably going to meet up with Erin,"

Chaset and I looked at each other at the mention of a name before looking back at Sydney's parents "Who is Erin to Sydney?" Chaset asked them.

"Erin was Sydney's boyfriend," Mr. Riker said. He didn't sound too displeased by that.

"What do you mean was?" It was a valid question to ask. It gives a possible motive. Maybe a messy breakup or an argument went wrong. These things happen, unfortunately.

"They'd broken up again. Sydney isn't the most confident no matter how much she portrays that she is. After her last relationship, it made things harder for her and Erin. Don't get me wrong Erin's a great man, very patient, very sweet but I guess everyone has their breaking points where they can't put up with someone's shenanigans anymore,"

"Do you know Erin's last name and where we could find him?" Chaset asked.

They told us where we could find Erin and walked us to the door after we'd collected all the information we could get. They were very appreciative of the fact that we genuinely seemed to care about the disappearance of their daughter. Most detectives always seemed annoyed or like they'd rather be doing something else. They just didn't care and some loved their job despite the heaviness they can have. I was that detective. Although this job could make me sick to my stomach sometimes I still loved it. I loved helping people get the justice they deserve. "What were your names again?" Mrs. Riker asked.

"This is detective Barnes and I'm detective Chaset,"

"Thank you we appreciate it so much,"

"It's what we do."

We walked away to our car and spoke about our thoughts on the case. It was clear that something was off about Sydney's disappearance, I could feel it. Three days of no communication with two of the people you're closest to? Not a chance. Her parents didn't talk about Erin as though he was maybe the reason Sydney disappeared, they seemed quite fond of him which is unusual in cases like this. It's almost always the ex-boyfriend or girlfriend. It's usually someone they're close to that does the most horrid things to them.

It was hard for me to judge what was happening right off the bat because we still hadn't found Sydney's body but if she's been missing for three days and it's as serious as I think it is the chances of us finding her alive were slim to none. The first twenty-four hours of a case are crucial. I wished Sydney's parents had told the police about her disappearance sooner, it could've made a big difference.

"So where are we headed?" Chaset asked.

"To Erin's to ask a couple of questions. Maybe he might know where Sydney is or he might be able to tell us the last time he's seen her,"

"You don't think she's still alive do you?" Chaset asked, glancing at me as she turned the wheel to avoid hitting the car in front of her as she left her parking space. We sped off and I closed my eyes, sighing before glancing at Chaset. "I know it's unlikely but I'm hoping she is." Something about this was setting off alarms in my head but the alarms were just as loud as they were with every other case I had.

Maybe I got too invested or maybe I was overthinking it. We drove in silence, not able to take our minds off the case in front of us. A missing college girl, 21 years of age, with chin-length red hair, reddish-brown eyes, and about five foot six in height. Surely someone had seen her walking somewhere or entering a building.

Chaset slowed down and pulled over to the curb. The car came to a stop and we took our seatbelts off, opened the car doors, and made our way to the front door. We looked around and noticed how quiet it was where Erin lived. There weren't many people outside and the ones that were out seemed to be heading somewhere. They stopped to stare with confused looks on their faces and you could immediately tell cops don't come around here. I knocked on the door and we waited patiently for someone to answer.

We stood there for a couple of seconds before the door opened revealing a tall and slender man with shoulder-length messy hair. "Hello, officers, is there something I could help you with?" he asked. He didn't seem to be hiding anything and seemed genuinely concerned by our appearance at his front door.

"Yes, we'd like to ask you a couple of questions if you don't mind," I said. I didn't get bad vibes from him. Chaset on the other hand didn't care for his cooperation. She wanted to get straight to the point.

"About the disappearance of Sydney Riker," Chaset added. Her question caused Erin's eyebrows to scrunch up and he looked confused.

"What? I'm sorry, disappearance?"