Perfect Storm

Chapter 5

Henry's eyes were filled with a terrible rage. "Where is the officer?" he asked.

Marianne felt it was best not to say anything else and instead led him to the officer with whom my sister and the other girls were talking at the time.

"Can you explain what you mean by it has been deleted?" Anya asked. We were facing the officer's back as he talked to the three women.

"Yeah, what do you mean by that?" Henry asserts.

Then Henry folded his arms, knowing that the officer would give him a thorough examination. I'd never seen Henry behave so definitively before, but he did it this time.

The official addressed him, noting that he was in his late forties and appeared to have done this a number of times before.

"And you are?" he asked, seemingly uninterested.

"I'm her husband. Tell me what's going on "

Henry maintained his assertive demeanour, never breaking eye contact with the officer.

It was better not to say anything, despite the fact that everyone's brows were furrowed in curiosity.

The officer scribbled down the relevant information in his notepad. "Could I ask you a couple of questions? " He didn't look up from his notes, he just constantly looked at them.

"You can ask questions after you explain what it means by the footage being deleted!"

Henry was yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Henry!" Marianne scolded him.

The officer gave Henry a suspicious look, but he didn't say anything in response to his question.

''If you're her husband, tell me where you've been hiding for the past three days. It appears that you were at the location of the incident not long after it happened, then you disappeared and wear sunglasses in a closed space, which implies to me that you are hurt in some way, and now you decide to show up?'"

As the women glared at the officer in disbelief, Henry smirked, finding it so hilarious that he was laughing. "Are you married officer?"

"No sir, I'm not."

"I thought so. When you're in training, do they teach you basic psychology?" Henry removed his sunglasses off his face.

"Yes, they do," the officer admits.

Henry wiped his sunglasses clean and placed them on his shirt, showing his injured eye in full world view. "Please allow me to refresh your memories. In other words, not everyone has the same reaction when they lose someone they care about, correct?"

He asked, but he didn't expect to receive a response.

"Is it true that some people are plainly sad, while others appear cheerful, while others are angry, and that some people bury themselves in work, while others believe it is the source of their drink or drug abuse?"

He was waiting for the officer's response this time around.

"You are correct, but the date of your disappearance does not line up with this. And on top of that, the bruise on your face verifies my suspicion."

"I'm sorry officer, but my son would never hurt Mia, he loves her more than anyone." Marianne stepped in to help.

"Tell him Henry!" Freya pleaded.

Suddenly, the officer's eyes switched from Henry to Freya, then back to Henry once again. "Tell me what?"

Henry was still amused by it and mocked the situation. "You know what?

If you truly believe that I had something to do with Mia's accident, you should bring me in for questioning, and by all means, put me through a lie detector test! But, guess what? The more you focus your attention on me, the more likely it is that you will let the person who is genuinely responsible go!"

"I'm going to send another officer in for some additional questioning."

The officer said to the women before returning his gaze to Henry.

"Sir, will you please follow me to the police station?" says the officer.

"What? Why? He hasn't done anything!" Marianne's eyes started to water, but Henry didn't pay attention to her and continued to follow the officer.

WHAT THE FUCK?

I was following Henry and the officer when I turned around and saw Marianne crying on Anya's shoulder.

All of them were confused as to what was going on, and the girls especially were baffled as to why Henry was refusing to inform the police about the man in the pub.

Henry and the officer didn't say anything as they walked out of the hospital; Henry retained his scoffing face, but I could see that his eyes were starting to fill with tears.

They went out of the hospital, but I couldn't keep up with them, as if there was an invisible wall in front of me that I couldn't get through.

I could see the officer escorting Henry to the back of the police car, and I kept yelling and hammering on this invisible wall, pleading.

But no one could hear what I was saying.

Why is this happening?

I rushed back to where everyone was and saw Colin comforting Marianne, Anya pacing back and forth trying to figure out what had just happened, Freya sitting in a chair, completely dissociating by this point, and my sister returning to my sleeping mother's side.

"Why the hell wouldn't he say anything about Josh?" Anya was murmuring to herself. "What is he doing?"

Marianne started to collect herself. "What guy was it, and where was he? I'm not sure what happened to my son." Her voice was severe and demanded answers. Freya gazed at the raven haired Anya with fearful eyes, as if asking for help.

Anya took a long breath as she tried to ground herself back to today and quit overanalyzing everything for now. "So Henry was at the pub drinking."

"Yeah, I realised that." Marianne scoffed sarcastically.

Anya was trying not to look at her. " And a guy approached him, Henry thought he was just a fan so he tried to be friendly and not think about it. Then that guy started talking about Mia. And it wasn't between the lines of how wonderful she looks, but how she deserves horrible stuff to happen to her. But Henry, who had been drinking heavily, didn't take well to this and ended up striking him in the face." Her pace was so quick, she simply wanted to take it all out hoping that Marianne received her point.

Marianne's attention got alarmed "who was that guy and why was he talking like that about Mia?"

Freya had now fully snapped back into reality. "Everything we know about him is that his name is most likely Josh, but other than that, we have no idea who he is or what he looks like. While Henry speculates that he might be an ex-boyfriend, Mia never gave any names, only experiences." The young girl tried to fill the holes Anya had left as she could tell that she was growing agitated once again.

Anya started pacing up and down again, biting her nails.

"Do you believe that this Josh person and Lucy might be connected somehow?" Marianne questioned Freya and with that comment Anya came to a complete halt, as if it was her missing information.