A Danger That Lurks In The Darkness | A TPQ AU |

VI | Spam Calls Are The Enemy Here

MINI
"She was taken from us, too. Our Lissa. They found her body, washed up in the sewers. We had to identify it." Mrs. Lawton's voice shook and broke, as the sentences escaped her, in a rush.

Beside Mini, she felt Rudy stiffen, in either anger or shock.

"I..." she began, but trailed off. Rudy continued where she left off: "We're so sorry for your loss,"

Mr. Lawton looked up, his eyes bloodshot and large: "Please tell us you'll find our daughter. We can't afford to lose another child."

A lie bubbled up to her throat— she wanted to tell them that Patricia was probably safe and sound, but she couldn't say it. It seared her throat, and left a bitter, acidic feeling in her mouth. She couldn't bear to say it.

Rudy stayed silent, and glanced at Mini. He shifted his gaze to the door, and back to her.

She slowly got up, and said, "Mr. and Mrs. Lawton, thank you for your time,"

Mrs. Lawton wiped her tears, and said, in a shaky voice, "Oh, officers... if you need anything, anything about our daughter, we're ready to help. We just want her home."

"We'll— we'll contact you, ma'am,"

And with that, they left the apartment: Mini shell-shocked, the stirrings of pity dragging in her stomach, before she snuck a glance at Rudy's face: bewilderment, and shock, frozen there. Until he rearranged his expression into one of determination, and lifted his chin.

They didn't speak on their way to his car, and they didn't speak on their way back to the precinct, either.

But she felt the unsaid words between them hang in the air, like an unspoken agreement: We have to get Patricia Lawtons back to her parents. They can't lose another child.

————

Back at the precinct, she and Rudy spent the rest of their day making phone calls, and two hours after they'd come back from the Lawtons' house, Rudy set his landline on the receiver, and looked at her.

"Good news— we've obtained a search warrant for Patricia Lawtons' apartment, and her landlord says we can drop by tomorrow,"

"Ugh— bad news on my side: I've been trying to work out a timeline on when and, y'know, how Patricia could have disappeared— like when the last person who knew her saw her, but it's all blanks on all sides. College friends, people she could have met up with the day she disappeared: nobody."

"Besides her coworkers, was there anybody we could talk to? Other friends? Acquaintances?" Rudy suggested.

"Nope. I did a little digging into that symbol, the one on the note: and guess what turned up?"

He raised his eyebrows expectantly, as she typed out something, and turned the computer screen to face him.

He leaned forward, and frowned, reading, "The Nightshade is a deadly flower, and, if distilled can be incredibly poisonous—"

She raised her eyebrows, as the realisation seemed to hit him.

"The symbol is a flower,"

"Exactly. But I don't know what it's supposed to mean,"

Rudy rubbed his eyes, and sighed loudly, before checking his watch. "It's 7,"

She inclined her head. "I know."

"It's the end of our shift," he continued, like he was insinuating something.

"...Yeah? So it is?" she said, hesitantly.