"How's it feel to be back?", Em asked me as I sat down at my desk.
"Good, miss the kids and Leah though", I said taking a sip of my coffee.
"You've been gone for all of 30 minutes", Em said jokingly rolling her eyes.
"Whatever, so how's the wedding planning coming along?", I asked her as I lifted the pile of cases onto my desk with a huff.
"Well since Christmas is in a few weeks so we're thinking about having it in May or June", she said happily as I smiled at her.
"I'm happy for you", I said genuinely as she smiled at me.
"Save the soppy stuff for the wedding", she joked as I took a sip of my coffee. I went to open one of the cases before Paul came rushing over to us.
"Those are gonna have to wait, we just got a report from a woman claiming her sister has been taken, said she went into the shop and her sister was waiting in the car and when she went outside, the passenger door was open and her sisters phone was on the floor. We're headed to the shop now to look at the CCTV", Paul said as he hurried off.
"Welcome back", Em said as we both stood up and followed after Paul.
"You think it's the same person?", Em asked Paul.
"Probably", he sighed as we got in the lift to go down to the first floor.
"Care to enlighten me", I said as I adjusted the gun on my hip, having weirdly missed the feeling of the weight of it.
"The past 2 months, a woman has went missing on the 2nd, we always find her alive but she's been tortured and we never find her unless whoever took her wants us to", Em explained as I nodded in understanding. "We usually get a call and the voice gives us an address and that's where we find her", she continued.
"So how long before we get the call?", I asked as we walked out of the lift.
"About 12 hours", Em said as Paul got in his car and me and Em got in ours.
"That's a long time to be tortured", I said as I recalled the time I was taken, quickly shaking my head of the thoughts as I pulled out of the car park.
"Are you okay?", Em asked softly.
"I'm fine, it was over 3 years ago, I'm over it", I said as Em nodded and decided not to push further. Am I really over it? It's hard to get over something like that, and this case isn't helping because I feel like I'm reliving it and I feel this weight on my chest. I can feel myself getting worked up as I roll down the window for some fresh air. I can feel Em looking at me but I keep my eyes on the road until we pull up to the shop. I get out of the car and we both walk into the shop to see Paul already there.
"Come look at this", Paul said as me and Em walked over and the manager hit play on the footage. We watched as an African American male approached the car and opened the door, holding a gun to her head. He grabs her phone and throws it to the ground before gesturing her out of the car and into his before speeding off.
"Rewind that", I said as the manager rewinded the footage, "stop there and zoom in", I said.
"Son of a bitch", I mumbled. "You recognise him Em?", I asked as she leaned forward to get a closer look.
"Kyle McCartney, we interrogated him after his partner stepped forward and told us he was abusing her, made her sign a contract too but he got off and she changed her name and moved so he couldn't find her", she said as I nodded. (Chapter titled relax).
"He also said he worked for a group called the company, so it's probably not just him we have to be careful of", I said pinching the bridge of my nose.
"There is no company, we already looked into it when we interrogated him, it's just him, he's trying to scare us", Em said.
