Open My Heart

Family Issues

Hiccup's P.O.V.

By the time we reach Berserker County Police Department, it's been 15 hours since Heaven's disappearance. According to a collection of different detectives and officers, the first 24 hours are the most crucial in any child kidnapping. They say once the first 24 hours are up, there's a less likely chance they'll find the child alive.

I don't believe it though. Not with Heaven. There's no way Merida would take my child away from me and harm her. Even though she never wants to admit it half the time, she's still her mother. She gave birth to her. There's still a connection there whether she believes it or not. She just wants to drive me insane, but for what?

Stepping into the station has me in a swirl of emotions. I'm both hopeful that we're one step closer to getting Heaven back but also terrified that something could go wrong. At the moment, I have no idea if my daughter is unharmed or not. As for her safety, she won't be safe until I have her in my arms. Her mother may not kill her but that doesn't mean she won't hurt her.

Astrid squeezes my hand as we follow Detective Mala through the station. She leads us into a conference room where another Detective waits for us. Upon entering the room, the man rises to his feet. A scar crosses over his right eye and through his eyebrow as if he got a little too careless in a knife fight. He doesn't seem to mind though as he holds a hand out, ready to shake someone's hand.

"Mr. Haddock, Mrs, Haddock, I'm Detective Dagur Deranged," He starts, holding his hand out for me. "I'm here to help you get your daughter back."

I stare at the man for a minute before returning the gesture. "Thank you."

"Dagur knows Berserker County like the back of his hand. He's one of the best in his field here. With his help, we were able to figure out where Merida and your daughter were hiding," Mala states, walking around to the other side of the table. "He'll help us find a way in to retrieve your daughter in the safest way possible."

"Thank you," Astrid chirps from beside me. She squeezes my hand as the rest of our group walks in.

Dagur has all of us take a seat as he gets a coffee order for everyone. He excuses himself from the room for a moment before returning with a file in hand. He hands it to me as he sits a few chairs away, where he was when we first entered the room.

"In that file are the photos of the house your ex is staying in. It has all the images we've taken since we first scouted the place to the most recent one about a half hour ago," He explains, allowing me to open the manila folder in hand. "We currently have men surrounding the place right now. I have a pretty good feeling that she knows we're there. But, when we did another heat scan, three bodies went down to one. We checked the entire house. Top floor, bottom floor, and every single corner that we possibly could. But there was nothing. And according to the blueprints, there isn't a basement. There was no kind of crawl space either, and we did a full search."

I take the pictures out of the file to see a two-story structure. It's not a massive place. Quite simple from the looks of it. Another photo shows the house surrounded by trees. Almost as if the house is located in the middle of a forest. The other photos are the heat signatures he mentioned. All of them with a timestamp. The most recent one is the last one. In this picture, there's only one heat signature, just as he said. The bad news, it's not my daughters.

"If she's not in the house then where is she?" I ask, frustration laced in my voice.

A glance in his direction tells me he doesn't know. And my suspicions are confirmed by his words.

"I don't know," he sighs honestly, "But I'm not giving up and neither are you. This house is surrounded by woods. It's basically in the middle of nowhere. Right before you got here, I got word that the other team I deployed had just started canvasing the woods. They will contact us immediately if they see any signs of life. Especially if it's your daughters."