Taken From Reality

Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Lori’s POV

            I cried myself to sleep last night, soaking my pillow with tears. My only child is missing and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. It took every ounce of energy I had within me to even get out of bed the next morning but I knew the fastest way of finding Anika was to answer any questions the police had for me. The young cop from last night showed up around noon and he drove me to the station, where I officially met with the cop in charge of the case.

            After sitting alone in the questioning room for a good five minutes by myself, he finally walked in. He patted me on the shoulder and gave me a look of comfort as he took his seat across from me.

            “Hello Mrs. Sterling, how are you feeling today?”

            “Please call me Lori, and pretty good under the circumstances.” I said as I placed my hands on top of the cold steel table.

            “Do you have any news for me sir; I’d really like to move this process along.”

            “Well Mrs. Ste- I mean Lori, I do have some information for you.” He took a deep breath and then opened the file in front of him.

            “My lab did the DNA testing on the blood and it turned out to be Anika’s after all” He said exhaling slowly, allowing the information to soak in. I tried to remain strong but the tears came out still.

            “But I do however have some good news for you... My lab was able to lift a print off of the rock and it ended up matching some prior kidnapping cases of ours.”

            These words made me jump out of my seat and my whole body filled with joy.

            “So you have a suspect? You know where she is?” I asked with a high pitch.

            “No mam, that’s not what I meant. The prints match the other cases but the prints aren’t in any database so we won’t know who’s they are until we have something to compare them to, however; this is good news because we now know she follows a pattern and it will be easier to know exactly what happened.”

            I lowered myself back into the chair, I knew this was good news, better than having nothing, but I just wish I could have her back already. I gave him a half smile and told him that I understood and then went along with answering his questions.

            In that moment I felt like how all the victims parent’s I questioned must have felt, and it was not a good feeling. I wanted to scream, to run, to punch everything in my sight, but most of all I just wanted to remain calm to be strong for Anika and find her right away. This was a nightmare.