Time Stands Still

Chapter 02

"Hi, my friend gave me this number. She recently faked her death through you and well I'm in a similar situation so she gave me your number," I said with a relatively peppy voice.

"What friend? Nobody is supposed to give my number to strangers," the voice sounded hostile and vicious through the phone.

I took a deep breath. A hand squeezed my shoulder gently. "That's right but she knew that I didn't like my situation. She sent me a letter after her supposed death giving me your information. She knew that I needed help."

There was silence before a sigh was heard. "I guess that I can help, but I'd prefer not to do this over phone. I hate phone contact. Contact me through my website."

"Okay, I'm sorry."

Another sigh. "It's fine. Just don't call me anymore." He hung up after that.

Rhys smirked at me as I turned around. "So we got our proof."

It was my turn to smirk. "The proof that I was right."

"Sure whatever," Rhys mumbled as he walked back to his desk.

"So what are we going to do now?" I asked.

Rhys gave me his famous are-you-really-that-stupid-look behind his desk. "We're going to contact the parents and tell them that she is not dead."

I frowned. My thoughts flashed back to my own disappearance. It would not have been good for me had I been found and I bet that it was the same for Rose. People didn't disappear for no reason. That made no sense.

"I think that we need to figure out why she left."

Rhys rolled his eyes. "Do you not want the money?"

I shrugged. "Not if it's like this."

"Fine whatever," Rhys mumbled.

I smiled, feeling much better. There had to be a reason why she wanted people to think that she was dead. For me, it had been being threatened by some kind of weird drug lord. She might not have been in the same boat, but I knew from my own experience that sometimes there was no other way than getting away from everyone and everything. Even if it meant leaving the Nathans and Cliffords in your life behind.

The next day, Mr and Mrs Buhl were sitting across from us asking for more information about their missing daughter.

"What did you find?" Mrs Buhl asked.

Rhys cleared his throat whilst he glanced at me from the corner of his eye. "Not much other than we think that she was scared of something."

Mrs Buhl nodded her head. "Yes, we figured that too. The police didn't believe us, but she must have been scared. She had been acting so strangely before leaving. In fact, we were ready to initiate an intervention."

Rhys raised an eyebrow. "How so strange?"

Mrs Buhl furrowed her brows in thought. "She just became more evasive and didn't really answer our questions anymore. It seemed like she was distancing herself from us. Like she expected something like this to happen."

"But you don't have an idea about what could have been on her mind?" I intervened.

Mrs Buhl frowned at me. "Of course not."

"Would there be somebody who would know?"

Mr Buhl opened his mouth ready to speak, but Mrs Buhl cut him off with a sharp stab in his side. "No, we do not anyone who would know."

Rhys frowned. "Any information could be really useful. We are definitely not ones to judge the source of our information."

Mr and Mrs Buhl stared briefly at each other seemingly having some type of telepathic conversation. Mrs Buhl looked back at us. "You can ask Lex McComb. He goes to Seattle Central College." They both stood up after that and swiftly exited our office before either of us could ask any further questions.