Fatal Memories

Chapter 2: A Thousand Years

Not Edited

Third Person Point of View

May 17, 1989

            “Where’s my daughter!” Janelle Lehman exclaims on the verge of tears when the young officer Mark Thomas approach the grieving woman sitting on the police office bench.

    “Mrs. Lehman you most calm down,” he assists and hands over the plastic cup filled with coffee.  Mark felt sorry for the middle age woman but the sheriff and the head deputies has already dismiss Janelle Lehman daughter as a runaway teen.  

        However, Mark found it strange that Sheriff Ramón barely investigated the disappearance that happened two days ago since her daughter went missing.  “We are trying our best to help you,” Mark says. “How about I ask you some few questions so please follow me?”  Mark asks as he led the sobbing woman into his small office in the back of the half-emptied police station. The only reason the young cop got an office is that his mother was the sister of Sheriff Ramón.

 Janelle sits down in the uncomfortable couch chair and barely looks at the young officer. Mark pulls out his notepad, positions himself in his office chair, and prepares to ask her questions. Mark was even more puzzled that Sheriff Ramón didn’t bother to speak to Janelle since she reported her daughter disappeared around 11pm on May 15.

“The questions I will ask you is information that can only be shared between the sheriff and I and please tell me if one of the questions to personal, okay?”

Janelle bloodshot brown eyes land on Mark before drifting down to the untouched coffee in her tight grasp. “I’ll do anything to get my little girl back,” she says and shakes her limp brown hair that covers her slim figure like a halo.

Mark knew Janelle was a single woman but he felt more comfortable calling her Mrs. Lehman. “You were called into work at 3pm and you said that your daughter usually stays with her boyfriend Alex Greffen or go out with her friend, Madelyn last-named and comes home at 3:15 pm, right?”

Janelle nods her head. “Alex Greffen said he dropped her off at home and my son, Logan said that his sister was fine and he said she even played Pokémon with him,” she says and a smile slips her on her chap-lips as if she was in a flashback. “She could never play any game to save her life, oh my Gwen,” she says.

“Okay,” Mark spoke up after writing down the dullness and sadness he pick up in Janelle. Usually, he was trained on when people was lying or telling the truth and he had a gut feeling that Janelle was telling the truth. “So through 3:15-9:56pm, is when your daughter was with your son before he went to bed,” he mentions the time difference. “So, you came home at 11pm to find your son sleep in bed and your daughter missing with her window opened. There’s been nothing missing or any personal belongings she could have taken?” Mark asks.

Janelle was silent for a moment before a sob escapes her mouth. “She didn’t take the necklace her dad bought her when she was only five and god knows she love that necklace, so nothing was taken! My daughter been counting down the days until prom and she just vanishes---,” she trails off, bursting into tears. “My daughter wouldn’t just leave,” she says with a shake of her head.

“Then could your husband have contact with your daughter and she left with him?” Mark asks but he had a feeling the answer was going to be a no.

Janelle scoffs, wiping away her tears that kept coming. “My ex-husband hasn’t contacted me since Logan was for four and Gwen was twelve so he wouldn’t have.”

Mark was stomp with this case. He crosses off some of his predicted conclusions on his list. He has looked over Gwen information for two days, night to morning. Gwen was an achieving senior with a social life and a great family. She volunteered at the Pet shelter and she donated any of her little money to Kid Lots Donation. This girl could not of runaway because there’s been no reason to.