Diaries of the Dead

16 | Behind Enemy Lines

unedited 

16 | B e h i n d  E n e m y  L i n e s 

           Cara could feel her breaths constrict in her lungs as she tried to find the air to breathe. Her oceanic eyes stared back wildly, showing her bewilderment. A hand was placed on her heart and her mouth hung open, forming the shape of an ‘o’.

            “Are you sure?” she finally asked after doing nothing but staring blankly at the officer.

            The officer bit down on his bottom lip, trying to find the right words to say. He gave her an apologetic smile. “I’m truly sorry, Mrs. Diaz.”

            “Do not,” she snapped abruptly, shutting her eyes. “Do not call me that.”

            He knitted his brows together. “Oh, I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

            She dismissed the subject with a simple wave of the hand. She was shocked, no doubt, but it didn’t come as a surprise. After months of not hearing back from Jessica, she had already prepared herself for the worst. “Abby is dead. Jessica is dead. My two daughters…they’re both gone!” Her shaky voice rose with every word until it came out as a mere shriek.

            “M’aam, I know this is tough to handle, but do you mind answering a few questions?” The man pulled out his notepad from his utility belt and clicked his pen, ready for any answer that came his way.

            As more time passed, the more frantic Cara became. Salty tears rolled down her flushed cheeks and onto her rosy lips. She squeezed her eyes shut, blinking away the tears. “Yes, you may.”

            “When was the last time you saw your daughter?”

            “In November,” she responded. “It was around Thanksgiving time.”

            He scribbled a few words on his notepad. “Why did you put the house up for rent?”

            “Her father and I called it quits around that time. I was never around enough because I moved in with my ex-boyfriend. Carlos, her father, was always at work so she was practically living on her own. After she disappeared and we couldn’t get in touch with her, we decided to get out of that broken home…until further notice.”

            The police officer raised a brow. “Do you have any ideas where she might have gone?”

            Cara shook her head and fiddled with the pendant that hung around her neck. “No,” she said. “Jessica wasn’t the type to just disappear like that, and I have no idea where she would want to go.”

            “Are you still in touch with her father?”

            “No, Carlos was a working man and probably still is. After he put the house up for rent, his job relocated him to London.”

            “And you had another child with someone else, correct?”

            Cara’s eyes turned hard and unfriendly. “I never claimed to be perfect,” she countered. “Things like this happen!”

            His thinning eyebrows shot up to their highest point. “Yes, I understand m’aam.” He continued to jot down notes on his notepad. “But I’m only trying to find out what happened to your daughter.”

            She let out a relieved sigh. “Where did you find her?” With the back of her hand, she wiped away her tears.

            “At the bottom of the lake near the central park, so she wasn’t far.” He sucked in a breath, not wanting to discuss the subject, but he knew Cara deserved to know. “At first, we believed it was suicide but our team has discovered that her body parts were severed.”