Please Understand

Chapter 34: Case Closed

Detective Nix

Ashlyn Maxwell sat in front of my desk, twisting her wedding ring around her finger, her eyes never leaving the small diamond. Clearly written across her face were all of the worries she carried. Her marriage was falling apart, and I knew she was one more fight away from leaving her husband. She would pack her bags, and move into a small apartment closer to work. The worries would stay in that little suburban house with her below adequate husband. Maybe she could start over and run away from her problems. She would probably wait until Mason was off to college to finalize the divorce, so he wouldn't be able to talk her out of it, or make her feel guilty. This would be the best case scenario, of course.

I leaned back in my chair with my warm cup of coffee she brought me. Something was severely wrong because she never comes to chat, and normally no one at the station encourages my addiction. "Ashlyn, what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked while trying to give her my best encouraging smile.

Her back was tense and I noticed her signature red lipstick was still missing. She hardly wore makeup these days, which wasn't entirely a bad thing. The no-makeup look suited her, but definitely showed her age. Not too shabby. "Mason mentioned something to me the other day, and I haven't stopped thinking about it," she whispered as she finally tore her eyes away from the ring. "How's the coffee?"

This time my smile was genuine as we were actually talking about something I cared about. "Perfect," I replied and I took another swig. "Does this little...visit have to do with Amelia's case?"

Slowly, she nodded her head and mashed her lips together, gathering her thoughts. "What if Amelia wasn't abducted?" she began, forcing every word, and she squeezed her eyes shut. "What if...she ran away?" When she opened her eyes, they frantically met mine, but a scowl set in on her normally calm face. Every so often she would glance to the left, and she started playing with her ring again. She wasn't telling me the entire truth. I don't know what she wanted to hide from me, but she was doing a horrible job.

I set my coffee down, and rubbed my hands across my face. Yes, this idea had crossed my mind several times, but we have absolutely no proof to back it up. Her belongings were still in her room, nothing was packed. Then again, Danny didn't pay attention to his daughter, so he really wouldn't know if something was missing. He didn't even know he invited a psychopath into his home with his teenage daughter. There is a slight chance that we may have missed something or overlooked it. Mason seemed pretty convinced that if she planned this, then she would've taken her books, but what teenage girl would do that? "Where is Mason right now?" I asked as I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath through my nose.

"University of Washington; he's on a tour. I don't see why that matters," she answered barely above a whisper. Maybe she was regretting her words.

I opened my eyes to see she was watching me closely with her eyes narrowed, like she was trying to read me the way I've read her. Then, I leaned forward and grabbed a pen and notebook as all the pieces started falling together. "How long has your son been wanting to attend that school?" I asked as I started writing notes.

"This shouldn't matter," she hissed, but I knew she would answer anyways, otherwise she wouldn't come here to waste my precious time. She knows how much time I've spent working on the case, and she knows any free time is dedicated to Amelia. "He only started talking about it this month. Before, I thought he wanted to go to Boise State."

There was always something a little off about Mason; he seemed suspicious, always looking over his shoulder. He would come forward with a new piece of information that always led to more questions. Every piece of evidence he somehow found when we couldn't, and I never understood how he stumbled upon them. He seemed satisfied with each dead end I crashed into. Has he been part of this plan all along? Did he help Amelia run away? Was he trying to throw us off her trail with false clues?

The shirt. He gave us that shirt, so we would find the man, and maybe they hoped we would get distracted, which we did.

But why would he tell Ashlyn about Amelia running away?

I looked back up at her with the dark circles under her eyes. It's possible he only told her to give her some comfort. He probably didn't anticipate that she would come to me with this information. She needed something to hope for, but he didn't think she would actually believe him. Sometimes the truth is harder to believe than a lie. Life would be easier if we could say Amelia was kidnapped and murdered by our perpetrator. Case closed.

Too bad I'm after the truth, and I need to bring her home. She's still missing, and I can't simply say one of the bodies we found is hers.

"When is Amelia's birthday?" I suddenly asked as the the gears began to turn.

She knitted her eyebrows together and craned her neck to look at the paper. "November tenth, why are you asking me this? Nix, you aren't making any sense," she whimpered as she slouched back.

"She'll be eighteen, correct?" I asked, ignoring the rest of her questions.

She stared at me, blinking as she struggled to catch up. "Yes?"

I looked directly in her eyes, wishing she would understand because I wasn't about to explain this break in the case, which was actually one big waste of time. Well, not completely. I did catch a psychopath, saved three girls, and solved multiple cold cases, but we were never close to finding Amelia. Those two did a decent job at hiding her.

Ashlyn's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hand. Then, she shook her head in disbelief. "Do you think they planned this?" she hesitantly asked. "Mason wouldn't do something like that!"

"I think he would."