Against Hope

9 | New Hope

Dani's POV

I got out of my car as I walked up the steps to the police station. When I got inside, I was instantly greeted by my dad's colleagues. 

"Dani? Fancy seeing you here" Betty says as she gives me a hug. Betty Emerson was my dad's partner, they worked together on cases. She was quite young to already be a detective, probably around her late twenties. But according to my dad, she was top in her class and is one of the brightest detectives he has ever known.

"Just here to see my dad." I say with a smile.

"Well, I'm sure you already know the way to his office" She says with a smile. I thank her as I start to head down the hall into my dads office.  I knock on his door and when he opened the door a smile formed on his face.

"And when was the last time you came down to the station to visit me?" he says as he gives me a side hug and lets me in.

"Too long" I say as I sit on the chair across his desk. He was one of New Bern's detectives, a lot of people say that he does his job very well and I give him a lot of credit for that.

"So what brings you down here? Too important to say at home?" He asks and I shrug my shoulders.

"I don't know, just haven't been here in a while" I say with a small laugh.

"Well, that's a good thing. You know, a lot of people your age are here because they've gotten arrested for something" My dad chuckles. "But really, something brought you down here, so what is it?" he asks and this time I let out a sigh.

"Is there anything on Madison? Anything at all?" I ask. My dad lets out a sigh as he leans back in his chair with his arms crossed.

"Honey, we've done all we can and it's not my call on wether we continue searching for her or not. That decision to stop looking was from the Police Commissioner and once he said to stop, we have to." My dad says.

"But she is still out there, dad. She has to be" I say and my dad lets out a sigh.

"Trust me, if I can continue looking I would. I know how much she means to you, her family has been nothing but good to us, but there isn't much we can do at this point. We searched every part of this town and haven't had any luck."

"What do you think? What do you think happened to her?" I ask.

"Danielle, I can't answer that-"

"Please, just tell me what you think" I say and my dad lets out another sigh.

"Well, with the evidence that we have, which is not much to go off of, we think that she was abducted at the harbor. How we know that? There were two different sets of mud prints on the dock where we found her bracelet" my dad says and my heart started to race at this information.

"It was the biggest lead we had at the time. It wasn't much to go off of but it was something."

"Did you ever figure out whose footprints they were?" I ask and my dad shrugs his shoulders.

"One of them we did identify as Madison's, the other we narrowed it down to 20 different people. All of which we interrogated but they all came out clean, some had police records but not crazy." My dad says. "Look, I shouldn't be telling you this but I trust you that won't tell anyone."

"I won't" I say. After a bit more of small talk, I got into my car and called Rose. When she didn't answer, for some reason, I felt tears start to roll down my cheeks. It hurt knowing that Madison was still out there and I hated not knowing where she is and if she was okay or not.

I jumped when I heard someone knocking on my car window. I looked out and saw Betty. I rolled down my window and she looked at me a with concerned expression on her face as I got out of the car.

"Is everything okay?" She asks me and I shrug my shoulders as she wraps me into a hug.

I grew up without a mom. My mom and dad never got married because they had me at a young age. My dad told me that my mom did not want to take care of me and so she left when I was a baby leaving me alone with my dad. Betty, has been the mom figure in my life, even though she was young. She was there, she always has been.

"Yeah... it's just Madison's case." I say and Betty nodded in understanding. "I just want to know that she is okay. I want to know if she's even alive" I say.

"Danielle, I know that her absence has been hard on you and this town but you also have to understand that you can't let her hold you back. We are doing everything we can to-"

"My dad said you stopped looking. The police commissioner said that you had to stop" I say and I knew that Betty had nothing to say. "Look, I don't need your pity, Betty. I just want an answer but I know that I won't be getting one" I say as I start to turn away from her.

"Dani, wait" She says and before I step into my car again, I turn to face her. "I haven't stopped looking"

"What?" I ask, hoping that I heard her correctly. She looks around to make sure that no one was listening before she walks around the car to the passenger side and gets into my car. I do as well and then she turns to face me.

"I haven't stopped looking. I know what the commissioner said but I am not going to stop until Madison Monroe is found." She says with a straight face and I knew that she was serious.

"Why are you saying this?" I ask.

"Because I was abducted when I was 15 and the officers in my community didn't stop looking."

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Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it!

- Hannah