Vanished || l.h. au

twenty

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Beth.

Who knew that a small town could have so much paper work? I didn’t even realize the miniscule cases that they actually file here; for example this file about the candy bar stolen from the local grocer around the corner. I guess when you live in a small town such as this one, the police has to keep themselves entertained somehow.

I sighed, closing the folder with the “thief’s” name, and turned to the file cabinet where I would put his file in its respective alphabetical order position. Poor kid, has a track record now for attempting to steal a candy bar.

“How’s your first day going?” I heard from behind me. I swivel my chair around, seeing Holden leaning against my desk on his elbows with a cheeky smile on his face.

“How do you not die of boredom in here?” I complained, running a hand through my hair before leaning against my desk with my elbow.

He shrugged, chewing his gum in an even more obvious manner. “You learn after a while that you really only come to work to watch Netflix and cat videos on YouTube. Only now and then do we ever really get an actual case.”

“Why did you choose to come back? I mean you went to school in a city much more populated than this, why didn’t you just choose to work as a police officer there instead? Surely, you would be more useful than just sitting around here doing nothing all day.” I asked, my curiosity getting to me. By coming back to work in this deadbeat town, he was practically throwing his life away. There was no opportunity here, it’s why everyone leaves.

He looked down, the smirk slipping from his face. “Sometimes your family needs you more.” He vaguely responded.

“And by that you mean your father? The sheriff?” I asked, leaning forward as I tried to keep a steady gaze with him. He stared back at me, not responding. After a moment he pushed off his elbows, bringing himself back into an upright position.

“I’ll be in my office if you need me. Have a good rest of your first day, Beth.” He said, his voice lacking emotion. My eyebrows furrowed as my gaze trailed his retreating figure. He closed his office door behind him, obstructing any view I had of him.

“Well that was suspicious.” I muttered to myself, leaning back in my swivel chair. I looked around at the other officers, some of whom were playing solitaire on their desktops or watching cat videos on YouTube like Holden had said earlier. Seeing them behind desks made me wonder how Holden had an office even though he was just a deputy. Guess there’s perks to being the sheriff’s son.

Speaking of the sheriff, I have yet to see him today and I’ve been here for a good 6 hours. “Hey.” I whispered, leaning over to the officer’s desk across from mine. He looked up from his solitaire game, his gaze meeting mine as he raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement. “Isn’t the sheriff supposed to be here?” I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders, shaking his head. “He’s never really here. Always has somewhere else to be apparently. Not that it really matters, nothing ever really happens here. Except for that boyfriend of yours, but that case is closed so we’re back to having nothing.” My heart dropped a little at the mention of Luke. Even though I knew he was alive, statements like that still hurt because it was a reminder that I did technically lose him, and I still could if I couldn’t figure this case out myself. If Luke really was being kept unconscious through anesthesia, his time was ticking.

I turned my attention away from the officer, a way of telling him our conversation was done and faced the file cabinets again. My fingers were itching to look through them again, but I knew I wasn’t going to find it. No matter how many times I’ve been through those files in the past few hours, I never once came across Luke’s name. I didn’t really recall any of the other names on file, my eyes briefly skimming them, and solely focusing on the ‘H’ files. Maybe I should look through the rest of the letters? Maybe he got mixed up in there somewhere? As I scooted forward towards the file cabinet again, a throat clearing caught my attention. I turned around, seeing that it was the officer I was previously talking to that caught my attention.