The Missing

72 hours so far. The cops were no closer to finding Tiffany then they were when she was reported missing. They had already tagged this as a red file case. The red file was a little known police designation that not even all of the department knew existed. The Mayor and Police chief didn't even want it discussed inside the police station. The team assigned red cases worked out of a small room in Mayor's office, Something the Police Chief was more than happy to do once it had been suggested to him. That way if Red file came out before it was supposed to he could deflect most of the blame higher up to the mayor himself

They made a show of questioning Mary and Minnie the two girls she usually got off the bus with. However, their most helpful comment had been, that she had not ridden the bus home, instead, she had decided to go to the Mall. According to her parents, that was something they had expected. She was put in charge of all of the decorations for the fall homecoming and Halloween Bash. Why hadn't she asked other members of the committee to go along? If that's what this trip was about?

The mall bought the cops time as it was a hangout spot for teens. there were also shop owners to question. So 72 hours, with no real news, the police said was not a reason to panic. Knowing that she hadn't gotten on the bus to go home, and had gone to the mall instead, gave them more ground to cover and quite a few more people to track down. Given that this was a small town and they didn't have a huge department, to begin with, they needed time to do the work. Unfortunately, this was not like the cop shows on TV where you could find people quickly and just as quickly establish why they had gone to the mall. Not everyone they spoke to liked being questioned and had refused to answer. Another thing that people had to remember is that all the girls were in their last year of high school. Although these girls had managed to stay friends in spite of traveling in different social circles. As close-knit as the town looked and wanted to believe themselves to be the internet had become part of people's lives especially out this way. It had saved a lot of people a lot of travel time when the local mall didn't have what you where looking for.

Knowing she wasn't with Mary and Minnie was a plus. Because, the other girls had been hurt or abducted as well. It also gave a small bit of hope that Tiffiny hadn't been hurt either. They had made a show of questioning the other girls and that was completely purposeful. Very very few people read everything they agree to any more a product of the computer age. While people spent a large amount of time talking about what to post online and that part of online safety no one thinks to remind people to read what they sign up for carefully. So we have become a society of skimmers.

So no one really read the article that appeared a few months ago promising better roads, After all, that's what the people wanted, No one finished that article or people would have stayed with lousy roads. The article went on to mention that in exchange for the roads the state was making the city turn one of the older homes into a halfway house for people who needed help fitting into society again or maybe they had seen it but the reporter was vague on details and the editor so close to his own retirement didn't push the issue. He had given his life to the paper starting out as a paperboy as soon as he could. It was still operating and with a good readership when so many other local papers had folded unable to keep up with the times that was the legacy he left. 

Now the new editor had the disappearance of Tiffany to help keep the public glued to the paper. The paper had more time to devote to the story and they followed the cops and not only did they report the official story, but they got milage out of the shocked school who was thinking of canceling the homecoming dance if the police didn't find something within the next week or two. The students were now avoiding the mall and going straight home after school. No high school would admit that this had shattered their belief that bad things happened to other people. The shops were feeling the tragedy in their own way, head offices states away from this were whispering that they had kept these stores open mainly because the rent was cheap. Maybe there was a reason for that after all a popular student had disappeared from there. How safe was their products and the employees if a teen on public transportation could just disappear like that? All Tiffany's parents could do was hold out hope the phone would ring.