The Men's Camp

Chapter 8 Maria - Work

After a few weeks off work, Maria headed back into the office. It had been a sad and difficult time. In addition, Maria felt even more awkward and tense because of the way Mike had reacted to the photos of the strange woman's car.

"You are only obsessed about this because you lost the baby," he argued "I doubt it's the same woman, and even if it is, so what? We don't care about petty theft of experimental drugs or what women do with their bodies when it comes to surrogacy."

Although Maria had to agree with him, he respected her hunches and followed up on the information which is why, on her first day back at work, Mike grabbed her elbow as she was heading to her desk and steered her towards the door.

"I need you to come with me" he said bluntly "you opened this can of worms and now you can help me sort it out."

"What on earth do you mean?" she asked.

Mike explained that after Maria had sent the photos of the car number plates, he looked into the identity of the owner. Strangely he got blocked at every turn because the car belonged to a large corporation which seemed to not exist however he was able to get the address of a house because the car needed to be registered for parking. This got him curious, so he headed over to the house to knock on the door and let the woman know about some 'burglaries' in the area and ask if she had seen anything. 

The woman who opened the door was middle-aged with sharp eyes. When he spoke about police checking the area she went pale and began to look very frightened. She hurried to close the conversation and the door on him. A few days later a there was a report of a strange smell coming from the house and that was how she turned up dead.

"That's odd" mused Maria.

"And then some" said Mike continuing with his story, "First, we don't know who this woman was. Our 'Jane Doe' had no identification in the house, and we can't match her fingerprints or DNA in our system. Then, after the body was removed, we searched her home and it was clean. Like weird, bleached DNA removed, clean. Nothing in the cupboards, nothing in the drawers, nothing in the wardrobes. The place had been emptied! But...we found something"

Maria smiled, she knew he had caught a break.

"A tiny earring that had fallen into the hem of a sofa. Our team only found it by chance, but the DNA on it links it to that kid who was reported missing by that strung out mother. The one you interviewed."

Maria gasped, shocked at the possible connection.

"So, we need to go there now," Mike continued,  "and you need to talk to her because last time you ladies met, you were so good with her."

"What!" Maria's smile faded, "no, that's not my job. I only interview people when they make reports. I can't go to her house and..." she trailed off. Mike had already walked her to his car, and he looked determined about this. The protest died in her throat because her curiosity was piqued, and she wanted to know more about the mysterious woman and why the missing child's earring was in her strangely clean home.

However, once they arrived at Sue's place and realised how incoherent she was, it was very difficult to get anything straight. She was using drugs again and the house was filthy with plenty of strange people wandering through as they spoke. Sue spent most of the interview ranting and recounting the many injustices life had thrown at her over the years. When she started asking about how much compensation she should expect for the loss of her daughter Maria and Mike were more than happy to get out of there.

"Useless!" fumed Mike as they walked towards the road.

"Hello" a neighbour called over to them "are you here about Bella? Perhaps I can help?"