Flytrap | WATTYS 2022 SHORTLIST

5 | Spore

She had dreamed of him last night. She had imagined Officer Bard showing up at her doorstep, wearing a sharp tux instead of the usual drab uniform she had always seen him in. He had a bouquet in his hand, dahlias to be exact. How she knew this, she had no idea since she could barely tell a rose from a carnation. But here he was, standing there with the biggest and brightest grin she had ever seen. He opened his mouth to speak, and that's when everything came crashing down.

"Barbara! Wake up!" A voice too gruff and aged to be Jason's called out. "Barbara!"

Before her eyelids could even flutter open, a hand clamped down on her side, shaking her awake.

"Wha-What's wrong?" She sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. As her vision came into focus, she saw her father's face only inches away, filled with something she had rarely seen before.

Fear.

Alarmed, Barbara snatched her glasses off the nightstand and put them on her face to make sure she wasn't seeing things that weren't there. Sure enough, there was a deep frown etched across his face and an equally deep crease between his eyebrows to match.

"When was the last time you saw Jason?"

The solemn look in his eyes only made Barbara's heart beat faster. "Jason? You mean Jason Bard?"

"Yes, Barbara." He gave an impatient sigh. "This is important. I need to know when you last saw him."

Barbara blinked, trying to remember through the cloud fogging her mind. Yesterday. Yes, she had just seen him yesterday. "Yesterday, around noon. He took me out to lunch... Why? What's wrong?"

"All right, I'm going to need you to give a statement to one of the detectives-"

"Tell me what's wrong first!" Barbara lurched forward as far as she could, and grasped the sleeve of his shirt. "What's happened?"

James's expression softened as he took hold of his daughter's hand. "No one's seen Jason since yesterday afternoon. He didn't come in this morning. He didn't call in or anything. It's not like him."

Barbara could barely process what she was hearing. "He's missing?" Her voice, usually firm and full of confidence, had never sounded smaller.

James shifted his gaze to the side as if he were considering what to say.

"Dad-"

"We can't say for certain yet, but we are treating this as a missing person's case," he finally said after several seconds of long, painful silence.

There it was again, that knot in her stomach. She was sure it had never really left, only re-tying itself into an even tighter knot after coming undone the last time. Breaking the silence with a growl, Barbara grabbed her leg and swung it over the side of the bed. "He's not missing! Pamela knows exactly where he is!"

But before she could grab her other leg, James placed his hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "Pamela? Why would she know?"

Why would she know exactly? Call it detective instincts, call it a gut feeling, but Barbara knew Pamela knew where Jason was somehow. She was the only one who knew they had been together somewhere. The only one who knew they had taken a trip to the Isley mansion. But she didn't have time to explain this, not right now when the clock was ticking. "Just take me to her," she snapped.

A sharp glare reflected off of James's glasses, and for a moment, Barbara couldn't see his eyes. Yet, she was sure they were glowering at her. "Pamela's asleep right now," he answered. "And frankly, I don't see what she has to do with any of this."

Barbara gave an irritated sigh. "Just wake her up and I'll explain. I promise!"

"Explain what?" A voice sweeter than syrup asked. As if saying her name summoned her like a demon, there stood Pamela leaning against the doorway in a short, satin green nightgown. To describe it as skimpy would be an understatement. The hem barely even reached her bikini line, and one of the straps was sliding down her shoulder, exposing more skin than Barbara cared to see.