Hiding Within The Betrayal

Chapter Thirty One: I don't see why not

We didn't speak much that night.

Though he clearly wanted to, I wasn't in the right mindset to speak to anyone, least of all him. I've been told that I am heartless. Or cold. Sometimes that's what's best, Skylar was my everything and everything between us was amazing until that fateful day - only the people you hold close can truly stab you in the back. Given the way that I let my guard down with him in the office the night prior: I had to put distance back between us. It would be much easier to carry on as if nothing had ever happened.

That's the dilemma. Things had happened.

When I came in late the next day, Tess met me at the door like a furious school teacher, groaning at me, "So who was she this time?"

Fed up before I had even come into the room, "I wasn't with anyone last night Tess."

Raising her brow skeptically, "So you didn't get laid then? Did you get rejected?"

"Tess for God's sake would you shut the hell up already before you give me a headache?" I snapped, "Keep your gob shut."

My team, who were closer to Tess's desk than Patrick's team, had overheard my uproar and turned to us to see what the fuss was about. I could see her eyes shift from me to the side where I knew they were sat. As if never having made the joke, she returned to her normal tone, "What are you working on this morning? Did you finish everything yesterday?"

Sidetracking her question, "Detective Callaghan needs my help so I'll be assisting with the ir case today."

Her mouth opened but nothing came out as her words fell apart. Another witty comment I assume. Instead, "Is it going to take all day?"

By that point, we were joined by Patrick. He had clearly seen me come into the office and overheard his name. I turned to him and was greeted with a polite smile. His attention fixed on Tess. On my behalf, he answered, "I have two different speculations for where the girl is. I can't afford to be wrong on this so I need Degarmo's opinion since she knows best."

She took a second to consider what was said, "Again, that doesn't answer my question on how long it will take you, are you going to need her all day or-"

Mid-sentence, she stopped as the phone began ringing. Lunging back towards her desk, she pulled it to her ear, "Hello, Detective Degarmo's office, how may I help you?"

Patrick lent towards my ear and in a hushed tone, "Now is our chance to get out of here." His breath was warm on my skin; it caused a meager smile to spring to my lips. Nodding to him briefly we began to move. By that point, Tess was finished with our conversation, she had returned to her desk to take the call and was frantically scribbling something down on one of many colour coded notebooks. Patrick then caught my attention again, "Should we take this to your office? The case I mean."

"Why would we do that?" I pressed.

Wounded by my comment, he had no response. I took it as an answer and directed myself back over to his team. I seated myself down and expressed my admiration in their quick progress with the case and the leads they had dived into. Patrick soon enough came over to join in with the discussion. Only, I had taken his normal seat so he had to pull another chair across.

Keeping his team informed, "Since we have two possible routes to take, I thought I would do what you all suggested and ask Degarmo to oversee the findings."

So he hadn't decided to involve me on his own accord? In disbelief, I couldn't understand why. Perhaps he wanted to show off when he solved the case.

Andrew was the first to pipe up, "The child is a five year old girl who lives with her mum. Her mother and the mother's friend, took their children to the park together. The pair both have five year old daughters. Both were in the middle of a conversation when the daughter of the second mother ran over to say that she couldn't find Jaylan. The mothers assumed that they had been playing hide and seek so at first neither thought anything of it until the girl returned ten minutes later. Crying that she still couldn't find her. There were, according to the mum, three other parents on the park at the time. They-"