Leave No Trace

Chapter Three

Danielson

He walked into the drama room, an old welding room, which was loud, despite the bell having rung.

"Are you Mrs. Bennett?" He asked a petite blonde woman, who was running around, trying to do attendance, and periodically sighing in frustration. Harried, loves her job, frustrated at a lack of something in this class... but what?

"Yes, I am. Who are you?"

"I'm Detective Mike Danielson, Niagara Regional Police, I'm here to ask you some questions about your student, Allison Perry."

The woman froze, turning to look at him. "Has something happened to Allison?"

"You know her?"

"I recommended her for a theatre review program, she's one of my new students, so I don't know her that well.... I suggest you ask the class." She said, but she looked worried. "What happened?"

"She's missing, we suspect abduction." He said quietly. The look of shock and horror on her face was evident enough: She cared for this girl, even if she didn't know her.

"Class!" She walked into the middle. "Circle, please."

The group of about twenty students or so immediately arranged themselves into a large circle.

"Kids, we have a problem." She explained. "This is Detective Danielson of the NRP."

The looks of alarm were enough to tell him everything. Kids who probably smoked pot behind the school were the first to react, looking surprised, before masking their apparent horror.

He cleared his throat. "How many of you know Allison Perry?"

They all raised their hands, some of them more hesitantly than others. "Did something happen?" A girl asked, her hair mousy brownish-blond, her eyes a pretty blue. She was petite, but bold.

"Can I ask who you are?" He asked.

"I'm Arabeth Raneri. Everyone calls me Ara."

"You're friends with Allison?"

"Yeah, she's one of my closest friends." She explained. "What the hell happened?"

"I wanna know too." Another girl chimed in, this one African-Canadian, her hair fuzzy and brown, her eyes a light brown, her makeup bold.

"Who are you?"

"Dana Elroy, Allison is my friend. She's a genius." The girl faltered on the last word, as if unsure of herself.

"So what happened?" Ara asked, her tone sharp.

"She's gone missing." He said. "She disappeared last night. We don't have any leads yet, but if you two ladies wouldn't mind answering some questions in the next few days?"

"Of course not." Ara said, taking off her glasses and swiping a sleeve over her eye. "I hope Allison is okay. We were talking yesterday too...."

"Yeah, I talked to her last night as well.." Dana said. "Did you talk to that creepy guy who follows her around? Dean?"

"We haven't had a chance to speak to him yet." Danielson admitted. "And..." He trailed off. Don't these girls know she's dating this Dean? They should know. But you can see it in their eyes, Mike. They don't know a thing.

"He's like a stalker."

"I thought he seemed nice." Ara spoke up then, glancing over at Dana. They clearly had some sort of... dislike, maybe just neutrality. Neither seemed to be particularly interested or disinterested in each other.