Ulterior Motives

The Red Rose

'9-1-1, what's your emergency?' The calm voice of the dispatcher said into the phone, not ready for what she was about to her.

'Help me!!' A woman screamed, 'my child has gone, she's not in her bed.'

'Ma'am, please try to stay calm, help is being arranged,' the dispatcher said.

——

'Officer Blossom, I have your first ever case,' Officer Harvey called out to the new cop he was walking up to.

The sunlight shone through the large windows behind the redhead and onto the man's tanned skin.

'There is a sixteen year old who has gone missing, and it is your job to find her,' he informed, his dark brown eyes holding contact with Cheryl's effortlessly.

'You will be paired with Officer Davis on this case, he will be there for support if you need it but you will take the lead,' he finished.

'Thank you sir,' Cheryl said to him, taking the case file from his hands.

As he walked away, the thirty year old opened the file immediately, eager to get started.

She was met with a picture of a young girl who had brown hair with pink highlights, she should be easy enough to spot in a crowd.

According to the file, Toni had never gone missing before and her parents were extremely worried. They were interviewed by the police who first responded to the crime the day prior but Cheryl decided she should question them herself.

——

'Hello Mr and Mrs Topaz, my name is Cheryl Blossom and I'm in charge of Toni's case,' Cheryl explained as the middle aged couple opened the door.

They gestured for her to come inside. The house was huge and very modern. She sat down on the white leather sofa in the living room. It seemed quite comfortable after the uncomfortable two and half hour ride from Austin to Houston.

'So, please could you tell me when you found that your daughter was missing?' She asked, opening her empty notebook.

'We just woke up yesterday morning,' Toni's dad began, 'around 8am I think, and she wasn't in her room.'

'Was anything taken from the room?' Cheryl asked, making a note of the time she was discovered missing.

'Not that we've noticed, you're welcome to take a look if you'd like?' Mrs Topaz offered.

Cheryl nodded and Toni's parents led her upstairs. At the top, they walked into the room on the left.

It was a fairly large room with a double bed on the wall opposite the door. On the left hand side was a white desk and a wardrobe and the right hand side was empty, except for it being covered from top to bottom with polaroid pictures.

'Wow, that's a lot of pictures,' Officer Blossom mumbled, going to take a closer look at them.

'Yeah, Toni is into photography,' her mother explained.

Upon closer inspection, she realised that the whole wall wasn't covered completely, there was one gap that showed the white wall beneath.

'Hey, do you know which picture used to be here?' Cheryl asked, gesturing for the family take a look at where she was pointing.

'I have a picture on my phone of when she first put them all up, I can look back for it,' Toni's father said, pulling his mobile from his back pocket of his jeans.

Cheryl wandered around the room whilst he was doing that, taking pictures of everything for later reference.

The bed was made, which showed that she either left before going to sleep at all or took the time to make the bed before leaving.

The window above it was closed, but the curtains were open, which seemed interesting.

She made a note in her book about how the curtains and sheets were left on the bed, as well as taking a picture.

'Here, I have the photo,' her father said, handing his phone to the officer.

Cheryl turned to face the wall of polaroids so she could see where the gap was.

She zoomed in on the picture right in the middle.

After a few minutes, she managed to line the photograph up with the wall and saw which picture was missing from the gap.

'A rose,' she said quietly, writing it down. The polaroid missing was a picture of a red rose being held by thin, tanned fingers in the middle of a patch of grass.

Although it was difficult to tell, since the picture on the phone was so zoomed in, it appeared that the sun's glare was across the camera when it was taken, so Cheryl realised that Toni must really be into photography for it to be taken with so much care.

She continued searching the room, taking pictures of anything that could help, it was best to leave a crime scene how it was when found and take pictures, rather than taking items out of the room.

When she had finished, she headed downstairs with Toni's parents and thanked them for letting her spend so much time in the room, before leaving to go back to the station.

——

Author's Notes:

First chapter is completeeeee!
What do you think so far?
Where could Toni be?
Do you think Cheryl will find her?
Thanks for reading, please vote and comment!! 💛💛