Ulterior Motives

Everything Changes

'Hello again,' Mrs Topaz said, opening her arms to hug Cheryl. They had all become quite close, since Cheryl was the main cop working on Toni's case.

'Hi, this is Officer Davis, he is the colleague of mine who discovered the misplaced vinyl,' Cheryl introduced him, as he shook hands with both of Toni's parents.

The detectives headed upstairs and into Toni's room, both walking straight to the shelf with the records on. Officer Davis picked up the white case that was at the front, it had a picture of Whitney Houston on the front in a black, skimpy outfit.

He opened it up, revealing the large disk. As he did, a small slip of paper fell out and slowly descended to the floor, swaying side to side like a feather that had fallen from a bird.

Cheryl reached to the ground and picked it up.

'Distance,' she read aloud, looking Officer Davis in the eyes, the same emotions she felt were reflecting back from him.

What could this mean? Distance to what? Austin?

'We should look in the others,' the man remarked, reaching up to grab the record 'Wannabe' off the shelf. Once again, a slip of paper fell out when it was opened, but this one said 'Will you help me out?' in cursive, flowing writing.

Cheryl opened the next one, finding another piece of paper, and again in the next.

'We have to get these back to the station, we can't loose any of them,' she told her colleague, a serious undertone in her voice.

They grabbed half of the records each, quickly loading them into Cheryl's police car.

Mr and Mrs Topaz hurried outside to see what was going on.

'We found lots of notes inside of your daughter's record collection, we are going to take them back to the station and try to unpick the words, we'll let you know when we know more,' Cheryl told them, her heart pumping so hard, trying to fight its way out of her chest.

She opened the passenger side of the car, hopping in. Toni's parents had a sad, desperate look in their eyes, but beyond that was something more; exhaustion. Cheryl wondered if the young girl had any idea what she was putting her family through.

'You need to put your belt on,' Officer Davis reminded her gently, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She reached her right hand to the edge of the car, grabbing the metal piece of the belt and sliding it into the slot. The click it gave off sounded through her head like a million gunshots. With her eyes welling with tears, she clenched her jaw, looking up to try and stop them from falling.

Seeing the family so broken, almost hopeless, would be enough to upset anyone. But soon, the other officer pulled away from the house and Cheryl's mind drifted, putting those poor parents to the back of it for the time being.

When they arrived at the station, both officers headed to Cheryl's office, sitting down with all of the vinyls.

They took the pieces of paper out and laid them down on the desk, being sure to keep them in the same order that the vinyls had been in on the shelf. Once everything was in place, Cheryl read it aloud.

'Distance,' she started, pausing.

'Distance is not on our side,

It tears us apart,

Literally, metaphorically, spiritually,

But not for much longer.

Some say it's bad timing,

But I think that's bull,

You either love someone or you don't,

And I do.

Counting down the days,

Until I leave this town,

I need someone to cover,

Will you help me out?' She finished, turning to look at the older man's gaping jaw.

'It sounds like she was in love with someone and she ran away to be with them,' he remarked, reading the redhead's thoughts.

'And the last line makes it sound like they're helping to cover it up - what could that mean?' She wondered aloud.

'Maybe they could be making fake evidence or trying to stall us,' he suggested, his voice laced with uncertainty.

Cheryl began to consider that perhaps Toni never wrote this poem at all, that maybe even this was a cover up for what really happened. This poem just changed everything, and the redhead realised that the hunt for this young girl was far from over.

~~~

Author's Notes:

This was a big clue for the cops, probably the biggest they've found so far.
Who could this poem be about?
Do you think they are helping to cover up the disappearance?
Please vote and comment if you enjoyed!! 💛💛