The Missing

The Missing Part 8

Jess and Andy stayed far away from each other for about a week. They both needed to decompress from the car and the screaming. Andy knew he had messed up badly by yelling at his rookie partner. The entire point of a rookie was that he did what rookies were supposed to do. That's what he did and that's why Andy kept him on the case. Not only did he not see the scum in the house as criminals he found a way to relate to them as normal people. That was something Andy after years of burying the innocent, fallen brothers in blue, and comforting to many grief-stricken families, couldn't do anymore. That's what made Jess so necessary to him.

When he had taken this job it was because it was in such a small community. He was sick of crooks and maybe he was looking for Mayberry but Tiffany disappeared and People were looking for him to lead them because he was supposed to know-how. the truth is never known to prepare for the abduction of a young child or teenager. with an adult, you can usually start with their vices. their credit cards, who they want to work with, who they saw after work if they made it home when they said they were going to make it home that sort of thing. Kids and teens made it tougher because they couldn't be tracked on an impersonal level. You had to get in their world and let yourself be a part of it. The Mayor had done the right thing originally he had made Tiffany everyone's daughter sister or sweetheart. That's good for when you need people on the lookout, people trying to jog their memory but this is getting harder now. The people needed answers. It had been too long now and this girl was still missing. The town was fraying as fast as the police were. Bringing in the red squad the special police the mayor kept in city hall wasn't having the effect that Andy hoped for.

The red squad were more men like Andy who dealt with the missing kids and general asshats that every town had but no one wanted to know about. These where people Andy could understand even though bringing them into the investigation in front of people was a bad idea. The former sheriff was not the good ole country boy everyone assumed he was.

The reason he had gone alone with Jess to what he was certain was a house full of cons was simple. He might have the faint odor that somehow a con could sense on a cop but Jess gave him a sort of bumbling cop look that threw cons into feeling safer and more likely to open up about what ever stupid thing they where doing but the fish just ate Jess up and didn't give him even a nibble to go on .