himself. “It’s
possible. I’m sorry this isn’t my area. I can only enter your
statement. A missing person detective will follow it up.” Not my area? What
are you on about? You’re a cop, Lucas! Everything is your
area . He
needed to get away from her. Trying to string a thought together
was becoming impossible. He was awestruck, something he couldn’t
remember being in a long time and never this powerfully.
“ Fine,” she said standing with haste. “Thank you for your
time.” She strode out of the room and down the hall.
Lucas sat mesmerised for a moment, attempting to recover
from meeting the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. Sure he’d seen
and met a lot of pretty girls but they had never rendered him
completely hopeless before. He hadn’t even interviewed her
properly. Being so close to her was beyond intoxicating. He hadn’t
asked her name. He hadn’t told her his. He hadn’t asked her enough
questions. Was he going to jeopardise this investigation because
he’d lost his head over a passing infatuation?
Shoving his fanciful thoughts aside, Lucas considered for a
moment the possibility Elle had been kidnapped by the same perp,
even though her description didn’t match the pattern. Could the
killer have changed MO? He’d better fill Maggie in on the details,
it could be important.
Incensed with himself, Lucas went back to his desk to speak
with his partner. He slammed down into his chair, disrupting Maggie
from her note taking.
“ What’s eating you? I thought you were going to grab us some
breakfast.”
“ I got side tracked. Another girl has gone
missing.”
“ What, who, when?”
“ She’s blonde.”
“ So? Maybe it isn’t just about hair colour. Was there anything
that was the same as the others?”
“ Yeah, her personal belongings are still at home.”
“ Well what else? Is there a mystery guy? What?”
“ I don’t know,” he mumbled.
“ What?” She frowned.
“ I got distracted.” He wouldn’t look up at Maggie and
continued to stare down at his notes.
“ Distracted?”
“ Yeah, I was thinking with the wrong head.”
Maggie laughed.
“ What’s so funny?”
“ You. I thought you were this tough, impenetrable brick
wall.”
“ She was pretty, I haven’t been laid for a while, no big
deal,” he lied, hoping to avoid further questions. He knew this was
not the reason for his reaction but couldn’t understand exactly why
he’d responded as he had.
“ I didn’t think anyone or anything got to you, well not on
first sight anyway.”
“ You did.” He lifted his eyes from his notes and offered a
slight smile. “Look, I fucked up, it won’t happen
again.”
“ Ok,” she smirked raising an eyebrow. “I believe
you.”
“ So how about we concentrate on the case at hand and not my
lack of sex life. I think we should check out the other warehouses
seeing the first one was a bust.”
“ Sure, I don’t think we can rule out this missing girl. Did
you even get her name?”
“ Yes, Elle Sheridan.” He glared at her.
“ My mistake.” She lifted her hands in a gesture of surrender.
“Let’s go then.”
They headed out and this time Lucas went in Maggie’s car. He
needed time to collect himself. Maggie waited a few moments before
bringing up the subject again.
“ Did you get Elle’s address? Maybe we can re-interview ...
what was her name?”
Lucas paused. “I don’t know.”
“ You didn’t even ask that?”
“ I told you, I wasn’t concentrating. Besides we can look up
her address.”
“ I suppose. This isn’t like you. Are you alright?”
“ Yeah, just not sleeping well.”
“ The dreams?”
“ Yeah, how did you know?”
“ You’re distracted and you look uneasy. I’ve seen the look
before.”
“ It’ll pass, it always does. I’ll follow up the missing girl
in the morning.”
“ Ok, but I’m always here if you need me.”
“ Yeah, I know, thanks, Mags. Let’s just hope the missing girl
has nothing to do