Page 90 of Diluted Truths
Was it petty and immature to correct him? Yes.
Did I care right now? No.
This man was refusing to start searching for Jackie.
The police officer rolled his eyes. “Dr. Bly… There are no signs of a struggle. There is no note. There have been no ransom calls. At this time, we will assume that Ophelia left of her own accord and will either come back or reach out in the next seventy-two hours. If you don’t hear from her by then, please come down to the station and we will start a formal search. Until then, sit tight. She’ll show up.”
With that, the Officer Assface (not his real name, but petty and immature were better than the existential dread I was experiencing) walked out of the apartment.
“Sit tight? Goddamn it,” I muttered as I sank into Jackie’s couch.
This can’t be real.
The police weren’t going to look and I had no idea where to find her. Fai had to know, he knew her better than anyone. Right? After I told him Jackie was missing, he immediately asked where I was and stated he would be right there.
It was as if my thoughts had conjured him up. Fai walked through the door with Sarah and Oliver right behind him. He must have called Oliver before coming here. The usual mild-mannered Fai was looking like a hurricane at the moment, ready to tear down any obstacles in hisway of finding Jackie. Good, that is exactly what I need. “Are the police leaving?” He asked as his eyes landed on me.
I rolled my eyes at the mention of Officer Assface. “Yeah, they stated they couldn’t do anything for the next seventy-two hours since there are no obvious signs that she left against her will.”
“She wouldn’t just up and leave,” Fai retorted as he looked around the living room, his eyes lingering on the same items mine did when I first arrived. Her keys, her purse, her shoes.
“I know.”
“What do you know?” Fai asked as he finally turned to me.
“Nothing. She’s just gone,” I explained as I sunk down onto the couch and buried my face in my hands.
This can’t be real.
“When did you get here and see she wasn’t here?”
“A little before seven, I think. The clock is frozen so I am not sure the exact time.” As I was talking, Fai marched into the kitchen to check the oven clock. “She was just gone, Fai,” I slowly looked up at him, the tears finally falling. “Jackie’s gone.”
“We’re going to find her,” Fai stated, clearly and confidently. Yet, I wasn’t sure I could believe him.
“How?”
“We’ll investigate. We’ll search. We will do whatever we need to find her. Jackie would do it for us.”
He was right. She would never stop searching for us.
God, I need her to come back to me.
“Will, has anything happened with the case lately?” Oliver interjected. He looked a lot calmer than I did, but I could see the anxiety swirling in his eyes.
“Nothing new. We only got back from Utah yesterday. She was getting calls from Griffin and her nightmares have continued, but nothing new,”I stated as I pondered if the case was the reason she was gone. “Do you think this is it? The Cult took her?”
Oliver answered as he sat next to me. “I just find it odd that Griffin and Joey both alluded to her going missing as well and then she does. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. The timing is just… odd.”
“I agree with Oliver. She has been heavily investigating this Cult of Creatio with you. Maybe the people involved with the Cult were growing anxious about what she was finding or wanted to use her to make an example,” Sarah said as she sat on the other side of me. She was a calming presence in the chaos. “It may just be Griffin. He’s smart, and slimy. I wouldn’t put it past him to find a way to get his hands on her.”
Besides Fai’s tinkering in the kitchen, there was a silence as we all contemplated if it was the Cult’s doing. We had been getting closer and closer to what Jackie would call the truth of the cult. The timing was also odd after Griffin’s threats and the nightmares. I needed to call her family and tell them what was going on. They deserved to know.
“We need to call Theo and Kai.”
“I already did,” Sarah stated. “Theodora is driving here now, I told her to meet us at the office when she got here.” She looked down at her wrist. “It is about a nine hour drive, so she should be here in the early morning. She called Malachi. I assume he’s on his way as well.”
“Thank you.” I looked into my friend's eyes. How could this be real? How could we be searching for Jackie? How could she be missing? “I… I can’t lose her, Sarah. I just got her, I can’t lose her.”
