Chapter 4 : Detective Reeves
918 Words
Detective Aaron Reeves hated unsolved cases.
Not because they damaged his clearance rate.
Not because they made him look incompetent.
Because they lingered.
They sat in the back of his mind.
Quiet.
Persistent.
Like a splinter beneath the skin.
The Amelia Carter case had become exactly that.
---
Five days had passed since the teenager vanished from the motorway service station.
Five days without a witness.
Five days without a body.
Five days without a single credible lead.
The girl had simply disappeared.
As though the darkness beyond the treeline had swallowed her whole.
---
Aaron sat alone in the Major Crime Unit office.
Most of the building had emptied hours ago.
The clock on the wall read 9:43 p.m.
Rain rattled softly against the windows.
The same weather that appeared in the CCTV footage.
The same weather from the night Amelia vanished.
---
His desk was buried beneath paperwork.
Witness statements.
Forensic reports.
Maps.
Photographs.
Three empty coffee cups.
The investigation had consumed nearly every waking hour of the past week.
And somehow he felt further away from answers than when he started.
---
The official theory remained voluntary disappearance.
Teenage girl.
Possible family issues.
Stress.
Mental health concerns.
Runaway.
The usual explanations.
The comfortable explanations.
Aaron didn't buy any of them.
---
Runaways took things.
Money.
Clothes.
Phones.
Plans.
Amelia had left everything behind.
Including her car.
---
People didn't abandon their entire lives because they felt like taking a walk through the woods at three in the morning.
At least not without a reason.
---
He opened another file.
A routine missing-person report from four months earlier.
A university student.
Male.
Nineteen.
Vanished from a train station.
No witnesses.
No body.
No explanation.
---
Aaron frowned.
Something about the report felt familiar.
---
He pulled another file from the growing pile.
A woman missing from a supermarket car park.
Three months ago.
No witnesses.
No body.
No explanation.
---
Then another.
And another.
And another.
---
A strange unease settled in his stomach.
---
Individually the cases meant nothing.
Collectively they formed a pattern.
One nobody had noticed.
Because the disappearances occurred across different counties.
Different jurisdictions.
Different police forces.
---
Nobody had connected them.
Until now.
---
Aaron opened a spreadsheet.
Started entering dates.
Locations.
Victim details.
Anything that might matter.
---
After twenty minutes the pattern emerged.
And when it did, he wished it hadn't.
---
Every disappearance had occurred within the past six months.
---
Not seven.
Not eight.
Six.
---
The exact timeframe felt significant.
Though he couldn't explain why.
---
Then he noticed something else.
---
Most victims had reported sleep disturbances before vanishing.
Nightmares.
Insomnia.
Sleepwalking.
---
His fingers stopped moving.
---
That wasn't normal.
---
A coincidence maybe.
Two cases.
Possibly three.
Not twenty-one.
---
Aaron leaned back in his chair.
The office suddenly felt colder.
---
Outside, thunder rolled across the city.
---
He rubbed his eyes.
Then reached for Amelia's file again.
---
A folded evidence photograph slipped free.
The drawing.
The spiral eye.
---
The image stared back at him.
Simple.
Crude.
Yet strangely unsettling.
---
He had seen it before.
Not the symbol itself.
Another version.
Somewhere.
Recently.
---
Aaron searched the database.
Ten minutes later he found it.
---
Then another.
And another.
And another.
---
His blood ran cold.
---
Seven victims had drawn the same symbol.
Not identical.
But close enough.
Spiral.
Eye.
Spiral.
Eye.
Again and again.
---
People from different towns.
Different ages.
Different backgrounds.
No connection whatsoever.
---
Yet somehow they all drew the same thing.
---
Impossible.
---
Aaron stood and walked to the office window.
Rain streaked the glass.
The city beyond appeared distorted.
Blurry.
Unreal.
---
For the first time he considered the possibility that this wasn't a conventional investigation.
The thought annoyed him immediately.
He hated speculation.
Hated conspiracy theories.
Hated supernatural nonsense.
Evidence mattered.
Facts mattered.
---
But facts were becoming increasingly difficult to explain.
---
His phone buzzed.
---
An incoming email.
Subject line:
ENHANCED CCTV FOOTAGE - AMELIA CARTER CASE
---
Aaron stared at it for several seconds.
Then opened the attachment.
---
The upgraded image filled his screen.
A still frame from the service station footage.
The figure standing among the trees.
---
The enhancement software had cleaned away much of the rain distortion.
Increased clarity.
Improved contrast.
---
Aaron expected disappointment.
A tree.
A shadow.
A trick of the light.
---
Instead he felt every hair on his body stand up.
---
The figure was a woman.
---
Standing perfectly still.
Partially concealed among the trees.
Watching Amelia.
---
Smiling.
---
The smile looked wrong somehow.
Too wide.
Too fixed.
Too deliberate.
---
Aaron zoomed in.
---
The face sharpened.
---
His stomach dropped.
---
Because he recognised her.
Not personally.
From another file.
---
A case report from six months earlier.
A victim.
One of several fatalities connected to a fire at a remote wetland known as Blackwater Swamp.
---
The woman's name was Zoe Bennett.
---
And according to every official record available...
Zoe Bennett was dead.
---
Aaron stared at the image.
Unable to look away.
---
Outside, lightning flashed across the night sky.
For an instant the office window reflected his own face.
And standing behind him-
A dark figure.
Watching.
---
Aaron spun around.
The office was empty.
---
When he looked back at the monitor, Zoe's smiling face still filled the screen.
Waiting.
Watching.
As though she knew he was finally paying attention.
- Writer
