Will’s bright blue eyes had gone dark and he stared down at the scarred desk like it held the mysteries of the universe. We hadn’t been partnered together for long, not even a year yet, but long enough that I had an idea of what was going on.
“Your parents called?” I guessed, and he nodded.
“Just after Christmas. They went on and on about how disappointed they were that theirboysdidn’t join them for Christmas,” he sneered. “They kept deadnaming Camille and whining about how they missed us being a family, except they made sure to keep mentioning ‘our boys’.”
“Jesus. I’m sorry, Will. Did they say the same thing to Camille?” She’d seemed okay after Christmas and Alex hadn’t mentioned anything, so hopefully not.
Will shook his head. “She was smart enough to block them years ago once she realized they’d never really accept her. I hung up on them, but I still haven’t blocked them. I wish I could, I just…”
“There’s nothing wrong with hoping they’ll come around, Will,” I murmured.
“They’re not going to. That would mean they’d have to admit they were wrong about something and I’m pretty sure they’d rather die.” He sighed heavily. “Sorry, we’re supposed to be fixing your problems right now, not mine.”
“We can multi-task. Besides, mine can’t really be solved until I can talk to Alex.”
“And mine won’t be solved until I grow a pair and block my asshole parents.”
I leaned back in my chair while Will slumped forward on his desk, but our tired sighs were identical. Both problems looked easy to solve on the surface, but the reality was so much harder.
Adding salt to the wound, the Perez file lay open between us, reports and paperwork scattered between us where we’d spent our entire Saturday morning and most of the afternoon re-reading everything, searching for anything we’d missed. Her parents still hadn’t heard from her, none of the surrounding precincts had reported sightings, and we were out of leads. Every day we didn’t find her was another day we failed the Perez family. In comparison, my own problems were inconsequential.
Will must have had the same thought, because he moved at almost the same time as me, grabbing a file and pulling it closer. We might not be able to solve our own problems, but we’d do everything in our power to bring Rebecca Perez home.
Shift change came and went unnoticed as we worked, reading and re-reading every interview, staring at the photos of the path through the trees and the road she would have been on. Things we’d already done dozens of times, but did again now because what else could we do?
Lost in the frustratingly useless clues, trying to wrest some sort of answers from them, I didn’t even hear the phone in our office ring, only snapping back to reality when Will’s startled exclamation echoed in the tiny office.
“What?” His eyes were wide and he sounded stunned. “Just a second.” He fumbled with the ancient phone on the desk and hit the speaker. “Can you repeat that?”
Eva Perez’s voice came through, shaking and tearful. “Rebecca’s home. She just walked in the door. She’s okay.”
“Is she hurt at all? Did she say what happened?” I asked, business-mode overriding my shock.
“She left with that boyfriend of hers, but she said he started acting like a jerk, so she ditched him and found her way back home.” Mrs. Perez laughed, though it sounded more like a sob. “She’s grounded for life, but she’s home. Thank you both for looking for her.”
Will wrapped up the phone call while I sank back into my chair. We stared at each other across the case file, and I wondered if he felt as numb as I did. Days of desperate searching, flinching every time the phone rang in case it was someone reporting a dead body, all for her to just walk back home like it never happened. It was the best possible outcome, and I was happy for her family, of course, but…
“I need a drink,” Will rasped.
I closed the folder in front of me and ran my hands through my hair. “Yeah. Let’s go get a fucking drink.”
***
Lowery’s Crossing only had two actual bars in town, one of which catered toward the rougher side of the population. Surprisingly few fights broke out there, but it was never outside the realm of possibility.
By unspoken agreement, we skipped that bar in favor of Lynn’s Tavern. Family-owned since the founding of the town, according to the plaque behind the bar, they leaned a little too heavily into the old-timey tavern aesthetic, but the drinks were good and the clientele here didn’t instantly get cagey when two cops walked in.
The seats at the bar were all filled and a decent number of the tables, as well, but Will and I managed to get drinks and settle down into a high-top table in a corner out of the way. We drank the first round in silence, Will staring down at the table while I idly scanned the patrons, not seeing a single one of them. The reality of the case crashed in and we both just needed a minute to convince our minds that we could breathe now.
Will grabbed us a second round of beers, returning to the table and setting in with a heavy sigh.
“What the hell.”
“Amen to that.” I echoed his sigh, taking the second mug. I didn’t take a drink, though, content to nurse this one for awhile.
“I’m glad she’s home safe, of course. This is the best outcome we could have asked for, just…” He glanced up at me. “Has anything like this ever happened to you before?”
“Honestly? No. It was much more common for these things to go the other way.”
