The Story So Far > Chapter 36

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Chapter 36 - Cole - Gone Girl

Eliza’s out of hospital now. Her scrapes hadn’t been so bad as they had looked, mostly surface level, thanks to her training and her ability to defend herself. I dread to think what would have happened if she had been anyone else. But, still, I can’t help but think why Daisy was running through the woods in a cocktail dress with that injury to her side if she hadn’t been involved in it somehow. 

I hadn’t made that bruise when I first tackled her to the floor, had I? 

I run through the events of the forest over and over and over. Even dragging myself right to the scene of the crime itself to walk it through physically. 

But I can’t see anything I would have done that would have caused that injury. 

So, I return home, lost and confused. 

My home feels more empty than usual these days, without Eliza and without Daisy’s messages popping up all the time. I scroll through the dozens of messages I’ve sent her since woke and told me what happened and wince at the bipolar nature of them all. They range from “Daisy, I know what you did. Don’t think you can escape me.” to “Just answer the phone, please. We need to talk. I need to hear you. I need to hear you’re okay.” 

But she hasn’t even opened them. Her phone goes straight to voicemail. I keep imagining her limping away, her arms around her side protectively as she hobbled into the treeline. 

So alive. 

Then. 

Completely gone.  

Dread feels like a heavy weight around my shoulders, dragging me down. I can’t shake the feeling that something has happened to her. And I can’t believe that the last time I saw her, I thought she’d attacked Eliza. I feel so stupid now. 

Daisy’s been AWOL for three days before I’m approached at my desk by a haggard and furious looking Captain. I know the moment he enters the bullpen that he’s coming for me, eyes fixed, face stern. He seems to have aged overnight. 

Did Daisy tell him what I thought? Did she tell him I hurt her? Did I hurt her?

“Maddox, office. Now.” He sounds like someone else completely, it’s startling. I rise, catching the eyes of the entire room on me as I follow him to his office. 

Closing the door behind me, I watch him throw his bag down on the floor, wiping his face with a chubby hand the size of a plate. 

“I know this is unprofessional, Maddox,” he starts, his usual jovial voice tinged with pain. “But I want her to know that I miss her and I’m worried about her.”

Who? Eliza? 

“Sir?” I ask in a quizzical but professional tone.

“Daisy. I know she’s angry at me, but please tell her I’m just worried about her.” 

I feel like the world has gone numb in an instant. Like someone’s put the bustle of the precinct on mute, the edges of my vision blurring until I see only him. Hear only his words. I miss her. I’m worried about her. 

“But-” I try to reason, because there’s no way he’s telling me what I think he’s telling me. “She lives with you.” 

His eyes snap to mine, wide and round and I think we must feel the same way. 

“She’s staying with you,” he says. It’s almost a question. Simple and unassuming but it’s a statement like he knows it’s true. 

But it’s not. The numbness clenches around my stomach almost painfully. 

“No…” 

He steps towards me, his eyebrows high, teeth clenched, his hands in fists at his side. “What do you mean, ‘no’? Are you telling me she isn’t staying with you?” 

It takes all my energy to prise my jaw apart, bile rising in my throat: 

“She is not staying with me. When was the last time you saw her?” 

His outbreath is an audible controlled gust as his hands begin to tremble, eyes fixed on me unseeingly. “Three days.” 

The forest flashes into my mind, her walking away from me, limping, clutching at her injured side, heading between the trees in the middle of nowhere. 

Why hadn’t I gone after her the moment I was free? I left her injured and alone. Vulnerable. I let her walk away from me because I thought she was a serial killer.

The whole idea of that little fiery woman being a murderer is absurd to me now. Laughable. She only wears summer dresses. She wears headbands for Christ’s sake. I let a defenseless injured woman walk away from me into the unknown. 

I’m so lost in my own mind that I don’t even notice the phone that’s thrust under my eyes at that moment. Blinking, it comes into focus as the Captain’s voice rises as if someone’s turned the volume up on his voice. 

“... staying with you.” 

The texts swim in front of me. 

“You’re so controlling. I’m an adult. I just need some time. I’m with Cole. I’m safe. Don’t contact me for a bit.” 

Three days ago. Roughly twenty-four hours after the forest. I breathe easier although my chest still feels like it’s constricted by a giant rubber band. She probably made it through the forest. At least. 

After her last message, her uncle’s texts and mine look very similar with ‘where are you’s and ‘Daisy just call me please’s. The familiarity of the heartbreak sends a sharp stabbing sensation through my chest. 

“So… she hasn’t been heard of in forty-eight hours,” I summarise, my training taking control of my body even though I want to scream in the face of everything I know to be true. “Since… I… saw her in the woods.” 

“She’s officially a missing person.” The Captain also seems to be relying on police instinct now, and I can actually see his spine straighten, his jaw set determinedly. “You’re leading this Cole, I don’t care if you’re too close to the situation. I want my niece found.” 

He throws open the door to his open so hard the hinges scream in protest. “Everyone. Briefing room. Now.” He shouts without waiting for quiet. It doesn’t matter: everything about him, tone, demenour and body language, screams for obedience. And twenty plus officers, detectives and uniforms alike scrabble to follow him as he strides through the building. 

“What the hell’s got his knickers in a twist?” Jahlani chuckles at his own joke at my shoulder as we join the stream of people. 

I pull up a chair and sit rigidly down. I don’t want to sit. I don’t want to listen. I want to be out there, boots on the ground in the forest. I want to be with her now. 

“Daisy. She’s missing.” I say curtly.

Jahlani’s eyebrows shoot into his hairline comically. “Oh dang.” He turns, listening to the Captain’s rant about the importance of finding his niece. “Are you going to tell him about you suspecting her? Confronting her? Getting handcuffed and given the slip in the car?” 

I shoot him a look, that would have him writhing in pain if I had my way. 

“No.” 

Jahlani pulls his lips down in a look of mock admiration. “Wow, breaking the rules again, Maddox. Naughty boy.” 

I ignore him. Usually his little jibes will at least soothe the intensity of our job. Today, though, it’s making me want to shoot him in the foot. 

“I don’t want her to have to face the music from it when she comes back. She didn’t deserve whatever it is she went through and I know that I’m missing some big important piece of this puzzle.”

The Captain gestures for me to come forwards, bringing up a map of the forest on the screen. I point out the scenes I last saw Daisy, framing it like it’s a lover’s tiff.

I turn to face the group of people, my heart thundering as I go through lie after lie, without even fully understanding why I’m protecting her. 

All I know is that it’s the right thing to do and I’m going to do it. 

“Daisy was highly emotional when last seen. She won’t have walked far. There must be someone closeby in the village of-”

Tittering giggles cuts me off and I look at the schooled faces of officers around the room trying not to snigger. “Is something funny?” I ask, unamused. 

Jahlani’s openly delighted eyes catch mine, the only person in the room daring to be seen to be having a good time. He nods behind me and I turn. 

Behind me, the screen has hit saver mode. A whimsical image filling the projector. 

Me. 

A whimsical image of me. As a cat. Complete with a pretty pink bow. 

My mouth falls open. 

Behind me, the Captain is barking something at the room of people, something about professionalism. 

But I don’t care. The carefree beaming, obviously photoshopped image of me as a tabby cat- ears, whiskers and bushy brows- it calms me. 

Because it’s a punishment. For the forest, I’m sure. It might be malicious in her way but it serves a different purpose right now. 

All I know is this: My hellcat’s okay.