Detective O’Neil spoke again in a professional manner. “Jade, could you please tell me what you were doing when you first noticed this man?”
“Okay, I can do this,”
I said, more to myself than Aiden. “The first time I noticed someone watching us was about a week ago. We were on the beach at Surfer’s. He was standing on the boardwalk, looking down at the beach. At first I thought he was just taking in the scenery, but then… you know how you can feel when someone is watching you? Well, when I turned around to see, our eyes locked briefly before he turned away.”
“Is that it?” Detective O’Neil asked, thinking that it was just some guy checking out girls on the beach—big deal. That kind of thing happened every day around here.
“Well, I thought that was it, as he was gone the next time I turned around. It wasn’t until we went back to our car that I noticed him parked across the road from us, and he was watching us again.”
“Go on,” the detective said, seeming a little more intrigued.
“At first I thought it could have been just a coincidence, but you should have seen the way he took off when Aiden,” I pointed my thumb to the waiting room, in case he had forgotten who Aiden was, “showed up with one of our friends, Ben.”
Detective O’Neil pulled his eyebrows together as if trying to work something out.
“You know, Ben? The one you all thought had taken Chelsea,” I explained, which earned me a raised eyebrow from the detective.
Thinking back over what I had just said, I realised how it had sounded. I was practically calling them all morons. “Oh no, I didn’t mean for that to come out rude or anything. I was just trying to tell you who Ben is.”
I didn’t get any further warning glares, so I continued. “And what really got me thinking that something was really off was when I noticed his car parked outside her house the next day, and I got that same funny feeling that I had on the beach the first time I saw him. You know, that I was being watched. Now I know what you may be thinking, maybe this was all just a coincidence. But something tells me it’s not.”
Detective O’Neil nodded. I wished I knew what he was thinking, but until I learnt to hear peoples’ thoughts, I would have to do it the old fashioned way. I would have to wait for it to come from his mouth before I knew what was going on inside his head. Not that I thought he would say what he was really thinking. People rarely do, cops especially. I was pretty sure they liked to hold their cards close to their chest. Kind of like how Mum was being lately.
Before I could reflect too much on Mum’s strange behaviour, a small smile spread across the detective’s face. “I think we finally have something.”
A wave of relief swept over me. He had bought my lies.
“Do you think you could give a description of this guy to one of our officers to help complete a comfit of the man?” Detective O’Neil asked.
“A what?” I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
“Comfit. It stands for Computer Facial Identification Techniques.”
“Yeah, of course. I also remember a few things about his car that might help you.”
Detective O’Neil’s face lit up. This was obviously the break that he was hoping for. “What do you remember about the car?”
“He drove a white Toyota Hiace. I wasn’t able to get his full license plate, though.”
The detective’s eyebrows shot up. “You saw his number plates?”
“Yeah, but they were covered in dirt. And I was only able to make out an R and a 6—the R was the first letter and the 6 was the second last digit.”
Detective O’Neil looked at me, astonished that I could remember so much about a car that hadn’t seemed important at the time.
“I have a photographic memory,” I explained. If only he knew just how true that really was.
The detective finally gathered his thoughts before continuing with his questions. “Has Chelsea contacted you since her disappearance?”
I shook my head. “No, she hasn’t tried contacting me.”
Detective O’Neil put his pen down and looked me in the eye. “Do you know anything else that might help us find her?”
I had to hold it together for Chelsea’s sake. “No, I can’t think of anything else.”
He didn’t seem to mind that that was all I could tell him. After all, he had already got more out of his interview with me than he could have hoped for.
Detective O’Neil stood up, pushing his chair against the wall. “Well, we’re all done here, but do you mind staying so we can complete the comfit as soon as possible?”
I nodded. “Yeah, no worries.”
I turned to Mum, who was still in shock. I really hoped she would forgive me. “Do you mind if I take a few minutes before going through his description with the officer? This has been really hard on me,” I lied to the detective. The bit about the interview being really hard on me was true, but I really wanted to take a break so I could talk to Mum about what I had said to the detective.
“Yes, of course.” He seemed to know how difficult the ordeal must have been for me.
We were led back to the reception area. Aiden was waiting patiently for us to return.
“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Mum said, putting her arm around me.
We walked out of the station and down the steps.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you saw this guy following you and Chelsea around?” She was obviously hurt that I had kept this from her.
“I’m sorry, Mum.” I didn’t like lying to her. We had an agreement to not keep anything from each other, which had worked great up until recently, but I wasn’t the only one reneging on that promise lately.
Mum folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t understand why you wouldn’t tell me.”
“How was I supposed to tell you?” I snapped. “I’ve barely spoken with you since my accident. And now you’ve shipped me off to Aiden’s because, once again, you won’t be home.” I regretted saying it as soon as it had come from my mouth. I didn’t really feel that way, but it was easier to blame her than tell the truth. The thought of trying to explain that I had got all the information I had just given the police from a conversation I had with Aiden while I was in the female toilets and Aiden was in the police waiting room was too much. Oh, and he had got the information from his brother-in-law, who was really his father, who had got the description of the guy from entering our nosy next-door neighbour’s mind. Yeah, that would have been so much easier—not!
Mum’s expression went from shock to guilt. “I’m so sorry, honey.” She pulled me into a hug. “I didn’t know you felt that way.”
“I… I don’t,” I stammered. I didn’t want her to blame herself. And the last thing I needed was to have to worry about her thinking she was a lousy mother, which she wasn’t. “I’m sorry. I’m just really tired, and everything that’s happened over the last few days….” I cried into her shoulder.
“It’s okay, honey, it’s okay.” Mum squeezed me tightly before pulling back to look me in the eyes. “I thought I told you that you never have to worry about telling me anything. I am always here for you, good and bad.”
“Do you forgive me?” I hoped it would be that easy. I really didn’t need to add any more drama to my life.
“Of course I do,” she said with a smile. “Now, do you want me to stay here with you while you give the officer that description?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. I’m sure they’ll let Aiden in there with me this time.” Even if that wasn’t by their own choice. After what I’d seen Aiden do to Chelsea’s mum, I was sure he could convince them to do anything he wanted.
“Good. It’ll probably be a late one for me again, so the sooner I can get out of here, the sooner I might be able to get home to bed.” She looked beat. I wondered how much sleep she’d had lately.
I looked over at Aiden. “Do you mind staying here with me for a bit longer? I have to give them the description,” I said, mostly for Mum’s benefit. Aiden already knew what I was going to do. Hell, he was the one who was going to have to feed me the description of the guy.
“Of course I don’t mind,” he said, playing along.
“I almost forgot to tell you. They found the other missing girl,” Mum said, referring to the girl that we had seen on TV at Baxter’s.
“Are you serious?” I asked.
“Sure am. Turns out she was just another teen runaway,” Mum said. “Anyway, I better get going. Are you sure you’ll be all right in there?” She cocked her head towards the police station.
“I’ll be fine.”
Mum looked to be having second thoughts about leaving me, but Aiden said, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she’s okay.”
Mum smiled. “Well, call me if you need anything.”
“I’ll be fine,” I said once again. How true that was, I didn’t know. But I knew I had a better shot of getting through the sketch of the kidnapper with Aiden by my side.
Mum hugged and kissed me goodnight before hurrying back to her car, jumping in, and driving off. She had gotten more than she bargained for with my interview, and like the police, she was going to try her utmost to track down the kidnapper guy.
I turned to Aiden. “Let’s get this over with.”
Chapter 15
We walked back up the stairs into the police station.
Officer Jones immediately looked up from his desk. “Detective O’Neil asked me to let you know when I was ready to give the description of the suspect,” I advised him.
Officer Jones pointed me towards the seats to the side of his desk before picking up his phone and dialling. “Fritzie, I have the girl out here ready to go through the description of the suspect with you.” He nodded a few times at whatever this Fritzie was saying, then hung up.
Officer Jones did not say anything to us. He just went back to whatever he was doing before I had come back in the station.
The door opened to reveal a young female officer. She had short black hair that she wore in pigtails at the back of each ear. She had a silver stud in her left nostril and didn’t wear the normal police uniform. She was wearing black pants with a funky red top displaying the name of what I thought to be some local band, as I hadn’t heard of them. She looked like she had just come from a rave. Or maybe that’s where she was heading.
“She had just finished her shift and was about to head out to meet up with her friends when Detective O’Neil asked her to stay back to complete the profile with you,”
Aiden explained.
“Jade, I’m Fritzie, could you please come with me?” She gestured to the door she had just come through.
Aiden and I stood up from our chairs.
“And you are?” She directed the question to Aiden.
“I’m her boyfriend, Aiden Scott,” he answered politely.
“I’m sorry, you will have to wait here.”
Aiden stared at her for a moment. I knew what he was doing and hoped it would work.
“Ah, what the hell. Come on through. Maybe you’ll help stop Jade from getting nervous with completing the profile like so many others do.” She waved her hand, beckoning Aiden to follow.
I shot a glance at Aiden.
“You did that didn’t you?”
“Sure did,”
he said smugly.
We followed Fritzie through the doors and down a few corridors before entering her office. We sat down and waited for her to rearrange her workstation so we could start.
“Do either of you want a coffee or something else to drink?”
“No, thank you,” we replied. The sooner we got started, the sooner we would be out of there.
She clicked open a computer program. “Now, take your time and try to give me as clear a description as possible. It doesn’t matter if we need to go back and change a few things. We will work on it until the face on the screen resembles the face you remember.”
This was not what I had imagined. I had thought that I’d be sitting there with a sketch artist who would draw his face as I spoke—this would be much easier.
“Let’s get started,” Fritzie said, not taking her eyes off the computer screen. “What shape was his head? Take a look at these and try to remember which one best resembles the suspect.” She was pointing to an array of face shapes on the computer screen.
“Which one is he?”
I pretended to concentrate on the faces, as if I were trying to remember which was the closest to the guy I had supposedly seen.
“He had an oval-shaped face. Point to the one on the second row, third from the left,”
Aiden instructed me.
“It’s that one,” I said, pointing.
“Good,” Fritzie said, clicking the face with her mouse. “Now, what shape were his eyes?”
Fritzie had brought up rows and rows of different shaped eyes. I had no idea that there could be that many options.
“First row, last on the right.”
I pointed at the eyes that Aiden told me. “These ones.”
We continued through the software application options until we ended up with a complete face staring back at us.
The face chilled me to the core. Not because he looked sinister, but because I recognised the man. My mind went into overload as the memories came flooding back to me.
I had never seen the man in person, but I sure as hell had seen him.