Forest Covered
Storyteller: Isla de Muerta
Genre:General
Rating: T
Disclaimer: None of the Grimm characters belongs to me. Any similarities to anything are incidental and not meant. I own my mistakes and the creatures I might invent.
Summary: Is there another royal in Portland?
Chapter I: Forest Phantoms
Widespread they stand, the Northland's dusky forests,
Ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams;
Within them dwells the Forest's mighty God,
And wood-sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets.
Little girl was walking along the familiar footpath through the park. She was only six years old but she already knew the route back home and she was trusted to make it alone. She was coming from school now and humming a new song they had learned when she came to the final curve before the park ended near her home. At that curve, she saw something from the corner of her eye. Something shimmering? Or was it a shadow?
"You're stupid girl," she muttered to herself, "It was only your own shadow." But it couldn't have been, it moved. There it was, behind that tree. Something snapped under her sneaker when he stepped out of the footpath, to follow the shadow or whatever it had been.
"Six years old Keila Walls disappeared five days ago when she was coming from school. She was known to take a shortcut through a park which is near the home of the Walls family. She was last seen entering the park but she never came out at the other side," redheaded reporter was just reporting from the scene. The cameraman zoomed onto the face of a crying man.
"Please, I know you took her. But her place is here, her home is here with us now," the blond man was saying to the camera while Captain Renard paced quickly into the room and stopped near Nick and Hank's joined desks.
"All heads up, we have an amber-alert," he informed the whole roomful of detectives and other policemen," A six year old Keila Walls is believed to be taken by her mother while walking back from school," he continued.
"Yeah, it's on the news right now," Nick commented, gesturing towards the TV.
"Nick, Hank, I want you two at the scene too. Sergeant Wu is already there," Renard ordered the detective partners at the scene, "And I want you to do your very best since this kidnapper has already five days head start if it even is a abduction."
"Could this be something else then, Captain?" Hank asked from the taller man.
"Realistically, this could be almost anything. Women don't usually kidnap their own child, they get them through legal way," their Captain answered.
"Ransom demand?" Nick asked.
"Not yet," Sean Renard said, "But somehow, I have a feeling that there's not going to be ransom demand."
"Why?"
"I just have a feeling. This is something more ominous."
"I don't know about you but only ominous thing here, in my very humble opinion, is the fact that the father didn't report the disappearance to us, until now," Hank said matter-of-factly to Nick when they arrived at the scene.
The news crews were still there and Nick has to evade one cameraman carrying his supplies to the car," Well we men don't think the same way as women do," he said to Hank while waving at sergeant Wu, who was coming towards them.
"The father is there with his new wife. I don't know about you two but there's definitely something hinky in this," the asian police said to his colleagues.
"Thanks Wu," Nick said to him, "Hey Wu! Hinky?"
The other police just shrugged while walking beside Nick," It sounded so cool." But before Nick reached Hank, he heard Wu calling him again.
"What is it?"
" Well, I was just wondering if there's been any transfer postings to our PD?" Wu asked.
"No, I haven't heard anything. Why?"
"Nevermind then. I just saw this woman, right there at the footpath and she had notepad with her. She definitely was making notes."
"What did she looked like?"
"Blond. About your size. She had green leather jacket, high heel boots I think, jeans."
Nick looked around at the scene and spotted the woman in question. "Is that her?" he asked from Wu.
"Yeah, that's her," Wu replied when the woman walked at the forest and disappeared.
"Interesting. I'll check her from the captain once we get back and the precinct," Nick promised.
"What Wu wanted?" Hank asked when Nick had rejoined him.
"He wanted to know about that woman who just disappeared at the park. So, shall we do our job?" and to Keila's crying father he said," I'm detective Burkhardt and this is my partner, detective Griffin. Can we ask some questions?" The man nodded.
"So, Mr. Walls, can you tell us, was the route that Keila used, her everyday route back home?" Hank started.
"Yes, it was."
"Who knew the route?"
"Uh, I of course, my wife here, she's Keila's stepmother. I think Keila's stepsister and stepbrother knew too."
"And does Keila's real mother know about this route?" Nick continued.
"Why or how would she know? She moved to Salem after we got divorced," Keila's father told.
"Yet, you're accusing her of abducting your daughter," Hank said.
"It has to be her," the woman beside Mr. Walls jumped in.
"Why?" Nick wanted to know.
"Who else would it be?" the question was naïve.
"Still, why?"
"My ex wife is mentally ill," Mr. Walls replied as if that would've explain everything.
"So that's why you think that she's taken Keila? But why didn't you report her missing earlier?"
"This sounds stupid but, we didn't know it earlier. You see, we are expecting a baby and something happened, complications and we had to go to the hospital. We were there when Keila disappeared. Her stepsister and brother were supposed to take care of her but they're typical teenagers and thought that Keila was only a menace. When we got back this morning, they had to tell us. They said that they thought that Keila had gone to her friends but she wasn't at any of them, so, we called police," Mr. Walls explained.
"Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Walls. We let you rest now, we'll be in touch if we find something," Hank promised while he and Nick were leaving.
"Nice family," Hank muttered to Nick when they couldn't be heard anymore.
"Yeah, well, I think that's pretty normal in that kind of families," Nick said. At the same time, he happened to spot that mysterious woman again and the woman noticed him too. Something flashed in her eyes and she changed somehow but it was only a brief moment.
"She is hottie but I don't think you're a cheating kind of guy," Hank said right beside Nicks ear.
"No Hank, it's not that."
"What is it then? Is she, you know, one of them?"
"I'm not sure," Nick said, puzzled while they had reached their car.