Prologue

The alarm went on and on but neither Sharon nor Andy reacted to the shrilling sound. Both were to exhausted from the night before. It had been officially first evening as a couple living together. Since Andy had sold his house and the new choice had been a complete waste of time due to the mould problem, they had decided he should move in with Sharon.

Anyway they had celebrated their first evening together, with a good meal and of course in bed.

"aaaaaaaaargh"-Andy groaned, his stomach was still working on the good beef they had had the evening before. He woke Sharon with a kiss." I guess, I am sick! I think I should stay at home today"...

Sharon smiled: "Good Morning my deer! You know staying home would be an option but you should get a better excuse than your headache. The Captain would not excuse this".

Obviously Sharon was in a better mood. So she got up and made some coffee. Andy followed after a while, still grumpy and looking more asleep than awake. He thanked Sharon for the coffee . She was humming and smiling because Emily would arrive for lunchtime and she planned to stay for at least a week. No corpse or murderer in the world would manage to destroy her good mood today, at least she thought so.

After breakfast they both got ready for work, not knowing that this was going to be the longest day of their life.

Chapter 1:

Andy knocked at Sharon's door to hand over some reports. "Come in", she said, smiled when she saw it was him and motioned for him to sit. "Emily just texted, she landed safely and is going to get a cab right now. Are you nervous?" Andy did not know what to say. Yes he was nervous, really nervous because it was the first time saw Emily since they made their relationship official. Anyway he decide to play the tough guy and said "I don't think it will be much different, except we can hold hands and kiss in front of your daughter this time" Sharon smiled and said "Thank god you are a police officer because as a criminal you would be lost. You are such a bad liar." He squeezed her hands, stood up and said "when will she arrive then". Sharon looked at her watch and said. "If she got a cab right away and if there is not too much traffic, in about half an hour. So be prepared".

"Yes Captain", Andy said and left but he could see she was rolling her eyes.

He started a new report and completely forgot the time. When he looked at his watch it was nearly and Emily was still not here. He looked into the office and saw that Sharon was talking on the phone seeming nervous. Then she dialled another number but clearly nobody answered or mailbox, because she hung up after less than 30 seconds. Andy decided to go to her.

When he opened the door, without knocking this time, Sharon immediately said " This is not good. I cannot get through to her. It seems her mobile phone is off. She should have arrived at 3 pm latest. There is no traffic jam, no accident has happened. Andy, something is wrong, I feel it".

In front of him there was no Captain Raydor standing, there was no Sharon, there was just a worried mother.

"What should we do?", he asked. "On the one hand, she is a grown up woman and she can also stop wherever she wants without telling you, but on the other hand as far as I have known Emily, that is not like her, to be that late without telling. Anyway I am sure there is a simple reason for this. Maybe her phone broke down or she decided to meet up with a friend, instead of going to lunch with her ooooold mother and her mother's even oooooolder boyfriend", Andy tried to encourage her, but that failed. He got the cold "Sharon-look", everyone in the division feared.

They stood behind her desk, Sharon looking out of the window, her arms crossed as if to protect herself. Andy laying his hands on her shoulders could feel that every muscle in her body was tensed. They had no idea how long they were standing like this, minutes or even hours, when suddenly the phone rang. The literally jumped and Sharon's tension eased when she saw, that it was finally Emily calling : "Honey, how are you...", she started but then Andy saw her face harden and all the coloer was drawn from her face. Her knees gave in. Luckily the chair was right behind her.

Andy rushed to her side and she managed to put the call on loudspeaker. He only could hear the final two sentences but that was enough "You want your daughter to live, then come and exchange yourself for her", then the caller hung up.