Tomorrow's Gone
Chapter 2
It had been over 12 hours since the mayhem and sadness of Sandrine's death. Kerry was asleep in bed when her doorbell rang twice. Her eyes fluttered open a little at the sound, but she didn't think much more of it, and fell back to sleep. Half an hour later though, when the time read 4.30am on her bedside clock, she awoke to the sound of a child's cry. This time, she sat up in bed, wondering where the cries were coming from. She walked down the stairs of her townhouse, finding that the cries were getting louder as she got closer to the front of the house.
Kerry opened the door, and her eyes were immediately drawn to the ground, "Oh my God, sweetheart, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, seeing Dom's daughter G sitting in her pram with tears running down her soft pink cheeks. Next to her was a bag, which Kerry assumed was full of baby essentials. She pushed the pram inside, and shut the door, feeling bewildered. "Do you remember me? I'm Kerry," she looked down at the little girl, who was looking back up at her with big brown eyes.
Knowing that it was too early to call anybody, Kerry took G, and the pram, upstairs to her bedroom. She got her to sleep after a few minutes, and then tried herself, to get to sleep.
At least for the next hour or so.
Lawson was woken by the sound of his phone ringing on his bedside table. He quickly glanced at the time, 5:58am, and picked the phone up, noticing who the call was coming from, "Kerry, what's up?"
She began with a sigh, a little unsure of how to explain the situation to Lawson, "I'm not quite sure. It's Dom … he dropped G off at my place earlier this morning. When I finally opened the door, he wasn't there."
He sat upright in his bed; he was awake now, "What? What do you mean by earlier?"
"At four o'clock I vaguely heard the doorbell ringing, but didn't think anything of it," Kerry explained. "But half an hour later, I heard crying, and went downstairs to the front and found G sitting in her pram, bawling her eyes out."
"Oh shit, poor little thing," came Lawson's reply. He paused for a few seconds, thinking about what they should do, "I'll be over in about 30 minutes, okay? We can talk about it more when I get to your house."
When Lawson arrived, G was wide awake, and Kerry was feeding her some banana custard from a small jar she found in the baby bag. "It's nah nah custard," he heard Kerry saying as he entered her house. "Well, you certainly know what you're doing, don't you?" he commented, looking at Kerry, who had G sitting on her lap, "I can see why Dom brought her here."
Kerry shrugged her shoulders, reluctant to respond. She gently put G back in her pram, along with a toy bunny she managed to find amongst her son's old things. Curiosity got the better of him, and Lawson raised his eyebrows. "It's Billy," Kerry answered the question written on his face, "Billy the bunny rabbit."
He laughed, saying, "Cute," before his voice turned serious, "I'm going to ring Leon. Get him to call Dom's mobile and home phone numbers. I doubt there will be any answer but -"
"I've already tried to ring Dom's mobile, it's switched off," Kerry interrupted with a shake of the head, "But Leon can always call his home phone, for sure. Maybe we should get Stella to drop by Dom's house on the way to work, she lives near him."
"Sounds good to me."
Despite Kerry pushing G in her pram as they walked down the corridor at work, she and Lawson were met with a number of questioning glares. "What's going on?" Stella demanded to know, "Why on earth did I have to go over to Dom's house this morning? The guy has just lost his wife for God's sake. I think we should just give him some space."
Kerry nodded, she agreed with the last part, "Yes, but where ever he has gone, I don't think he should have left his daughter behind. She, of all people, needs him right now. Even though she doesn't know what's going on."
"So what's she doing with you then?" Stella's voice was raised, and Kerry held one of her fingers to her mouth, wanting Stella to keep it down, "G was left on my doorstep this morning. Early this morning. I know Dom …" Kerry's voice softened even more, "I know Dom lost Sandrine. I know. I just think G needs to be with her dad at the moment, not me."
"He obviously trusts you with her though, Kerry," Lawson said seriously, "Plus I saw you feeding G earlier, and like I said, you certainly knew what you were doing."
Leon, trying not to be too loud, exclaimed, "Ah good parenting skills, hey Kerry?"
"Shut up."
He shook his head, and said with a grin, "Don't you know a compliment when you hear one?"
"I know compliments, I just don't like hearing them."
When Leon laughed at her response, Kerry rolled her eyes and decided to change the subject, "Leon, can you get a call out to other patrols in Melbourne and the surrounds? Get them to keep a look out for Dom's car. Yes he's going through a tough time at the moment, and probably will be for a while, but he has to know that he can't just leave G here without saying a bloody word to anyone."
"Okay," Leon stopped laughing, and started typing on the keyboard, "Should I see if I can get in touch with Dom's parents? They might know where he is."
"Local patrols have already told them the news, but I might see if Josh, Shannon and Michael can go around there and talk to them this time," Kerry replied as she stooped down to G's eye level and started to play with Billy the bunny to keep the young girl distracted from what was going on.
Lawson nodded, agreeing with her sentiment, "Yep, besides trying to contact him by phone, and get patrols to keep a look out for his car, I think that's the only thing we can do at the moment. Stell and I can stay here and annoy Leon until anything police work related comes up."