Chapter 10: Lost and Found
Waking up to the soft smells of roses and croissant was strangely nostalgic for Arthur. At first he thought it was a Sunday morning and that he was allowed a few more hours sleep before he would have to discipline Alfred for picking on Matthew. Those days to him seemed like a fantasy, reality was much more painful.
He blinked opened his eyes slowly and found himself laying on a lush couch, a blanket pulled over him no longer in his suit but was a soft white tee and merely in his boxers. He prepared himself to sit up but a blinding headache shackled him to the couch. Everything hurt. It hurt to move, to groan, to keep his eyes open. Everything was just pure sharp pain.
Arthur stayed on the couch with his eyes closed, listening as the shower ran. He knew that Francis always took forever in the shower so he guessed that he would have ten minutes to race out of the apartment. It was almost funny that would have to sneak away from his ex-husbands house, as if he was a cheap one night stand. However, this was not the time for laughter.
With a pounding head, he gave himself two minutes to stay laying on the couch. Only two minutes to enjoy a small fantasy. For two minutes he pretended that he was still married and hadn't just woken up from a night of heavy drinking. Those two minutes went by quicker than he had hoped.
Too quickly he stood up and wobbled to his suit folded neatly on the arm of the couch. Quickly he pulled off the tee and threw it on the back of the couch. He grabbed his trousers and pulled them on, falling back on the couch as he did. He had a lot of difficultly with his belt, his fingers fumbled over the buckle as he tried to pierce one of the holes. Eventually he was able to secure his trousers and went to tug on his shirt. The smell of lemon waved up to his nose from the shirt. Francis had washed them, how nice. He thought sarcastically.
As he was about to do the first button he heard the running water stop and the door of the bathroom opened.
Arthur turned around with an unbuttoned shirt to face Francis who stood gripping a towel which loosely hung at his hips. For a split second the sight of the half nude Francis caused a burn of desire deep inside Arthur. He thought long ago that desire had ceased and he quickly ignored it.
Arthur ignored both his lust and Francis and continued to get ready. Francis just stood and watched as Arthur slipped on his blazer.
"Where's my tie?" he asked, pulling up one of the cushions.
Francis moved slowly to the edged of the couch and held up Arthur's tie. Arthur yanked it out his hand and draped it around his neck. For a while the two just stood in silence as Arthur fixed his tie. Eventually Francis spoke up first.
"We can't keep having this hatred between us," he said, moving to sit on the couch. "It's not good for us and it's not good for the twins."
Arthur felt like biting back and saying something nasty to Francis, but all the fight had been beaten out by him. He didn't want to argue, he didn't want to feel anymore pain and her certainly didn't want to cause anymore pain himself.
Sighing heavily he sat next to Francis on the couch and put his head in his hands. "I hate you, you know that."
"I don't blame you," Francis leaned back. "I never answered your question."
Arthur looked back. "Hm?"
"Why I did it," Francis rubbed his face. "I was lonely…you were working so hard all the time and it just felt like-"
"Don't try to blame this on me!" Hot anger started to burn in Arthur's stomach.
Francis held up his hand. "I'm not. What I did…I did it just because I could. I just went to the bar and she…she was there. I felt like you weren't."
Arthur expected himself to be more angry than he was. Instead all the fury dissolved in him, he didn't want to talk anymore so he stood up, without saying a single word to Francis, and left the apartment.
Francis' heart grew cold, he wanted Arthur to stay so he could explain himself more but he rejected the motion to try and make Arthur stay. He didn't move an inch and watched as his ex-husband left his apartment.
Just as the door slowly closed Francis' phone rang. He didn't recognise the number but answered it nevertheless.
"Hello?" he said, while pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Francis…uh…it's…it's me."
Francis almost dropped the phone when he recognised the voice. It was her, the woman who had been a catalyst in destroying his marriage.
"Are you busy, I need to talk to you?" she said, a worried tone heaving down her voice.
"Can I ask why?" Francis tried hard to hide the annoyance in his voice.
"I would rather not talk about it on the phone," she said, her voice shaking.
Francis sighed deeply. "Look, I really thought the two of us were just never going to see-"
"I'm pregnant."
Arthur returned to his house just in time to hear his telephone ring loudly through out the house. It was almost one o'clock in the afternoon and he wasn't expecting a call. He let the answering machine pick it up.
"Arthur, it's Toris," said the telephone. "Please pick up. I know it's your day off but we found that little girl-"
Arthur yanked the phone off the cradle and placed it on his ear.
"Toris, I just got in! Please tell me you found that little girl alive," he said in hurried panic. "I could really use it right now."
"Come down to the office, I can't tell you over the phone," Toris said, although there was a hint of glee in his voice which made relief wash over Arthur.
"I'll be right there!"
Arthur slammed down the phone with a new found vigour. Forgetting all about his hangover, Arthur raced out of the house and into his parked car. The only time he stopped was to drive to a small coffee shop to pick up a cardboard cup of tea to sooth his headache.
Toris stood outside in the office parking lot, a file in his hand, eagerly awaiting his partner to show up. Arthur got out his car, a slight smirk on his face.
"Give me good news, Toris," he said, taking the file.
The two walked towards the office while Toris updated Arthur.
"Last night a truck driver was making a pit stop." They slammed through the doors, giving slight nods to Cheryl at reception. "When he gets to a gas station he sees the man acting incredibly suspicious. The two get into an argument and just before this shady man goes back into his car the truck driver sees this little girl and recognises her as Maddie Bell-"
"The missing girl, yes?" Arthur conformed. "Is she here?"
"She's with her parents," nodded Toris.
"What about the truck driver and the kidnapper?" asked Arthur.
"Both are awaiting questioning, I was waiting for you," Toris smiled, feeling proud of himself.
The two stopped at the interrogation rooms, Arthur gave Toris a strong pat on the shoulder before opening one of the doors. Behind it sat the truck driver, his elbows on the table, the man wore glasses and had scruffy pale blond hair which desperately needed a comb. The man had a very intimidating aura around him just due to his static expression. Arthur took the only seat in front of the man leaving Toris to stand by the door.
"Mr. Oxenstierna?" Arthur looked down at the file. "Firstly I would like to thank you in helping us find Maddie Bell."
The man didn't say anything but instead grunted and nodded his head.
"I understand you are mostly eager to get back on the road but I just need to ask you a few questions,"
Again the man grunted and nodded.
"Could you relay to me the events upon you finding Maddie Bell last night, please?" Arthur asked.
The man nodded but took a few moments to speak, as if he was mentally preparing himself. "I was at the gas station when I noticed a man acting very strange. It was like he was yelling at someone."
"Where exactly was the man?" Arthur questioned, trying to paint a picture in his head.
"By his car, he was leaning into it and talking rather loudly," said Mr. Oxenstierna.
Arthur nodded his head and wrote something down in a small notepad. "Please continue Mr. Oxenstierna."
Oxenstierna nodded his head slowly and began to speak once again. "I left my truck to go and find out what the man was yelling about as I thought I could hear a child crying." Oxenstierna looked over to Arthur who was nodding away, believe everything Mr. Oxenstierna was saying. "When I got over there the man immediately began to yell things at me when I asked if everything was alright."
"What kind of things did he say?" asked Arthur, who had looked up from his notepad.
"He said things like 'this is none of your business', 'leave me alone everything is fine'. Although there was much more cursing."
"Hmm-mm," nodded Arthur. "And so how did you see Maddie Bell?"
"At the back of the car I seen the little girl pop up her head, she was crying and kept mouthing at me to 'help her'," Mr. Oxenstierna explained. "I had seen news reports on the missing girl and recognised her straight away. I yelled for someone to call the police as I ran to the other side of the car and pulled the girl out."
"A very brave thing you did, Mr. Oxenstierna," praised Arthur.
Mr. Oxenstierna looked down keeping the same blank emotion as before. "Is she okay? The girl? I haven't seen her since we arrived here."
"She's with her family," Toris said, suddenly.
Mr. Oxenstierna let out the smallest of sighs. "Tack och lov," he breathed softly, a faint shadow of a smile on his lips.
Arthur wrote a few more things down on his pad before standing up and shaking Mr. Oxenstierna's hand. "Thank you again, you're free to go now. If we have any more questions we have your contact information."
Mr. Oxenstierna nodded to the two detectives before leaving the interrogation room. Toris and Arthur stayed, going over a few notes. Eventually they left the first interrogation room and into another.
The kidnapper was a slob, his pot belly folded in between his legs. A stale smell filled up the room. Arthur didn't even try to keep the disgusted look from his face. Just like with Mr. Oxenstierna Arthur took a seat right in front of the kidnapper. He didn't even bother to look at the mans name.
Arthur kept the man waiting for a long moment. The Brit just stared down the man, a look of boredom and disgust on his face. Eventually the man grew fidgety from discomfort, that was the moment Arthur decided to start speaking.
"Do you get a kick out of it?" he said.
The man didn't respond.
"Does stealing young girls give you a thrill?"
Again the man choose to remain silent.
"Is this the only way your able to get off?"
The man shifted his weight in the chair.
Arthur sighed and shuffled the papers on the table. He pulled out three pictures. The first one was of Maddie Bell - the very girl he had taken - the other two were of Emma Van Dyk and Bethany Cross.
"Your victims seem to just get younger and younger, huh?" Arthur leaned forward.
The man glanced at Emma and Bethany but didn't seem to react to them, much to Arthur's disappointment. However, he did stare at Maddie, an evil glint lighting up his eyes and almost causing Arthur to throw up.
"What body part were you going to take from Maddie, eh?"
"What?" the man looked up at Arthur. "What do you mean body part?"
Arthur slammed down his finger to Emma. "Emma Van Dyk, her hands were missing! Bethany Cross, her eyes were missing! So what were you going to take from Maddie? Where do you keep them? Are they just reminders of the trills you once had with these girls?"
The man started to sweat as Arthur's voice grew louder and harsher. "I swear I've never seen these two girls before."
"Do you really think I believe that?" Arthur narrowed his eyes. "Especially after we have just caught you red handed kidnapping an innocent little girl!"
"I swear it's the truth!" the man said panicking. "I don't know nothing about these girls!"
Arthur stood up, his hands placed firmly flat on the table, his face leaned close towards the mans. "You better start telling me the truth and maybe, just maybe, you'll escape the death penalty."
The man looked terrified. He looked at Toris as if he could provide some sort of comfort but Toris was busy looking at the mirror in the room, uninterested.
"I swear! I swear, I didn't kill anybody." The man began to bubble up with tears. "I just…I just…I just." The man lost the ability to speak due to sobbing uncontrollably.
Arthur gave one last disgusted look at the man before scooping up his papers and nodding to Toris that he was finished. Once out of the room and into Arthur's office Arthur grew even more furious. While the man was guilty of taking Maddie killing Bethany and Emma was something he didn't do.
"Fuck! Fuck!" Arthur kicked his desk out of sheer frustration.
"Arthur-"
"Fuck!" Arthur slumped down into his desk chair, his head in his hands.
He thought he was so close to stopping these hideous murders but now he was back to square one. As he sat there cradling his head, he thought hard. He had to act fast before another girl got hurt. He pushed passed Toris and went to the white board again, hoping a clue lay there. Thankfully, this time, it did.
Arthur grabbed a white marker and wrote the word 'sprits' next to Emma and Bethany. "Get records on the top supplier on vodka in this city." He looked back at Toris who stood confused. "Now!"
A/N: I do enjoy dropping bombs.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading/reviewing.