Chapter 26

The missing posters were starting to fade. The tip-lines were now none existent. It's how it is for so many of them. On average 800,000 kids go missing each year, roughly 2,00 kids each day. Granted most are just runaways, parental kidnapping and paranoid parents with a rebellious teen. The reality of these numbers, 115 of these kids are kidnapped by strangers. One wonders why I even got into this line of work. I should have stated the Marines or even just settled for a Police Officer, maybe go a little beyond and go SWAT. The cards didn't have it in it for me though, no they didn't. I'm here, playing the endless game of cat and mouse, half the time, I'm just looking for a body to give back to the grieving and bewildered parents.

My coffee is turning cold as I look back at the missing posters. Stapled, glued, tied to anything that is planted in the ground or cemented to something. After the heavy rain, some are even lying in the gutters, completely unreadable. The twist in my gut gets me, just as it does every time. With every face, every girl, after those 48 hours. The same feeling gut feeling that reminds me I failed. I pull up to a red light and turn to my left. There is she, under the shelter of the bus stop. She's staring at me and my heart skips an unfamiliar beat.

Bella Swan. Her eyes bright as the sun, sparkling with an obvious joy. Her smile inviting me to come find her and rescue her. To return her to her family and once again, make her life safe. I look into the eyes and say the same promise I say ever since I first seen her photo.

"I'll find you Bella, I promise" I say out loud.

The lights green and I press on the gas and as if fate, bad timing or God's mocking, Bella's poster is taken away with the wind. I lick my lips and suck down another gulp of cold coffee. Why again did I take this job?

I turn into the Swans residents. I'm like family now, I don't even have to knock anymore. I've been here everyday since she disappeared. Miss Swan sits on the front steps, her eyes glazed and she looks as if she's staring off at something in the distance. A drugged up haze. A once amazing and awarded surgeon is now a step away from a drug addict who cannot even carry on a two minute conversation. I don't blame her, not one bit. She came home first. She same home to the dead dog, the blood on the floor. The house had been ransacked, all valuables missing. The most Valuable, her daughter, Bella Swan. Ever since that morning, she's been in a druggy fog that she refuses to let herself out of.

I touch her shoulder as I pass her on my way in. She doesn't even look at me and I take no offense just continue on my way. Agent Charles Swan sat at the kitchen table, looking at paperwork. He looks at me as I enter.

"Morning" He says and points his head toward a fresh, hot pot of coffee...may as well.

"Charlie" I greet. We've been fighting the same battle, became team members to the same mission for so long, last names just sound dumb and alienated.

"Anything new?" He asks, without any hope.

Normally, I would be shocked and suspicious that he seemed to have lost hope. What parent gives up hope of finding their lost daughter? But one must take into account of who this particular father is. FBI and he's seasoned. Damn near retirement actually. But he knows, his heart may hope but his mind knows. His previous work experience knows what his heart refuses to accept. At this point, Charlie has been torn in two.

One side- The father, the man who cries himself to sleep every night because he wasn't there to protect his little girl. The Father who throws up his meal because he cannot say if his missing child is not going hungry. The Father who carries his baby girl's favorite jacket in the truck of his car, so when he finds her, she will be warm. The father who can't stand to look at his own wife for to long because his heart breaks at the thought. The father who at times, considered killing himself because he wasn't home to save Bella, the only thing he ever did right in his life.

Other Side- The FBI Agent, the man who has been in this same exact situation, many times, just with someone else's daughter. The Agent who knows at after 48 hours, leads go cold and the chances of finding Bella dwindled to damn near nonexistent. The Agent that knows, if Bella had been beaten, raped and murdered, her body in a ditch somewhere yet to be discovered, the Agent that knows, that fate would make Bella lucky. An Agent knows young, beautiful girls suffer more tragic than death, the ones shipped off to foreign countries and used as Sex Slaves to any pedophile with a bill equivalent to ten bucks. The Agent that knows that more than likely, and with the previous knowledge, knows and almost hopes that he is just looking for a body to bury. Because a body would at least bring closure and if they're unbelievably, the bastard who did it.

"I'm sorry" It's all I can say, all I can ever say.

Charlie leans back in his chair, 1,000 memories seem to pass through his eyes. I keep my mouth shut and let the man think. About ten minutes later, he hands me an official looking folder. I open it up and there it is.

Bella Swan's Death Certificate.

Declared death in absentia

A sense of failure hits me. It's for legal purposes of course. Yet it's strange what looking at that piece of paper made you feel. It seems just yesterday I was introducing myself to the Swans, giving the same promise I make to every parent I meet. Promising I will do everything in my power to find their missing child. It's been almost have a year now. She's been gone. I put the paper down and move to the seat nearest to Charlie.

"Charlie, we will find her, one way or the other. She will come home" I tell him. I wonder if Im lying to him right now.

Charlie gets up and walks over to the window.

" I don't know how to feel, I don't know if I can feel anymore..." his words end and this thoughts that I can't hear seem to finish his sentence.

" She was amazing" he gives a small smile. " She was truly an amazing spirit, so calm and forgiving. Smart too, boy was she smart. That horse though, that horse was her world. She him the most" he gave a little laugh " She's my pride and joy...I won't stop until the day I day" He swore, to himself I think.

"Neither will I" I promised, I knew I was telling the truth then. I walked over to him and stared out the window with him. There weren't words to comfort or console, so I just stood there.

"NO!" Came a shriek so loud I jumped. " She's not dead! I can feel her! Bella is alive, she is I can feel it!" Screamed Mrs. Swan. She was holding Bella's death certificate in her hands. " She is I can feel her, she's alive and she wants to come home!" She repeated over and over.

"Honey" Charlie went to comfort her but she started pounding him in his chest. Still repeating that her daughter was alive. He grabbed her arms and hugged her, they both crumbled to the floor in tears.

This was not my place. A friend nor fellow Agent could do anything at this exact moment. They needed to accept that little piece of paper. They needed to heal and adjust. I couldn't and shouldn't be here. I slowly walked out the door. I would talk to Charlie tonight on the phone. I went out to my car, I had to adjust to the news myself.

I what this meant. I knew exactly what it meant. It was a familiar moment of action when you find missing children. First the investigation, figuring out if she had be really kidnapped. Then finding out if the parents had anything to do with it. All the while, getting volunteer search parties and tip-lines running. Missing posters and new coverage. All this within the first few hours, lasting anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks. You're running on full speed. Living off coffee and adrenaline more than sleep and actual food. Then it slowly dawns on you, the phones rings less and less. The candlelight support washes away. The news does a story that use to be all day headlines to merely a 5 minute segment to where they don't even show it. This all happens within the first couple weeks. Then months and nothing. Then the big bang that happens every time you don't get a fairy tale movie ending. They send the death certificate and then a few days later, I get sent on another case.

I felt an unfamiliar peg of sadness. I would have to leave Mr. and Mrs. Swan. I would also have to leave Bella, the girl I never met but she consumed my every thought. She was in every dream when I was able to sleep. She was young, too young for me to find sexy but I did find her beautiful. With a 9 year age difference and her being a minor, I knew it wasn't a sexual obsession. Maybe it was the way her smile lured innocence. Or maybe I just have grown close to the Swans to where I just wanted to find her more than the others. Whatever it was, it made me sad and coated me in guilt. I knew I would be leaving soon. Just like the same old song, I would move on to a new case.

I sat in my passenger seat and did what I did at least once a day. I thought back and tried to remember if I missed anything, had anything been overlooked. Where had I gone wrong, what men or women should we re-question? Somewhere I fell asleep.

I woke up to my phone ringing. I missed it before I could press the green button. 12 Missed calls, something had gone down. I looked at the messages on my phone, nothing. So I check the first of 12 voicemails.

"It's Agent Rawmen, call me back now! We found a body..." I hung up as soon as I heard the word body.

Heart started racing, palms sweaty, Im sure if I looked in my rear view mirror I would be ash white. I hurried and pressed the call button and within half a ring he answered.

"Rawmen" Said the familiar voice

"It's Agent Black...what do you got?"

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