Had he known Lona long? It felt like he had known her forever, that she had occupied a special, deep spot in his heart forever. As Elmer thought about it, though, wanting to make sure to tell the police everything correctly, he was surprised to realize that his first memory of Lona was from the time of his brother's death.
"Five years, maybe." He said slowly. he supposed that before that he had just somehow missed her although for the life of him, he couldn't figure out how he had done that. "She worked with my dad for awhile before that."
"So, how would you describe Dr. Massingale?" Detective Ryan continued as his partner observed and took notes.
Describe Lona? How could mere words describe the love of his life?
He knew he had to try, though, had to make the police see how special Lona
was. Maybe that would help them to find her somehow. "Lona..." Elmer
stopped for a moment and thought before continuing. He wanted to make them
see somehow but he didn't know how he could best describe what made Lona so
special. "She's brilliant." He finally said. "I don't think I've ever
met anyone that's smarter than Lona. You should see all of the research
that she's done." Would reminding them of the research help, make them
definitely sure that Lona hadn't just walked off? "She's beautiful.
She..." he stopped for a moment, not sure of how to best continue.
Go on." Detective Ryan urged him.
"She.... I don't think that Lona really realizes how many people like her." Elmer knew that he wasn't explaining things the best but he didn't really think that an explanation was possible for this. It was really something that you either understood or you didn't. "She spends a lot of time working in the lab and that's nice and everything because she really, really is brilliant but she doesn't take a whole lot of time with people, to get to know them and stuff." Not like Elmer was really one to say anything bad about Lona being that way though. After all, he was pretty much the same way. "I don't think she really knows how many friends she really has." He should have talked to her, made her understand somehow how much he really understood instead of just pulling the stupid pranks that he did and flirting. "It's all my fault." he whispered.
"What's your fault?" Detective Rogers asked.
"I shouldn't have left. I've stayed in the lab overnight before"
Elmer said slowly. "I ought to have stayed that night too. Then Lona
would still be here, wouldn't be.... Well, nothing would have happened to
her." He had to struggle to maintain control as he spoke, not wanting to
burst into tears in front of the two cops. What if they decided that he
was just a total loser than that Lona had done the smart thing by running
away from him?
"So, you think that Dr. Massingale's disappearance was your fault
because you didn't stay with her that night?" Detective Rogers could tell
that his partner was still suspicious of the young man but he was becoming
less concerned about him as time went on. His emotions just seemed to raw
for him to be hiding something unless he was an incredible actor. "So,
would you like to tell us about your relationship with Dr. Massingale?"
Elmer was quiet at that, not really sure how to describe things.
"We work together." He said after a moment. "Lona and my dad are doing
this thing with some sort of dreaming and I've been volunteering to be kind
of a guinea pig for it." He went quiet once again, closing his eyes as he
thought of the experiments and then Lona. "I love her."
"You love her? Could you explain that, please?" Detective Ryan asked. He knew from experience that many crimes of this nature were committed by someone that the person in question was close to. He could see that his partner was becoming a bit less suspicious but he still wasn't sure of the young man. "Were you involved in a personal relationship with Dr. Massingale?"
"I wish. I really wish." Elmer said softly. "She's just so smart
and beautiful and.... She's Lona." He closed his eyes for a moment,
trying to keep some sort of control. "She thinks I'm immature, that I just
have a crush on her or something." That was all his fault, he knew. If
only he had tried something else with Lona, had stopped with the constant
pranks and flirting. It seemed like things had been working sort of well
with the dinner in the morgue and all. How in the world did he let things
fall apart to the point that he ended up sending Lona someone's head? What
had he be thinking? "Please, you have to find her." They had to find her
so that he could make things up to Lona, so that he could make things
right. He knew that he could make her happy if he could just convince her
to give him a chance.
"Do you know anyone that might wish Dr. Massingale ill?" Detective Rogers motioned for his partner to let him handle this. Maybe he was wrong but he just wasn't getting any bad feelings from this young man anymore.
"There's the guy in charge of the hospital computer network"
Elmer said after a moment's thought. "Lona forgot her password for her
email a couple of times. Honestly, she has so many important things on her
mind, what's the big deal if one tiny little thing slips through
occasionally. He gave her a hard time about it though and kept playing
jokes on her, switching the password so she couldn't get in and thought she
was loosing it." Maybe he ought to have told Lona what he had guessed
about what was happening with the password but it had really been no big
deal and he had felt kind of good when she had asked him for help. "I
don't think he would hurt her though. He just want to bug her. And then
there's Stegman." Did Stegman have anything against Lona? "On second
thought, I don't think he really had a problem with Lona though. You might
want to save him for your suspect list if anything ever happens to Hook,
though."
Elmer could barely keep from crying now as the enormity of the situation hit him including the fact that he didn't have a clue as to what could have happened to Lona. "Please, you have to find her!"