Hi everybody!
Today I'm gonna post an inbetween chapter. It's not as exciting as the ones that are about to follow, but it is needed to built up more suspense…
Thanks everyone for your lovely reviews! Please feel free to review again :)
Love,
Steffi
If Only"The plan for today is easy," Eric said, cracking with his fingers.
The mere sound of it sent shivers down Summer's back. She cleared her throat and nodded. "Yeah?"
Eric pointed around the dirty room. "Clean up in here, I have some business to do. When I come home, I want a good meal. You'll find everything you need in the kitchen."
Summer nodded. She couldn't help herself, but this whole situation felt strange to her. Since she had come home last night, Eric had nothing but commands for her. She practically sensed that something wrong was going on, she just couldn't tell what it was.
Eric spit out some of the tobacco he was chewing. "That's pretty much everything. The only thing you need to remember is…" he walked up to Summer and took her chin into his hands, squeezing it tightly. "… don't leave the house. No matter what happens, don't – leave – the – house."
The intensity in Eric's voice made Summer shiver. She didn't dare asking why she wasn't supposed to leave the house. She decided that it would be better just to do what this Eric guy wanted from her. "Right." She whispered and ran a hand through her hair insecurily.
Eric smiled broadly. "Good." He said and kissed her on the cheek with a loud smack.
Summer managed a smile and looked Eric in the eyes. There was something about them that made her doubt that she was in the right place here. But this Eric seemed to know so much about her, and who else would know all that stuff than someone who had lived with her?
Eric took his hat from the kitchen table and waved. "I'll be back soon. Remember my meal." Before Summer could reply, the front door was slammed shut.
For a few moments, Summer stood in the middle of the kitchen combined living room and tried to figure out where she was and what she was doing here. She looked around the tiny and dirty room. The furniture was worn down and it smelled terribly. She didn't remember where she was from and if she had lived here before, but she was somewhat sure that she possibly couldn't have been. She didn't like the place at all.
Summer took a few steps towards the window. Eric had wanted her to clean up, and that contained bringing some fresh air into the room, right? She traced the wood pieces that covered half of the small window and tried to peek out of it. It was a sunny day, and she could see people with their surfboards walking around the beach that was in front of the house.
She smiled as she saw a mother and her little child who walked towards her on shaky legs. Summer smiled to herself as she pictured herself as a mother. From the happy look on the woman's face she figured that it was be the best feeling in the world to be a mother.
Just like out of an instinct, Summer's hand moved down on her stomach. It wasn't as taut as you might guess, regarding the rest of her figure, and it was also a little swollen. Just as if…
Suddenly, an image flashed through Summer's mind. She saw herself standing in front of a huge mirror, wearing a pink overall that was filled by a huge baby belly. Someone was standing behind her, telling her she looked terribly cute. She saw how she answered with an unnerved "I'm fat like a ton". And as fast as the image had appeared in Summer's mind, it went away.
Her hand that was still lying on her stomach formed into a fist. Had she been pregnant?
Summer felt her breathing becoming heavier as she concentrated highly on what she had been seeing in her inner eye a few seconds before.
Desperately, she tried to get the memory back, but without success. Summer felt tears coming up inside of her. Never before she had been so close to her past than right now, and before she could recognize something or someone, the flashback had been over.
Silent tears came falling down Summer's face. For a few moments, she just stood in front of the window and felt sorry for herself and her lack of memories. Then she decided she needed to stop crying and therefore needed some fresh air.
Summer traced the frame of the window with her finger and realized that there was no opener on it. She frowned and headed over to the door. Eric might have forbidden her to leave the house, but she could at least open the door to let some air in. When she turned the doorknob, Summer's heart stopped for a moment. It was locked.
Eric hadn't only forbidden her to leave the house, he had also locked her in this nightmare of an apartment.
Desperately, Summer turned the doorknob so heavily until her hand ached.
Hot tears streamt down her face as she realized that she was trapped.
Summer leant against the door and sobbed uncontrollably.
What the hell was going on?
"There are posters of her hanging all around Newport Beach right now. And our colleagues are still interviewing people if they saw your wife after the earthquake." Officer Flannery said while taking a huge bite of his chocolate doughnut.
Seth and his parents were in Daniel Flannery's office, the head officer that was in charge for everybody who was involved in the "Find Summer Cohen" case.
While he still chewed, the big guy took a sip from his coffee. "All we can do now is wait." He said and looked at the three Cohens excusingly.
Seth shook his head and slammed a fist on the officer's desk. "That's what we've heard over the past 48 hours." He said through gritted teeth. "But there still is no sign of her. Don't you think you're doing something wrong?"
Kirsten took her son's hand in hers and tried to calm him down. "Sweetie, you've heard the officer, they're trying their best…"
"Come on mom!" Seth yelled. "If the only thing they can do is to rankle one doughnut after the other and pouring tons of coffee into them and telling us that we should just wait then they're useless!"
He stood up and brought his face near to officer Flannery's. "My wife has no idea who or where she is. She might get into the hands of any randsom criminal who could do God knows what to her!" he said, his voice shaking. "And if all you can do is hang up some stupid posters, I think it's better if I go search for her myself!"
"Seth, calm down…" Sandy tried to pace his son.
"Oh no, dad, I won't. It's my wife we're talking about here. If it was mom you'd react the same."
Sandy knew that his son was right and stared onto the ground instead of replying anything else.
Officer Flannery swallowed and took a deep breath. "Mr Cohen, I know you're upset, but…"
"Officer Flannery!" The voice of Daniel Flannery's secretary filled the room and interrupted him from answering. Seth turned around to face the blonde woman who held up a piece of paper.
"What is it, Grace? I have some important business to do here." Officer Flannery replied unnerved.
The secretary walked over to the officer's desk and placed the piece of paper on his desk. "There's someone who might have seen Mrs Cohen the day she disapeared." She said.
Seth laughed. "A lot of people have seen Summer the day she disappeared."
The secretary put her hands onto her hips and raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, but this guy here saw her after the earthquake and not near the grocery store."
Kirsten and Sandy sat up straight and Seth felt his heart beating faster at these news.
Officer Flannery smiled. Finally there was some progress going on in this case.
The secretary went on. "His name's Phil Higgins. He's a bus driver here in Newport."
A little smile of hope crossed Seth's face.
He grabbed his jacket and ran out of the office. "Let's go and find this guy!" he yelled on his way out.
"Phil Higgins? I'm Officer Daniel Flannery from the Newport Police Department." Officer Flannery talked to a still shut door in a very run down apartment building in the town center of Newport Beach.
As Seth scanned the interior of the building, he couldn't believe he was still in Newport, regarding how run down the house was. But it didn't matter where he needed to go or what he needed to do, for Summer he would have done everything.
But he was also glad that his little baby was staying with Ryan and Marissa for today. Never in a million years he would have dared to bring him here.
An image of Summer came into Seth's mind. He saw her sweet face laughing and her wonderful dark eyes sparkling. The mere thought of Summer and where she might be right now made his heart ache so bad it almost took him the air to breathe.
Seth's thoughts were interrupted by a not very slim man in his underpants, smoking a huge cigar and looking very disturbed. "Police?" The man asked. "What have I done?"
Daniel Flannery still held up his police badge. With his other hand, he pulled out a photo that showed Summer sitting on the beach and staring into the distance, her cheeks glowing and a slight smile crossing her face. It was one of Seth's favorite pictures of her. The photo had also been put up on the posters that were hanging in the community.
Seth had figured that if Summer would see herself there, she would know where to go. But as things seemed right now, Summer didn't recognize herself.
"You told my colleagues that you have seen this woman two days ago?" Officer Flannery asked.
Phil's eyebrows went up. "She looks really pretty, dat girl." He said and blew out a cloud of steam.
Officer Flannery tapped with his foot on the ground. "And have you seen her or not?" he asked impatiently.
Phil inhaled once again and blew out the smoke directly into the officer's face. "Yeah, I did. Drove down to Huntington after the quake. She wasn't sure to get on the bus or not."
"And did she take the bus?" Officer Flannery asked.
Phil shook his head. "Nah. Stayed here. Asked some man for some directions, I guess."
Officer Flannery took out his little notepadto make notes. This sounded interesting.
Seth stood behind Officer Flannery and kneaded his hands. He was so tense he couldn't speak. This man really seemed to know where Summer had gone that fateful day.
"Could you tell us how the man looked like?" Officer Flannery asked and started to scribble down things on his notepad.
Phil shrugged. "Blonde, tall. Didn't see it from the distance." He replied.
Officer Flannery sighed and nodded. "Well, thanks nevertheless. That really helped."
Phil Higgins nodded and shut his door without any further comment.
Seth sighed. That hadn't helped as much as he might have thought.
In fact, it hadn't helped at all.
But at least they knew now that Summer was still in Newport Beach.
They had to continue searching.
Next chapter: Traces Of Sadness