All For Nothing

Chapter 1 – Missing Persons

Louise took one last look around her empty apartment, running her hand along the kitchen island, the cold granite sending a shiver of excitement down her spine. One lone box sat in the middle of the living room and she crouched down to tape it up.
"Wow Louise," her best friend, Paul, walked in, "I can't believe you're actually moving in with Jem. It feels like the end of an era."
She smiled up at him, "I know; there are so many memories in this apartment."
He picked up the box, "I'll just stick this in the trunk then?"
"Thanks so much for helping me move all of these boxes. I don't know what happened to Jem." Louise flipped her phone open and dialled her fiancé's number one again, leaving yet another voicemail. Paul shrugged and carried the box down to Louise's Lexus, closely followed by the blonde. As he loaded up the trunk, his phone rang.
"Oh, hi Mom." He said, rolling his eyes at his friend, "What's the matter? Your fuse has blown? Alright, I'll be right there." He turned to Louise apologetically, "I'm so sorry."
"Don't worry," she smiled, "I'm sure your mum needs you more than I do. I'm sure Jem will be at his apartment. I'll see you tomorrow morning?"
"I'll be waiting with your latte." He winked as she climbed into her car and waved at him. As his friend drove away, Paul frowned. He thought it strange that Jem didn't turn up to help Louise with her stuff on the day that they were meant to move in together. There had to be a reasonable explanation for his absence: traffic; dead phone battery. He still wasn't particularly fond of the guy but he made Lou happy, and as far as he was concerned, that was all that mattered.
Louise happily drummed her fingers on the steering wheel to the tune of the radio as she wove through the back roads to her new apartment. No doubt the removal van was caught in traffic somewhere in the few blocks between her and Jem's apartment. She smiled widely as she pulled up outside the building and greeted the security guard, who tipped his hat to her. Louise called Jem on his phone again, and could hear the ringtone as she walked down the hallway.
"That's odd", she murmured as she slid her key into the lock and walked into the apartment, throwing her stuff near the door. "Jem?" she called, wandering through the apartment. The air was filled with a sickly sweet perfume that she didn't recognise. A high pitched giggle came from behind the closed bedroom door and Louise's heart dropped. Her hands shook as she threw open the door. A squeal, a gasp. A skinny brunette. His secretary.
"You have got to be kidding." She said, quietly while the offending girl slid further under the covers.
"Louise!" Jem shouted, as she turned on her heel and stormed back through the apartment, "Louise, baby wait! It's not what you…."
She rounded on him, struggling with the band of metal around her finger, "Save it Jem." With all the force she could muster, Louise chucked the ring at her fiancé. As she heard a satisfying yelp of pain she ran out of the door, scooping up her things as she did. She fought back the tears until she reached the car and slammed the door behind her. The tires spun beneath her, leaving a definite rubber burn in front of the building. She gripped the wheel tightly and could feel her nails digging into her palms. As familiar landmarks passed by, she pulled into a parking spot, not believing her luck. The bell above the door chimed as she walked into her favourite internet café and ordered a very strong coffee. Her hands flew across the keyboard of her laptop, as though she was not in control of them. A few minutes later, she emailed her letter of resignation to her boss and slipped back out of the café. She drove around the city for a few more hours, trying to compose herself. The back roads again and then a highway; signs blurred together and she didn't stop to register where she was headed.
When her gas tank was threateningly low she pulled into the next gas station and switched her phone off. The constant ringing was irritating her. It was 1 am, wherever she was and she handed her credit card to the cashier.
"Excuse me," she said, to the bored looking teenager, "Where am I?"
He stared at her in disbelief, "You serious lady?"
She folded her arms and glared, "Dead serious."
He held his hands up in surrender, "You just crossed the South Carolina border. Would you like to buy a map?"
She slipped the card out of the boy's hand, "No, thanks." Sitting in the darkness of her Lexus, she rubbed her eyes sleepily. "Where the hell am I going?" she muttered to herself, massaging her temple as a headache seared across her head. She pulled an aspirin from her purse and swallowed it, leaning her head back before punching an address into the satnav. Turning the car around, she drove off into the night.

xxx

Grissom was sorting through his mail and smiled as he picked up a cream envelope, a familiar neat handwriting on the front. He leant back in his chair, slid his finger under the fold of paper and unfolded the letter inside. As he read through the letter, he smiled at the picture of his niece that he took on her last trip to Vegas. "I have some really exciting news!" Louise wrote and he could picture her grinning at her desk as she penned him the note, "Jem and I are engaged! I can't wait for you to meet him. I'm sure you'll love him as much as I do." As he finished off the letter, his phone began to ring and he skimmed through the last few lines before answering.
"Grissom?" He said, folding the letter up again.
"Gil!" his sister screeched down the phone, "Louise is missing! She's not answering her phone and no one has seen her for two days!"
Grissom sat up straight, reaching for Louise's photo, "Alright Amanda, where was the last time anyone saw her?" he soothed walking through the lab to Archie.
"I don't know!" Amanda panicked, "She was supposed to move in with Jem, but he said she never arrived. Her car is gone and she quit her job."
He scribbled down Louise's licence plate and asked Archie to start looking for it. "Have you issued a missing persons report?" He asked, calmly as he searched through Louise's credit records. It was clear that she was driving, as there were transactions at gas stations. He pointed then out to Archie, who immediately was searching for CCTV cameras at the stations. "Amanda, I want you to keep calm. I'll call Brass and have him put out an ATL on her and her car. Then I'll get hold of Mac Taylor in New York and get him to notify the news stations, see if anyone has seen anything."
"Gil…" she stuttered, "What if something awful has happened to her?"
Grissom replied sternly, "We're going to find her, Amanda. You can't afford to think like that." He tapped on the glass as Catherine walked past, gesturing for her to come in. "Don't worry Amanda. I'll have Taylor keep you informed." Catherine stared at the picture Archie was holding and frowned, "Isn't that Louise?" she muttered and Archie shrugged.
"Who's Louise?"
"Gil!" she turned as he dialled another number, "What's going on?"
"Louise is missing." He said soberly, "I need you to call Brass, tell him to get her picture out there."
Catherine whipped out her phone and paced up and down the corridor as she waited for Brass to answer. "C'mon Louise..." she muttered, "Where are you?"

Xxx

"And now," the emotionless voice of the news reporter echoed through the lab, "Police Departments across the entire country are asking for any information about the whereabouts of 23 year old Stanford graduate, Louise Carter. Louise was last seen in New York City four days ago and her family are appealing to anyone who knows where she might be."
Grissom stared at the TV screen and grimaced. His pager buzzed and he ran into the AV Lab where a credit card transaction was flashing green. "Grissom, she's in Vegas!" Archie smiled, "Just checked into the Bellagio. I'll pull up the security footage and see if anyone was with her."
Archie turned around and saw that he was speaking to an empty room, "Okay…" he muttered to himself, convinced that he was going mad. Grissom had meanwhile climbed into his car and was driving dangerously towards the centre of Las Vegas. The concierge backed up slightly as he marched up to the reception desk and demanded to know which room she had checked into.
"Why don't these elevators go any faster?" he thought angrily, tapping his foot impatiently. Room 523! He knocked persistently and breathed a sigh of relief as his tired looking niece opened the door.

xxx

"Then what's with all the boxes?" he asked, once she'd relayed her story.
"I was moving in with him. I sold my New York apartment last week, so I quit my job and came out here." She explained, thinking about her terrible position at the NY Crime Lab. She was a qualified Level Two CSI, yet she was spending nights as a lab rat, processing DNA. All this so that she could spend time with her ex-fiancé, whose ring had already left a tan line on her finger. She replayed the fight in her mind, cringing at the screaming; the insults and hoping that she'd left a dent in his forehead when she lobbed the ring at him. She hadn't even taken the boxes from her car yet. She made a mental note to call her removal company and find out what happened to the rest of the boxes.
"But what about your parents, Louise?" He sighed, "You didn't care to tell them that you were leaving."
She drew her knees to my chest, "I haven't really been thinking straight the last few days," she admitted, "I just needed to get out of there as soon as possible."
"Call them." He said softly, handing her the phone. She flipped it open, erasing the hundreds of missed calls, messages and voice mails, then pressed speed dial.
"Louise!" Her mother's hysterical voice filled the speaker, "What happened? Where are you? Are you hurt? What is going on?"
"Mom," She tried to interrupt her stream of questions, "Mom! I'm okay. I'm in Las Vegas; Uncle Gil's here." She calmly told her the story of her lying cheating ex and how she needed to get away. "I'm going to stay out here a few more days while I decide what to do. I'm not sure that I want to come back to the city."
"We told you that it wasn't a good idea darling; we told you that you were too young."
Louise sighed, "Mom, don't start."
"Louise! You're 24 years old!" She continued, "You shouldn't throw your life away that quickly for some guy that you barely know."
"Mom!" she almost shouted, "Can we not do this now please?"
"Louise! You quit your job, call off your engagement and disappear for 4 days; I have every reason to be concerned." She started pacing up and down, listening to her mother rant.
"Look Mom! I'm okay; I haven't been kidnapped and I just need some time to think." Louise sighed again, "I'll call you in a couple of days, alright? I love you."
"I love you too baby," she replied, "Call us if you need anything."
"Thanks Mom," she smiled and hung up, turning to her uncle. "New York wants you to call them, verify that you are with me and that I'm okay."
He nodded, pulling out his own phone. "Right, Lou." He sighed as he stood up, "I have to get back to the lab. Call me in the morning and we'll go for breakfast, okay?"
She agreed and he planted a kiss on his niece's forehead, "It's good to see you again sweetheart."
As he left, Louise sank down against her bed, staring around her suite. There was a pile of five removal boxes in the corner of the room, the contents of which she had forgotten. She also had a small overnight bag and in the trunk of her car was her forensics kit. I could stay. She thought, as her forensics kit crossed her mind. I could get a job in Vegas. She frowned. Could she? Her bag only held a few days' worth of clothing and even if she could get her stuff shipped out here, she didn't have anywhere to put it. She picked up her phone again, digging in her purse for the business card from the removal company. There was no answer, so she left a message but a few moments later the company called her back.
"Yes, Ms Carter, we can verify that your boxes were delivered and signed for by a Mr Jeremy Parker" the manager explained, "Is there a problem?"
Louise groaned, "Would it be possible for you to deliver those same boxes to Vegas?" If her boxes were sitting in her ex- fiancé's apartment, there was no telling what state she would receive them in. "There has been a slight change of plan."
Louise grabbed the hotel stationary from the dresser and told him the new address.
He assured her that her delivery would be at the new address in five days and Louise breathed a sigh of relief as she hung up. She called her boss, Paul and then NYPD, just to be on the safe side. She had to keep herself busy, she decided confidently. If she stopped to think about Jem or their engagement, she would fall apart.
"I am a strong, independent woman," the blonde muttered, "I will not let him destroy me." She repeated it to herself a few more times, then pulled herself up and stumbled towards the en-suite for a much needed shower.

Please leave me a review. I'd love to know what you think.

FC for Louise's character is Sasha Pieterse (she plays Alison in Pretty Little Liars)

xoxo