Author's notes: So little reviewers. But for those that do review: lots of hugs and thanks!

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Sergeant Daniel: Interesting theory you've got going there. Not even halfway and we already ahve a suspect!

Black Seconds

3 September

Tien woke at six o'clock. The dog lay next to him on the floor. The animal observed his weak movements on the bed and lifted his head. The next second three short beeps were heard from the clock. Tien bend down and petted Chaozu on his head. He could clearly feel the skull of the dog underneath his fur, felt the bumps against his hand. Afterwards he thought of Marron. Immediately she was back in his mind. He stretched his long body and tried to interpret the light behind the curtains. It didn't work, he had to stand up to look at it. Staring at the clammy morning mist that covered the city like a blanket. For breakfast he ate two slices of bread with cheese and paprika. He dragged the dog down the stairs for a walk around the block. He left him in the living room after that. At 7.15 he opened the door of his office, with the morning papers underneath his arm. 'Still no trace of Marron.'

During the morning call the tasks were distributed. In the case-Marron Chestnut there wasn't many to distribute. Initially the work existed out of checking earlier rapists. Those who had finished their prison sentence or had had a free day on that fatefull night and everybody who were ever accused but never convicted. In reality they were all waiting untill somebody found Marron's abused and dead body, so that they could continue the investigation. Her picture hung on the pin-up board in the conference room. Every time they walked past it her smile cut through heart and soul, and meanwhile they still had an ounce of hope that the girl would show up with the most fantastic explanation.

When the telephone rang, and it did so continuously, everybody turned around and stared at the one who had picked up, in order to eventually read from his face if it was about Marron, because they thought they could see that. The people in the emergency room, on every moment of the day, felt their heart jump at every phone call. They knew it would happen sooner or later.

A new search action was set up. How far and how long they would dregde was still unsure. But they knew at which place they had to start.

Tien drove to Eighteen's house. He saw the face of Mrs. Chestnut behind the window, most probably she had heard the car. He stepped out slowly, on purpose, in order not to create false hope.

'I almost give up,' she said weakly.

'I understand it's hard,' he said, 'but we're still searching.'

'I have always known it was too beautiful to be true, that we got Marron,' she said.

'But she is real, isn't she?' Tien asked carefully.

Eighteen's bottom lip trembled. 'She was real. Now, I don't know what she is anymore.' Without saying another word, she walked to the room. Afterwards towards the window. 'Here I stand most of the time. Or I sit in her room. I don't do anything. I am so afraid that I might forget her,' she said fearfully. 'Scared she might slip from my mind, scared that I might do things or think about things without Marron.'

'Nobody expects you to do something right now,' Tien said.

He went to sit unasked on the couch. He saw her hair was greasy and that she wore the same clothes she had been wearing the first time they had met. Maybe she hadn't even undressed.

'I'd like to speak to your friend,' Tien said.

'Bulma? She's living a couple of minutes from here, in the center of West City. She'll stop by later.'

'Can you communicate well with her?' he asked.

'Yes,' she smiled. 'It has always been that way.'

'And Marron's father. Krillin. He has two brothers that live in the nieghbourhood. Marron's uncles?'

She nodded. 'Kuri and Kran Chestnut. They are married and both have a family. They live near the post office.'

'Do you have a lot of contact with them?' he wanted to know.

She shook her head. 'Not with them. It's funny. That little bit of family that you have, and you almost never see them. But I know they helped searching yesterday. All of them.'

'Did one of them contact you?'

'They are afraid to,' she said softly. 'They must be scared. I don't know what they think. I don't want to know. I have enough with my own fantasy.' She shivered, as if gruesome thoughts invaded her mind immediately.

'But Marron knows her cousins and nieces?'

'Off course. But the kids she knows best are Bra and Trunks. The children of Vegeta and Bulma. She goes over there a lot. She loves 'aunt' Bulma. That's the only one she really likes.'

'And her husband?' he said. 'What does he do?'

'Vegeta is in the oil company, he travels a lot. He's almost never at home. Krillin is also gone quite a lot. They both complain about how they have to sleep in a hotel every night and that is is exhausting and all. But most probably they both like it that way. Then they don't have to bother with the trivial stuff.'

He didn't have a comment for that.

'Does Marron love her 'uncle' Vegeta?' he asked softly. She was quite for a while, while the meaning of his question hit her. After that she nodded. 'Yes. Vegeta and Bulma are my best friends. Marron goes over there for years already and she likes it there. They are both neat people.'

She said it with much conviction. Tien glanced around the room. A couple of pictures of Marron hung on the wall, taken with a few years in between. On one of those pictures Marron was shown holding a cat.

'She is completely besotted with animals,' he mused. 'Her bedroom is full of them. That cat, is it gone?'

It went silent in the room. Tien was completely unprepared for the reaction the question had led to. Eighteen collapsed and slapped her hands in front of her face. Then she yelled with a voice that went straight through your core. 'That cat was Bra's! It got hit by a car. But Marron never had a pet. Not even a mouse! I said no. Always no! Because I didn't want to have it and now I don't get it why I was so egoistical. That she never got a young kitten or a puppy or something else that she wanted to have, even if she nagged me for it. Because I didn't want to have all that trouble with animals, with the hair and the poop and the piss and everything that comes with it! But if she comes back, then she can have as many animals as she want! I promise that, I really do!'

It went deadly silent. Eighteen's face was red. Then she started to weep again.

'I am so dumb,' she cried. 'I am so sad and so horribly desperate that I think about buying a puppy. Because then she must come home again. She would hear the whining of the puppy, wherever she was, and come home quick. That's how I think. Like a child.'

'Well,' said Tien. 'Off course you can take in a puppy.'

She shook her head. 'I think about so many strange things,' she said. 'The most improbable things.' She wiped her tears away with the hem of her blouse.

'I understand,' Tien said softly. 'What you are going through right now, you have never experienced it before.'

Her eyes widened. 'Oh yes! I have experienced it a lot of times already. This is exactly what I was afraid of the whole time. For this I was prepared. That's how it is to be a mother!'

'Good,' he said, 'so you experience what you have already foreseen in your thoughts. Is it different than what you thought it might be?'

'It's a lot and a lot worse,' she weeped.

Bulma Briefs had brought her daughter Bra to the schoolbus. Now she watched as her son Trunks brought the milk carton up to his mouth. And then she spoke to him in a serious tone.

'Trunks Vegeta! I don't like that and you know it.'

He put the carton down and wanted to walk out of the kitchen.

'Take a sandwich,' she said imploringly.

'Not hungry,' he mumbled.

She heard him in the hallway. He put on his sport shoes.

'I thought you had a seminar toady?' she yelled. She went after him, didn't want him to leave.

'Yes,' he said questionaly, while he looked up at her.

'Than I'm counting on you to study,' she said, thinking about the last and most important year of school.

'I have to go to Yajirobi first. We are working on the car together.'

She thought about it for a while, looking at him. He kept his face averted.

'You are worrying quite a lot about that dent,' she said hesitantly. 'For god's sake, it's only a car.'

He didn't answer, but pulled on his shoelaces. Hard, she realized.

'Goten called for you,' she said. 'Now I like that boy don't you? You guys are friends I hope?'

'Yeah,' Trunks said. 'But he doesn't know anything about a car. And Gohan neither.'

'No, no. But Yajirobi is so much older than you. I think it is still better for you to socialize with boys your age, right?'

'I am doing that,' he argued. 'But I need help with the car. Yajirobi has a garage. And tools.'

He kept sitting there. Even made a dubble knot in the white laces. His fingers shook a little. Bulma saw that and felt a vague feeling of worry. Suddenly she got the feeling that she didn't know this tall eighteen year old. It was a very uncomfortable feeling. When he finally stood up he still had his face averted. He searched through the hangers for his coat.

'Trunks,' she said, friendlier. 'I know it sucks about that car. But Marron has disappeared. Maybe she's even dead. I just can't get how you can be so worried about a dent in your car. I'm becoming desperate, because it isn't right!'

The outburst of his mother got to him. He wanted to walk out of the door, but she grabbed his arm and forced him to look at her. To her surprise she saw a tear.

'Trunks,' she said, worried. 'What's the matter?'

He quickly wiped his face with his hand. 'I don't know, there are so many thingd.' He said. 'The thing with Marron. You don't have to think that I don't feel anything about that. They are going to search again today, but I don't know if I'm going to.'

'Was it that bad?' Bulma asked, whispering.

Trunks nodded. 'Every time you raise a bush, your heart stands still,' he said.

Then he was gone. She stood in the hallway and heard him disappear. With quick paces, as if he was running. Bulma slid down the wall. Everything was so horrible, she thought. How can we keep up?

Author's notes: I have decided that I am not going too slow. If anything I like to build up the climax. But what the climax will be... You'll have to keep reading to find out.

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