2.
Noah sat in his office at Prima Tech, trying to ignore the ringing of his phone. The first time, he simply tuned it out, the second time he simply flipped it to vibrate, but it was around the fourth or fifth time that urged him to actually answer it.
"Hello," He spoke into the phone.
"Dad, you need to come home right now!" Lyle begged into the phone.
Noah stood up in alarm, "Lyle, what's happened?"
"Mom just got back - she locked herself in her room and won't come out." He said.
"Got back from where?" Noah questioned his son.
"The police..." The teen paused. "No...I'll tell you when you get home...just come home right now." The phone beeped and Noah was left with just silence.
Hurriedly, he informed a colleague of his reason of absence and left the building. He tried to stay in the speed limit, but the anxiety the man felt somehow kept his foot pressed hard into the gas pedal.
As soon as he was in the door he asked, "Where is she now."
"Still upstairs," Lyle responded.
Noah took his son by the shoulders then, and leaned down to speak only in whispers. "Tell me now, what happened?"
Lyle swallowed, "The po-...the police found a body...they wanted mom to come identify it...she left as if she was only supposed to tell them it wasn't Claire's...and when she got back..." Lyle's voice trailed off.
Noah sped up the stairs and too the room where he and his wife shared. This time, it was empty with the door wide open. He went room to room and finally found her in Claire's. His wife was sitting on the floor of the bedroom with her back to the end of Claire's bed, holding one of the many medals her daughter had earned over the years.
Noah came to sit beside his wife, "Was it?" He didn't dare specify his question.
All Teresa did was nod, "Yes..."
"Do they know what happened." Noah looked as if he could cry.
His wife could only whimper, "They found her naked...in a creek, she..she had a branch i- in her head...they - they... they said she was a victim of homicide...someone did this...someone did this to our baby." Teresa sobbed.
All Noah could do then was stare, and then he pulled his wife into a hug. The woman could only bury her face into her husband's chest as she screamed her pain that only came out as a muffled sound because of the arm she had tucked her face into.
Lyle finally came upstairs then, he looked at his parent's as his father sat there trying to comfort his wife. He went back out of the room, leaned onto the hallway wall, and slid down to the ground. Burying his own face into the crook of his elbows as he held his knees to his chest. It was the only way he could really hold himself together.
To be continued…