The officers arrived 15 minutes later and i opened the door to them. I had spent the 15 minutes cradling Sophie to myself, ready to fight against any intruder that might be in the house. The girl had woken up at the loud thud that had come from downstairs and now she was afraid. Instinct told her that something was wrong.
I wanted to check the house with the officers so badly, but I didn't dare to leave the little girls' side as she was shaking. She had already endured too much over the past hours and I still saw it as my duty to make sure that Sophie was okay.
After half an hour an officer motioned to me to come into the hallway where he told me, that someone had broken into Mauras office downstairs. The thud that I had heard had come from the window being shut after the perp had left the house through it. I assumed that the window had been shut with a loud thud on purpose to scare me.
While laying in bed with Sophie during the search I had tried to catch a thought that was floating at the back of my mind. It was something about the horn, but I only grasped the thought when I heard a similar sound coming from one of the officers pager.
A pager, yes! Frost would have to send me the audiofile so that I could ask the officers which force used that special sound. It also explained why the videocall had ended so abrupt. The perp had probably been called to an emergency. The horn wasn't the sound that I had heard from the pager of the police officer but it could belong to any rescue orginaziation like a paramedic, nurse, firefighter etc. There were many professions that still used pagers.
I felt sophies hand tug at mine while I was thinking. She was eying the officers with frightened eyes. The one who had led the search offered us a ride to a safe place, but I denied. I still preferred my hotelroom.
This is where we spent the rest of the night until Frost and Korsak arrived the next morning.
At least Sophie felt save with me, I thought as I tried to explain about the intruder, leaving many things out like the video call because she was listening carefully.
"Where is mummy?" she asked, sounding much more grown up than she should be at 5 years. The events were leaving a mark on her, and I truly hoped that we would find Maura alive soon.
Her eyes had widened when Frost and Korsak had walked into our room, and they too made a surprised face when I introduced them to the little girl that I had only briefly mentioned to them. They obviously had expected that I'd find a baby sitter or so and not take care of her myself. I could understand their surprise as I wasn't the motherly type. I simply shrugged and showed Frost where to set up his gear.
"Et voila, I've got a surprise for you!" Korsak grinned and handed me a package which I took with a raised eyebrow. They had brought me a gun. It's really strange how you can feel like an incomplete person without the steel item I thought as I attached it with its holster to my belt.
Sophie who was watching TV was stealing glances at us and asked if she could see my badge. Still holding it in my hand but about to attach it I paused and finally walked over.
We ordered breakfast and I could see Korsak talking to her. He was good with kids I thought. Shame that he never got to raise his only son. Our eyes met across the room as I watched Frost compare the horn with a database about pager sounds from all common forces.
It only took him 5 minutes to find out that it was the sound of a firefighters pager.
"We need information about yesterdays accidents or fires that have occurred around the time of the videocall." I mumbled to Frost who was already on it. Then we could cross the list of firefighters on duty with the participants from the conference and the employees from the hotel. Provided the perp had given his real name we would finally have a chance to identify him.
My mind also went to the disappeared intern because I couldn't shake the feeling that he was somehow involved in all of this. One thing was sure though, and that was that the perp was becoming very bold. This meant that the possibility of him making a mistake was raising as did the pressure on us to find him before he could do something stupid.
Unfortunately, we still had no clue as to Mauras whereabouts. Despite Korsak being good to Sophie the girl still clung to me. It was me who cut her bagel in half and prepared her breakfast. And admittedly I somehow liked it. Ignoring their teasing comments about me being a mother I added butter to the bagel and some ham and cut up the sandwich into small pieces before handing the plate to the girl.
We talked about their flight and ma driving everybody crazy at the precinct because we didn't want to disturb the poor kid with our shop talk about Mauras case. But it was hard, because we all wanted to save Maura and felt the pressure of time.
After breakfast we gathered on the balcony to discuss Frosts findings about last nights' incidents that had required firefighters. All the while I had an eye on Sophie who was drawing pictures on the notepad provided by the hotel.
We tried to reestablish a communication with the perp by clicking on the icon of the app, but to no avail.
At one point Sophie came to me as I was sitting in front of Mauras computer, desperately looking for some clues. She showed me one of the pictures that she had drawn. I looked at the two adults with the kid in between them. One happy family I thought, except for the fact that it only existed in a drawing now.
What did Sophie know about her parents' separation? And where the heck was Belinda? Not with Maura I mused, recalling the picture of Maura on the dirty sheets that now was imprinted in my brain. It still hurt me to see her like that.
I told Sophie that it was a beautiful picture and then tried to subtly ask where Belinda was. Maura had talked to Sophie everyday on the phone while they were separated. I mused that Belinda would do the same. But Sophie only vehemently shook her head when I mentioned it to her.
"Mum (Belinda) doesn't call every day because she can't. She doesn't always have time with her job." Sophie explained to me, revealing that Belinda had always been away for days which explained why the fact that her parents had separated didn't hit her so hard.
I felt Korsaks interested eyes on me when I asked Sophie about Belindas job' and the girl shrugged. "She drives huge cars and…" We were all now hanging on her lips when she turned her head towards the TV and pointed at it.
"Like this!" she now became excited, and we hitched a breath when a firefighters truck rushed across the screen.
"I'll be damned!" Korsak muttered while Frosts fingers were already flying over the keyboard. I wasn't so sure if Maura was happy with us cursing around her girl, but I figured that she would understand.
"We still have a problem." I said. "The caller was male." I pointed out and Korsak put on a frown. "It could be the intern though." I continued my trail of thoughts. "In collaboration with her?" Frost added in a questioning tone. We had all forgotten about Sophie who was following our conversation with interest.
"Yes. That would be possible." Korsak agreed.
"I've got an address for Belinda Carlisles. It's her right?" Frost interrupted us and I moved to glance over his shoulder.
"Couldn't harm to check it out." Korsak said while patting Frost onto his shoulder, meaning that he meant him and himself. I agreed on staying at the hotel with Sophie. Depending on the time it would last to survielle the apartment we would change shifts later and I would join Korsak or Frost while the other one would be looking after the girl.
It felt good to have them here. It wasn't that I didn't trust the local police, but I preferred doing things with my team.
R&I
"Are you going to find Mummy?" the voice surprised me as I stood on the balcony and glanced towards the ocean which seemed to be far away. I had laid her to rest earlier, glad that she hadn't asked any questions.
I slowly turned to see her standing in the doorway, her arms wrapped tightly around the little plush lion that she called Fred. Of course, she wasn't stupid and knew that something was going on with Maura. Sighing I decided that it was time to sit her down and have a talk.
My arms wrapped around her first and I watched her hold on to Fred as I explained to her that her mummy was missing but that we were doing everything we could to find her. It was hard to be honest, but the girl made it so easy for me when she could have made it hard. Listening attentively, she kept her eyes on me, sounding fearful when asking if we believed that Belinda had something to do with it.
"I don't know baby." I honestly replied and let her snuggle closer.
"Mum (Belinda) was very mean to mummy when you left." She offered and I could barely hear her as her face was buried in my shirt. "She said that if she couldn't have her no one could." The girl continued. "She said that she had done bad things to other people before."
It was hard to stay calm when hearing these words. Even a five-year-old knew that something was terribly wrong with Belinda.
"Then mummy saw me evesdropping and ordered me to go back to my room. I heard them fight for a while and suddenly everything was silent. If I wouldn't have been so afraid, I would have checked…" the little girls voice trailed off and it broke my heart that she had had to live through this.
"It's okay. We are going to bring her back." I whispered in a confidence that I didn't feel.
I cursed myself for leaving them alone, but it had seemed to be the most decent thing to do at the time. If I had stayed…
My phone rang and I immediately picked up to hear Korsaks voice: "Guess who just left the house? We are following her, maybe she leads us to Maura."
"Or maybe to her accomplice." Frosts voice reached my ear from afar as he was driving.
My lips already hurt from biting on them, but I couldn't help as I tried to figure out if Belinda and the intern were behind the murder game and whether Maura had always been the ultimate target.
It didn't take me long to calculate that the murder game murders had started before Maura and Belinda had been a couple Was Belinda just using the situation or had she been behind it all along? There were so many questions, and I had a hard time sitting there and waiting for news. As I've mentioned before: I always needed to be in the field.
But when I felt Sophies little arms tighten around me I knew that this was the only place I should be right now. So, I held her tight while we waited for the next call.