15th October, Homicide Investigation
The location of the gas station Hans gave did correspond with the last pole Anna's phone had been recorded at. I was wondering how Hans could know about the location by any other way than how he was telling it. He said the bus driver informed him, but was that the truth? I noticed I had started to doubt everything Hans said, even when facts pointed at him telling the truth, there always seemed to be some angle with him.
The station was small and humble, clearly managed by the owner alone. I went in and showed the picture of Anna to him and asked if he had ever seen her in his shop. To my surprise, the owner rolled his eyes and gave exasperated sigh before answering: "I'll tell you the same thing I tell the man. She came here on 17th of July with the bus that turns around here, brought a bottle of water and left. She didn't say anything, and I don't know where she went."
Could it be true, Hans had really spoken the truth about coming here? "What man?"
The clerk looked puzzled, like it crossed for the first time his mind that we might not be working together with the man. "The fiancé." The man explained. "Auburn hair, sideburns, pretty face."
"Hans came here to ask for Anna?" I frowned. This was exactly how Hans had told it and somehow that confused me even more.
The clerk just huffed with annoyance. "He came here almost every week, asking about the girl. I never had anything new for him, the girl never came again, it was getting quite annoying. The girl clearly didn't want to see him, I'm not sure if I would have told him even if I saw her again. You never know what happens behind closed doors, you know. Maybe the girl had good reason to stay hidden."
I thanked the man for his help, but I was left with more questions than answers. This was really throwing me off my earlier investigation. Hans had truly tried to reach out for Anna. He had texted, called, looked for her, and most importantly, someone else could confirm his search. Now it wasn't just meaningless text messages he could have easily sent knowing Anna would never see them. Anna had been in the gas station, alone. She had bought a bottle of water and left, perhaps never to be seen again.
She had been okay when the clerk had seen her, at least physically speaking. Had Hans found her later, killed her and hid the body, going back only to keep up pretense? Did Elsa know something, do something? Hans knew about Elsa's epileptic seizures, but didn't want to disclose that information. If he wasn't close with Elsa, how had he acquired the information, without firsthand seeing the seizure. Of course, Anna could have told him. I was really trying to tie together the puzzle pieces, but it felt like all the pieces were from different puzzles.
My musings were finally interrupted by a phone ring. I answered, and only heard one sentence, it froze my blood: "We found a body."
A/N Hi luvnanofate and SharK, thank you for your comments. Don't worry guys, I'll definitely finish this story, in fact it is almost finished. Just a few chapters to go. I'm actually currently working on another story about this case, but written in Anna, Elsa, and Hans's perspective, starting way before the events in this story. Might wrap this up quite fast so I can fully concentrate on that one. Well, this is already fully written, I'm just polishing and making sure there's no inconsistencies.