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The Jury - Chapter Two
by
Amy Sorensen
"OK, Emma, what’ve we got?"
"Missing child, Ma’am. Another one." PC Parker told the inspector.
"That’s two in just a couple of months, isn’t it? When was the first?’"
"6th February; the latest child was reported missing today."
"Right, go straight over to the parents, we don’t want another death on our hands."
"Yes, Ma’am." Said PC Parker. PC Parker was
far from pleased to be dealing with this case. Elidi’s body had been found just
a week after her visit to the parents. A post-mortem revealed she had been
strangled to death. There was nothing anyone could do, no way to prevent it.
Emma knew this, but try telling the parents that. It was even worse when no
killer had yet been found.
"Right, Mrs. Parton. Could you tell me exactly what happened?" PC Parker began
once the middle-aged woman had shown her into the spacious living room.
"Well, I had a friend round, er, M-Miss Croxford from next door. We were having a coffee and a chat, sh-she was telling me about her holiday, in M-Majorca, you see."
"Please, Mrs Parton. Just tell me when you realised that Andrew was missing." PC Parker interrupted.
"Oh, yes, s-sorry. I’m just not thinking
straight, I, I..." stammered Mrs. Parton,
choked with tears.
"It’s OK, Mum, I’ll tell her." Mrs Parton’s 14-year-old son, Matthew, said soothingly. "I was the one who discovered Andy was missing. He was playing on the front lawn, Mum was talking to Anne and I was upstairs. I looked out the window to check on him, like I always do. He was nowhere to be seen when I looked out."
"Thank you, Matthew..."
"Matt." Said the boy, cutting PC Parker off.
"Sorry. Matt. You’re being really great. Have you searched around for your brother since?"
"Yeah, I told Mum he’d gone and she got really panicky. I went all round this street and everywhere else in the area. I couldn’t find him anywhere."
There was nothing more PC Parker could do. They would start searches tomorrow but apart from alerting other parents in the area, prevention was not going to be easy if there was a child killer on the loose.
Mrs. Parton broke down into tears.
"Look, if there’s nothing else, I think you should go now. I’ll look after Mum." Matt said protectively.
"Yeah, OK. I’ll get back to you on this."
Matt took PC Parker to the door while his mum sat on the living room floor and wept.
"Will she be OK?" asked the PC.
"Sure, I’ll look after her. Just, just find my little brother, yeah?"
"We’ll do our best, Matt. I promise."
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