Chapter 5: Chapter 4

“I have some terrible news. Sorry to tell you this, but your husband, Mr. Franco, is missing.” He told her.

Elena leant her head to the side. “What?”

She was still in denial about the whole thing; she kept telling herself that Malik would come through the door any minute now.

Officer Wilson leaned forward in her seat. “The San Francisco police station contacted us. They said that your husband was at a bar at around 9 pm. He got into a fight and hasn’t been seen since.”

Elena closed her eyes, “I know that he hasn’t been home for a few days now but thi-”

Officer Wilson cut her off, “so you knew that your husband is missing?”

Elena fought back on rolling her eyes, “I never said I knew he was missing, I said he’s just not home yet. He felt one week and a day ago on a business trip to San Francisco. I expected him home 2 days ago, but he hasn’t showed up yet.”

“And you never thought to report this to the police?” The female officer was reaching for her hand cuff now.

Elena rolled her eyes then, “let’s be rational here, I said he went on a business trip and isn’t back yet. That means he could be held up with more things, my husband is a very busy man. Traveling at least six times for a month. He could have easily been in another state, and I didn’t want to raise an alarm only to have him appear.”

Officer Wilson settled back in her seat, “where were you the morning that he left for his trip?”

“Are you accusing me of abducting my husband?” Elena jumped up.

“As for now you are the only suspect.” Officer Jones made known.

Elena start sobbing then, “this is crazy, why are you accusing me of this and why didn’t the San Fransisco police contact me instead?”

‘’Mrs. Franco-‘’

Elena shook her head. “This must be some mistake,” Elena said all choked up, but she knew that it must be true because it would explain why he wouldn’t answer her calls.

“Just like you said Mrs. Franco on need in raising a false alarm, the chief of police didn’t want to do this same to you. But please, answer our questions.” Officer Jones told her.

Elena nodded at the officers.

“The day he left I was still at the house, I made sure that everything was decent before heading out to work that day, you can call anyone from the news station to confirm. In fact, I have cameras around the house to prove that to you.’’

’’I only go to work and back home, except today where I visited his parents thinking he was there. And occasionally I would have a friend over, she keeps me company sometimes because I expressed to her that my husband isn’t home yet.”

Elena’s head was now in her hands as she broke down in a sobbing cry.

Elena offered to show them around the house, and they took all the evidence they could.

Elena sent the officers away shortly after, promising that she would call them over if she heard anything or if he returned home.

“Malik,” Elena cried that night until no tears came, she still couldn’t believe what they told her.

But her thoughts were now all over the place.

‘Was there any witness?’

‘Or who could have done such and thing?’

‘And where was Malik’s body if he were really dead?’

All Elena did was rock herself back and forth, calling Malik’s name over and over.

She knew that it wouldn’t bring him back, but she could pray.

The next day Elena called in sick, her eyes were red from crying all night, she had bags under her eyes from not sleeping, and her hair was messy from running her hands through it so many times.

Malik’s parents had called somewhere throughout the day, she let it go straight to the answering machine.

Her mother-in-law was crying about the news she received.

Elena was unable to move because she was just too broken inside.

The pain was real, and she was afraid she wouldn’t see malik ever again, she thought of all the possibility of what might have happened to him.

The thoughts had haunt her on the first day and now they came back stronger, aliens, time travel, killed for his organs, sold on the black market as a slave.

Elena started crying again, she had to drag herself downstairs.

After trying to eat food that tasted bland to her she restored to the bottle of red wine they would never get to drink together.

Elena locked herself in her room the entire day, ignoring the calls of Belinda.

The next morning Elena found herself in one of Malik’s work shirts and drinking coffee out of his favorite cup.

Again, she didn’t sleep well the night before, and she knew that she wouldn’t be her full self at work, so she called in sick again.

But someone from the station reminded her that she had an interview today, with a renown CEO and he only agreed to the interview if Elena was the one carrying it out.

Elena heard only half of what he was saying, she was too focused on Malik.

Elena jumped and was brought back to the harsh reality she now lived in when her phone rang.

“Excuse me a minute,” she told the CEO.

It was Officer Wilson, asking if she could come in because they needed to speak with her about finding her husband.

Elena raced to the station not caring about the CEO, she thought someone else could finish the interview.

She was hoping that the police had good news and would tell her that Malik was alive and well, just in the hospital or in a holding cell.

‘’Elena Perry, I got a call to come down here,’’ she said to the woman at the front desk.

The woman looked her up and down, before pressing a single button on the phone.

‘’She, here.’’

‘’First door on your left,’’ she simply told Elena.

Elena sat in the small cubicle waiting for the detective by the name of Harrison to find a note pad. He refused to put his foam cup of hot coffee down to do a better search.

Elena looked up at the ceiling then to the corner of the desk, “isn’t that the note pad?” She pointed.

Detective Harrison chuckled then cleared his throat, he took a bite from the donut in his mouth, he took his own time chewing trying to intimate her.

“Mrs. Franco,” he began.

“It’s Perry, I never took on my husband’s name.” She told him.

He raised a brow at that, “why?”

“I find it old fashioned.” She replied.

“Seems as if you have something else to say on the matter,” he commented, sipping from his cup.

“I don’t have anything thing else to say, can you just ask your questions? Because from the call I got, you people made it seem as if you found my husband.” Elena was getting annoyed with him.

“Are you hoping that we don’t find him?’’ Harrison raised a brow.

‘’I just don’t have time to waste.’’

’’You seemed to be in a hurry, but luckily for you, you have a seal tight alibi, everybody could confirm that you were where you said you were. The home videos showed nothing strange, and your phone record is clean. So, you’re off the hook.” He said slowly.

“Do you know of anyone that would want to hurt your husband, an ex-lover, business competitor, old high school rival?” he asked, after a pause.

Elena shook her head at all that. “Malik went to a private school, I don’t really know any of his business associates. There was a rule against having significant others at the office.’’

‘’What about any exes?’’

Elena sighed, “Malik is the first man I have ever been with, and he never spoke about is previous flings before me.” Elena felt like crying again, but she knew that it wouldn’t bring her husband home.

“I don’t understand shouldn’t you all be out looking for him, especially at the last place he was last seen instead of questioning me, a killer could be on the loose for all we know.” Elena felt upset then, thinking that the cops weren’t doing all they could.

Harrison placed his cup down, “I’ll let you know that the cops are doing all they can but its mandatory to ask these questions to see if we can find anything leading to Mr. Franco’s where abouts.”

Elena nodded, she knew all these things and knew he was only doing his job.

“Have you two ever been in any kind of argument, or knew if he might be seeing anyone?” He rushed out.

Elena gave him a look. “I wouldn’t know that.’’