Christmas Eve, 5:41 p.m.
Detective Kyle Daniel wasn’t the first officer to arrive at the crime scene. Two police cars were parked at the edge of the lawn, because the victim’s house’s small driveway was too crowded. He yanked the keys out of his car’s ignition, took a deep breath, and then shoved open his door. The chilly winter air was waiting for him outside, and so was a steady trickle of snow. Under different circumstances, tonight would probably have been a perfect Christmas Eve.
But there was nothing perfect about searching for a missing person. Especially not when that missing person qualified in a group of twenty-three other missing people. Kyle had been to the spot where each and every person had gone missing, but he still was in the dark as to why they had gone missing. It was incredibly frustrating to not even be able to get a lead to just one case!
Daniel shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket and climbed up the front steps to the house. He gave the doorknob of the front door a twist, but it was locked, so he rang the doorbell and stepped back. About twenty seconds later and the door still hadn’t moved, Daniel rang the bell again and listened as its chime echoed inside.
Again, no response. Daniel glanced at the windows of the house and noticed that light was peeking through in several different spots. Somebody was obviously home just not… Suddenly all the lights flickered off, including the front porch light, and…Daniel was standing in the dark. “Aw, come on.” Daniel muttered, pulling out his cellphone and clicked on its flashlight.
“Hey! Who are you?” A voice exclaimed and Daniel about jumped in surprise.
Daniel quickly turned to be blinded by another flashlight. “Detective Daniel. NYCPD.” He quickly informed the stranger, shielding his eyes with his hand.
“Daniel?” This time the voice hit Daniel as familiar. “Hey, man, it’s me. Joe. Joe Nates.”
Joe was one of Daniel’s old patrol partners. “Joe, hey. I wish we were meeting under different conditions.” Daniel replied, and then added, “Can you lower the flashlight now?”
“Oh, yeah, sure.” The light flickered to the ground. “The deceased’s wife Mrs. Greg is inside. Me and two other officers who are in the back were investigating the backyard and we told her if anyone else showed up, not to open the door to them.” Nates explained, motioning towards the lightless house. “Not sure why she turned off the lights, but maybe she thought it was another safety measure.”
“Probably.” Daniel agreed. “So, what do we got? Anything?” He was praying for even a fraction of a boot print to be found in the snow. Right now, he would take anything that would give him a clue to what was going on or who was responsible.
But Daniel wasn’t surprised in the slightest, when Nates shook his head, sighed, and responded, “Nope. Not even a fingerprint on the window.”
“Alright.” Daniel said. “Well, run me through what you think happened, would you?”
“Sure. Let me call Mrs. Greg and tell her it was just a false alarm, so she’ll open the door.”
Four minutes and a phone call later, all the lights to the house slowly clicked back on and the front door hesitantly opened. A woman, who looked somewhere in her early forties and exhausted, appeared in the doorway. Warily, she looked from Nates to Daniel and then stepped back so that the two could come inside.
“Mrs. Greg, this is Detective Daniel.” Nates explained as Daniel and him walked inside. “I’m just going to show him around. You mentioned that your husband had an office? It’s upstairs, right?”
Mrs. Greg nodded, tears making her eyes glitter. “Yes. I’ll show you.”
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