Chapter 3

Detectives Rukelle Savanna and Archer Finn debriefed  their boss, Superintendent Maxwell Adams, a fit and athletic old man of sixty five with veiny arms on the ongoing homicide investigation as they walked down the sparsely populated halls of the homicide division's bullpen to his office. Most of the officers were out having lives while they worked on a Saturday. Archer thought that he should have been a Seventh day Adventist.

He sat at his desk, legs atop his large mahogany desk in jeans and a long sleeved white shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows in a typical casual wear, given that today was a Saturday. He didn't seem to mind that the detectives were shabby and had bags under their eyes as a result of pulling all nighters.  Overnight the case had taken a turn for the worst as the case became more and more confusing and the media was hyping everything up by claiming that this was the work of a serial killer. Now everyone was calling up the mayor and the mayor was calling up Maxwell. Maxwell was just plain pissed and moody.

  Archer and Rukelle were at loggerheads when it came to his theory of a possible connection between Elaine Barker and the charred corpse of Evelyn Dakota as identified by the ME using dental records. Rukelle seemed to think Evelyn was the missing link and that's why she had called Elena Duran to come to the station alongside Evelyn's son, Ryan.

  Rukelle was getting ready to interview Elena Duran, Evelyn's friend and her four year old son, Ryan after the debrief. Rukelle was firm in her thinking that the murder was related to Evelyn's past.

Archer on the other hand had spent the entire night searching on information regarding Elaine Barker but it yielded nothing. Yes, he had tried the internet but in vain. He had found pages that were aimed at finding the missing teenage girl who had mysteriously disappeared from a friend's birthday party eight years ago never to be seen again but no Facebook profile. What nagged Archer the most was that three weeks after the disappearance of Elaine, her parents had just halted all efforts to find their daughter. No more television appearances, no more posters. Just... nothing. Even as he stared at the pictures of Elaine something was niggling at him and he had called Elaine's parents from Mattapan and they had agreed to come over at 1pm. No lunch for him then. He sighed in frustration and opened the door to the interrogation room just as his phone rung. An unknown number, he picked up.

  "Hello. Detective Archer Finn?" a familiar voice drawled. The sturdy farm woman from yesterday. He verified that he was indeed Archer and did not relay his qualms about how she got his number yet he hadn't given her a card .

  "This is Margaret Mc Garret. Sorry for disturbing but I had to tell you that Emilia is missing. I woke up this morning and she wasn't home. I am very worried for her..."  but Archer wasn't listening anymore he ran for the door. His heart banging in his throat as he raced for his squad car.