Where's Warren?

The hustle and bustle of the police station made me sick. Warren’s mother, Ms. O’Kain, had dragged me down here with me, right at 12:00 pm. the next day, to file a missing person’s report. A styrofoam cup filled with cold coffee was nestled in my hands as I tried to remember anything from last night. What had he been wearing? What is the last thing he said to me?

I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. Why couldn’t I remember? There were a million of things I would have given up just to remember what happened to Warren, to stop his mother’s crying.

As if on cue, Ms. O’Kain came from around the corner, her eyes red and puffy. Her eyes darted onto me and she hurried over and settled in the seat next to mine. She was clutching the worn piece of tissue in her hands, as if it had the answer to what happen to her son. Ms. O’Kain just stared at the tissue for minutes.

“Daisy,” she finally whispered, her voice raspy. “My son…Warren wouldn’t go away like that. Not without telling you first.”

I tried to catch her eyes, to see where she was going with this. At that moment, I was still in the mist of my hangover and things were still a little slow to me. I was trying to figure out what she could possibly be saying but all I did was give myself a head ache.

“Daisy, do you think my son…ran away? I mean I know life isn’t as good as it used to be with my husband and me getting a divorce-“

“No.” I spluttered out, shaking my head against her statements. “Ms. O’Kain, Warren would never, ever run away. If anything, he would face the situation head on.”

She shook her head with a foolish smile. “I-I know he’d never run away.” I grinned and nodded in agreement. “Well, at least not without you. You two are like brother and sister.”

Well brothers and sisters don’t kiss and flirt.

Ms. O’Kain shook her head and dabbed her eyes with the tissue.

“What did the police say?” I asked after a moment of silence. I looked around then leaned back and grabbed a couple pieces of tissue from a nearby desk. Handing them to Ms. O’Kain, I leaned forward to hear her cough out her words.

“They asked me where I’d last seen him then if I’d gotten a phone call from him. When I told them that I’d last seen him leaving the house and that I hadn’t gotten a call, they said that at the moment they couldn’t do anything.”

“Wait. They couldn’t do anything or they wouldn’t?” I pushed. That didn’t seem like the correct police procedure.

“I don’t know!” She cried out, burying her tear stained face in her hands. I shouldn’t have been questioning during her fragile state of mind so I backed off and took a look around the police station. Inmates were being brought in and taken out, many of them passing by us. One in particular, a red headed man, kept passing by us. I shuttered. Something about him didn’t seem right. I got a bad vibe off of him. I mean, I got a bad vibe off of all of the inmates but it was something about him that made me feel…nervous.

“The police want to question you Ms. Walker.” I looked up and caught the eye a lady dressed in a navy blue dress. She gave me a courteous smile then motioned for me to follow her. I stood up and tried to keep up with her pace that kept up with the ‘move or get pushed to the floor’ attitude of this place. The lady led us down two long hallways and an abrupt turn that I almost lost her at. She stopped at a large gray door and pushed it open, motioning for me to step inside.

I walked ahead of her into the large room. It was almost dark, basically covered in shadows. Two viewing windows sat on two of the four walls, parallel to each other. The only pieces of furniture in this room were a steel table, two steel chairs and a lamp.

“The chief will be with you in a moment.”

I turned to the lady and opened my mouth to say something, only to have the door slam before I could have managed a letter. Turning back around, I made my way to one of the chairs and settled into it.

Minutes later, a man in a white dress shirt and black slacks came inside of the room.

“Good morning Mrs. Walker.” His smooth voice greeted my ears. It was actually 12:20 in the afternoon, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. I answered back just as smoothly as he had.

“So what’s the case?” He asked. I looked around to see if he was talking to some assistant or something. We were the only ones there.

I cleared my throat then began to speak. “My best friend Warren has gone missing.”

“Oh.” He seemed slightly disappointed, as if he was thinking that I was a rape victim or a person that escaped an lunatic.

“We need you to send a search team to find him.”

Now he laughed, rubbing his chin with one of his hands. “Calm down Ms. Walker. First I have to ask you some questions.”

I shifted in my seat and leaned against the table for stability.

“How do you know that your friend-“

“Warren.” I informed him.

The chief stared for a second then continued. “How do you know that Warren didn’t just walk down to the store to grab some chips?”

“He would have called me.” I answered with a straight face.

“I mean he could have been too hungry to call you. Maybe he was really craving some Doritos.” Does this man think of Warren’s disappearance as a joke?

I stood up from my seat and leaned against the table. “Are you saying that…Warren could be just down the street and didn’t call me? If he was hanging off of the edge of a cliff, he would call me. I know Warren; he would have called me or answered my call. He’s not one to ignore.”

Chief took a few steps back, his hands up. “I’m sorry if I offended you Ms. Walker. You should have just looked for your boyfriend before you came here.”

I slammed my hands against the table. “Warren is not my boyfriend!! But, he does mean a lot to me and to his family, so you need to get off of your fat ass and look for him instead of accusing me of losing him while he’s down the street eating potato chips!”

Chief blinked. “That was highly inappropriate ma’am.”

“No! My best friend is missing and you’re treating his case like it’s just a bubble gum wrapper on the side walk!”

“I’m sorry ma’am. I’ll be more professional from now on.” His voice turned stern.

I picked my purse up and shouldered it. “You know what, I think I’ll just go to your boss and see if he thinks that possible child abduction is a laughing matter.” Glaring at the chief, I pushed the door open and left the room. I found my way back to the front and Mrs. O’Kain.

“Daisy!” She almost threw herself at me. “What did he say? Did he say that they start investigation?”

“No.” I sighed, pushing my purse farther onto my shoulder.

“Well what did he say?”

“Ms. Walker!” We both turned to see Mr. Chief running towards us. I rolled my eyes as he finally came into talking distance. “If you have any evidence that Mr. O’Kain was with you during the night of his disappearance, we’ll start from there and work our way up.”

“I have a video that was taken by someone last night, at the party.” I pulled my phone out and showed him the clip.

He rubbed his chin in thought. “I’ll see what we can make of this and get back to you. Thank you.” With my phone in possession, Mr. Chief (who I will call until I know his name) retreated back into the twist and turns of the white walls.

Mrs. O’Kain and I walked out of the police station feeling a little bit more confident with the case.

“Would you like to get some breakfast?” I asked her.

“No,” She paused to wipe her eyes. “I really want to question the kids at that party.”

“As you wish.” I murmured. I should have never agreed to go with her. I never thought that I would have found out as much about Warren as I did during those next few weeks.