Set Fire to the Rain

Shannon's P.O.V.

Time seemed to be dragging on like an hourglass frozen in time. Endless days and nights, spent pacing and staring at blank cinder block walls, in a noisy police station, or at an empty apartment; where you are surrounded by nothing but the ghost of the woman you spend your days and nights searching for, and no one can seem to find her anywhere. Eliza seems to have fallen of the face of the earth without a trace, which we all know isn't possible. The detectives were getting to a point that they were talking about bringing in the Feds. I was fine with that, as long as it brought her back. I haven't been sleeping much, and when I do, I'm not sleeping well. Mags and JT were staying with their grandparents, because staying at the apartment was too hard for either of them; I completely understand the feeling. On one particularly difficult night, I decided to try and stay at a hotel, but I ended up leaving and going back to El's place. The thing was that no matter how difficult it might be at her apartment without her there, it was even harder not being surrounded by her things. I realized very soon after I walked through the hotel room door, that it wasn’t going to work and that I was going to end up back at Els’. I needed to be there, as hard as it was. She was home for me.

This is where things stood with the investigation. The waiter, whose name is Gavin, had come in to speak with Aaron a few days ago. Gavin, had, in fact linked David to the cell phone that they found amongst Els’ things, in the back of the town car. From what the 18 year old college student, who was working part time as a waiter at the bar said, he had been approached by a mystery man outside while having a smoke break. Gavin said that he had seemed harmless enough, and had offered him $200 to make sure the cell phone, a gift, the man said, made it into Eliza's handbag unseen. He had wanted it to be a surprise. Of course, being a young, broke, college student, Gavin had jumped at the chance to make a seemingly easy and harmless buck. He told Aaron that immediately after exchanging the money and cell phone, the man showed him a picture of Eliza to ensure that there was no mistake in whom he slipped the phone to. Gavin had paid close attention and had even asked the stranger if it was alright to keep the picture of the lady, so as not to make any mistake. It was agreed upon, and the two parted ways. When Gavin turned to shut the door behind him glancing back towards the parking lot, the mystery man, whom he now knew as David, was gone, and somewhere down deep, he had a feeling, that there was something not quite right about the man. He just didn't know how right he was.

After receiving all the intel from Gavin, the warrant everyone had been waiting on, finally went through. Of course, once the detectives had arrived at David's house, there wasn't much there to help us out. It was what you would expect to find in any average household. The one and only exception was the secret room one of the CSI’s found hidden off of David’s home office. You never would have found it if you hadn’t been looking for it. There was a hidden door built into the wood paneling that lined the walls of the office. The scariest part of the entire thing wasn’t the fact that there was a hidden room; it was what the detectives found in the room that nearly set Jack off on a very dark path. And I am fairly certain if I had seen what he had, I would have reacted the same way. All that Aaron would tell me was that it was a shrine dedicated to Eliza. An entire room filled with pictures, pieces of clothes, candles and the like. David had been following us all over the place and taking photos of us together, and then he would cross me out of the picture or cut me out and hang her on the wall. The discussions around the precinct after they searched the house were unbearable. I swore to myself and in a discussion with Jared, that if I came across David before the police had a chance to lock him up, I was going to kill him. Jared said he would never tell another soul if it came to that. And I planned on following through if it came to that.

There was a sudden commotion outside Jacks office and I stood and walked to look out into the center of the detectives’ area.

“Hey! I need Aaron and Jack, now!” one of the young detectives yelled out.

“They were back in Aaron’s office, why what’s going on?” I asked. At this point, everyone was used to me being around and didn’t give me a second glance.

“I need to talk to them asap, I just had a report come in. I think we may have something.”

“Wait! What kind of something?!” I ask, my nerves jumping with anxiety.

“I think someone may have spotted David.”

“Fuck! Let’s go find them!” And we started back towards Aaron’s office to hopefully get that much closer to getting the fucker. My heart was pounding in my throat and all sorts of thoughts were racing through my head. God, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the sick bastard. But more than that, I couldn’t wait to have Eliza at home and in my arms where she belonged. Time to get to work and find my girl…