Eat.

Elizabeth sat on the counter and munched on a granola bar, her eyes not leaving Mario's passed out form. She sighed and wondered what day it was, where she was, and thought about how to escape the cabin. Ellie hopped off the counter quietly to look at the calender, April 2nd. Her birthday. She looked at her granola bar and smiled a sad smile as she blew out the pretend candles on her bar. As she walked back to her place on the counter, she noticed something silver and shiny on the kitchen table. Not believing what she saw, she grabbed the cell phone in her hands and prepared herself to call 911, but just when she pressed the nine button, she noticed Mario begin to stir and groan on the floor. Ellie swallowed and clutched the phone to her chest, walking quickly to her room and hiding the phone in a pile of clothes for a better time to call.



Brian called Detective Frost almost everyday, but the response was always the same, “Nothing yet, Brian.” He would say, “I'm sorry.”

It's been another week since Ellie's been gone, which meant that all together, it's been a total of two months since her kidnapping. The hope that Brian had was slowly disappearing, for he knew that the chances of him ever seeing her again were very slim to none.

Until Joe had called.

It had been another rainy day, Brian was on his back on his bed looking at the map taped over his ceiling, reminiscing in memories and blinking back tears. He was about to fall asleep but if it weren't for the loud ringing and vibrating of his phone, he would've been dead asleep. Anxiously he picked it up without looking at the number and pressed the phone to his ear.

Detective Frost had called Joe to tell him they had a lead on Ellie. Brian's heart jumped free from it's restraints, but only to be placed back in. He also mentioned that the lead was weak and they didn't have enough clues to find an exact location. Brian didn't care, although his heart still ached, he got out of bed and put on his shoes to tell his friends the somewhat good news.



Meanwhile, Office Nick Baurd and Detective Daniel Frost sat across from each other, searching the computers and databases from any other clues on Ellie. They were running on a faint trail but to be completely honest, Detective Frost had worked on harder cases. Then, a knock on the door, the young secretary Anne popped her face in the room and smiled.

“Mr Frost, there is a Mrs Strasser in the interrogation room.”

“Thank you, Anne.” He said warmly, giving her a charming smile.

Anne's face flashed pink and then left he room.

“Ready?”

“Do you really think she's going to give up any information on him?” Officer Baurd asked skeptically.

Frost shrugged and held the door open for his old friend, “Only one way to find out.”

Baurd sighed and stood outside the darkly tinted windows, allowing Frost to enter and do his specialty and asked questions.

“Good morning Mrs Strasser.” He smiled.

She didn't reply, instead, she had her hands on the table, scratching and fidgeting the tips, Frost raised an eyebrow. Mrs Strasser was in desperate need of a fix.

“You know why you're here today. Don't you?”

“Yeah, I do.” She spat, her British accent adding more hostility.

“Mind telling us about your son, Mario?”

“I told you everything. Bloody psychopath. He made my Mabel suffer.”

“Right.” He hummed, “Do you have any idea where he might be?”

“No. I don't.”

“Are you aware why we're asking you these questions.”

“Because of Mabel?”

Frost shook his head, “Nope. Your son Mario, has taken Elizabeth Parker. Do you know her?”

“Yeah I do.” She said blinking, “Beautiful she was. Smart too, not smart enough to leave him in time.”

“Do you have any ideas where he might be?”

Mrs Strasser didn't reply, she looked at her itching hands and let her head sink.

“Mrs Strasser?”

“He wasn't always like that.” She sobbed, aggravating Baurd on the other side for changing the subject.

Frost listened anyway, for he found clues in everything, “How do you mean?”

“Mario loved to read. Did I tell you that?” She sniffed, “He'd always read to Mabel when she was little and he'd always obsess over the antagonist in the story. I just never thought he'd end up being the bad guy in his own story.”

Frost smiled tenderly and stood up from his chair, “Thank you for your time, Mrs Strasser.”

“Brooke.”

“Brooke.” He nodded, taking her itching hand and shaking it gently.



“Why so tense, Baurd?”

“She didn't answer any of your damn questions.”

“True true, but she gave us something better.”

“Like what? A sob story we could write a shitty book with?”

“Have a heart Nick. Notice how she told us that Mario specifically obsessed over the bad guys in stories?”

“Yeah? So? Makes him more of a psychopath.”

“Are you always this thick headed? She was giving the pseudonym Mario is using wherever he is.”

“I was there the whole time and she never gave us a name.”

“Do you still have the keys to the Strasser home?”

“Yeah?”

“I'm hoping you don't have any plans with the wife tonight.”

“Why? What's going on?”

“We're going to do a bit of reading.”



“What are we doing here?”

“Picking up Mario's books.”

“Each and every single one of them?” Baurd asked, dropping a stack into the box.

“Yes. Make sure you don't miss one.”

“Why?”

“Again, Brooke Strasser said that her son was obsessed with the antagonist in every book he read.”

“So?”

“So, it could mean that Mario is going by some of these names.”

“We have to read all of these fucking books just to get names?”

“Correct.”

“You'd better be right Frost, or I'll kick your ass.”

“I'm always right.”

“I've never even read any of these books!” Baurd yelled in exasperation.

“I've read one or two.” Frost hummed, picking up Romeo & Juliet, “Tybalt Capulet.”

“Sorry what?”

“That's the bad guy in this story.”

“Do you think-?”

“No. At least, I don't think so, like I said, we're going to have to start reading.”

“I pass English with a C only to get hit with more books in the future.”

“It's probably been a while.” Frost laughs, picking up a box of books and carrying to the car.

Baurd pouted and picked up the other box, “Fuck you, Frost.”



At about eleven p.m., Frost yawned and put down The Final Problem and wrote down James Moriarty on his list, he looked at the list and read it over.

Tom Ripley
Bill Sykes
Don Juan
Augustus Melmotte
Edmund
Hannibal Lecter
Robert Lovelace
Shere Khan
James Moriarty

Frost rubbed his face hastily and yawned, throwing the book on his desk and leaning back on his chair. He looked over at his friend who was snoring with a copy of The Great Gatsby propped on his face. Laughing, he stood up and stretched and jumped when a knock on the door surprised him. It was then when Anne walked in, her smiling face accompanied with another sleepy but bright smile.

“Daddy!” Lily whispers, running towards her father and climbing on his lap. Daniel smiled and kissed her forehead and waiting for Anne to walk towards him to give her a kiss.

“You look tired.” She sighed, caressing his face.

“I'm very tired.” He hummed, kissing her wrist.

“Daddy lets go home and sleep.”

“Daddy is still working, baby.”

Lily frowned and rested her head on his chest, Anne frowned and pulled Daniel off his chair, “Up, Mr Frost. You need to sleep in your bed, it's been three days since you've slept on a bed.”

Frost rubbed his eyes again and looked up at his worried girlfriend and then at his tired eyed daughter. He grimaced and agreed, knowing that he would be more alert and better at working when he would have a full nights rest.

The next morning, Frost woke up early. He got out of bed, dressed and fixed himself a cup of coffee before kissing his loved ones goodbye. It wasn't until he was at a stop light on the way to work when something popped into his head. Frost picked up the list that was on the passenger seat and began looking at the name of villains. It never occurred to him that Mario could've had a favorite character. He threw the papers back on the seat and called Baurd.

“Hey thanks again for leaving me to sleep on a chair while you slept in your nice comfy bed.”

“Call Brooklyn Strasser.”

“What the hell for?”

“I'm not done asking her questions.”

"Alright, I'm on it."

Frost hung up and continued driving to work. He was so close to finding Elizabeth that he could almost taste it. But by the time Frost made it to the office, Baurd was leaning against his desk, arms crossed and pouting. Frost raised an eyebrow and asked him what was wrong. He replied by saying that they found a woman on a park bench early this morning unidentified, but tests came in and showed that it was Brooke Strasser.

Frost fell back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair, he clenched his eyes and threw a book off his desk in anger.

So close, he thought.

So close.