Something Missing - ONC 2024

Chapter 3 - Suspicions

'Are you absolutely sure the person is dead?' the operator said, as Donna strode in front of them, stopping abruptly in front of the body, her eyes only on Erica.

'I'm sure,' Rita said, but she had to check. She bent down and shone the torch on her phone into Erica's fixed, unblinking eyes. There was no response. To a very gentle touch Erica's hand felt cold and slightly stiff. There was no breath and no heartbeat. Rita tried to put herself into work mode, but it didn't entirely work.

'We'll send someone right now,' the operator said, but Rita wasn't really listening.

'Look at you, lying there. How does it feel now, huh? I told you so. I fucking told you so.' Donna's lips hardly moved and she didn't give a glance to Rita or the woman who had found Erica's body. She didn't look in the least bit upset. She didn't look surprised. She looked angry but vindicated and triumphant, as if she'd won something. Making it as surreptitious as she could, Rita started recording on her phone and hoped Donna wouldn't notice.

Donna turned away from the body and looked at Rita, startled, as if noticing her for the first time. She pouted her lips as she stared. 'My emotions getting the better of me.'

She took a deep breath, then another. Shakily, she said, 'Look. Sorry you had to hear that. Erica was my cousin. She made some - some very bad choices in life. I wish things had been different. I wish this hadn't happened, but I'm not surprised.'

As she didn't work in the UK the most Rita could do was remain at the scene until the London police arrived, and ensure nobody touched the body or disturbed the scene. Besides, it would be wrong to leave Erica alone.

'Can I...go?' the dark haired woman who had found Erica said. Briefly her eyes turned to Erica and gave her a frightened glance.

'Yes, but the police will want to ask you questions, as you found the body, so I suggest you stay here and make it easier for them,' Rita said. The woman took another glance at Erica's lifeless corpse. She shook her head, looking like she was going to be sick.

'Room 407,' she muttered. And then she was gone, leaving Rita alone with Donna.

'You don't have any idea who that was, do you?' Donna said as the fire door shut.

'No,' Rita said.

'That's Carly Hill. I'd watch out for her. She's weird. She has a podcast but it's not very good. She's written a book about her life as part of a cult. But I think it's made up.' As Donna went on, speaking breathily, Rita couldn't escape the fact that Erica's body lay on the ground between them. She hoped the police would turn up soon. Her arm twitched at the urge to feel for her gun, which was locked safely at home. Not to use it. Just to know it was there.

'I wouldn't trust her,' Donna continued. She jabbed a thumb at Erica. 'See, if it was me, I wouldn't believe a word of that woman's story. Unlike you. That was half the problem. You were gullible, for someone who - who spent so long researching scams. You'd believe anything someone said if they said it in a believable enough way.'

Donna swallowed hard. The emotions on her face now seemed to be genuine. Her voice cracked. 'Why didn't you listen to me, cuz? Why didn't you do as I said? You could have just taken my advice. Then none of it would have happened.'

*

As Donna spoke the elevators creaked behind Rita and she flinched at the sound. She ended her recording. Several police officers and paramedics exited from the metal door. Rita raised her arms and stood well back from them. They didn't have guns but had batons and pairs of handcuffs.

'What's happened?' a large, thickset man said in a Scottish accent which Rita had to think for a second to understand. Rita pulled out her purse and showed him the Spanish warrant card. That made him relax. It had been a long time since she had been first on the scene of a dead body. The way Erica was lying almost looked like that. She didn't know her but she'd seen her and it was all so sad.