Red Herring ✔️

64. Midnight Beckons on Halloween

"Dad?"

About the last person Mazie wanted to call now or ever. She leaned against the phone booth mounted on the wall in the lackluster hallway in the depths of the police station. Immediately, the officers separated them from one another. Escorted by the officers and Detective Harding, all four of them marched through the winding halls to four separate empty rooms, save a single table and two chairs - interrogation rooms. Now that the handcuffs had been removed, they each took turns calling their parents or legal guardians. At this point, there was no need for lawyers to be involved unless they felt they could incriminate themselves. Which she didn't, but she still wanted someone who knew what they are doing here with her.

Her knee jiggled up and down in a nervous tick. Restless energy surged through her body, probably the high of adrenaline before the impending crash.

On the other end of the receiver, loud music bumped in her ear. "Dad?" She said again, thinking she called the wrong number.

"Mazie? Is everything okay? Why'd you call me from the police station?" Her father yelled into her ear.

Thus far, she avoided any and all contact with her dad since the day he bought her the new car. A mediocre 'I'm doing good' text sufficed in terms of keeping relational contact. "Uh...where are you? I know it's a long drive but I need you to come get me."

He didn't answer her question. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Can you come to the police station or not?" She insisted. She didn't feel like answering any questions over the phone.

Stubborn as a mule himself, he deferred back to his own line of questioning. "Tell me if you're okay."

"I'm fine. Can you come?" Best not divulge over the phone what landed her in the police station in the first place. Though he was calm and cool under pressure, her father tended to overreact when Mazie was in trouble.

At the end of the hall, one of the officers that trailed her to the cabin knocked on the door where Christian was holed up and motioned for Detective Harding to exit the room. Mazie subtly shifted her body to better read their lips. With the loud music on her dad's end of the call drowning out their words, she wanted to see what they were discussing.

"Mazie, I'm..." Her dad started making up an excuse that she wasn't listening to.

"Body wasn't McCormick," the officer whispered. The shock on Detective Harding's face mirrored her own. She adjusted her expression to better reflect what was going on with the conversation on the phone.

"Who?" Detective Harding asked.

"Confirming ID, but looks like McCormick's boyfriend. The one she split with about a month before she went missing according to Mary Anne," the officer informed the detective, standing with his hands on his hips and shaking his head. "Gonna be a long night."

"Any sign of McCormick?" Detective Harding threaded his hands through his hair and shook his head, sighing heavily.

Her dad cleared his throat in the phone. "Mazie?"

She snapped out of her reverie but kept a close eye on the duo at the end of the hall. Mazie squinted to focus on the officer's mouth as he spoke. "Yeah, sorry, it's hard to hear. What was that?"

"I can't come. I've been drinking," her dad solemnly admitted. He spoke so quietly that Mazie almost missed his admission entirely.

"Yep, found another body not too far away. Just started excavating so no positive identity yet but it seems to be a woman," the officer grinned like they won the jackpot. Her jackpot. Christian's jackpot. These policemen would still be in the dark if it weren't for Christian and Mazie.