The next Monday Madison was refreshed and ready to get back to work. As soon as she got to work, she ran into Alice and gave her a big hug.
Alice squeezed her back tightly, "so glad your back."
Madison smiled, "me too, ready to get back to the grind. It was a nice break."
Alice smiled back mischievously, "so is Bronson coming into work today?"
Madison looked at her questioningly, "what do you mean is he coming to work today?"
Alice just shook her head and gave her a wink, "pretend all you want Madison. Bronson hasn't been back to work since he went looking for you."
"Alice what are you talking about. Bronson only stayed in Hawaii that one night and flew home. We only had dinner." Madison said in earnest.
Alice got a worried look on her face. "Really?"
"Yes REALLY!" Madison practically shouted.
Alice stepped back from Madison, "I just figured he stayed with you." She said as she looked down at the floor.
"Alice, you know our history. I went to dinner with a friend one night while I was on vacation and that was it." She shook her head in worry. "So, Bronson hasn't been back to work at all since he checked up on me?"
Alice shook her head in the negative and looked up at Madison with fear in her eyes. "We don't really know him. Is this something he would do?"
"I don't know. The Bronson I knew back forever ago left me at the altar, but this doesn't feel right." Madison said.
Madison and Alice went through the office and asked if anyone had seen or heard from Bronson recently. All the answers came back no. Then Madison did something she absolutely dreaded doing but did anyway. She called his parents.
Bronson's parents hadn't seen or spoken to him since before he went to Hawaii. Madison asked if that was unusual, and they told her it was. He typically calls home a couple times a week.
Madison was really getting worried; Bronson had been missing for days now and no one had done anything about it. She drug Alice along with her to the police station and filed a missing persons report as soon as she got off the phone with his parents. Because it had been over 24 hours since anyone had seen Bronson the police were taking this matter very seriously.
Madison just couldn't shake the feeling that somehow this all had to do with her and her mysterious admirer, that she was getting more and more confident wasn't a mystery after all. But how to handle this knowledge she wasn't sure about either. Not knowing what to do and wanting to leave it with the Police because they did, she tried to get back to the grind and get her cases lined out. However, that wasn't working either, trying to focus just wasn't an option for her. She was so in her own head that she didn't even see or hear Alice come into her office and when Alice spoke she about jumped out of her own skin.
"Madison, are you ok?" Alice questioned.
"I don't know Alice, I have no idea where he could be, but I keep feeling like this all has something to do with Dillon." She replied worriedly.
Alice looked at her worriedly, "what would make you think that Madison?"
Madison signed, "I have been ignoring him, and broke up with him in Hawaii like I told you. But when I got home, I had tons of messages and things from him. I just deleted them when I got home and left it at that, but what if.."
Alice looked even more worried, "Madison, we need to tell the police this. Right now, they probably don't have any leads to try and find him, but that sounds like a pretty valid lead to me. Especially if Dillon was still in Hawaii when Bronson showed up and saw the two of you together."
Madison laid her head on her desk in frustration, "Dammit! Alice your right, I should have mentioned that to them when we filed the report."
Madison hurriedly got up and raced out of her office, with Alice right behind her. As Madison went by her assistant's desk she blurted, "I must go out for a little while, hold my calls. I should be back soon.
Thankfully a detective had already been assigned to Bronson's case when they got back to the police station, a detective Marlowe. Detective Marlowe took the girls to a quite conference room to discuss the case. "Ladies, do you have new information that might help me find Mr. Redford?"
"Yes!" Madison practically yelled. "I don't know if it is relevant or not, but my gut keeps telling me it is."
"What new information has come to light?" Detective Marlowe asked?
Alice just squeezed Madison's hand, indicating she should continue. "I recently went on vacation to Hawaii, but prior to going I met someone new, his name was Dillon Rogers." Madison swallowed and continued, "He seemed like a pretty nice guy, but I started getting some pretty major red flags from him any time he couldn't get in touch with me and when he saw me around other men."
Detective Marlowe nodded his head, "Ok, why would this man have anything to do with Mr. Redford's disappearance?"
Madison looked down at her hands and then back up to the detective, "Bronson and I have history and I think Dillon though Bronson and I were more than friends."
"Alright, can you please elaborate?" Detective Marlowe questioned.
Madison told the detective about dating Bronson in high school and almost getting married. Then having Bronson show up at her law firm as her new boss, awkward but the detective didn't need to hear about that. She then told him about Dillon seeing her and Bronson at the park and having a fit about it. "Then while I was on vacation in Hawaii someone started leaving me gifts, roses mostly. They were beautiful, but Bronson also showed up in Hawaii because he was worried about Dillon and the day after Bronson was there the roses that were left had all the buds cut off the stems. I didn't think a lot about it then, but it was exactly the day after Bronson and I went to dinner, as friends." Madison wanted to clarify even to the detective that her and Bronson were no longer an item.
"Interesting." Was all the detective said as he wrote in his notebook. Madison and Alice quietly waited until the detective was done. "Is there anything more you can tell me about this Dillon?"
Madison agreed, "Alice and I met him at the club the weekend before my vacation. He was with a friend named Craig. Or we thought a friend. Alice and Craig really hit it off and I found out later that Craig isn't friends with Dillon, but roommate's with Dillon's sister." Madison said while looking at Alice.
Alice took the hint and started talking, "That's right, Craig told me that his roommate Stacy has issues with her brother being overbearing so to keep him from bugging her that night he took Dillon to the club with him. But Craig also told me Dillon has two restraining orders against him from previous girlfriends also."
"This doesn't sound like a great guy girls." The detective warned.
Both girls agreed and Madison started talking again. "I met him at the club like I said, then the very next day he," Madison put up finger quotes, "just happened to see me at the park, where he saw me with Bronson and had a fit. Then he later calmed down and apologized and I agreed to go out on a date with him. He was really nice and attentive, and I had a great time. We even started talking to each other every evening before I left on my vacation. Then when I was in Hawaii, he started leaving me aggressive messages again if he couldn't get ahold of me. At that point I said no more, called him and told him to lose my number."
Detective Marlowe looked up from his note pad, "and how did he take that?"
Madison thought about it and said, "He sounded upset and told me, No you can't we were doing so good, or something along those lines."
The detective nodded his head, "and have you heard from him sense?"
"When I got home there were maybe close to 50 messages on my machine from him, but I just deleted them all." Madison replied.
"Alright, thank you ladies for coming in. I will definitely follow up with this lead and look into Dillon. Let me know if you think of anything else." Detective Marlowe said as he stood up and shook both their hands.
Alice and Madison left the police station for the second time that day and headed back to work. They both just hoped the police would be able to find Bronson quickly and unharmed.