"Your mum was here a while ago, but she left for the precinct. Max hasn't been here," Raquel said in an honest and soothing voice, and despite herself, Steph felt tears running down her cheeks.
Slowly, she sank back into the bed with sadness and stared at the people in the room, feeling hopeless and empty.
"Is he so angry at me that he would rather die than come see me?" Steph managed to ask between hiccups. It felt like her chest could burst from all the pain she was feeling.
"We're here. Let them handle Travis' case, okay?" Raquel said in a comforting voice.
Steph turned to look sharply at her and for a moment, Raquel wished she hadn't spoken.
"Oh, My Goodness!!!" Steph exclaimed as she held her head using both hands, remembering in that instant all that had transpired and led to her fainting.
She hurriedly got down from her bed, and pleas from Ivan and Raquel asking her to wait for the doctor's discharge fell on deaf ears.
Xxx
"Excuse me, sir, some cops are here to see you," Zarinah, Max's secretary, said over the phone.
"Let them in," Max said and swallowed saliva hard. He almost choked on it, so he rushed to gulp down the water on his desk.
He heard the door open, and two cops walked in. From the looks on their faces, he could tell that they still didn't have good news.
'Where are you, Travis?' He wondered as he asked the cops to sit.
"We'll just get to the point, "one cop, Simeon, said, and Max once again swallowed saliva hard.
"We have looked into Mr. Pattens, but there's nothing that ties him to your son's disappearance. He has alibis about where he was that night,"
Max loudly thumped the table, and with bared teeth, he said, "he hired someone to do it. It f*cking has to be him."
"I'm afraid that isn't true. There were no attempts of break-ins in Travis' room. That leaves us with two possibilities; either he willingly left home, or he was taken by someone he knows, someone who has access to your house," Simeon went on, and his words hit Max harder than intended.
He felt all his hopes diminishing slowly by slowly. He had used all he had to try to get his son : he had sought help from the police, put up posters with Travis' pictures almost everywhere, and had his missing announced both on TV and radio.
"We spoke to your wife a while ago at the precinct, and she has made some revelations, and we would like to ask you a few questions," Simeon continued before signaling to his colleague, Dennis, to proceed.
"What the hell? Are you even listening to yourself right now? Do you honestly think Travis disappeared because of me? My job is to protect him, not to harm him. I would never even think of hurting him. Which kind of father would I be?" Max asked in a loud, angry voice as he pulled his chair back and got up.
"That's not what we mean. We would like to know about your relationship with Travis. How did you interact? Was he having any trouble at home?" Dennis asked.
"Not that I know of," Max answered calmly. "He is a teenager, and at times, we would clash over broken rules, and that's normal in all families. Isn't it?"
"Do you remember the last thing you clashed about?" Dennis asked, and Max looked right past the two cops.
His gaze was fixed on a spot near the TV in his office, and he seemed lost in thoughts.
"Mr. Lee. What is the last thing you clashed about? Do you think it has anything to do with his disappearance?" Dennis asked, and Max shut his eyes and shook his head vehemently before saying, "I can't remember."
"Victoria thinks otherwise," Simeon said, and Max felt his heart stop beating. "She said three days before Travis' disappearance, you two quarreled. She doesn't know what it was about because none of you said anything about it. You must surely remember what you fought about. Most probably, you even feel guilty for it."
"It might be the key to solving his disappearance," Dennis added.
Max felt his glands become wet.
"I don't remember what it was. I might have been drunk or something when it happened," he said confidently as if trying to convince himself of the same.
Simeon and Dennis exchanged looks and communicated through the eyes.
"Let us know when you remember anything," Simeon said as the two cops got up.
They walked to the door and turned one last time to look at Max, who was looking down at the files before him and shaking his head.
"He looks guilty," Dennis whispered.
"It's too early to tell. At times, it's not always what it seems," Simeon said as he closed the door behind him.