Wayside Banks, Old Long Road, Unknown Location, Unknown State...
Bright and vibrant flashes of alternating red, blue, and white lights lit up the area cutting through the seemingly thick blackness that had been the night sky as many a patrol and rescue vehicle had been parked in the vicinity, as thick yellow caution tape sealed off the area for any bystanders. The bone-biting cold and the eerie atmosphere had been something that only served to make the scene all the more unnerving as a lone man made his way amid the mud and much wearing a pair of already dirty worn hiking boots, denim jeans, and a short sleeve green colored t-shirt. He had been a rather decent-looking man, all things considered, given to impressive height and slender build with his body riddled with tension and apprehension both.
Each step, more of a stride made slow only due to the softness of the mud impairing much of his movement. Great drops of heavy rain had come beating down around them but even with the slight chill they had presented, nothing had been about to make the lone man turn back even as he ducked beneath the thick yellow tape.
A nearby officer had seen the lone man, his rain-soaked dark hair unkempt and dripping amid his swift movements as he reached past the yellow caution tape. It had been a young officer, with not too many years under his belt in terms of service to the community, but he'd been someone who had known when to follow orders. He rushed over toward the lone man briefly meeting his dark brown eyes as they looked past him and his concern as he offered a warning before the words fell upon deaf ears.
The lone man continued to move forward as the sight of a lone pale arm came into his view amid the flashing white lights of the nearby cameras and the continued lights of the cruiser cars. The rain had seemed to feel much heavier as had the lone man stood being soaked to the bone, his dark eyes barely able to focus as he moved carefully amid the mud and closer toward what he had known in his heart to have been a dead body.
There had been a good deal of fear and anxiousness that filled him as he moved not at all able to speak or get rid of the dry lump that had formed inside his throat. His heart had been racing, the constant anxiousness clearly taking a toll on him since the morning he'd come home from his shift at the clinic and found out that his only daughter had not come home following a party he'd expressly forbid her from attending.
He had been enraged that morning, to the point of getting into a shouting match with his wife once he had found out that she'd let their daughter go the moment he'd been out of the house. Three days, three long and grueling days he had frantically searched for his baby girl, even going so far as to compromise and forgo his rage at her leaving for the party when he'd told her not to.
The lone man's steps got closer and closer to the image of the downed arm which had shifted into an image of a downed body with a white sheet draped over it as the rain continued to pour down upon them. The man's heart sank into the pit of his stomach as he found himself going weak in the knees. His doubling over and burning anguished breath had caused the young cop to rush over toward him.
Tears began to stream down the poor man's dark tanned cheeks as he stared over at the body the police had found in the wake of the three-day hunt for his missing daughter. He had known the girl anywhere and didn't need to lift the sheet to know exactly who it was that lay beneath it.
Her name had been Jessica, Jessica Quiller, she'd been only sixteen years old and had dreams of seeing the world of her own accord once she'd finished college. She was his only daughter and had been missing three days prior only to be found here and now, dead in the wake of the discovery. The memories of holding her in his arms the day she'd been born in the hospital and the last time he'd seen her when they'd been on good terms flooded the anguished man's mind as he burst into more tears amid the rain.
He had recognized her due to the nail polish, it had been a color that he'd painted on her fingernails himself when she elected to ask him to do her nails as a running joke but kept the color after realizing how much she'd liked it. They had been green, apple green, a sickening thing when he recalled it had been his means of identifying her even before they'd wrapped up her body to be identified at the morgue.
The agony had been much too great as the wailing from the heartbroken man had nearly shattered the noise from the squad cars and collective chatter as the young officer did his best to hold the poor man up amid the heavy rain and the mud.
An older officer had rushed over and attempted to contain the situation.
"What's this guy doing at my crime scene!?" he asked in a gruff tone matching his equally gruff and aged exterior.
"Sir, according to my knowledge, this is Dr. Dorian Quilller, he's the victim's father." replied the younger officer.
The older officer did not know what to say as he found himself feeling a good deal of sympathy for the ailing man as the heaviness of the rain continued to beat down on them.
"Well now that we know who it is, let my team do their work to find out how this tragedy happened," he said reasoning with the distraught man.
"We'll take it from here Sir." said the younger officer.
The man known as Dorian Quiller had been silent as he stood on his own two feet the tears still cascading down his cheeks amid the rain despite his shift in posture and demeanor. He took one last look at the hand of his dead daughter and made his way back toward his car. He had found at least one of the answers he'd been looking for, night after night since her disappearance had led to his insomnia and now he'd known for sure the outcome of why she had not returned home. It had not been because she hated him, it was because she couldn't.
He filed into his car, slamming the door shut behind him as he sat alone with the heavy raindrops pounding against the roof of his car and windows. A coldness filled him like never before as he sat thinking to himself that someone had done this deliberately to his only daughter, someone had killed her and he had made up his mind as he had the days before to keep up the search to find her, that he'd find out exactly what happened and who had been responsible.
Somehow.
Someway.
He was going to make the ones responsible pay.
And pay in spades.
Five Years Later....