by JM Addison
*
Dell was not sure where exactly he should go, but back to Ashbury, New Hampshire seemed like the best bet. He was pretty sure that was where Mara and Chris would have spent their childhood, so hopefully someone there would know where Fiddler’s Rock was or what it is or whatever. Even though he was out of his jurisdiction, he put on the strobe lights of his unmarked investigator’s car and sped off towards Ashbury.
On the way he thought about how he was going to find out about the location of this place. Would any of the local’s know? It seemed like a ridiculous question to ask: ‘Say, would you happen to know about any large rocks around that might remind you of an old fiddler?’ people would be sure to give their dumbest of looks to such an absurd question.
Since it was a place they used to visit as kids, would it be within walking distance of her mother’s old house? It seemed like a good place to start. He thought about how he would phrase the question to make it seem most credible. He would explain the danger Mara was in, and that the key to helping her was the location of this place, even though it seemed like an odd request.
He could visit the neighbors around the old place before seven o’clock and hopefully turn up a clue. It was a desperate attempt at hopefully rescuing her, but at the moment he was feeling pretty desperate himself. How could he have let her slip through his fingers!? Now he had the stories of Mike Ludwik and Annette Armitage to support her accusations and though not much, it was a lot more than she had before. They really have no reason to lie and they have nothing in common with Mara except being victims of the same scandal. The testimony of the three of them could not go ignored.
So, she was indeed, left out in the cold so to speak. And, sadly, the biggest offender of all was he himself. He was so worried about his own career that he put his own interests above her very life. The day she stood in the kitchen of the farmhouse wrapped inside his arms should have been the last time she would have to worry about any of this. But instead, he let her go through a virtual hell.
If he wasn’t so mad at himself, he could have cried over the loss of Mara. What was he thinking! She had to be alive! He had to find her!