Page 11 of Deadline for Love

“I’m ready, Bella. Let’s go, get them stories.”

We headed to my car and drove to our one and only university in Steel Valley. We were interviewing a student who had won one of the most prestigious academic competitions in the country. James couldn’t turn down this article, so I had at least one safe report ready.

Nia took a few pictures of the university and the student, then we went to the police station to check on the missing persons and got some more information about the two women whohad disappeared. Now that more than a week had passed, they had also given us more personal information to publish so that citizens could help if they had any clues that could lead to their whereabouts.

With the newly gained knowledge, we headed to the parents of the first missing woman, Anna Thompson.

Although we cautiously asked them if they were interested in an interview, they declined since they’d already given an interview to another reporter the prior day and didn’t have the energy to go through it all again.

However, they did give us a picture of Anna, which we could insert into our report.

“Again, those bastards were ahead of us!” Nia hissed, gripping her camera tighter.

“They must have someone at the police station because I didn’t get any more information from them the last time I asked,” I muttered, just as annoyed as she was.

“Let’s try our luck with Natali Patel’s family.”

Unfortunately, we had no luck there either.

I was frustrated but I had enough to write a story, so I’d be fine for now.

“Do you think we should come back after lunch?” Nia asked, but I shook my head.

“The family must be under a lot of stress. We shouldn’t bother them.”

Nia nodded and gnawed her thumb, which she always did when thinking. “We could go back to the university, Anna and Natali might have been there to study.”

I thought long and hard about whether it would be worth it, but without their parents’ permission, I wasn’t sure whether we would be allowed to write anything more.

Nia could tell by the look on my face that I wasn’t thrilled with the idea, so she just sighed and leaned back in her seat. “Let’s go and eat something first. We’ve been out all this time.”

I nodded, drove to a fast-food restaurant, parked in front of the store, and quickly ordered takeaway for Nia and me.

Armed with the food and two drinks, I returned to the car and gave Nia everything.

“Let’s go to the park… get some fresh air and eat.”

A long, paved footpath went into the park, surrounded by many trees and bushes. There were also paved paths where most cyclists rode, but today, it was quiet, and you could only hear the sounds of animals.

We took a seat on a bench and started eating while chatting about our lives. When we were done, Nia threw the trash in the garbage can next to her before leaning back and stretching her arms.

“Well, where should we go now?”

The question hung in the air, and I couldn’t answer it.

For a long time, it was quiet.

“I’m sorry that you’re assigned to me. If you’d been with Aicha or Eric, you wouldn’t be under this pressure right now,” I mumbled.

“Oh, nonsense! It’s not your fault James is crazy.” She laughed and touched my shoulder. “I always think it’s fun when we’re assigned together. We’re out and always get a few stories eventually. With Aicha, we’re mostly just in the office and designing the content; with Eric, I always have to drive to these industrial buildings, where I always get lost. With you, we’re freer,” she explained. “Sometimes we argue in the department about who can go story hunting with you,” she added with a laugh, and I had to grin.

“As if… Remember when we saw the floater? We were both sick for two weeks afterward.” The memory sent a cold shiver down my spine.

“Yes, that image will never leave my mind, but now we’re both toughened up, we can see corpses without throwing up.”

She let go of my shoulder and leaned forward. “Amara wouldn’t be able to do that, and you wouldn’t be able to get Stacy out of the house if she saw something like that.”

I grinned at her comment, but it was only a slight twitch of my mouth because I stopped laughing when I had the images back in my head.

---