“Crocodile Cathedral”

Chapter One

Darius Moore focused onto a drawing of a dragon. It was buried carelessly underneath a cutting board and an old newspaper, the dragon displaying vision but no real skill, the lines wired together in a way that proved that each line frowned upon the last. It was the work of his emploment. “Emily drew this?” He asked The Father.

The Father, almost embarassedly, took it up into his long fingers. He then placed the drawing in a more prominent location on his desk, right next to the phone. “Yeah. It’s been there so long, I didn’t notice.” The Father then looked onto a photo of Emily, the same Darius’s employer had given him. It featured Emily dressed for her school’s Halloween Fair. She was wearing a red cape and a red checkered dress, hood up over long and straight brown hair. She was genuinely excited, it appeared. Out of character, from what Darius’s employer had described.

‘She might know all about the Plains Indian from that school I payed thousands in tuition for, but she was also in school with a bunch of mental cases. One time, a kid strangled her...And her mother just loads onto her shoulders. Her mom’s in no condition to see her. There have been incidents...Emily’s going mad because of that woman...When you find Emily, it’d be best if her mother didn’t come back. You understand?’

“What makes you sure Emily’s mother has kidnapped her? Not just taken her to a friends?” Darius already knew the answer to this question. His employer had made it quite clear that the mother was off her medication and had,regaurdlessly,spirited Emily away. But Darius had to ask The Father to make sure this wasn’t over before it began.

“Emily calls me every five hours or so, usually. She hasn’t once in the past fifteen. That might seem like I’m paranoid to you, but—regaurdless! We’re paying you, aren’t we? And if we’re right, me and Armatris, and you don’t find Emily, something horrendous could happen!” The Father said all of this angrily. For a few seconds he fumed, more awake then he had been for the past two days that Emily had been out of reach, yet it wasn’t two minutes that a strong wave of being trapped in misery fell over his mind and face.

“What did Emily say, the last time you saw her?” Darius asked The Father, making it clear that his answer had sufficed.

A few seconds passed. “Uh...she said...she didn’t want to go to her mom’s.”

“Did she say why?” The Father squinted his eyes at this question. Not in a wince, but in trying to visualize what Darius had asked him, the sun between them. All The Father wanted to do was sleep, but with Emily gone he couldn’t.

“No. She should have said Dinah was off her medication, but all she said was Dinah didn’t let her do this and that. Rules stuff..and I told her if she didn’t go, I’d be—Well, she forgets sometimes. That it’s not up to me who she stays with and for how long. You have to understand that a judge would have my head for kidnapping if I hadn’t taken her. So I told her that I’d be in trouble if she didn’t get out of the car and get going.”

“What was she wearing?”

The Father pointed at the photograph next to his computer. “The cape. Jeans. And this white and black shirt—stipped.” The Father said.

Darius nodded and looked down at the tape recorder in his hands. “Alright. What can’t I find in print about the Custody Case?”

The Father frowned. “A lot. Part of the reason the phycologist said Dinah should get custody is because Emily drew big hands and feet on the men and little ones on the females. Things like that. Lines on trees. They tested her on what she thought about me being gay, what she thought that meant.”

“What did she say?” Even as Darius felt uncomfortable, he issued a poker face. He didn’t like the Gay factor in the case, but he’d do anything for money(except kill a kid—The Hunter was above that).

“She said what Dinah told her, which confused the issue. Dinah told her lies; that I wanted to hurt Dinah, that I hated women...”

“Emily talked about Armatris,” The Father said less painfully, reffering to Darius’s employer. “And so they asked her about Armatris and how he treated her. She said he was like another father. I guess they didn’t like that.” A quick sigh, and he continued. “If I wasn’t so controversial, I know they would have given me custody of Emily. Dinah is really sick. She’s tried to kill me. And she says I’ve abused Emily...I still love her. Don’t get that wrong.” A beat passed.

“If you find Dinah, could you commit her?” The Father asked, hopefully.

“Yes,” Darius lied gracefully.

“She needs to be where they’ll make her take her medication. The person whose suppose to check in never does.” The Father grimaced. “When you find Emily, please get me there as soon as possible.”

“Uh hugh, I have this friend who has a personal jet, so I’ll fly you out to where ever. She’ll need you,” Darius said.

“One more thing...” The Father fidgeted in his seat, uncomfortable. “Emily’s incredibly stressed, as you can imagine. And to cope, she’s created things. Friends. I’ve caught her talking to them before—she’s not violent. Just bordering clinical depression. The sooner you find her, the better.” The Father was not worried as much about his exwife possibly killing his daughter as much as he was worried about her having to take a few pills herself for the rest of her young life. This made Darius feel a bit empathetic. The girl was most likely dead, the mother wandering the streets. Or Emily had been sold as a slave, which, in Darius’s opinion, was much worse.

But so long as he interviewed The Father, Darius could bring The Father a sense of hope. The Father fell for it, half-way deep.