They'd been searching the river ten minutes before they got hold of the baby blanket. It was in fact Hopes. It had her name engraved, and had a tiny Daisy in the corner. My heart reached my toes as soon as they brought it over to me, while my stomach did an acrobatic flip. Nauseated would be an understatement to describe how my stomach felt right now.

You know that feeling when something really stresses you out, hurts you, breaks you even, and you feel compelled to do something, yet there is nothing you can do. You go on to feeling angry, building a bubble of frustration around yourself because you just want everything to go back to the way it was, and for everything to be fine. My body is in that moment. I'm exhausted with stress and heartbroken. I just want to find them both.

I lay my head on the metal railing of the bridge, ignoring the freezing temperature as it soaks into my forehead, and sob.

For once in the past three hours I'd been left alone. Amanda hadn't returned my calls so she wasn't here, the detective had ventured off to his car to do something, and any other officers were closing the bridge off. I took advantage of my lone time and cried. I was never one for crying, but right now? Right when the two people who mean most to me have gone missing?(potentially kidnapped by a sadistic bastard), I want nothing more but to blurt my heart out. I want to scream, cry, and shout until someone does something, because there's clearly nothing I can do. I feel completely helpless, and useless.

I watch as my erratic tears leave tiny wet droplets on the rustic railings, as I kick at the slightly raised path. All I can think about is their beautiful faces. Daisy's smile as she looks at me, kisses me, falls apart under me, causes a twist of pain in my chest; I didn't think it could any tighter. Then I think about how scared she must be, and how her perfect smile would be ruined right now.

I scream in agitation. My hands rake through my hair with extreme grip, desperate to feel pain somewhere other than my heart, when I'm interrupted again.

"Mr? Nate?"

The detective had returned and was clearly skeptical on whether he should approach me.

Wiping my eyes, and taking a deep breath, I turn around with confidence in my step. I don't want him seeing me weak. "Yes?"

"They haven't found anything, we believe this could be a hoax"

"Excuse me?" I ask, failing to hide my aggression at his words. A fucking hoax? What did he think had happened? She'd ran off into the sunset and sent him that text as a joke?

I was about to release it all to him when he moved quickly. His hands came up, shaking in front of me, as he explained he didn't mean it like that.

"Let me explain" he said cautiously.

I nodded in response, still pissed with my hands in my pockets. Maybe it wasn't the time to take my anger out on him, or ever really, but how did he expect me to react?

"I mean," he started. "That, we think he could of planted it there on purpose. You know, to steer you off track" He turned to walk. "Come, follow me"

I slid away from the railing, and followed him towards his car.

"You see," he said, slightly turning each time so I could hear him. "I think she didn't make it to the bridge. From the time you said she sent the text, and the time you saw it, to the time we got here." He used his hands to explain, waving them round like a fairy. "There wasn't enough time for him to make his great escape, kidnapping her, and potentially hurting her" he pointed towards the river, indicating he meant killing her.

Although I knew it was just an explanation, no indication he had done it at all, my stomach still did another flip as my chest tightened simultaneously.

"So what are you saying?" We approached his car as he indicated for me to join him.

He shut the door, traveled round to his side, shut his door, then went on to explain.

"I'm saying, that I think he got her before she even got here and planted the blanket"

I let his theory sink in a moment, he could be right. It would make sense. But that would mean I'd been wasting almost four hours here for no reason, and he'd spent all that time potentially hurting her, maybe even worse. Then there was Hope, who had been with him longer. She was his child but that doesn't mean anything to people like him.

"Right, so what are we doing? What do we do?" I ask, exasperated. Because right now all he'd done was give me a theory and no plan.

"So, I think we need to check all the security cameras at every shop, in every route possible she could of taken." He explained.

Jesus Christ

I rubbed my hand over my face, nodding in agreement.

"What if we can't find her?" My voice breaks a little in desperation for something, not sure what. Maybe I'm hoping he'll tell me that we definitely will find her because he's got a crystal ball stuffed into his glovebox. Or that actually this is a massive joke, or is it a dream that I'm about to wake up from. I shake my head at that. How ridiculous I could be.

"Look, I get you're stressed. We'll try our hardest to find her. I'm convinced that as soon as we know a bit more about him and his family, we'll have an idea where she could be"

I admired his optimism, and it did give me a slight bit of hope.

"Thanks"

"It's just my job" he states with a confident smile.

"I don't just mean that, you've been more helpful than you probably need to be" I look over at him and see a sympathetic smile has taken over his confident one.

"I just know this is hard, and one of the worst cases. Anything like this affects me"

I smile back and dip my head into my hands.

Within the next hour the detective had managed to check the hotel security cameras outside and inside. She was seen leaving the hotel around midnight.

"Look!" He shouted to me as we stood waiting for the video in the next shop over. The owners security was ridiculously slow, and I was about to lose my patience.

"What is it?!" I stepped over in long strides and placed my hands on the desk. I searched the screen frantically until I saw it. Daisy being pulled away from camera view in an aggressive manner. Someone had dragged her back, their hand over her mouth, and arm round her waist.

"Fuck!" I yelled. I slammed my fist on the desk, and the whole room went silent. I earned a dirty look from the shop owner but I brushed it off.

"What do we do?" I look at him and see that he's thinking.

"Well?!" I yell.

"I need to know more about his family"

As soon as he said it I knew there was nothing we could do at this moment. Without knowing where she was, we were at a dead end. My frustration was growing by the second.

Where are you Daisy?