Reset

“Thank you,” Emma said slowly as she stared at Mary Margaret questioningly.

“Did you hear that Belle and Gold are getting married?” Mary Margaret asked.

“Yeah,” Emma smiled, “Regina told me.. weird, eh?”

“Love comes in all shapes and sizes,” Mary Margaret said with a look to each of the women.

“Yes, but.. Belle,” Emma said and then laughed, “and Gold. Not exactly an obvious match.”

David quickly placed his hand on his wife’s and nodded to Emma, “on first glance maybe not but they seem happy together.”

“Absolutely,” Emma said, “I wish them all the best, Belle will need it!”

David managed to steer the conversation onto town business and they spoke at length about the unstable building site and the plans to remove it as well as plans to shore up other parts of the town where the underground stream ran. An hour later David and Mary Margaret left and the second Regina closed the door behind them she looked at Emma, “your mother is acting stranger than usual,” she declared.

“Yeah, what is that about?” Emma asked, “can’t just be hormones..”

“She was looking at me strangely,” Regina said with a small shudder.

“Me too,” Emma said, “I’ll speak to David and see if I can figure out what is going on.”

At that moment Grace began crying from within her room and Regina raised her eyebrow as she made her way to the stairs, “ah, back to normal,” she smiled.

Chapter 63

That afternoon Emma was out in the patrol car doing her usual rounds of the town when Sean summoned her over the radio.

“Go ahead Sean,” Emma said.

“Hey, we’ve got a missing minor,” Sean’s voice replied over the line.

“Who?” Emma frowned, she panicked for a second.

“Joshua Battle,” Sean said, “his dad just called it in.”

“Shit,” Emma mumbled, “what did he say?”

“Said he never came home last night, he has called his friends and no one has seen or heard from him. Didn’t show up to school yesterday, last time he was seen was by the father yesterday morning,” Sean said, “do you want me to go out there and take a statement?”

“No,” Emma said, “I’ll go, what’s the address?”

Sean read out the address to her and Emma repeated it back to him in confirmation before hanging up the phone and doing a turn in the road to head in the other direction and heading out of town. When she arrived at the address she noted the rundown appearance of the small house on the edge of town and looked around at the quiet area.

She reached into the glove box and pulled out her service weapon and checked it and put it in her holster under her jacket and stepped out of the car. With a determined stride, despite the crutch, she walked up the small pathway and knocked on the door whilst looking around the garden and outside of the house and analysing every detail.

The door swung open to reveal a tall, dark haired and muscular man in his mid-thirties, “Mr Battle?”

“Sheriff,” he nodded and folded his arms, “you found my boy?”

“I’m sorry, no,” Emma said, “I wanted to ask you some questions..”

“I told the Deputy everything I know, you should be out there looking for him,” he said anxiously. Emma took in his appearance, he was dressed for work at the cannery, possibly having done a nightshift and come home to see Joshua was missing. He seemed genuinely concerned and like a man at a loss.

“We are looking,” Emma assured him, “it’s just that sometimes we can uncover something relevant to the case through some questions. Like was Joshua having any problems? At home or at school? Do you know a reason why he would run away?”

John Baker shifted uncomfortably, “we.. we don’t get on too well, you know? I try to do my best for him but he.. he’s a teenager. And, yeah, we argue.”

“Do you think an argument could have caused him to run away?” Emma asked carefully.

He shrugged, “I don’t know what goes on in his head, he misses his mother..”

“Where is his mother?” Emma asked with a fear she already knew the answer.

“She died, when he was a young’un,” he replied, “once the curse was lifted he rebelled, I think he feels trapped by all of this..” he gestured around.

“What about you?” Emma frowned.

“I’ve got a roof over my head, a job, working for the good of the community, serving the best way I can,” he answered and Emma could identify the military man beneath the exterior.

“Do you have any idea where he could have gone?”

“I don’t know,” he said with a sigh as he looked across the landscape, “he’s run away before but never for long, normally comes back with his tail between his legs after a few hours in the cold.”

“And you’ve no idea where he has gone before?”

“None,” he shrugged, “I want to be out there looking but your Deputy said I need to stay put in case he comes home.”

“Yes,” Emma agreed, “that really is the best thing you can do to help, we’ll get out there and look for him and we’ll let you know as soon as we find anything.”