Chapter Text
Trinity glares into the house not far from where she’s standing. There’s a whole crowd gathered around and everyone is talking over each other making it impossible for the young girl to understand any of it even if she was trying. But she wasn’t. She was busy staring down the blue house as if that would fix anything.
Nobody had believed her at the time, hell they probably still wouldn’t, but the fact that there was a search party in the first place meant that someone other than her cared.
It was only when one of the officers started shouting at everyone to quiet down that Trinity’s gaze returned to the current situation.
There were probably about twenty or thirty volunteers gathered, not a lot considering what’s at hand but it is a small town she supposed.
A part of her felt bad that she couldn’t even tell which of the people here were Nicky’s parents, a different, larger part of her thought that they should be the ones who feel bad. After all, it took them nearly a week to report their son’s disappearance.. I mean what kind of parents do that?
“Alright everyone calm down! I need everyone to take a flashlight and search in pairs! Nobody travels alone, got it?”
A chorus of mumbles followed the command as several adults collected their flashlights from atop the officer’s trunk, some going off right away to start searching but most just stepped back to where they were previously standing, awaiting further instructions.
One of the other offices approached her and her friends who were standing silently beside her.
“Sorry, grown ups only.” He said putting his hands on his knees and bending down to the young girl’s level. “If there really is someone out there snatching up kids we can’t risk it. You should head on back to your houses.”
Despite the minor offence she took at the officer talking down to her she truly didn’t mind. She knew where Nicky was and therefore knew this search would be a total waste of time.
Screw it, who cares if he believes her she still had to try to get someone to listen. One last time.
“You won’t find him out there, he’s in Mr. Peterson’s basement. I saw it happen.”
The cop then stood up, crossing his arms over his chest and the faux comforting smile slid from his face. At least he’s treating her like an adult. “You know the more you say that the more this sounds like an elaborate run away scheme to get us to arrest an innocent man. So let me make this clear, you tell me where your little friend is hiding or if I find out that that’s what’s actually going on, then you’re in big trouble.”
Trinity just glared up at the officer until he grunted and walked off.
All her friends minus Nicky stood by awkwardly during the whole interaction, she hoped it was because of the cop's behaviour and not that they didn’t believe her.
“Dont worry Trinity I’m sure they’ll find him, he might be sneaky but if the whole neighbourhood is looking I’m sure it won’t take long.” Ivan said, putting what he probably intended to be a comforting glove on her shoulder but the meaning was lost through the stab of him confessing his doubt.
So scratch that- she hoped it wasn’t because Maritza and Enzo didn’t believe her.
“Where is Mr. Peterson anyway? I thought the whole neighbourhood was going to help?”
Truthfully she couldn’t wish for anything more than her neighbour to volunteer to find Nicky. It would leave his house unguarded, perfect time to sneak in.
Her friends seemed to shift even more at this.
“I just think everyone feels uncomfortable asking him to.” Enzo says.
“There wasn’t a search party when Mya and Aaron went missing, might upset him. Like his kids weren’t important enough.” His sister adds, looking away in what almost resembled guilt.
Trinity was about to voice how stupid that was when a voice right behind her spoke some sort of greeting causing the young girl to jump. She’s been so paranoid after Nicky’s kidnapping she can’t even believe that someone was able to sneak up on her like that.
“Oh, I’m sorry Trinity,” she turns around. It was Mrs. Torre, she was going to watch over the kids while everyone else went on some useless search. “I was just going to suggest that now is a good time to head back to the house, I promise they’re going to find Nicky in no time.”
Trinity bites back the urge to tell her that’s not very likely considering they’re looking in the wrong spot. She didn’t need anyone else to judge her like that cop did.
Plus Mrs. Torre really was just trying to help. It’s not her fault she was wrong.
Despite wanting to stay and try to do something to make someone of authority believe her she knew that it was pointless. There was nothing else she could do here so she might as well get some rest.
And with that all the kids piled into Mrs. Torre’s small grey car and drove off to the other end of the neighbourhood.