No evidence left!

Fifteen minutes passed by like it was nothing. But Tanya was still dumbfounded by what she witnessed. When the clip ended, she would replay it again—over and over again. But she got nothing from that. The clip showed her sister, Meghan walking into an alley with a woman who looked like she might be her friend or a possible suspect, in the eyes of a detective. The girl looked really dizzy and puked it out; Meghan helped her in that. Then she helped her back to where they came from. But, for some odd reason, she came back and looked around briefly. And then it happened—she was about to turn back, but in the span of one solitary second, she vanished into thin air. That exact moment caught Tanya by surprise. No matter what she did—she even tried to go frame by frame, but she couldn't find any more than a static image at that time frame.

Finally, Tanya stopped replaying it and just leaned back onto her chair. She just didn't know what to do or say anymore. So a long silence followed the quite intense fifteen minutes. Chuck, who felt extremely uncomfortable by this silence, decided to break the ice. "What just happened? Is it just me? Is it because I'm a ghost? Because I literally saw nothing there. I don't understand." Chuck sounded confused. It sure did feel like an illusion.

"Bizarre, ain't it? Just one frame—just one frame and she's gone. One second was all it took. I just—don't know, man!" Tanya continuously took deep breaths in and out. She felt quite anxious about this, to the point that she felt as if she might get a panic attack if she wasn't careful.

"But, what is it then? Sure can't be a human, right?" Chuck asked, trying to spark a conversation between the two since it was awkward for him not to hear her loud and obnoxious voice all around the room.

Tanya chuckled. "If it's a human, then that person's got to be the fastest man in this freaking world. And hell, they might be even able to time travel, who knows? Well, I'll give a hard pass on both of them. It is NOT a human."

"Supernatural, eh?" Chuck said without any enthusiasm in his voice.

"You're right. And that's where we come in, right? Yay!" Tanya sounded extremely unenthusiastic as she tried cheering herself up. A large wave of sadness hit her in quick succession for no apparent reason—or maybe because, it's her sister who was kidnapped and it looked like there might be nothing that she could do about it. She felt like she was a massive disappointment.

Chuck didn't hold back on his frustrations as well. "This is a freaking joke! How are we supposed to find this person? Like usually, this would've been case closed as soon as we get the footage. But how the hell will we find this guy, whom we can't even catch with our naked eye?"

After changing her posture multiple times, Tanya finally got up. "Yeah, I guess what you said makes sense. But that doesn't mean we have to sit here rotting, waiting for this person to come out on their own. It isn't going to happen. So, there's not much that we could do sitting here. And hence, I suggest that we head out."

"You're right, let's go!" Chuck followed Tanya to the door as she shut it close. "By the way, where are we going?"

Tanya stared at Chuck for a long time as if she was looking at a crazy person, before she eventually replied. "Why are you asking obvious questions? We're going to that alley."

#

About one hour later, Tanya and Chuck reached their destination. It was originally supposed to be a fifteen-minute drive, but Tanya was adamant about taking a detour and got herself a couple of beers... if we are to understate the actual amount she bought. It wasn't irresponsibility; it was a state of panic in her mind that usually made her execute such dumb decisions—or at least, that's the excuse she loves to make.

Anyhow, upon reaching the destination, Tanya was surprised. "This is the same place, right?"

"Yea, it is," Chuck answered while he aimlessly lingered around.

"Wow, like there's nothing here that's left for us to investigate. Where is the evidence?" Tanya ran around like a madwoman trying to find any sort of evidence.

"Well, the evidence isn't going to pop right off when you want it to! And do remember, the police did inspect this place all over—so, they might've all the pieces of evidence to themselves." Chuck gave out a reply that seemed sensible to him.

"You might've been right if not for the fact that we have the case report and there's no mention of said evidence!" Tanya replied as she waved around the case report.

"Do they write about the evidence in their reports?" Chuck asked.

"I guess!" Tanya, who was in utter confidence while she made her point, now seemed to have doubts.

"What a great detective, eh? Don't even know about basic things!" Chuck took the time to take a jab at her before he continued. "And even if they were to write about the evidence, don't you think they have enough power to hide it from the concerned people?"

The police force is a government authority; they are not supposed to hide stuff from people—that's what Tanya believed in. However, she fancied the situation where Chuck's explanation could be true too. "Right! Let's consider the possibilities. One, as you said, the police came, snooped around, and got the evidence but were able to hide it from us. Two, there was no mess to begin with, which meant no evidence and it in turn meant that whoever did this was a criminal mastermind or a person with some unique quirk. Either way, we've got nothing to work with right now." Tanya sighed at her misfortune as she gave out the verdict.

#