Short stories by Mace Styx

Mayor Wilfred was not the kind of person that would willingly accept interviews, but for some reason, he needed the aid of our service to send alarming news. Apparently, the mayor’s daughter, Elsa Elborne, suddenly went missing.

Officer Warren was the first face I saw when I went to the town hall. This newly recruited police just also moved in to the island a few months ago, and he was still in the process of trying to impress the chief and earn a permanent position. Although I didn’t bother to ask, my guess was he probably volunteered himself to solve this serious case. Both of us listened to what Mayor Wilfred had to say, but he was not the first person who realized that his daughter was missing. The one who contacted the police was Elsa Elborne’s personal assistant named Myrtle. She alerted the father soon after she called the police. Mayor followed up the call and requested the presence of the press, which was me, in order to alert everybody. It was less-likely that Elsa would leave the island without saying a word, and it was easy to think of a reason why someone would kidnap the mayor’s only daughter.

Wilfred and Elsa were not exactly in good terms. They lived separately from one another, and Myrtle knew more about Elsa’s daily activities than his father. The only thing that Wilfred knew was she was supposed to be at the orphanage at the time. Elsa preferred to deal with the orphans’ concerns personally, while his father was more engaged into the general affairs of the island as a whole. Playing a motherly role for the children got her closer to them. She worked closely with the staffs, along with the town’s priest, to make sure that their needs were tended to regularly. His father, although undoubtedly a hard-worker, was never really fond of kids. That was one of the reasons why she only had one child with his wife who already passed away. Despite of their indifferences, Elsa was supposedly the next person to be elected as the leader of the town if her father would choose to retire.

Elsa was expected to arrive at the orphanage at her usual schedule, when she suddenly went missing. She did not return to her house, and nobody around town had seen her anywhere. Twenty-four hours should pass before a person can be officially declared as missing, but the officers did not wait that long and immediately began the search when they received the report. His father tried to call her phone but she was not answering. And just as when the story was leading nowhere, the assistant finally showed up at the hall a few moments later. Apparently, there was something crucial for the investigation that Elsa’s father did not know about.