Chapter Text
He was humming to himself on his walk from the tube, feeling relieved about finally being able to get out from work at a reasonable time. It was drizzling, but the walk was short and he was used to the rain by now, London had not seen sunshine for over a week. When he reached the driveway, the old man living next door was standing outside on his porch.
“Hiya Greg, everything alright?”
“Yeah, thanks, Mr Wright. And yourself?” Greg had to suppress rolling his eyes, for the man was infamous among the neighbours for his endless talking.
“As well as one could expect at this age, I guess. Now, have you read the newspaper today? There was an interesting article about…”
Greg hummed and nodded in what he thought was the right places, while staring at his lawn and debating whether or not it would be worth it to splurge on a new lawnmower. Linda was still on maternity leave, so money had been tight for a while, but Sophie was turning one in just a few weeks time and then they would be back to two incomes again. He was halfway through a mental shopping list over garden tools, when Mr Wright cleared his throat pointedly.
“Sorry, Mr Wright, it’s been a long day. I better go inside and see what the wife is up to,” he said with a polite smile and hurried towards the door.
“Come say hi to dada, Sophie!” he said while removing his coat and shaking the rain out of his hair.
There was no reply. Are they napping this late in the afternoon? he thought and went upstairs to check the bedrooms. They were empty, but unusually well cleaned which was a pleasant surprise. Even Sophie’s little cot had been properly made with fresh sheets and her beloved teddy bear sitting on top of the duvet. He smiled at the image it conjured in his mind, Sophie stretching her arms towards him in the morning, light brown curls bouncing around her little face, saying dada, dada!
A quick scroll through the messages on his phone gave him no clue as to where they had gone, so he made his way back downstairs to the kitchen and figured he could sit down with a cold beer before starting up dinner. Linda had probably gone out to run some errands, wasn’t she talking about the dry cleaner the other day?
When the grandfather clock in the sitting room struck seven, and he still hadn't heard from her, he started to wonder. He knew how annoyed Linda got when he worried over nothing, but it was unusual that she hadn’t told him anything about where she was, or replied to his texts. And Sophie was well overdue an evening meal and a bath by now, so while hunching over a bowl of soup at the kitchen table, he picked up his phone and pulled up Linda’s number from the list over most recent calls.
Hi, you’ve reached Linda Lestrade’s phone. I can’t pick up the phone right now, but please leave a message or send a text and I’ll get back to you! Bye!
No luck there then. He called another number.
“Hi Molls, how are you? Oh, okay, I just had a quick question. Have you talked to Linda today?”
He looked out the window while listening to the woman’s reply. It had stopped raining, and if he squinted, he could see a slice of sky in between the many dark clouds, coloured red by the sunset.
“No? It’s fine, just wanted to check. No, it’s probably nothing, I figure she went out for an errand or something and maybe her phone battery died, I don’t know. She’ll be alright though. Yeah, I’ll let you know. Say hi to Lucas from me,” he said and finished the call.
Another hour later, he was really starting to feel uneasy about the whole thing. It was nearly eight o’clock, and considering how uptight Linda always was about Sophie’s routines, he was certain there was something strange going on. He picked up his phone again, scrolling past all the ignored texts and calls to his wife.
“Hey Sally,” he said when the call went through. “Busy night? Just wait until the pubs close tonight and you’ll get your hands full. Uh, yeah, actually I did need something… Linda and Sophie weren’t around when I got home today, and they still haven’t returned. No answers on the phone or anything, no… Yeah, I figured that too. Maybe that’s a good place to start?”
There was a knock on the door.
“Hang on a second Sally, someone’s at the door.” He lifted the phone from his ear and walked out in the hallway. There was another insistent knock before he got there, and he rolled his eyes, preparing himself for a visit from Mr Wilkins or perhaps a rude salesman who didn’t have the sense to leave people alone at this time of night.
What he saw on the doorstep was neither of those things.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he breathed and dropped his phone.