The Case of the Lost Loves

Love, once lost, is difficult to recover. -Michelle Liew

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Detective George Lee arrived at Mark Lau's apartment after filing a missing person's report on Mark's estranged wife. Susan Lau had vanished, leaving a husband with more than a few lost hairs after a quintessential romantic tussle. 

George was a bona fide sceptic. As he scoured the apartment, his eyes went over the surroundings with trained thoroughness-the edgy silence, and the forced smile on Susan's photo, her eyes too hollow. The weight of his instincts pressed on him, hard - this was more than a missing person's case. It was darker than that - many shades darker. 

"Tell me about your quarrel," George fixed Susan with a cold gaze. 

"We argued, but she wouldn't leave. Just wouldn't." Mark stammered, his eyes glued to the floor. 

"Is there anyone else who knows about this?"

"No," Mark's voice was a bit too snappy.

George let the silence that followed stretch. He drifted to a shelf where there was a hidden notebook behind thick volumes of encyclopedias, filled with loose scribbled notes, all exhibiting the tension broiling in a fragile relationship. 

"I'm sorry-"

But the handwriting wasn't Mark's wife's.

"I'm aware of what you told me," George interrupted Mark with practiced detective flair, all the time flipping through the notes. The apologies, the desperation - it was all there. 

"I didn't mean to..."Mark started, then stopped, his voice trembling.

"Didn't mean to? What happened, Mark?"

"She wouldn't...just wouldn't leave....the others....they were like this too..."

Detective Lee looked at Mark's anguished face and paused his questioning. Something far more than what a husband didn't want to know was hidden-deep.

George's eyes narrowed. His brows furrowed as the pieces of the case fell into place, aligning in a way that made his stomach churn. "The others...how many, Mark?"

Mark shook his head, his hands trembling. "I just didn't know what to do when they told me...I never wanted things to go this way... She wouldn't go."

George heart thudded as the final piece slipped firmly, yet uncomfortably, into place. "You never wanted her to go, did you Mark? You never let any of them go."

A chill went through the room as Mark collapsed into a chair.