My name is Lance Hirsch. On the night of October 17th, 2022, I returned home after wrapping up a twelve-hour shift. I was a police officer in a seedy rural town composed of drunks and druggies. The few hours I spent awake each night with my wife Jill were the highlights of my day. But Jill and I had grown distant. The window of time we spent with each other shrunk as the job became more demanding. And because of that, I may have had a few lapses in judgment, costly mistakes that I deeply regret.
When I entered our house on that cold October night, the silence startled me; Jill usually watched TV or played a record just before bed. When I realized Jill was missing, I panicked. Her cell went straight to voicemail. I stayed up all night hoping she would return from wherever she ventured off to. She never came home.
Before I rested my head on my pillow to finally attempt to sleep, Jill’s pillow grabbed my attention. There was a hole in it, and the pillow stuffing spelled out a word on top of the pillowcase.
Honesty
Now, I told you I have made some mistakes in my life. Two of them though were life-altering and happened on the same evening. I had once arrested a man by the name of Kaden Morris for driving under the influence. The plan was to keep him in a holding cell until the morning to give him time to sober up. I had called his wife Ashley to inform her of her husband’s whereabouts for the remainder of the evening. But on that same night, I abandoned the station to hook up with a prostitute just around the block. It was an idiotic decision, especially since I was the only officer on duty. On top of that, cheating on my wife made my stomach churn, and I instantly regretted it moments afterwards. When I returned to the station, I found Kaden dead in his cell. The official cause of his death: dehydration. I had a strong support system with my fellow officers though, so I made up a story about falling asleep at my desk. The Chief of Police also made up a bullshit story for the public, saying Kaden died of alcohol poisoning. I kept my job and kept silent about Kaden’s death.
When I finally woke up from a nap on the day Jill disappeared, I was going to pick up a coffee, so I walked out to my car. On the dashboard, little fake badges spelled out a word.
Illusion
My cell buzzed.
“Officer Hirsch. People think you are a good cop, but it’s just an illusion. I know what you did.”
The woman speaking dropped the call before I could respond. Later that afternoon, I was back at the station.
“A VHS tape of all things came in for you, has your name on it and says to rewind on it,” another officer Stu said to me upon my entrance.
Rewind
We had a VHS player and old TV in storage, so I popped it in. It was footage of me in a car with the prostitute riding me in the front seat. My hands clammed up, and I shut off the tape. Beads of sweat poured down my face. I grabbed the tape and returned home. There was still no word from Jill, and I was starting to get the impression that she may have been kidnapped. I became deeply distraught when I caught a whiff of shit upon entering the front door. Dog shit was smeared all over the walls, and the living room rug had a word spelled out in feces.
Smell
My cell buzzed again.
“Where’s Jill? I know you have her. Is she alive? Please tell me she is alive.”
“The smell haunts me officer Hirsch. Kaden’s decaying body. You abandoned him. You failed to do your job, and now I’ve had to suffer for it as a result. Open the microwave.”
Ketchup lined the inside of the microwave and spelled out a word.
Cold-blooded
“You showed no remorse officer Hirsch. Don’t you know the saying an eye for an eye? You can find Jill at 38 Vine Street.”
The woman hung up on me. I immediately called for backup. When we arrived at the apartment, we busted the door down and swarmed inside to search for Jill. A word was spelled out on the wall of a pull-down bed.
Hydration
I slowly pulled down the bed. Inside of it, pale and lifeless: Jill. I fell to the ground and bawled. There was an extremely high amount of alcohol in her system, and after tests were done, cause of death was determined to be dehydration. I still have had no luck and no leads in my search for Ashley and bringing her to justice.