The sun was hiding behind the curtain of clouds that blocked the sky, the officer on duty was used to the grayish color of his days and dampness at night. The mountains stood like protective walls from the wild world beyond the borders of the small town Neferpshut, the metrópoli just beyond the range was totally unaware of the existence of this hidden place.

For Leo, despite of the ever present bad weather, it was not hard to endure. He liked a heavy rainstorm, and humid summer days that drown one in exhaustion. His job required him to brave even the coldest winter, but none of these conditions bothered him in the least. The sometimes extreme inclimate weather on the other hand, usually fatigued his patrol partner David, or as Leo likes to call, Coco.

"Come on Coco, tell me a joke, this is getting really boring," asked Leo.

"We're on watch Leo, it’s supposed to be boring," curtly replied Coco.

Leo had a habit of trying to encourage his partner to lighten up the routine. Both enlisted in the police force only 5 years before (though Coco was 15 years older than Leo).

Neither was an outstanding officer, but both had good skills. Neither of them had any problems to overcome the physical tests, they had good athletic talent. Despite age difference, the officers got along very well: Leo, a young 25 whose own youthful appearance of a college party guy did not do justice to his mental maturity. David (Coco), who despite his young adulthood dragged his 40 years tied to the chain of depression he has been carrying for 2 years, after the disappearance of his brother Gabriel. Together they were a good team.

Their patrol schedule consisted of daily and evening patrols including a couple of odd days arranging the tasks of paperwork in the dilapidated Square Avenue offices.

On weekends they took turns with another pair of patrol officers, or at least it should be that way. The two policemen spent many hours working together and when Leo manage to get Coco to bond, they went out for a drink. Coco was not talkative, neither a discussion or a conversation in a friendly tone, he was not good at talking. They always opted for short conversations or, if unable to do so, let the other person talk more than he. But while he would not want to admit it, he liked the company of Leo. Actually, more than Leo knew, he needed that company.

"We should talk more, dude. We've been doing this daily for 5 years and the kindest thing has come out of your mouth has been a burp," Leo insisted.

"Shall we go to the drive through?"

"It’s 10:00 am" –answered Leo with sarcasm.

Wearily, Coco turned the steering wheel to the right in order to take the Frank Avenue to the local fast food restaurant. Ham-auto was the place that in every part over the world survived by a target consumer: drunken after-party starveling teenagers.

As soon as they reached their destination the'' magic box'', as always, ripped blows of air by the speaker: "Good morning, Ham-auto-air blow-your burger –air bash- in 'Actauto'. How can I help you?"

"Such an awful rhyme", snapped Leo.

"Hi, I want a double cheese, bacon and lots of mayonnaise", answered Coco to the machine.

"Drink?" asked the machine again.

"Cola,"

"Ok, anything else?"

"Oh, eh…do you want anything buddy?" asked to Leo.

"Natural orange juice", replied Leo.

"Would you like to supersize your order for only 2.99 more? Okay, you will have your order in a minute, drive up to the window. Thanks," the smarmy teen on the other end said with fake cheer probably trying to buck for employee of the month.

"They have orange juice? You gotta be kidding me," Coco murmured.

Coco advanced the car to pick up the order and continue the patrol. He handed both drinks to Leo and started chowing down on his burger. With no free hands, Leo was left to shift gears for him.

"Alright, tell me a joke," Coco offered Leo as they drove along.

The younger officer was now trying to remember the joke he'd planned on telling, but was drawing a blank. Leave it to Coco to come up with a time when Leo was stumped to come up with anything. They had their break in relative silence.

They drove the majestic Downhill slope, full of dead branches on both sides of the road that once gave away colored primroses to the views offered by the vantage point Uphill at its highest point. 

This was the scenic route that allowed the officers to overlook the town with all it's rusted decayed buildings and it's natural beauty. The patrol radio broke the silence.

"Agents, we have a code 2 at Chester’s 13", Cate's somewhat nasal tone reported.

Code 2 (disappearances) were common in Cann, with such an old population it was not unusual to see old men and women on a morning stroll ending up wandering lost in mist. But at no time they could expect Cate, the office operator, to report the code providing an address. Who could disappear at his own home? Coco stomped the gas to get to the top of the hill to pull over and make sure that their partner wasn’t joking. Once there, with an eagle presiding over the streets as if it were a giant map, Coco took a deep breath and nervously violently grabbed the radio and brought it to his mouth.

"Station, can you repeat please?"

"Chester Street,"

"No, the code," he asked.

"Code 2," she insisted.

"Are you sure? Inside the home?," he asked.

"It seems so, agent. We received a call from a woman who claims having lost her husband in her own home. She was watching TV with him in the living room couch when the cell phone she had left in the kitchen rang. Then, when she came back to the living room, her husband was just vanished," Cate gave the full report.

This left Coco scoffing, "He may went out for…"

"Sir, he's is crippled, he can't just up and leave," Cate informed him.

Coco's eyes searched his companion waiting for some explanation, but Leo did not understand it either. In all his years, he'd never heard of an invalid going missing from his own home while someone was there to watch for them, not in Cann anyway.

"Names?"

"Jack Geller and Elena Zimmerman," Cate replied reading off the rest of the information. "That's all I have," she insisted.

"All right, we head to Chester Street. Cate, don’t do anything until Leo and I do an initial search of the area," ordered Coco.

"Ten four, HQ out," answered Cate.

Immediately, the two policemen were zooming to Chester Street with lights flashing against the background of blackened sky Cann letting out the first drops of what would become, just twenty minutes later, a thunderous storm.

Cann's older streets are mostly unkempt. It reminds those residing there of the old village to modern town evolution. Modern buildings facades over aged brick structures seeking a way to provide cutting-edge life to the aging population.

Chester Street is a living example of urban desecration in Cann history. Located in the center of town, the road that once served commercial route for housewives and recreation area for children is currently just a shadow of what once was, turning the vitality of the kids in dirty clothes from kicking balls and skipping pebbles to the putrefaction of residential offices city departments, unable to sustain the vast Town Hall for most not even a fifth of their different jurisdictions.

Coco slowed down after passing the corner between Frost and Chester, trying to guess the building they were going to with his eyes lost in the horizon. Although he would never admit it, he knew he needed glasses. The increasing rain did not help visibility at all. The feeling that wearing glasses was a sign of weakness made Coco even more determined that he didn't need anyone's help. He didn’t want to accept getting old. While his head was tormenting him with worries of needing glasses and more timely doctor's visits, Chester Street went right past them and into the patrol car mirrors.

"Where ya’ going?" asked Leo.

The older man slammed on the brakes and pulled to the curb daring Leo to make any remarks about his eyesight (again) but Leo simply nodded that he was ready to investigate the situation. 

Both of them hurried out the car through the pouring rain and reached the entrance of Chester’s 13. The building was a two-story house, possibly a duplex, with windows facing outward on both floors adorned with curtains. 

Quickly Coco started to knock on the door, but the tapping opened the entrance of the home. Seeing that the door was open, both drew their weapons before going into the foyer, allowing for the possibility that the lady of the house may wouldn’t be there, either because she had escaped, or because she had been also kidnapped.

Coco entered followed by Leo to the main entrance in the dark, lit by a dim light that filtered through the gap he had left the door ajar. Leo began to quickly search a reference of support, while his partner awkwardly patted the surrounding walls for a switch. 

They were drenched in rain, so the two policemen who were taking a moment to recompose themselves looking around the dark house, neither wanting to take the lead. Coco, embarrassed at the obvious inability to remember protocol regarding house searching, snorted as he opened the front door completely, partially illuminating the house.

"Let's just calm down," whispered Coco as he pressed the light switch, located just below a hanging empty rack. The lights came up so they could see better. "Upstairs is yours, I'll take care of the downstairs rooms. If you see anything, just hit the button on your radio and let me know, I'll be there okay?"

Leo was still unable to fully master his fear, but made an effort to appear calm and nodded. At that time Coco closed the door, drew his gun and walked through the entrance to the hall.

Leo headed up the stairs with his sidearm drawn as well.

The rest of the house was completely dark, but Coco had no trouble finding the lights in the other rooms. One by one was searching the rooms on the ground floor, with discretion, but without any hesitation he checked the cupboards of the room, and all the shelves and kitchen furniture, peered curiously around every corner of the cellar/pantry that was accessed through a small door located in the kitchen and made sure anybody were there. 

He took another sweep to ensure he left nothing unchecked. Once finished, he stopped at the foot of the stairwell against the left side of the hallway and grabbed the radio from his belt.

"Everything seems ok down here Leo, how about up there?" he keyed the mic.

"Calm up here, although… there is something a bit odd…" He heard Leo reply.

"Odd?" Coco asked looking up stairs but unable to see anything.

"Yeah… Well, I don’t know, it’s only a feeling… It seems like this house is dead…" Leo was not sure how to explain the feeling, but did not want to alarm his counter part.

"Don’t worry, it's just that... I haven’t seen many pictures of the couple who supposedly live here, but I imagine they won’t be very close. I give one last round, and go back, wait for me down there," Leo radioed down.

"Ok, take your time buddy," Coco was now looking around for indications of how well this couple had been getting along. 

That observation from Leo aroused Coco's curiosity. He had overlooked, but mentally reviewing their movements through the living room, kitchen and bathroom (the only room downstairs that accompanied the hallway and entry) he did not remember looking at many pictures. In fact, he only vaguely remembered having seen one picture on the TV during his investigation. He thought that it wouldn’t be important, but the curiosity that Leo had awakened him now had become suspicion.

He hesitated for a moment, but ended up convincing himself that there was no need to look any closer because, as Leo said, it could simply be a detached couple. In addition, his responsibilities on the situation ended on a report to the central radio to report that no one was in the house as they had probably arrived late to the scene. 

Federal and scientific police would come to the house to make more detailed analysis on the situation of the household of Mr. Geller, try to find traces that could have left the kidnappers and hypothesize with sometimes absurd theatrical recreations what could have happened in that place.

Coco sat on the first step to quietly wait for Leo finish his round upstairs. He stared at the floor and for a moment he was puzzled by what he saw: wet footprints footsteps roamed the hardwood floor of the hallway and disappear into the kitchen door. Then he remembered the rain and cursed by how stupid he'd been soaking the whole floor on his way through the different rooms. 

He recalled having seen a mop in the kitchen and went for it, he then called his partner to make sure he didn't contaminate the house with dripping wet foot prints.

Coco mopped the kitchen, bathroom and hallway, leaving the lounge for last wanting convince himself that was appropriate. Then curiosity about the aspect of marriage reappeared about the photo placed on the TV that presided the room. Once finished the cleaning task, he left the mop leaning next to the door frame with the nearest exit to the kitchen hallway and headed for the TV.

He grabbed the frame in his hand and, as he examined the picture, something of it transformed his curiosity in attention : The couple posed smiling and seemingly happy in a nice almost bucolic landscape, a green expanse and high snow-capped mountains kept their backs. Indeed, it could be a trip to undertake together, but the interesting thing about the photo was the appearance of Mr. Geller, since he was standing and did not need any support to stay upright.

Coco, surprised, took the photo frame to see if on the reverse of it appeared the date on which it was taken, thinking it would be a logical explanation that Mr. Geller had the accident after traveling to that place and remain invalid from then, however, what he saw in the back of the picture was not what he expected : a stamp with the logo of ‘’Catch Air Travel Agency‘’. Coco drove his eye to the right corner of the room, where it lay Mr. Geller’s wheelchair, and quickly grab his radio.

"Leo, I need you to come down for a moment and see something ... Make sure you don't leave any wet footprints, okay?" then Coco realized that the last thing he heard his partner was going to give one last sweep before going down, and had already spent more than ten minutes. "Leo? Are you there?"

There was no answer. Increasingly concerned about the delay, he decided to go upstairs in search of his partner and find out why he did not answer. He placed the picture back on the TV, ran up the stairs in a hurry and went slamming into the nearest room, the master bedroom. A four poster bed, two nightstands, a picture of a bowl full of fruits on the hillock, a closet and a small window, but otherwise empty.

"Leo?!" Coco shouted so that they wouldn't need the radios. There was no answer, and that made matters worse. Before he could have guessed Leo's battery went dead or something was simply wrong with the radios.

He continued with the next room, most likely a guest room. No sign of his companion. Coco began to lose his nerves. "Leo!" he yelled louder and listened for a response of any kind.

"Leo, this better not be one of your jokes!" –Actually, Coco was wishing it all was a bad prank and any moment Leo would pop in to have a good laugh.

Down the hall, one last wooden door harbored any hopes of Coco to find his partner. He took a deep breath and started to open it, but it was locked. Impatience started to grow in Coco, who began violently pushing and pounding on the door trying to open it. He took two steps back and threw a front kick with all his might. The door defiantly remained shut.

"Leo! If you are in there you better open the fucking door! If you make me open it you will regret it!" As panic and impatients grew, his legs were weakening with a disturbing sense of abandonment.

Undoubtedly, Coco would never forget that day. He continued kicking the door until he was exhausted. Surrendered, he thought of contacting central, but thought better and decided against it for fear of the uproar could be mounted around a possible prank being pulled by his mate. 

He realized that he won’t get the door open by force and, while it was closed, he had no choice but to search the whole house from top to bottom again looking for Leo, hoping that somehow he was in the bathroom or waiting at the entrance with broken radio.

He went downstairs with the speed his nerves ordered and inevitably stumbled upon the fourth step, dropping precipitously over himself and rolling with punches to land back on the edge of the top step. He endured a howl of pain biting his jaw and stood fired into the kitchen, rummaged all the furniture, throwing cups, plates, bottles and everything in its path and stirring the pantry and the giant furniture of the room. Removing the drawers he finally found a bunch of keys.

"This may work," he said in order to convince himself.

Coco went back up stairs again and went to the door down the hall. He tried to calm down, breathed deeply several times and began testing the keys. One after another, they all were failing, not working. That further infuriated Coco, who was no longer master of himself.

"Fuck it!" He cried as he dropped the keys and held the gun emptying the ammo through the door knob .

The door, incomprehensibly, did not open. Coco, absolutely stunned by what had happened, came over and pushed the door with a gentle push with the fingertips. Finally, the door opened, dragging the crackling of the wood shattered by bullets, making way for a small room lit by a large window on the left side revealing what was once a kind of small study of a writer or some old merchant office. The room was nothing special, but worst of all was that, obviously, his partner was not there.

Coco decided to call central HQ. Although it was hopeless, there was the possibility that Leo had returned there for some urgent reason. He took his cell phone from his utility belt and called Cate.

"Central, it’s David…"

"Coco! At last we make contact with you! Is anything wrong?" Coco lamented the answer as he realized Leo was lost.

"I need reinforcement at Chester’s 13. Now,"

"Why? What’s wrong?" Cate was getting more worried.

"I’ve lo…ah…" Coco couldn’t find the way to say that he had lost his partner, as well as heartbreaking, the situation had become completely surreal. "I think…I don’t know how but…"

"What the hell is wrong Coco? Are you okay?"

"It's Leo... Leo is gone," he reported on the radio unable to keep his emotions in check.

"GONE?! What do you mean gone?!" Cate's voice went up 2 octaves.

"Hold on hold on, I don’t mean that… He just disappeared… I don’t know how the hell…" he tried to explain. Nerves still latent in Coco caused him major tremors in arms, legs and hands as he remembered the sequence of events. "Everything was going normally... we did a search of the house and when I finished...there was no Leo anymore ... I've looked everywhere... he just couldn’t been able to leave without me noticing," Coco tried to remember any other details.

"Okay, take it easy Coco. Just try to calm down… I’m sending a team over there right now, do not move from where you are and if you discover anything, alert us immediately," Cate tried to reassure Coco, however the trouble wasn’t about getting reinforcements, his mind dizzy and spinning around to the implausibility of the facts. How could he have disappeared in such a small space? 

"I’ll call Leo’s house, his wife may know something," he still thought maybe Leo had gone out a window or something.

Leo’s wife wasn’t at home, so he left a message: ‘’Susan, call me back as soon as you hear this’’. Coco hung his cell back in it's belt holster without saying anything. He left the house and walked toward the car resigned to wait for reinforcements. He tried to calm down, but his head, still stunned by what had just happened, returned to show the images of a film he had already seen and suffered. Ghosts of his brother disappearance returned to flourish. The scar of that wound reopened and the blood flowed uncontrolled inundating his thoughts. He felt his body began to shake and looked to the glove box. There were pills that Dr. Stone had prescribed as a treatment for his recurrent episodes of anxiety after the disappearance of Gabriel. He had stopped taking them a month ago, and since then he had not suffered any attacks. Until now.

He took two pills in his trembling left hand and introduced them awkwardly into his mouth. He could not swallow at once, and then he remembered the drive though drink. Relieved, he grabbed the straw to his mouth but only sucked air. He tried to breathe deeply but the concern was preventing him thinking clearly. The situation became increasingly uncontrollable for him. At that time he saw rolling on the passenger floor a glass of orange juice that Leo left there. He lunged at the container hopeful that some liquid still remains and, indeed, sipped and swallowed pleased a sea of peace. Then he took another deep breath and looked at the house while flashes of Leo passed through his head and lamented not being able to help while, ironically, he had just saved him.

"Thank god they had natural orange juice…" Coco said to himself before falling into a deep sleep.