ʀᴀғᴇ ᴀúʟʟᴀ ᴀ ʟᴀ sᴏᴍʙʀᴀ ᴅᴇ (maginus) wrote in repose,
Re: Audrey's house: Hugh & Rafe
Rafe didn't know what sort of person Audrey was, having never met her that he was aware of, but he knew that no one was the sort of person to leave their bedroom in the sort of state he was looking at. It looked like a tornado had torn through it without damaging the structure of the house. That wasn't normal. The bedding was tossed messily and haphazardly, along with several cushions that he guessed sat on the bed when it wasn't in use, and probably also on the chair that had been overturned. Nobody would be able to inhabit a room like this, which meant that someone or something had ransacked it, and thoroughly. And if Audrey had been present when this happened, then where was she now? Had she put up a fight?
No, there was no blood. And there was no way in hell that anyone could put up enough of a fight to make this kind of mess and not get hurt in the process. As far as he knew Audrey was a human, she certainly smelled like one, which meant she would have gotten hurt if she'd been caught up in the chaos.
When Hugh arrived Rafe let the other man react to the mess before he turned his head to look at him. Hugh's worry was powerful enough that Rafe could pick up on it, even over the stench that had completely flooded Audrey's bedroom, and he was sorry that there was nothing he could do to alleviate it. Even if he told Hugh that there was no blood that would probably come as little comfort. Audrey was still missing without a trace.
"It's like someone tore the place apart looking for something, but--" Rafe shook his head, scanning the room once again. "There's no pattern to it. If you're searching for something then you don't make this much mess. Some mess, yeah, but nothing like this." He turned his head to Hugh again, still standing on the threshold because if the police were going to get involved (and it was looking more and more likely that they would be) then they had to be careful about not contaminating a crime scene. "I can't see any blood though, for what it's worth," he added, hoping to put the other man's mind at least a little at ease. It would have been better if he could have said he knew for certain that there wasn't any because he couldn't smell it but that was out of the question. That wasn't the only thing he would have trouble explaining either, because as he'd stood in the doorway waiting for Hugh to join him he had determined something else: Audrey's scent led into the room and just stopped.
"I think you're going to have to file that report."