Runaway Bride (Part II – Malachi’s Story)

When he didn’t see me after he came upstairs from his downstairs office at around 9:30AM, he panicked (told by Maxine). The car was here, my purse was here, but I was gone. I hadn’t said good-bye; I hadn’t asked him to take care of the dogs. He went through every room in the house twice. He went to some of the neighbors to ask if they had seen me; asked neighbors walking their dogs; asked strangers walking their dogs; asked strangers walking to the University. No one had seen me.

My bike was there. The dogs were there. I wasn’t walking the dogs. He walked up and down the back alleys looking for me, calling for me. He didn’t know what to do. So he called the police who suggested he drive around the neighborhood looking for me. So he did. He ended up at Tim Horton’s and there were two police cars there (Surprise, surprise, surprise).

He was in tears by this time, so worried about me, thinking I must have been abducted out of the home. He had heard about a recent home invasion where this had happened in Cowtown. He told the police the situation and they all came over to the house. They asked him “500 questions” He said the one officer was retired from the military, an investigator with them for many years, and was really good. “He reminded me of Colombo, he was so thorough”.

“Colombo” looked in every room in the house (I am mortified). “Don’t touch anything - we might need things for evidence for the investigation”. “Is this much stuff in the bathroom normal?” “Yes”. “Is this much stuff in your bedroom normal?” “Yes”. (I’m so mortified). He said “So….just the 2 of you…live in this house??” “Yes. We have a stuff problem”.

He asked what I was wearing, what shoes I normally wore, what coat I normally wore. Malachi couldn’t find my runners. The coat I had worn to walk the dogs was back in the closet. He asked about our relationship, would I be leaving him (were your prayers answered?). “No we are getting along very well. And if she was going to leave me, she’d take her purse and her car.”

‘Colombo’ said “She wears glasses. Are her glasses here?” so they looked everywhere for my glasses. “Is her ID was here?” and went through my purse. “Are her keys here?” Missing from the key rack. “All these tote bags on the kitchen table – is this normal?” (I had a tote bag of CD’s and tapes, one of books, one of stuff I needed in the car like my camera. My old purse. My new purse. My insulated lunch bag. A few other bags of stuff I had taken or bought on a recent trip). “Yes”.