Day 11 - Prompt : Case (of the missing person)

The Case of the missing person as yet unfound - by the best detective for miles around.

Home visit interview at nine-thirty,
With a heavily pregnant Mrs Berty,
She brings in a tray with biscuits too,
She spills the tea and right then I knew,
The whites of her eyes,
Her apologetic cries,
"Mrs Berty when did you see your husband last?"
Her eyes swivel up to recall the recent past,

She sits down heavily,eyes full of pain,
The colour from her face all but drained, she says in a tiny voice her words pre-trained and strained;
"Whenever I wake up and he's no longer there,
His empty presence, it's so hard to bare, I feel so lost I keep looking at his chair, the kids carry on as usual as if they don't really care! I know he's gone and left us but I want to know where?!"
I take my leave and go house to house, chatting with neighbours that live nearby,
Things don't add up about the husband; no friends nor family, an angry, bitter guy,
"We've checked in every obvious place" said the rooky cop "...but he's gone and disappeared without a goddamn trace",
The profile's wrong, it can't be true,
Have you tried where the whisky's cheap and the women are too?
There's something we're missing some other clue.
As I composed myself I realised I knew.

I returned for another visit with the strong, weak, and blooming Mrs Berty,
The garden was clean and beautiful yet the house was really dirty,
Though I'd said no thanks, she still brought me tea,
She had something to say, of that I could see,
I'd done my research I'd checked her out,
Though I still really needed to know what she was about,
Trembling like the victim she once was- a facade of the person she'd been, her permanent disguise,
I'd read the many police reports of her walking into doors; broken noses, teeth and blackened eyes,
She whispered: "The kids are so sad I think they miss their dad,
I whispered back; "To do what you did it must have been bad, I think we both know that he's never going to be found, The recent work in your garden means he's probably under ground."
Her hands flew to her stomach, eyes wide, adsent-mindedly picking top soil from under her nails,
I knew the truth as nothing gets past me, for even the most perfect crimes have emotionally epic fails,
I watched her and her thought processes; thinking of her little one or perhaps what she had done,
I wanted to tell her how I had once known him, a long, long, time before,
When he'd kicked the unborn baby out of me as I'd lain helplessly on the floor,
But I didn't.
Instead I thanked her for the tea, getting cold in the stained cup as I stood to rise,
I told her to keep up her story, clean up the house and to believe in her own lies,
As I turned to leave she reached out to me and took my hand,
She said she knew who I was & how she'd hoped I'd understand,

I wished her luck and left quick smart,
Before our tears could even start,

I filed my report; Just another missing person to add to the list,
Better she lives with the threat of discovery than the loving kiss of his fist.


Thanks WD for your prompt from last year!
Take the phrase “Case (blank);”
replace the blank with a word or phrase; make the new phrase the title of your poem; and then, write your poem. Possible titles include: “Case of Water,” “Case in Point,” “Case Study,” and “Case of the Missing Person.”
https://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2018-april-pad-challenge-day-4