31st December 1999. By Charles Roberts

          She vanished just as the year ended.  That was New Year’s Eve nineteen nighty nine, Judy was a party animal and was dancing her legs off in the city centre celebrations, she was high on the excitement for the coming year, the new millennium and all that would bring.  She was looking forward to a new job in a new city with the promise of more money and an apartment thrown in.  Her life only going one way and that was up.  She didn’t drink or take drugs of any sort, hers was a holistic way to care for everything.

          Judy was tall, blonde hair, blue eyes and was slightly Asian looking and very attractive; the life and soul of the normal party, but this night she was just one of the throng of people in the city centre enjoying the celebrations for the coming New Year.  She danced with anyone who wanted to dance, but no more than that, if they got too close then she would walk away; she was no man’s girl, at least for this night.  She was out to enjoy the moment, something she could tell her children about, if she ever had any.

          Bars were set up round the square and the celebrations started about eight o’clock that evening, the music was loud and even the police who were keeping an eye out for trouble joined in the dancing although they didn’t drink they helped anyone who got carried away and drank too much.  The food stalls and city centre cafes were doing a great business, the city hall clock was floodlit so all could see it and the rumour was that there were going to be lots of fireworks being set off all round the city centre.

          The council had literally gone to town on these celebrations, spared no expense, it was a once in a lifetime event and they were going to see to it that it would be remembered by all, from the youngest to the oldest resident of the city.  At eleven the party really started rocking as the city square filled up with revellers, they came from all around the city just to soak up the atmosphere of the night, simply to say that they were there at the changing of the millennium.

          As the first bong rang out from the city hall clock the music stopped, the dancing ceased and everyone looked up at the clock high up on the city hall.  The second bong rang out and you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet, but as the third bong rang out the multitude shouted in unison TEN, the forth bong rang out, NINE.  The excitement was palpable, EIGHT, the bars around the city square were handing out glasses of Champagne.  SEVEN, friends gathered together and held hands, SIX.

FIVE, the voices were louder, FOUR was shouted out drowning all other noise.  THREE, some people were already jumping up and down unable to contain themselves.  TWO, the square went deathly quiet in anticipation, ONE, everyone shouted Happy New Year, hugged the person next to them, shook hands with friend and stranger alike, then the fireworks erupted from the rooves of every municipal building in the city.  The sky was lit up with every colour of the rainbow as rockets galore shot up from all the buildings round the city square and everyone sang Auld Lang Sign.  But no one noticed a beam of bluey white light which appeared over Judy and she just disappeared.

Judy was supposed to pick the keys up for her new apartment on the Monday morning the third of January, but she didn’t go to the estate agents, then she should have started her new job on the Tuesday, but again she didn’t show.  Her new boss tried to contact her by mobile, but it went straight to voice mail.  Judy hadn’t looked the type of person who would let anyone down so he contacted her former employer to see if she had changed her mind, but the last they saw of her had been on the thirty first of December when she had worked as normal before clearing her desk.

The police were called in and the first place they looked was her old apartment, where they found packed boxes and suitcases, but no Judy.  Then they searched for her car, but that was parked in its slot in the underground carpark.  The police asked her friends who told them that she had been in the city centre for the New Year celebrations and hadn’t been seen since.  There had been a farewell luncheon booked for the Sunday the second, but she hadn’t shown and her friends simply thought that she had driven to her new town early.

A call went out, through the local newspaper asking if anyone had seen Judy at the New Year celebrations in the city centre square together with her picture.  Lots of people came forward saying that they had seen her dancing and enjoying herself before midnight, but no one could recall seeing her after midnight or her leaving the square.  Her neighbours, in the apartment block couldn’t remember hearing her come home after the celebrations.  Could she have gone to her parents’ house, but the car was still in the garage and her parents’ lived miles away at the other side of the country.

A search was called to scour all the waste land and abandoned buildings in and around the city just in case she had been abducted and murdered then dumped.  When the search drew a blank, then they started to search further afield.  The police were treating Judy’s disappearance as suspicious and thinking that it could be kidnapping and possible murder, but there hadn’t been any ransom note.  After a month, the police cut their search back, but Judy’s friends continued searching in their spare time.

Notices were taped to lamp posts, the newspaper carried her picture and pleas for her return, but it had ceased to be front page news so it was dropped down, first to page six then dropped altogether.  Eventually most of her friends gave up hope of finding her so stopped looking leaving just half a dozen of her closest friends to carry on the search, but even they gave up after six months.  The mystery of Judy’s disappearance was never solved and it remains an open case with the police, but no one is working on it.