Chapter 5 - CLARA DISAPPEARS
“Clara!”
Adrian called back.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He grabbed his keys.
“Dad, where are you going?”
“To Clara’s.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Dad—”
“You’re staying here with Emma and Officer Ruiz.”
A police officer who was still taking photographs looked up.
“I can stay until your sister arrives,” she said.
Adrian nodded.
His older sister Julia lived fifteen minutes away.
He called her while running to the garage.
Then he drove.
Clara lived in a small apartment building twenty minutes across town.
He made it in twelve.
The front door to her apartment was open.
“Clara?”
No answer.
A lamp lay broken on the floor.
A chair had been overturned.
Her purse was on the couch.
Her phone lay shattered near the kitchen.
Adrian’s chest tightened.
“Clara!”
He checked the bedroom.
Empty.
Bathroom.
Empty.
Then he heard something.
A whimper.
He followed it to a closet.
A teenage boy was crouched inside.
“Mateo?”
Clara’s sixteen-year-old son looked up.
His lip was bleeding.
“Mr. Hayes?”
Adrian helped him stand.
“What happened?”
“A guy came here.”
“What guy?”
“I don’t know. Mom told me to hide.”
“Where is she?”
Mateo started crying.
“He took her.”
Adrian felt sick.
“Did you see his face?”
“No. He wore a baseball cap.”
“Did you hear anything?”
Mateo wiped his mouth.
“He kept asking about a letter.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Rachel.
Again.
“What letter?”
Mateo shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Police arrived minutes later.
Adrian gave them everything.
Vanessa.
The missing money.
Rachel.
The mysterious letter.
Detectives searched Clara’s apartment.
Then Mateo tugged Adrian’s sleeve.
“Mr. Hayes.”
“What?”
“My mom gave me something yesterday.”
He reached under his shirt and pulled out a small brass key hanging from a cord.
“She told me if anything bad happened, I should give this to you.”
Adrian took it.
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know.”
One detective looked at the key.
“Could be a safe-deposit box.”
Adrian stared at it.
Then Mateo said something that made him colder.
“My mom was scared of Vanessa before today.”
“How long?”
“A few weeks.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She tried.”
Adrian looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
Mateo hesitated.
“Mom said every time she tried to talk to you, Vanessa was there.”
Adrian remembered.
The interrupted conversations.
The strange looks.
Clara asking, “Sir, can we speak privately?”
Vanessa walking in.
Adrian saying, “Later.”
Later.
Always later.
And now Clara was gone.
One officer stepped into the room.
“Mr. Hayes?”
“Yes?”
“We found something under Clara’s mattress.”
He held up an old photograph in a plastic evidence bag.
Adrian stared.
Rachel was in the picture.
So was Clara.
May you like
And standing beside them was Vanessa.
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