Chapter 15 - THE VANISHING
We searched for weeks.
Police checked every airport. Every port. Every safe house Hale had ever mentioned. Nothing. He had vanished completely.
My father grew quieter. He slept less. He checked the locks three times each night.
“He is still in the country,” Julian said one afternoon. “I feel it. He would not leave without money. Without resources. And he has none… unless someone is helping him.”
“Sarah?” my father asked.
“Sarah is in custody. No one else knew him well enough to hide him.” Julian frowned. “Unless… there was someone else. Someone we never found.”
We were sitting in the parlor. The afternoon sun was warm. And then… my phone buzzed.
A message. No name. No number.
*“Tell Vanessa to keep silent. Or the girl dies.”*
My father snatched the phone. His face went pale.
“He is watching us,” he said. “Somehow… he is watching.”
“Vanessa is in custody,” I said. “How would he send this?”
“Because he has someone on the inside,” Julian said. “Someone who knows what we know. Someone who reports to him.”
We looked around the room. At the staff. At the doors. At the windows.
“Everyone is a suspect,” my father said grimly. “Until we find him.”
That night, I could not sleep. I lay awake, thinking of the message. Of Hale. Of the way he had looked at me in that hidden room.
I reached for my watch. I tapped the screen.
And then I froze.
The last recording—from the hidden room—was gone.
May you like
Someone had deleted it.
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