Chapter 14 - Where Is Claire?
Ethan called Claire.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
His hands began to shake.
“Call the hotel,” the detective said.
Mara did.
The front desk connected her to security.
Claire had checked out twelve minutes earlier.
“With who?” Ethan demanded.
The security manager reviewed the lobby camera.
“She left with a woman. Dark hair. Mid-thirties maybe.”
Claire didn’t know any woman who should have been there.
Ethan called Lena, Claire’s sister.
No answer.
Then his phone rang.
Claire.
He answered so fast he nearly dropped it.
“Where are you?”
“In the car.”
“Whose car?”
“Mine.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Why did you leave?”
“Because your mother called me.”
Ethan opened his eyes again.
“My mother?”
“She said Ryan gave her something months ago and told her to hide it unless everything went bad.”
Mara mouthed, Put it on speaker.
Ethan did.
Claire continued. “She was scared to bring it to the hotel, so I met her at the grocery store parking lot.”
“Who was the woman on camera?”
“Your mom dyed her hair.”
Even the detective looked confused.
Ethan pressed his fingers to his forehead.
“Claire, Victor just called this office and told me to call you.”
Silence.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “That’s not good.”
“No. Where are you now?”
“Driving back to the police station.”
“What did Mom give you?”
Claire looked down at something. He could hear paper moving.
“A memory card and a sealed letter from your dad.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“My dad?”
“Yes.”
“Read it.”
“I’m driving.”
“Then pull over.”
A horn blasted through the phone.
Claire gasped.
Tires screeched.
The call broke into static.
May you like
“Claire!”
Then the line went dead.\n\nThe detective had already requested traffic cameras along Claire's route before Ethan finished asking. That efficiency steadied him. For once, the right response to fear was not improvisation. There were people trained for this, procedures built for this, and a record that did not depend on Ethan being the smartest person in the room.
