Chapter 12 - THE MISSING DAUGHTER
Adrian called Olivia again.
No answer.
Police reached Natalie’s old studio seven minutes later.
The door was open.
Olivia was gone.
Her laptop sat on the floor with the screen cracked.
A chair had been knocked over.
No blood.
No note.
Only her phone, left deliberately beneath a desk.
Adrian’s breathing turned shallow.
Clara caught his arm.
“Do not panic into another mistake.”
He looked at her.
The words were brutal.
Necessary.
The detective searched the room. “We’ll pull building cameras.”
Clara crouched beside Olivia’s backpack.
“She left this open.”
Inside was a paperback novel, a charger, a water bottle, and a small blue inhaler Olivia had carried since childhood.
Clara picked it up.
“This isn’t hers.”
Adrian stared. “Yes, it is.”
“No. Olivia’s inhaler has a white cap.”
She turned it over.
Taped beneath the label was a folded strip of paper.
A message.
DAD — IF I’M GONE, FOLLOW MOM’S FIRST RULE. DON’T TRUST THE OBVIOUS ROUTE.
Adrian almost smiled despite the fear.
Natalie’s first rule whenever they traveled with children: never use the expected exit in an emergency.
The studio had a freight elevator and a fire stairwell.
But Natalie had once shown Olivia an old service tunnel that connected the basement to the neighboring theater.
Police reached the theater in three minutes.
A stagehand had seen a teenage girl leave with a woman in a dark coat.
“Did she look forced?” the detective asked.
“No. She looked angry. The woman kept talking. The girl followed.”
“Which direction?”
“Parking structure.”
Camera footage showed Olivia entering a black sedan.
Vanessa drove.
Clara stared at the screen. “Why would Olivia go willingly?”
Adrian’s phone buzzed.
A photo from Olivia.
She was sitting in the passenger seat of a car, expression tense but unharmed.
Below it:
SHE SAYS SHE CAN PROVE WHO REALLY KILLED MOM. I’M LISTENING. DON’T FOLLOW YET.
Adrian typed immediately.
GET OUT OF THE CAR.
No response.
Then another message appeared.
SHE SAYS GRAHAM HAS EMMA.
Adrian stopped breathing.
Clara was already calling St. Catherine’s.
May you like
The nurse answered on the second ring.
Emma Vale was no longer in her room.
