Chapter 3 - Messages from a Missing Woman
Rowan sat beside Elsie’s hospital bed until sunrise.
Micah slept curled in a chair with his head against Rowan’s arm. Every few minutes, Rowan looked at the two children to reassure himself that they were breathing.
At six thirty, Detective Amara Sloan entered the room.
She was in her early forties, with dark hair tied at the back of her neck and a notebook held beneath one arm.
“I’m leading the investigation into Mara Hale’s disappearance,” she said. “And the unlawful confinement of your children.”
Rowan carefully moved his arm from beneath Micah’s head.
“Have you identified the woman?”
“She gave the name Celia Grey. That identity does not exist.”
“She knew my wife.”
“We believe so.”
“Micah called her Miss Celia.”
“That may be the name Mara knew.”
Detective Sloan glanced at the children.
“Can we speak outside?”
In the corridor, she showed Rowan a photograph taken during Celia’s arrest.
“Do you recognize the necklace?”
The silver key around Celia’s neck had a round head engraved with a small lantern.
“No.”
“The same symbol was carved into the bedroom door.”
Rowan remembered the old Calder Street property.
“There wasn’t a lantern symbol when my company purchased the building.”
“Your company records say the property was inspected and sealed twenty-eight days ago.”
“Julian supervised that division.”
“Julian Mercer?”
“My business partner.”
Detective Sloan wrote down the name.
Rowan immediately regretted mentioning him, but the regret was followed by anger at himself. Loyalty had already made him overlook too much.
The detective asked to see the messages Mara had sent over the previous nine days.
Rowan handed her his phone.
There were photographs of Micah eating cereal, Elsie coloring at a table, and Mara’s hand holding a cup of coffee. The messages sounded like her.
Repairs are taking longer than expected.
The children are fine.
Focus on Northstar.
Don’t call tonight. Elsie has a fever and finally fell asleep.
Rowan had replied each time.
He had never demanded to hear his wife’s voice.
Detective Sloan examined the photographs.
“These images may not be recent.”
“They were sent from Mara’s number.”
“That proves only that someone had access to her device.”
Rowan opened the photograph of Elsie coloring.
Something behind her caught his attention.
A paper calendar hung on the wall.
The visible page showed March.
It was July.
The photograph was at least four months old.
Rowan leaned against the corridor wall.
“I should have noticed.”
“You were meant not to notice.”
“That doesn’t excuse me.”
“No,” Detective Sloan said. “But guilt will not help us find your wife.”
A technician entered the corridor carrying a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a white tablet recovered from the boardinghouse kitchen.
The screen lit when Rowan touched it.
Mara’s photograph appeared above a password field.
“It was connected to the house network,” the technician said. “Preliminary data suggests the messages sent to Mr. Hale came through this device.”
Detective Sloan looked at Rowan.
“Would Mara have left this behind voluntarily?”
“Never.”
The technician held up a second evidence bag.
Inside was a folded note found beneath the tablet.
One sentence had been written in Mara’s handwriting.
Rowan, when the children are safe, open the room we promised never to enter.
Rowan read it twice.
Detective Sloan asked, “What room?”
Rowan looked toward the hospital window.
“There’s a locked room in my father’s house.”
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve never entered it?”
“My mother died when I was six. My father sealed her bedroom afterward. Mara once asked me to open it, but I refused.”
“Why?”
“Because my father said there were things in that room that could destroy our family.”
May you like
Detective Sloan closed her notebook.
“It appears your wife decided those things might also save it.”
