Chapter 6

My father swallowed several times.

He did not know how to explain.

My mother covered her face and began to sob.

“We thought she was lying. It was Evelyn’s engagement party. We believed Claire was upset and trying to get our attention.”

The detective fell silent for a moment.

He clearly had not expected that answer.

He turned to the next call on the record.

“Mr. Cole, you called Claire several minutes later.”

Adrian’s fingers tightened.

“Yes, I did.”

“Why did you call her?”

“I thought she was trying to stop the engagement. I called to warn her.”

The detective continued.

“What did she say when she answered?”

Adrian remained silent for a long time.

“She asked me to save her.”

“What happened next?”

He looked down at the phone in his hand. His voice became quieter.

“I did not let her finish. I ended the call and blocked her number.”

Evelyn sat beside him. Her eyes slowly filled with tears.

“This is all because of me. I was worried Claire would not accept the engagement, so I warned everyone that she might cause trouble. I had no idea she was really in danger.”

Ethan gave her a cold look.

“The police did not ask you.”

Evelyn stopped speaking.

She looked at my parents without thinking.

This time, my father did not defend her.

My mother did not reach out to comfort her. She silently wiped the tears from her face.

The police soon obtained footage from traffic cameras near the Hart estate.

Before the engagement party began, I left the estate alone.

I did not head toward the hotel.

I never went near the engagement party.

I carried a bag and walked in the opposite direction.

When I reached an intersection two blocks from the estate, a dark van pulled up beside me.

Two men wearing caps jumped out.

One covered my mouth from behind. The other grabbed my arm.

They forced me into the van.

The entire kidnapping took less than twenty seconds.

The van quickly disappeared from the footage.

My father stared at the screen.

He no longer claimed that I had gone into hiding on my own.

My mother kept staring at the last place where I appeared in the video.

The night before, they had been certain I planned to rush into the hotel and ruin the engagement.

The footage showed that I had been walking away from it from the beginning.

“Have you found the van?” my father asked.

The detective opened several photographs.

“The van had license plates registered to another vehicle. It was abandoned on the edge of the Southside after the crime. Someone cleaned the interior, and we found no usable fingerprints. However, a nearby gas station captured a clear image of one suspect’s face.”

The man in the photograph appeared to be in his forties.

A deep scar ran down the right side of his face.

The police had identified him as Brian.

He had a long record of violent offenses. He had spent years collecting debts for other people and had previously helped hold people against their will.

Several days before the murder, he had suddenly paid off a debt that had been overdue for months.

“Who gave him the money?” Ethan asked.

“The money was moved through several accounts. We are still tracing it.”

The detective brought out the burned badge.

“This badge could open the security doors at the abandoned clinic. The same type of badge had been issued to more than one person, so we cannot confirm who originally owned it. What we do know is that the kidnappers prepared the van in advance and knew the clinic had been abandoned.”

This had not been a sudden decision.

Someone had hired the killers in advance.

Someone had already chosen the place where I would die.

Ethan picked up the surveillance photo of Brian and stood.

My father stopped him.

“Where are you going?”

Ethan put the photograph into his pocket and looked back at them.

“You can stay here and regret what you did. I’m going to find whoever killed Claire.”