Before, I was a man obsessed with work. I built a mining empire second to none in the galaxy. But I had no one to share it with. Now, I had someone special—two people. Cleb and Bianca.
Just thinking about her brought a smile to my face. She did admirably well tonight, laughing at every passing comment that made no sense. It took time to attune to the muffling grumbling tone of the upper classes. Eventually, she would get used to it, and then she would wish she couldn’t understand what they were saying.
It was always nonsense and idiocy. The opinions of people who never saw the world from any viewpoint other than their own.
I headed upstairs and decided to take a short diversion past Cleb’s room. I wanted to check to make sure he was okay and if Bianca needed any help.
For too long, I’d ignored Cleb’s needs, ignored the fact he needed a parental figure in his life. Well, now he had two. He would always have someone to care and look out for him.
I approached Cleb’s bedroom door. It was closed. I leaned my ear against it and listened for the voices I thought I’d hear inside. Soft and gentle words of support.
But I couldn’t hear their voices. Maybe they’d finished discussing what happened today and she brushed his hair, helping him slip into dreamland.
I turned to leave them to it when I noticed a bright light shining through the gap under the door. It fanned across the carpet, fading into darkness.
The lights in the rooms were all soft balls of yellow. There shouldn’t have been such a bright light in the room.
Intrigued but unconcerned, I gently knocked on the door with my knuckle. When no response came, I knocked a little louder. I thought I would hear footsteps approach the door from the other side and for shadows to appear in the light as Bianca stood on the other side.
But that didn’t happen.
No one approached and no one opened the door.
I depressed the handle and pushed the door open. The door’s bottom edge made a tearing sound as it passed over the carpet.
The lamp lay on the floor beside the side table that had been shunted aside when the window had been forced open. Cleb’s blankets lay tossed aside, the bed empty.
Cleb was gone, and so was Bianca.
The police officer flipped his notepad shut and tucked it in his pocket. I was in a daze. Waev had placed a blanket over my shoulders and a steaming cup of something hot between my hands. I hadn’t taken a single sip and didn’t even notice it there.
I was taken aback by how shiny the officer’s buttons were on his uniform. He clicked his electronic pen and it joined the notepad. It recorded everything he wrote and was automatically added to the police files. Every active police officer had access to the information instantly.
I’d just told him everything that’d occurred, from the incident in town to the social event and finally what happened just a few minutes ago upstairs when I found Cleb’s bedroom empty.
Upon discovering both Cleb and Girl gone, I had yelled so loud I woke the entire house up. It wasn’t even a real word, but a sound. During our funeral rites, we often sang sad mournful music, no more than noises, that resonated and passed along the emotions of how we felt.
My cry had been full of pain and heart-wrenching anguish. The servants had come running. Waev placed his hands on my back as I folded and crumpled to the floor on my knees.
I knew what’d happened the moment I saw that lamp.
“Wake the guards!” I’d bellowed. “Have them search the grounds! They can’t be far!”
The guards dispersed, beginning their search outside, checking every inch of my land. The drones zoomed overhead, lights blinking, scanning the terrain for any sign of Bianca or Cleb, or their captors.
So far, they had found nothing. Only then, once they’d completed their search outdoors, had they turned inward and checked the house.
By then, the police had arrived.
“When something like this happens to someone of your station, it’s because they want a ransom,” the police officer said. “In case the call comes, we’ve set up a team in one of the other rooms so we can trace them. I assure you no effort will be spared to locate your loved ones.”
I didn’t respond. I was catatonic.
“I have a question to ask, and it might seem a little unsettling,” the police officer said.
My ears perked up. I wondered what he could ask me that he hadn’t already.
The officer ran a hand through his short hair and scratched underneath his hat.
“This new governess you hired,” he said. “Has she been with you for long?”
“A few weeks,” I said.
The officer nodded as if he thought that might be the case.
“Why do you ask?” I said.
“Do you consider her to be someone worthy of trust?” he said.
Suddenly, the police officer’s line of questioning snapped into focus. I awoke from my comatose state and burst up onto my feet. The blanket fell from my shoulders.
“You think she took him?” I yelled.
The officer spoke calmly. No doubt he was used to this kind of reaction.
“Often, the kidnapper is someone the family knows,” he said. “They work together in teams with one or more people on the inside. It’s much easier for them to kidnap the victim that way.”
“She would never do such a thing!” I snapped. “She’s kind and good. She would never let anything like this happen to him!”
Waev pressed a hand to my shoulder and eased me back down into the chair. I was so angry, I might throttle someone.
“It’s a potential line of questioning, sir,” he said. “I meant no disrespect.”
Appraising my reaction, the
