“You’re wasting your time investigating her,” I said with greater control. “You might as well investigate me and my business to see if I need the cash injection.”
The officer pursed his lips. I’d correctly intercepted his next line of questioning.
“If you want to investigate my business, you can,” I said. “I won’t stop you. I’ll even give you full access to my accounts. But I want you to give me your word you won’t spend more resources than necessary investigating the governess. Focus on identifying who the kidnapper really is.”
“We want to find your loved ones as quickly as possible,” the officer said.
“I have good relations with my neighbors,” I said. “They’ll allow us to search their land. I’ll call them now and get their permission and explain the situation.”
“I’m afraid that might be a little premature,” the officer said. “We don’t have the personnel to conduct such a massive search.”
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll ask my neighbors if their staff can be made available. Would that help?”
The officer bowed his head.
“That would be much appreciated,” he said.
“I suggest you concentrate your efforts on investigating this individual and all public spaces,” I said, feeling a little more relaxed now that I had taken some control over the situation. “The town, local housing, anyone who might be foolish enough to attempt such a despicable act.”
“We will,” the police officer said shortly. He didn’t like being told what to do by a member of the public.
He made eye contact with Waev and nodded toward the doorway.
“We’ll be in touch when we have more information,” he said.
The officer met Waev in the hallway and muttered something to him, gesturing in my direction twice before turning to leave. Waev immediately returned to my side.
“What was that about?” I said. “To ensure I stay here and don’t do anything too rash, I suppose.”
“Pretty much,” Waev said. “He suggested I give you a sedative to help you relax. I can’t say I disagree with him.”
I shook my head.
“I need my wits about me,” I said. “There will be something here, something I’m not seeing. It will point the way.”
Waev smiled at me reassuringly. It was all the sedative I needed. He covered my shoulders with the blanket again and placed my hand on my shoulder.
“Thank you,” I said. “You’re a good friend.”
Waev gently squeezed my shoulder, showing a level of warmth we both knew was always there but never expressed openly before.
Before Bianca and Cleb came along, he was my closest friend and ally. The one person I could rely on, no matter what happened. Beneath his strait-laced demeanor was a man with a heart of gold. And I knew for certain he would never leave my side.
I stood at the foot of Cleb’s bedroom. Everything had been left exactly as I found it earlier.
The police and their forensic team had conducted their investigation and left. Every surface had been checked. They found no sign of any hair follicles, no flakes of skin, no fingerprints, no DNA that didn’t belong to the servants, me, Cleb, or Bianca. It was like a ghost had abducted them.
And they had been abducted. It was the only thing that made sense. I refused to entertain the idea that Bianca was responsible for kidnapping Cleb.
With no evidence of the mysterious stranger, the police assumed Bianca had to be the kidnapper.
Well, so be it. When we found Bianca and Cleb safe and sound, we could tidy up any misunderstandings. I wouldn’t allow her to be punished for something she hadn’t done.
There were small indentations in the carpet where they’d placed the holographic projectors and taken a complete three-dimensional snapshot of the scene. They could go over it again and again as many times as necessary.
It didn’t matter. The room wouldn’t be touched until Cleb was found.
No matter how long that took.
I entered the room and walked among Cleb’s things. I ran my hands over the toys I’d bought him to play with. None of it got played with. His favorites were his spy collection. Captain Titan, Titus, the gadgets, and sporty spaceships. I could swear he had the entire collection, but many appeared to be missing. He must have put them somewhere else.
I smiled at the idea of him playing with them. To think I was almost too late to enjoy being with him. After his parents died in tragic circumstances, he was left to me to take care of. No sooner had I learned the error of my ways than he was taken from me. Him, and his beautiful doting governess, who I fully intended on marrying.
It was a funny thing, for your entire worldview to shift on its axis. You think you have everything figured out, and then something comes along and blows a hole in it completely. To make you realize that the thing you prized above all others, the thing that you thought was the most important, suddenly gets shunted into second place. And a distant second at that.
It was also the cruelest thing that could happen. To come to love something so much and then for it to be stripped away.
I wanted to head outside right now and join the search. Maybe I would see something the others would not.
I wanted to lock down all travel stations, shut down the roads, prevent any spacecraft from leaving the planet.
But that was never going to happen. The thought of them slipping through my fingers, through the police’s net, was too much to bear.
I couldn’t be in that room. It was too stifling. I couldn’t be surrounded by everything that reminded me of Cleb and Bianca, the most precious things to me.
I turned and marched toward the door.
If only there was something there, something I
