“Detective Emerson, Gold,” he interrupted. “The Mars are here. They are asking for you.”
“Ondine’s parents?” Bel asked. “Why?”
“They’re filing a missing person’s report.”
“When Ondine didn’t come homelast night, we panicked,” Mr. Mar told the detectives. “After your visit yesterday, we worried about her hiding out with her boyfriend, so we went into her room. We hoped she had his address written somewhere, but we found these instead.” The father shoved three items across the table, and Bel’s stomach twisted. A cell phone, a wallet, and car keys. Ondine’s phone, wallet, and car keys.
“Even if she were with that guy, she wouldn’t leave her phone,” he continued. “She might not have needed her car keys or wallet if he picked her up for a date, but forgetting all three? No one accidentally leaves all three items at home. When was the last time you forgot your keys, phone, and wallet?”
“Never,” Bel whispered as Olivia’s eyes screamed the same alarm echoing in her chest. Phone, keys, and wallet left in the bedroom of the missing nineteen-year-old dating Erik Prince. It was Ariella Triton all over again.
“Ondine isn’t like this,” Mrs. Mar said. “We aren’t blind. We know she goes to parties and on dates, but she’s a responsible girl. She doesn’t do drugs. She doesn’t black out when she drinks, and she doesn’t disappear for days on end. Something’s wrong.”
“Can you get us a list of your family and friends and the name of her summer job, if she had one?” Bel asked, fighting to keep her voice steady. They would do everything in their power to find this couple’s daughter, but was history repeating itself? “Erik claimed she was avoiding him. How likely is that scenario?”
“We called everyone we know,” Mrs. Mar said. “And everyone she knows, for that matter. Ondine programmed my thumbprint to unlock her phone for emergencies after Ariella went missing, so I used her cell to call her contacts. No one’s heard from her. Please.” She reached across the table and captured Bel’s hand as if she needed to anchor herself amidst the growing dread circling the room. “You came knocking on our door when her best friend went missing.” She started to cry. “Ondine told us what happened... how Ariella’s phone, keys, and wallet were still in her bedroom. It’s the same. Everything is the same.”
“Mrs. Mar, I understand how scary this is,” Bel cut her off before the mother spiraled. There was no point in denying it. The similarities were disturbingly obvious. “But panicking won’t help your daughter. We’ll double-check with your friends and family since people have been known to lie to parents. We’ll also check her phone records and credit card statements in case she purchased a travel ticket or made a call before erasing the logs.”
“Okay…” Mrs. Mar nodded.
“What can we do?” her husband asked.
“Go home and stay there,” Bel said. “Ondine may try to contact you, and if someone else is involved, you need to be there in case they call.”
“You think she’s been kidnapped?” Mrs. Mar’s voice wavered.
“We need to prepare for everything,” Bel said. “I don’t want to scare you, but you mentioned it yourself. There are similarities to Ariella Triton’s disappearance.”
“This is my fault.” Mr. Mar shoved his chair back and shot to his feet, and Bel narrowed her eyes. A confession? Was this unassuming father the killer?
“That man… that boyfriend. He was almost thirty, and I didn’t see it,” he continued, and Bel relaxed. Guilt was an ugly companion, and Mr. Triton had exhibited a similar response. Most fathers would, hers included.
“I let her date him. I let my baby girl go out with a predator.” The man slapped his palms on the table. His wife flinched at the sound. The detectives didn’t. “He looked so young. I thought… I thought he was harmless. Now he has her. I’m her father. I was supposed to protect her, and now she’s going to end up like?—”
“Don’t say it!” Mrs. Mar shouted. “Don’t you dare say it.”
“No one should jump to conclusions,” Olivia said. “We don’t know anything, so we need to remain calm—for Ondine’s sake. If she’s in trouble, we’re all the help she has. So, let’s help her.”
“Well, Erik lawyered up,”Bel told Griffin as they stood outside the interview rooms. Erik Prince sat in one room with his lawyer, and his parents waited in another. “He won’t say a word, and we don’t have any evidence to confront him with.”
“While you were speaking to him, I reviewed Ondine’s phone and credit card statements,” Griffin said. “There was nothing out of the ordinary. I also called all her friends and family, but her parents were right. She isn’t with any of them.”
“I don’t like this,” Bel whispered, slipping her hand into her boss’s, and like the second father he was, he folded his fist around hers. “It’s happening again, and Ariella was dead before we ever knew she was missing. I want to hope we’ll find Ondine, but if this is a repeat of two months ago, she’s already dead.”
“I want to promise a happy ending, but we’re smarter than that,” Griffin said. “We both know how these scenarios usually end.”
“I’m tired of all the dead girls.”
“Me too.” Griffin shoved the door open, and he and Bel joined Olivia in the second interview room. “Mr. and Mrs. Prince, we’d like to ask you a few questions,” he said as he shook their hands.
“What is this about?” Mr. Prince asked. “Why on earth are we here?”
“Did you know your son’s girlfriend, Ondine Mar?” Bel asked as she settled across from the couple.
“A little, I guess.” The man shrugged.
“She’s missing,” Bel said.
