“Well. Ana had her phone in the car with her, maybe there’s something on it that we could use.” He says with determination.
Visions of Ana’s phone flick across my mind like an old film and almost immediately I feel the need to get my hands on it. It could be the lifeline that we need.
“Is there any way for us to get a hold of it?” I ask.
“Maybe. Give me a second. I’m gonna hack into the police’s log system to see if it’s been checked in for evidence. Someone in there has got to have done a check on it.”
I watch on from the corner of the kitchen, feeling pretty useless. Eli has always been the brains of the operation, the guy you call when you need access to something that isn’t so easily accessible, and I’ve always been the muscle. The man who made people disappear for a living, so sitting here doing nothing is hitting me hard. I should be doing more to find Ana but withoutany physical leads, I’m stuck.
“I’m in. I’ve only got a couple of minutes whilst the firewall is down before they notice someone is in their system.” Eli says as he taps away on the keyboard with rapid speed. I move away from the kitchen unit to take a seat next to him, keeping my eyes locked onto the screen as he scours through documents until he comes across a file with Ana’s name on it.
“Bingo.” He says to himself before opening the file. Images upon images of the crumpled up Chevy load onto the screen, the bodywork bent and squished in odd angles from hitting the metal barriers at speed. The police photos have my blood running cold as flashbacks of the CCTV that caught Ana’s accident come rushing back to me, the metal against metal ringing in my ears. Eli must sense my sudden discomfort and clicks off the images before uploading what looks to be a call log. Time stamps and dates line one side of the screen, then a list of numbers on the opposite side. I immediately recognise my own number, and the only other one on there, I assume is Ana’s best friend, Ellie. It shows texts between them with the location on where they were meeting, and then messages between myself and Ana.
Everything looks pretty ordinary until we come to the last message at the bottom that went undelivered, and it’s to me from Ana, moments before her car was hit.
“What does that last message say?” I ask Eli and point towards the bottom of the list. He clicks on the message to reveal two words.
‘Nico. Drugs.’
Eli turns to face me with a look of confusion on his face. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I shake my head, feeling just as confused as he is. “I have no idea. Who the hell is Nico? Andwhat have drugs gotta do with all of this? Ana’s never used drugs in her life.”
I try to wrack my brain for answers, theories and questions bounce around my mind until something sticks.
“What if the drugs have nothing to do with Ana, but everything to do with Ricky? The guy’s dodgier than a sleazy dealer. There’s no way he hasn’t got his hands dirty with drugs.” I say.
Eli nods his head, and I can practically see the cogs turning in his brain at my theory. “Maybe you’re onto something. I think Ana was giving us a name, and a hint to something bigger than just Ricky’s casino gig.” He says with confidence, and for the first time in a month I feel like we’ve got something solid to go on.
With that, Eli rises from his seat. “Leave this with me. I know a guy who can put me in touch with some dealers. I’ll give you a call when I find something.”
I nod and place my hand on Eli’s shoulder.
“Thank you, for everything.”
“No need man, you’re my best friend and we’ll bring her back.”
Once Eli leaves, I’m suddenly plunged into loneliness again, the dark heavy feeling wrapping around me like snakes that threaten to swallow me whole. The cabin feels dead without Ana, like it’s missing a vital organ but I can still smell her everywhere. The sheets that I tangle myself in every night in fitful sleep, reek of her sweet perfume but I can’t bring myself to wash them in fear that I’ll never smell her again.
Stepping into the hallway, I stop in front of the spare bedroom door, my hand inches away from the handle. It’s been weeks since I stepped foot in this room and I can already feel my chest caving in from the trepidation.
I shove the nagging feeling aside and push down on the handleto reveal what probably looks like a mess to others, but to me, it’ll become Ana’s haven. She told me on our last bike ride that she always wanted a home library, a place of her own to store her books and bask in the sunlight with a spicy story and that’s exactly what I was planning on giving her. Every weekend I’d spend chopping and sanding wood down to make the perfect built-in shelves for her with a nook under the window for her to sit on, giving a perfect view of the lake at the end of the garden.
I only managed to get one shelf built before Ana disappeared and I’ve not been able to step back in here until now. Something drew me back into here, to finish what I started for her and that’s exactly what I’ll do.
My woman deserves to have a safe haven, a place where she can be free from torment and I’ll bleed my hands dry to give her that. To bring her home where she belongs.
The small grains of rice bite into my knees like shards of glass as I kneel against Ricky’s desk, his hand firmly placed on top of my head like a prized pet. I have no idea how long I’ve been kneeling here but the last time I moved, I was given a swift back hand from Ricky, so now I’m frozen in place.
Keeping my eyes trained on the thin fibres that make up the threadbare carpet, I listen in on the conversation between Ricky and Nico. The very same man who drove me and Ricky to our wonderful first date, the man who also ran me off the road to bring me here. I can’t believe I was so blind, so stupid to think everything was perfect. Those rose tinted glasses very quickly became high definition and my husband showed me his true colours, and those colours are dismal and dark, void of all life.
“We sold ten girls on Selection Day, boss, a total of thirty grand.” Nico says like it’s an everyday conversation as he cuts the end of his expensive cigar. I can feel my ears burning at the mention of the other women, my mind instantly worrying about Emily. I didn’t see her after she found me in the crowd, I just hope I get to see her again.
“Good. When’s the next shipment coming in?” Ricky asks, his fingers rubbing against the top of my head like a dog.
“We’ve got a crate of snow coming in at the end of the week, along with a couple of girls.”
“How old?”
“Between sixteen and twenty, boss. Prime cuts.” Nico chuckles out and my blood runs cold at the thought of young girls coming into a place like this, knowing they’ll probably never make it out alive.
