by Ashley Nemer
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
For the second time in a week the police were at Nadia's house and they were starting an investigation. Nadia's neighbors once again stood outside of her house and on her lawn and watched the men and women walk back and forth with their crime scene gear in one hand and evidence in another. "Can you tell us what happened?" one of the men standing outside of the police line asked.
"No comment," one of the officers replied to him as he walked down the drive way and into the Crime Scene Unit van to log evidence.
"Come on, this is our neighbor. What happened? Is the neighborhood not safe anymore?" The man was louder with his question this time and it brought Kevin to notice the situation.
"Excuse me, sir, can I have a word with you?" Kevin walked up to the police tape and signaled the man speaking out to the crowd of police to cross the line and come toward him.
"Are you going to give us answers?" the neighbor asked Kevin.
"My name is Detective Glasco, and I'll answer what I can. It's difficult since this is an ongoing investigation. I’m sure you can understand that we cannot give away details of an ongoing investigation for the safety of the victim and families involved."
"Are you saying something happened to Nadia then, and that she is a victim since this is her house?" The man was now on alert.
Crap, Kevin thought. He’d said the wrong words. "At this time we are not prepared to make a statement about Ms. Maverick, but we are asking that all neighbors speak with one of our policemen who are canvassing the street in the event that one of you good citizens saw something useful."
"Did someone take her?" Kevin heard someone ask from behind the police line.
"Yeah, we haven't seen her around very much. Is she gone?" a woman asked, her voice coming in another direction.
"Does this mean we aren't safe?" Now a fourth person was chiming in.
“Where is Nadia? What happened to her house?” a fifth person was hollering out.
Kevin walked past the man he was speaking with to address the crowd of people throwing questions out to the officers standing around. He raised his hands, trying to get everyone to lower their voices so he could explain what needed to happen next.
"People, please, may I have a moment?" He waited until the voices grew muffled and began to speak. "As I was just telling this nice gentleman over here, we cannot comment on Ms. Maverick or an ongoing police investigation. What I can say is that each of you needs to speak with one of our police officers you see dressed in uniform. They are canvassing the area and need each of your statements. You might have seen something that could really help us solve the case."
Kevin took a moment to breathe and the crowd of people took that opportunity to start speaking all at the same time.
"Is Nadia gone?"
"What happened inside her house?"
"Is this related to last week's crime?”
"How can we protect our kids if you won’t tell us who is attacking people?"
“When is the last time anyone saw her?”
“Did you catch the killer from the other day?”
“Are you putting together a task force?”
“Is she working on some kind of story that got her killed?”
On and on the questions came. Kevin had done his best to field them and give the best answers he could. After about thirty minutes, the crowd started to dwindle and the police presence started to lessen. They had gathered the information they needed from Nadia's home and were now going to send the items to the lab for inspection.
"Kevin?" a man said from behind him. He turned around and saw Kain and Anabella standing with Gabe. He knew that look on their faces. He had seen it so many times on the job. Every time he had to speak with victim's families it was heart wrenching. It didn’t matter how much training and on the job experience you had, every victim and family was unique, and each time you gave the news to them, it was hard.
"Kain, Anabella." Kevin nodded to the both of them. He looked over at Gabe and knew he was there for support, but really no one could help in these types of conversations. "I assure you, we are doing everything we can to locate Nadia and bring her home."
"I don’t understand why stuff keeps happening to her. We had the security system installed. She should have been safe." Kain was holding his sister tight. He didn't want to let her go for fear of losing another.
"The system is only good if it is activated, and we spoke with the alarm company. It hadn't been turned on since that morning when it was turned off. There was nothing they could do."
"Did you find anything in the house? I knew I never should have left." Anabella was trying to be strong, but she knew, they all knew, the first twenty four hours was the most important and no one knew how long she had been gone already.
"You don’t know that you wouldn't be gone too, Ana. I don’t know what I'd do if both of you were gone," Kain said to her.
"Have you notified your parents yet? If you haven't we can do that for you." Kevin pulled out his notepad and started to write some things down while watching their expressions.
"They come home Sunday. Nadia and I were going to tell them that evening at dinner what has been going on.
"Where are they at right now? I can have the local law enforcement speak with them."
"They’re in Europe, traveling. I'll have to look at their itinerary. I'll get you the information," Kain interjected.
"Alright, what you two need to do is just go home. I'll keep you updated. You both have my number, use it. Don't do anything foolish like take matters into your own hands, okay Kain?" Kevin gave him a pointed stare. Everyone knew his background, and no one wanted to make matters worse.
Kain gave a simple nod, no vocal promise, but that would have to be good enough. "Come on, Ana, let’s go."
Kevin and Gabe watched the two of them walk off towards their car. Kevin looked at his companion; he was worried about him too. "We'll get her back, Gabe."
"I know you’ll do your best, Kev." Gabe's heart was sinking faster and faster by the minute. "I'm going to stay here. I'll take care of her cat, and I want to keep looking through what she was working on."
"You know that's not the best thing…" Kevin was cut off by Gabe's harsh words.
"I don't care what you think is best for me or the situation. I'm staying here." Gabe moved towards the front door, and since all the officers were gone, he slammed it shut and left Kevin standing outside.
Gabe walked into the living room and sat down at her desk. Triple T jumped up on the desk next to Gabe and purred for a moment, then moved to sit in his spot on the mail. He started to meow and paw at the notepad that was covering up his usual spot, and his actions made Gabe curious as to what he was pawing at.
"Something in your way there, T?" Gabe picked the cat up and grabbed the notepad. Setting the cat back down, he opened the pages and started to read. He saw the instructions he had given her from the email Mr. Ali had sent into the newspaper, then his instructions and the different correspondence that the two of them had exchanged. It looked like some were missing. The times printed out were well before her disappearance. She left the username and password on the inside of the notepad, so he pulled open her laptop and went to see what exactly she had been hiding.
After an hour of reading and digging into her files, Gabe sat back, staring at the screen. He was astonished at how much information she had uncovered and not told him about. He was not sure how to accept what he learned about "Mr. A" and his beliefs, but he did feel relief that it didn't appear that he was the one who took Nadia. That's when Gabe had an idea.
Taking out the instructions Nadia had left behind, he pulled up a picture of a cat on her computer and loaded it into the encryption software then began to type a message.
Mr. A,
Hello, you don’t know me, or maybe you do. I’m Gabe, Nadia's best friend. I’m aware she has been in contact with you. I've read her notes on how to contact you, and I saw your last message to her warning her about the door.
This tells me one of two things.
1-You are keeping a close eye on her and might have seen something that could help us find her. I’m not sure if you know, she's been kidnapped.
Or 2 - You took her. In which case, I'll be turning all of this over to the police, and they can come after you, and your theories about performing justifiable murders can be taken to court and tried.
I don't think the latter is you, but I'm not taking any chances. I've set an email to automatically send in the event I don't check in with someone every few hours, containing all the information I found on Nadia's computer as my safe guard. Not trying to be a dick, just trying to get my friend back.
If you can help, her family and I would appreciate it.
Gabe.
He uploaded the encrypted photo onto the thread on the designated website that had already been picked and then pressed post. He prayed that this was the smart thing to do, and most importantly, that he didn't just condemn him and Nadia to death.
