7. Chapter 7
Chapter seven
Aria
Ifollowed him up the short path to the front door. It still stood slightly ajar, unable to shut fully with the broken lock.
Even though I’d seen it earlier, the sight still shocked me. Sofa cushions torn apart, their guts littering the floor. Smashed vinyl records and pages of paperbacks littered the rugs like confetti.
I followed Brooks, picking our way through the devastation. The bathroom drawers lay in pieces on the floor, still containing their contents. Towels lay in a pile in the bathtub.
The bedroom looked the worst of all.
The mattress had been completely tossed off the bed, the dresser knocked over. Nothing was left hanging in the closet. There was a hint of desperation to the scene, and it made me think that maybe they hadn’t found what they were looking for. Or who.
An idea struck me. One I hadn’t thought about in a long time. When we were teenagers, we hid anything important in plain sight. That way when our mom snooped, she wouldn’t find anything we didn’t want her to.
Everything had been destroyed in the main rooms. I went into the kitchen.
The cabinets and drawers had been upended.
I opened the only untouched item in the room.
There was nothing of value in the freezer or refrigerator.
Leaving the kitchen, I hurried to the laundry.
Same thing. I turned in a circle. There had to be… aha! I took off toward the front door.
“Aria!” Brooks whisper-yelled. The front closet was jammed shut. I pulled on it but couldn’t get it to budge. Brooks came to my rescue, opening it like it was nothing. On the top shelf, in a basket, was her computer. I handed it to him, along with the cord.
Then I dug around the living room, picking through the pieces of my sister’s life. I didn’t come across anything that might give me a clue to where she was, but I did find a broken photo of her and Heath. I clutched it to my chest, then made my way back to Brooks. “I don’t see anything else.”
“Okay. Let’s go. And stay behind me.” He gave me a look then opened the door. I followed closely, sliding into the passenger seat of the Jeep as fast as I could. He handed me the computer. I set it in my lap and opened it while he started the engine and drove away.
The login screen lit up. I tried the password she’d used since high school.
No luck. Then her name backward with my birthdate, the one she’d used after Mom started snooping.
Still nothing. The sun glinted off the broken glass of the photo of her and Heath that I’d placed on the dash.
I tried his name. When that didn’t work, I tried it backward with the date they started dating.
The cursor spun for what felt like hours.
Finally, the windows popped open one by one.
Two news articles were open, and on a third was a gossip column. The fourth window was a Google page with the name Roman Pierce in the search bar.
The first news article was a short piece about Roman Pierce, a tech mogul who was under investigation for fraud.
He’d gone missing after a boating accident off the Keys.
The second article was a follow-up published a week later declaring him presumed dead.
The gossip column was just speculation regarding his business, his family, and what would happen to the investigation now that he was lost at sea.
That was it. No notes. No highlights. Just the articles left open like she’d been staring at them when she decided to run.
I turned the screen so Brooks could see.
He read them without speaking. The muscle in his jaw flexed once.
“What do you think the connection is?” I asked.
“I don’t know. But she was interested in this guy’s disappearance, and now she’s gone, and someone’s trying really hard to find her.”
I stared out the window as he drove. Wherever Allie was, I hoped she was safe. And that she stayed hidden until this all blew over. She wasn’t the reckless one, I was. If one of us had to be in danger, I was glad it was me.