Chapter 16
“When Ondine didn’t come home last 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.
“What does that have to do with us?”
“Your son was dating her,” Bel said, annoyed that they couldn’t fathom the connection. “He was also dating Ariella Triton at the time of her disappearance and murder.” She drove the nail home. “Were you aware that both girls were only nineteen?”
“Nineteen is legal,” the man said.
“It is, but your almost thirty-year-old son dated two teenagers who’ve now gone missing.”
“There’s nothing wrong with dating younger,” Mr. Prince said. “The young ones are always less opinionated.” He gave Bel a condescending look, and she didn’t need to see Griffin to know his entire body tensed at the insult.
“Their age isn’t our biggest concern.” Bel chose to ignore the man’s crudeness.
Like father, like son… and perhaps mother, since she didn’t seem fazed by the comment.
“Your son dated Ariella, and he was with her the night she disappeared. Now he’s dating her best friend, who’s gone missing under similar circumstances.
Erik refuses to speak to us, and we understand this is difficult, but a girl might be in danger. ”
“Our son had nothing to do with this girl’s disappearing act.” Mr. Prince stood up and offered his wife a demanding hand. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a business to run. We won’t sit here and take this harassment.”
His wife accepted his help, and as she stood, a chain fell from her shirt, the pendant swinging through the air as if begging the detectives to see her. And see her they did, for it was a nautilus seashell… the exact necklace that Ariella always wore.
“What if we’re looking at this all wrong?
” Olivia rushed to shut the door behind the irate parents.
“We were worried that Erik didn’t seem disciplined enough to be responsible for these deaths, especially since he was a teenager when the first girls went missing, but you heard his father.
He clearly holds women in low regard. His wife is noticeably younger than he is, and she wears the same seashell necklace.
What if a Prince is the guilty party, just not the son?
One of the earlier victims was Erik’s classmate.
We’ve always questioned whether someone so young could have such discipline, but what if he didn’t?
What if he were merely the path his father took to find his mermaids?
What if Mr. Prince senior is the man we’re looking for? ”
“A father needs victims, and what better way than to use his son as bait?” Bel said, continuing down her partner’s line of thought.
“Mr. Prince, and possibly Erik, saw the mermaid drown at the aquarium eleven years ago. They got a taste for death, and Erik’s age gave him access to college girls.
That would explain why Ariella met him on campus.
Then, Mr. Prince senior could justify his presence at universities or their parties with the lie that he was there for his son. ”
“So Erik is the lure, and Dad is the orchestrator?” Griffin asked.
“There are so many coincidences involving this family,” Olivia said. “Plus, we’ve seen that necklace four different times this summer. It reminds me of the gum wrapper butterflies you found on your island vacation. They kept showing up, and it wasn’t a coincidence.”
“And this feels the same,” Bel said.
“You listened to those butterflies,” Olivia said, “and it took down Blaubart.”
“So we’ll listen to the necklaces now,” Griffin said. “Look into the Prince family, and for god’s sake, find me something I can use for a warrant before we have another dead girl on our hands.”
“I have an idea.” Olivia twisted her monitor towards Bel’s desk. “Public reviews.”
“Reviews?” Bel hung up the phone. The call had been a waste of time anyway.
“We can’t get a warrant for Prince & Sons’ business or personal records, but businesses usually have public reviews online. I’m sure not everyone leaves one, but it’s a roadmap of every place they’ve worked. We can cross-reference their jobs with the mermaids and see if any overlap.”
“That’s smart.” Bel rolled across the floor to join her partner. “There’s the funeral home’s review.”