Chapter 26 - The Hour Without an Answer
Beth had been missing for less than two hours when the inquiry changed shape.
There was no requirement for her family to become more frightened before anyone took the report seriously. Her recent contact with investigators, the abandoned car, and the circumstances around Bridgehaven made the concern immediate.
Claire gave the little information she had and stayed available.
Tessa sent a brief message asking whether Beth had mentioned any additional appointment. Claire checked her own notes and answered precisely: not to her. She resisted adding a guess about what might have happened after the meeting.
There were enough possibilities frightening the family already.
She offered to handle one practical call if Tessa wanted. The daughter asked her to notify a relative who kept contacting everyone separately for updates. Claire relayed the confirmed information and explained which contact route the family preferred.
It was a small task. It freed Tessa from repeating the same frightening sentences while investigators asked questions she might actually be able to answer.
Afterward, Claire wrote down the time of the call and put the phone within reach. She wanted to do something larger. For now, this was the useful thing available.
Vincent learned through his lawyer. He was with Emma, who was choosing which program they would attend at the planetarium. He stepped into the next room after explaining that he needed to take a call.
The explanation mattered.
Disappearing for ten minutes could feel different when a child knew what the ten minutes were for.
His lawyer asked whether Sloane had ever used another business address during the old contracting engagement.
Vincent supplied two possibilities and distinguished memory from confirmed fact. Documents would have to establish the rest.
He wanted to get in the car.
Instead, he went back to Emma.
“Someone helping the investigation is missing,” he said. “The people responsible are looking for her. They may need information from me.”
“Beth?”
He nodded. Claire had already told Emma only the part of the bookkeeper's role she needed to understand.
“Is she hurt?”
“I don't know.”
Emma looked down at the program.
“Can Mom come?”
“Yes. I'll ask her.”
He called Claire in the girl's presence and arranged the evening openly. Claire came to the apartment. They would have dinner there while remaining available to investigators. Nobody told Emma that a changed plan was an adventure to make the fear more entertaining.
She chose a familiar film after dinner.
The adults watched enough of it to be present, taking necessary calls separately.
A witness had seen Beth leaving the appointment building and speaking to a man beside a delivery vehicle. The witness initially assumed they knew one another. The investigators sought the available records and contacted the company associated with the vehicle.
The driver had been hired for a private collection. He gave an account that required checking. He identified a destination connected to commercial printing and storage.
Millstone Printworks.
Bridgehaven had used the premises for event materials.
Beth had recorded the supplier reference in one of her notebooks.
A connection worth verifying was no longer just a blank field on a transport request.
Around nine, Sloane contacted Vincent through a number already associated with the earlier exchange. Vincent followed the arrangements discussed with counsel rather than accepting a private conversation outside them.
Sloane sounded tired.
That made him more frightening than the polished voice had been.
“You understand what an accusation can do,” he said.
“I understand what evidence is for.”
“Hanley has misunderstood internal transactions. She can correct that.”
“Where is she?”
“You want people to think you've changed. Here's your chance to stop someone ruining a life through a mistake.”
Vincent looked through the doorway at Claire sitting on the floor beside Emma. The girl was explaining something that had happened at school. Claire was listening, one hand resting on the edge of the sofa.
A life. As if Beth's were not included.
“Let her contact her family,” Vincent said.
“First we need a statement from you. The fund was legitimate. You intended to participate. This became a dispute about presentation.”
“That would be false.”
“You've said false things before.”
“Yes.”
Sloane paused.
“That doesn't give you the right to require another one.”
A short video followed through the contact channel.
Beth sat in an office chair against a wall covered with old delivery notices. Her glasses were missing. She held her hands together so tightly that the fingers looked pale.
“I need to speak to Tessa,” she said.
The video ended.
Vincent did not reply with a threat. He supplied the material immediately to the investigators handling the contact.
Claire joined him after Rachel arrived to help with Emma's evening. The friend had offered an agreed task, and both parents had accepted it without turning help into a contest over who could cope alone.
On the screen, Beth's fear looked horribly ordinary.
No cinematic backdrop. No elaborate machinery. A woman who had gone to work and asked why numbers did not match.
Claire sat beside Vincent.
“He thinks you're frightened of being seen as the old Vincent again,” she said.
“I am.”
“He thinks that means you'll let him choose what proves you've changed.”
Vincent looked at the frozen image.
For years, other people's fear had been a tool he understood better than their trust. Now someone was trying to use the shame of that history as another form of command.
He called his lawyer back.
“I'll provide what I know. I'm not going to give him a false endorsement, and I'm not going there with men of my own.”
Claire let out a breath.
A few minutes later, Keene called with a confirmed update.
The printing premises had been located. Information from more than one source supported the connection to Beth's disappearance. The responsible teams were preparing to act.
Claire asked whether Tessa had been told.
“Yes.”
Vincent looked again at the video.
May you like
Behind Beth, on the office wall, a clock had stopped.
For the people waiting, time had done the opposite.
