by Clara Lewis
Vanished
Detective Ava Locke Series
(Prelude)
by Clara Lewis
Copyright © 2021 Clara Lewis – All rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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Description
Valenworth is a city well known for its industrial scene. Aside from that, it’s a quiet place… except for when the day ends. Once night falls, the city teems with crime.
Ava is an experienced homicide detective determined to clean the city up. However, she has her work cut out for her. The life of a detective isn’t easy.
She’s determined though.
One day, Ava finds a case that piques her interest. Before she can delve into it, she’s put on another, more urgent case. Two missing girls with no suspect and no evidence.
Should be easy, especially for Ava.
As Ava investigates, she realizes that the situation may be worse than she thought. Time is running out, and Ava is put under pressure.
Ava is on a mission. Save the girls and get the evidence. What she doesn’t know is that she, too, may be a target.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 1
Ava had come into work early today. Last night’s events had been stressful, but they had eventually gone smoothly. The assailant was eventually caught and put behind bars, where he belonged. Once again, there was one less criminal on the city’s streets.
However, she worried about Carl, her partner. He wasn’t that young anymore. He was currently pushing into his late fifties, and his knees could no longer take the strain of a high-speed chase. Another factor that worried Ava was that there was no doubting that Valenworth was a dangerous city.
Being a detective had its risks for sure, but in Carl’s case, the stakes were higher. He had a wife and a sweet twelve-year-old daughter who was due to start high school soon.
There was almost nobody else in the building. Ava walked into the station, prompting the officer on duty to jolt awake and pretend to look busy. She smiled at him and sat at her own desk. Within a few minutes, he was asleep once again.
With nothing else to do, Ava walked around the silent office, looking at the open files on her colleagues’ desks. As she passed their cluttered desks, she frowned at the effort, or rather, the lack of effort some made.
As much as she disliked the way, the uncaring way, they approached their cases, to a degree she saw where they were coming from. It gets dangerous in the city. Investigate too much, and it might end with you staring down the barrel of a gun.
Eventually, Ava shrugged and continued with her inspection. On one particularly chaotic desk, she caught the flash of a brown file. Curious as to why it was interesting enough to have drawn her attention, she walked over, grabbed it, and opened the file.
Ava’s eyes widened. It was a recent event. She had known the details of the case way before it made its way to this detective’s desk. Judging from how crisp the file was, Ava already knew that the detective hadn’t taken a single look at its contents.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I took the file,” she told herself.
Ava carried the file back to her own desk and got comfortable. She propped her feet up on her desk and took a sip of coffee. She opened the file and immediately sat up. What she read seemed straight out of a fictional story.
“This is ridiculous,” Ava said to herself.
How often does one find five dead people scattered around the city? The answer to that was that it’s highly possible. Valenworth was dangerous. It was a normal occurrence for a new murder case to be added to the growing pile of ongoing investigations.
However, those cases were straightforward. The case that Ava held in her hands was more complex. Five people were found dead and judging by the time of deaths stamped on their individual files, they died at the same time. That wasn’t the only weird thing. They had died in the same way.
Ava immediately thought of the possibility of a new serial killer. What confused her was how the killer managed to murder everyone concurrently. To get from one side of the city to another would take approximately two hours. There was no way they could’ve made it to their next victim in time.
It simply doesn’t make sense. Ava buried that theory and thought of a new one. Maybe it was a group effort?
She remembered something that happened when she was younger. A string of violent cases had happened around the city, targeting students. It was later revealed that they were simply prompted by “chain mail.” The precise manner in which these people had died almost felt like they were instructed somehow.
Ava absentmindedly looked at the mark on her arm with a jagged scar running through it. It was a long-lasting mark of her involvement in the chain-mail case. She wasn’t a perpetrator, no. Rather, she had tried to help a friend and instead became the victim herself. Ava shuddered. Those were memories she didn’t want to remember.
“Hey, I think that’s my file.”
Ava jumped in her seat, spilling coffee onto her pants. She turned in the direction of the voice and glared at the detective. He crossed his arms over his stomach, causing his tattoo of an eye to face her.
“Murphy! Was that necessary?” she shrieked as she grabbed at the tissues on her desk. “Turn your tattoo away. I feel like it’s looking at my failures,” she whined.
Ava quickly packed the file’s contents together and shoved them toward the detective, who had doubled over in laughter. Ava smacked him with the file.
“Take it,” she insisted.
Detective Murphy shrugged and wiped tears from his eyes.
“You seemed interested in the file though.”
Ava got up and put the file into his hands. She scoffed.
“Well, yes,” she said, laughing, “I actually read through it.”
Murphy rolled his eyes and raised the file. “I was getting to it.”
Ava laughed again. “Sure, you were.”
Murphy chuckled and walked toward his desk. Before he could sit down, Ava called out to him.
“Let me have that case.”
Murphy raised his eyebrow.
“Chief’s not going to be happy with that. You know he’s
very particular with keeping everything 'in order.'”
Ava stifled the urge to snicker. She pushed it down and focused on the more important matter.
“That seems like a lot of work, Detective. Are you sure you’re up for that?”
She raised an eyebrow at the pile of paperwork on his desk. Murphy followed her eyes and winced when he saw how much work he had to catch up on. His guilt lasted all of five seconds. Eventually, he turned to Ava and shrugged.
“Let me have that case and I’ll swap it out for one of mine.”
Murphy looked suspicious.
“You’re always going after the big, bad guys. I don’t think I want any of your cases,” Murphy said.
Ava rolled her eyes. “I’ve been grounded. Chief thinks I do too much.”
Ava opened her desk drawer and rifled through her files. She had almost the same amount of paperwork as Murphy. She ignored the forms and pushed them aside until she found what she was looking for. She held an older brown envelope in her hand and smiled at Murphy. He crossed his arms with an unimpressed expression.
“Give me the five-person murder case, and I’ll exchange it for the case where your only job is to observe a house for five hours,” Ava said.
“Who’s in the house?” Murphy asked.
He was still suspicious, but the thought of spending time away from the station and having five sweet hours of doing nothing had intrigued him.
“Chief’s mom. She’s back in town.”
Murphy mulled it over in his mind before finally handing the file over. Ava took it and handed him her file.
“Chief is going to be mad,” Murphy said.
Ava shrugged, not caring.
“I give him the results that keep our station up and running.”
Soon enough, the police station was lively. Officers streamed in. While most sat down and began their work, others huddled around the coffee machine and chatted. To them work didn’t start until Chief himself walked through the doors.
Ava looked for her partner in the crowd and frowned when she didn’t see him. Last night, during the chase, he had fallen on his bad knee. Ava had tried to help him up, but he waved her off and ordered her to catch the assailant.
Ava took her phone out and dialed his number. Before she could hit the call button, the big doors opened and in walked Carl Weathers. Ava smiled immediately and hurriedly made her way over to him.
“How’s the knee?”
Carl never looked his age. The only thing that ever betrayed him was his rapidly whitening hair and now, his bad knee too.
Carl ignored her question, but Ava caught how he limped slightly. She frowned at him.
“Did you tell Marina about it?” Ava asked as she raised her eyebrow.
By the way Carl’s face blanched, he most definitely did not tell his wife about last night’s chase and his aching knee. Ava pulled a face and took her phone out.
“I’m going to tell her. If she finds out about the knee later, I’ll get in trouble too.”
Carl shook his head and attempted to wrestle the phone out of her hands. Ava dodged him and stepped aside.
Another officer holding a fresh cup of coffee walked by and expertly maneuvered himself around Carl and Ava. Most officers were used to their antics by now. He chuckled as he went past them.
Suddenly a quiet settled over the room. Even Ava and Carl had paused to look at who caused the silence.
At the sight of Chief standing by the doorway of his office, Ava quickly brought her hands down and straightened her posture. Carl laughed under his breath, earning him a hostile look from Ava.
“We’re not finished,” Ava mouthed to her partner.
Carl patted her back and said, “Sure.”
Chief looked around looking for someone. Ava shifted uncomfortably when his gaze landed on her and then Carl.
In a booming voice he called out, “You two, in my office—now.”
The crowd parted as they walked through, and some even dared to pat them comfortingly on their shoulders as they walked past.
“This isn’t an execution,” Ava hissed as she passed them.
By the time they had reached the office doors, Ava nudged Carl to knock on it. Sighing deeply, Carl raised his knuckles and rapped.
“Come in.”
Chapter 2
Chief directed them to the seat located directly in front of his desk. They were undeniably comfortable, but Ava couldn’t help but notice how much lower they were in comparison to Chief’s own seat. She stifled a laugh as she realized that this was most probably part of his fear factor. While he berated you, he’d also be looking down on you.
“Is there something wrong, sir?” Carl asked.
Chief said nothing. Instead, he retrieved a file from his drawer and slid it across his desk. Carl picked it up and read through it. He winced. He then handed it over to Ava who read through the details herself.
“Someone’s been kidnapping girls. We don’t know where they take them or what they do to them. We don’t have much on this, and that is our biggest problem.”
Ava frowned at the file in her hands.
“This isn’t in our jurisdiction.”
Chief nodded.
“It will be a collaboration with another precinct. They lost girls too.”
Carl and Ava nodded.
“This person is a ticking bomb,” Chief continued. “Who knows when they’ll snap?”
This case was more dangerous than the previous one. It wasn’t just a simple bust and chase. There were too many unknown factors. There was no way Carl could explain this to his wife without her growing overly concerned for his safety.
Ava caught his eye, and they both shared a concerned look. She weighed the file in her hands while he stared at the floor.
“There’s nothing in the file. Were there no other witnesses? Someone must have seen something.”
Chief sighed and crossed his arms.
“The only person who 'saw' something was a drunk. The man couldn’t even see straight when he came running to a policeman at the park.”
“Well, what did he say?”
“When he wasn’t throwing up, he was rambling on and on about how one night he heard a struggle. He apparently saw someone manhandle a young girl into his truck. We checked the cameras on-site and there was nothing.”
That can’t just be it. Ava was disappointed. This source was unreliable, but it was the only one they had. Ava sighed and got up. She patted Carl on the back, who still had his eyes trained on the floor.
“We’ll get right to it, Chief.”
She nodded at Carl and he got up.
The moment they were out of the office, Ava stormed to her desk and threw the file onto its surface. Carl followed soon after and offered her a cup of coffee. Ava accepted the cup willingly.
“I hate to say it but I’m not really up for this case,” she complained.
Carl raised his eyebrows, unable to believe what she was saying. Ava caught his judgmental look and pointed at another file on her desk.
“Who’d you switch with?”
Ava pointed at Murphy who was clearly asleep at his own desk. How he didn’t get caught was simply beyond Ava’s understanding.
Carl shrugged and took a seat at his own desk which was across from Ava’s. He booted his computer up and grabbed the case file from her. For a few minutes, Carl looked from the screen to the file repeatedly. Eventually, he dropped his pen and sighed loudly.
“Where are we even going to start?” he asked, exasperated.
Ava got up and put her jacket on. She tapped Carl’s shoulder and indicated to the exit.
On their way out, Carl asked, “Where are we going?”
Ava smiled.
“We’re going to find a drunk.”
It wasn’t difficult to find the man. He was waiting by Ava’s car by the time she reached it in the parking lot. Looking at his bloodshot eyes, Ava could tell that he wasn’t sober today either. He struggled to keep standing
and leaned heavily on her car. He was shifty with the way he was constantly looking around. It made Ava just as suspicious of her surroundings.
Carl stepped in front of Ava and put his hand out to protect her. Ava gently pushed his aside.
“I got this,” she whispered.
Carl looked doubtful, but he lowered his hand and let Ava go ahead.
“You got something for me?”
The man looked around him, his eyes darting to the shadows in the parking lot. Was he on the run from someone?
“They won’t believe me,” he said in a whisper.
Ava had to lean closer to hear him properly.
“Who won’t?” she asked.
The man motioned for her to come closer, and Ava did, doing her best to hold her breath. The man stank to high heaven.
“You have to find the girl. She didn’t want to go with him, but he hit her.”
The man covered his face with his hands.
“She wouldn’t move,” he whispered.
“Who hit her?” Ava pressed.
The man started to shake. He refused to meet her eyes but rather, kept on looking over her shoulder. Carl stepped closer and he flinched. Ava put her hand out to stop Carl from approaching.
Ava grabbed the man by the shoulders and tried to calm him down.
“Hey, hey, you can trust me,” she said softly.
The man shook his head violently.
“I-I can’t. He’ll hurt me.”
He roughly pushed Ava away and she stumbled back. Carl grunted and moved forward, but Ava reassured him that she was fine.
“What’s your name?” she suddenly asked.
The man looked confused for a moment. He tilted his head at her, his expression a mixture of suspicion and surprise.
“I just don’t want to keep referring to you as 'the drunk man' I met on the street.”
The man gave a light chuckle and said his name.
“Cassius. That’s a nice name,” Ava said with a smile. “How about we go eat some breakfast, and you can tell me everything?”