Chapter 7: Missing
Axel
Alexandrite had been adjusting well after all the drama. Teenage girls really are a different breed, I thought to myself.
She had been up early today , joking around with Chris. Contentment was how I felt, their words might not have been warm but it was far better than when they first met. I chalked it all up to teenage jargon. When she first arrived, he had been discourteous to say the least towards everyone myself included. I struggled to understand things from her point of view.
Sure, I had never mentioned having a family to her when she reached out to me, saying she wanted to move here with me. To be honest the omission was not because of malevolent intentions rather, it was because I was afraid to lose her again.
I fucked her mother over and it had haunted me ever since. I sighed, maybe it was time Alexandrite, and I had a talk just the two of us to try and resolve our differences and get everything out in the open. With my mind made up I opted to not go into work today and rather work from the home office. I had asked one of the chefs to prepare lunch for the family as soon as she got back. I wanted us to have a nice day together as a family.
After taking a brisk shower, I sat outside on the patio waiting for Alexandrite to return. Two hours passed and there was no sign of her. Worry and dread were starting to eat away at me. A small part of me knew that maybe I was overeacting and she was on her way back but something else told me something was wrong. Chris came and sat with me after another 15 minutes had passed.
"How long does Alexandrite usually jog for?" I probed careful to keep my tone neutral. He seemed nonplussed and relaxed " Oh I dunno maybe an hour, hour and a half if she is craving punishment. She seemed like she wanted to go all out today so I think she is enjoying her jog, chill dad." He then chuckled and said in a higher pitch voice, "Daddy chill", I rolled my eyes probably one of those tiktok things.
I nodded and dismissed him. As I was about to go back to my newspaper to distract me, my phone rang, and I was informed about an emergency at the office. I sighed and went to deal with it. The family day would have to be postponed.
A couple hours later I rolled onto the driveway in my black Rolls Royce Phantom. After locking the car, I entered the house and hung up the keys. The atmosphere seemed tense as I looked at my staff. It was now 11 pm everyone should have gone to their staff quarters, but they were whispering amongst themselves. The moment they saw me they all stopped.
I stood and waited for them to inform me of the matter, but they all seemed to unsure of how to go about it. The whole situation was now agitating me, I glared at them annoyed at how they were wasting my time. After having a shit day at the office, the last thing, I wanted to deal with was some bullshit.
"I will fire every single one of you, if you do not fucking tell me what the fuck is going on right now," I threatened meaning every single word.
After a few moments, a small girl with auburn hair walked up to me. "Mr Wolfgang um we have some news. Your daughter..." My heart clenched and began to beat double time. I was now thinking the worst. "Spit it out!", I snapped.
She looked scared and started shuffling from side to side.
"She hasn't returned from her morning jog, we got security to go and search for her, but they never found her."
I froze, I should not have left for the office. I was worried in the morning, but I had brushed it off as paranoia because she had been going on these jogs for months and nothing ever happened until today. It had taken one moment to distract me, a single phone call. Maybe if I had acted when I felt that hunch we would have found her.
"Fuck!", I shouted. "Call the police, Now!" I shouted.
Logic reminded me that, you could not make a missing person's claim until the person has been gone for more than 48 hours but I did not give a shit. My daughter was missing, and I would use all my resources to find her. What use was all this money if it was not able to do give me the results I needed.
I got my security team, and they commanded the police to look for her with me. The sergeant had tried to argue but I was notorious for always getting my way especially in my town. He backed down when a glared at him and gave the command to his officers.
We went in and started looking. After about 2 hours I was called to a clearing in the woods where they had found her I-pod and bottled water. I picked up the device and my heart hurt.
Where was she.
"Keep looking for more clues or traces". I commanded the force. After 5 hours of the search everyone was tired, and it was around 3 am. I told them to all go to bed we would resume at 10 am.
I had an unrestful sleep that night.
When I woke up showered and walked into the bedroom after getting dressed for the day. Jade was sitting on the made-up bed watching me with concern filled eyes.
"Is she still not back?", she asked as I put on my shoes heading out again. Jade had never been fond of Alexandrite because Alexandrite was rude and nothing like sweet, good natured Allison but she did try from time to time.
Regardless, I knew Jade had a kind soul and would never wish for anything bad to happen to her.
"No", I sighed frustrated by the situation. "We just found her I-pod and water ln the early hours of the morning."
She got up and walked carefully up to me assessing my mood. Then when she was sure that I was calm enough she hugged me, but it did nothing to console me.
Seven hours into the search there were small traces of blood found by the police dogs. Some samples were taken and sent them to the lab on a rush order. I gave them some of my DNA to match against. I was really hoping that there would be no match.
An hour later I was informed that indeed there was a match. I was shaken to my core. What the fuck had happened to Alexandrite?
There were no wild animals in the forest so what could have attacked her and where the fuck was her body.