Page 7 of Forbidden Whispers

“And the door?” Hugo asked, glancing back at the splintered doorframe.

Maggie shared that bit of the story, describing how they’d hidden in the bedroom closet and everything that they’d overheard the men say to each other. Hugo pulled out his phone and tapped out notes into it.

When Noah and Maggie had both finished, Hugo gave a nod, then pulled out a pair of blue latex gloves and put them on his hands. “Stay here,” he ordered. “I’m going to do an inspection of the place.”

Noah, Maggie, and Boon stood in silence while Hugo made his meticulous way through each room.

Twenty minutes later, he returned to them. “Well, there’s a few things that don’t add up. First of all, Valentina’s closet is full of newly purchased clothing with the tags still on them. It doesn’t look like she’s ever worn anything hanging in there. Second, aside from this room,” he waved a hand to indicate the space where they stood, “this place is neat as a pin. There’s only one roll of toilet paper in the bathroom, and quite honestly, judging by the layers of dust everywhere, it doesn’t look like anyone actually lives here.”

Noah frowned and saw a similar look of perplexity on Maggie’s face.

Hugo removed his gloves and shoved them into the pockets of his jeans. “Plus, aside from the photograph in the bedroom and a couple of items in the fridge, I don’t see any personal items for Valentina anywhere. No purse, no cell phone, no pens, no paper, nothing.”

Noah’s frown deepened. “What does all that mean?”

Hugo gave a shrug. “I don’t know yet.” Then he looked at Boon. “Another thing, I doubt that’s her dog. If it is, she has no dog supplies here at all, either. No food or dog dishes.”

“His tag only has his name on it,” Noah offered absently, his mind whirring.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions here,” Hugo said. “Not the least of which is why you have no memory of what happened.” Hugo pointed his chin in the direction of the partially drunk bottle of wine and glasses on the dining room table. “Because I know there’s no way that was the cause.”

Noah felt rather than saw Maggie’s surprised look at him in response to Hugo’s statement, but he said nothing. He felt overwhelmed, frustrated, and if he was being totally honest, a little scared. He had no idea what his next step should be, and although the nausea had now abated, the ache in his head was getting stronger. He lifted his fingertips to his temples.

“What’s that?” Hugo’s voice was sharp.

“What?”

“That!” Hugo reached for Noah’s right hand and flipped it palm-side down. There was a smudge of dark blue ink on the back of his hand in a roughly rectangular shape with some illegible words printed inside it.

Noah looked at it in surprise. “I feel like...there’s something familiar about it, but I’m not sure.” He stared at it in confusion another moment, then with a resigned sigh, resumed massaging his temples.

“So, what do you think we should do now?” Maggie asked.

“To be honest, I think your first instinct was the right one, Ms. Milena,” Hugo replied. “We need to call the police.”

Chapter 4

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