Petra had been cross when I leaned on the doorbell hard enough to wake her, but as soon as she heard about Arielle, she came fully awake in a hurry. “But, gosh, Vic, if she isn’t with Nia I don’t know what to suggest. Unless she ran off to join her father? I don’t know where he is or what their story is.”
I thought Petra’s suggestion was a good one, so I asked Julia whether she’d talked to Arielle’s father.
“He’s dead,” Julia said. “He died of leukemia when Arielle was four. It’s how Sophy and I became friends, on the cancer ward, husbands with the same illness, daughters the same age. Are you sure Petra isn’t hiding something?”
I bit back a snappy retort. Your kid goes missing, you get a free pass on the things you blurt out.
“Let’s start from the beginning,” I suggested. “When did you last see or talk to Arielle? When did you decide she was missing?”
Julia blinked—the recent past, the past where she didn’t know something was wrong, seemed incredibly remote. “At seven-fifteen. I was getting ready to leave—I had an early meeting, and I didn’t want Arielle sleeping all day. She has chores, and her community service. I think everyone needs a schedule—none of that matters!” She wrung her hands. “When I saw her bed was tidily made I thought perhaps she’d gone for a bike ride—really, I thought she’d sneaked out early to see Nia Durango, and I was starting to lose my temper, when Gabe said she left through the garage at two!”
I turned to the houseman. “Why didn’t you tell Julia sooner?”
“I didn’t know at the time.” His voice was calm, but his brown eyes were watchful. “Julia came into the kitchen asking if I’d seen Arielle. When I realized she was gone, I looked at all the security camera footage. That’s when I saw her letting herself out through the garage.”
“No one was with her?”
“Not that I could see. You can look at the footage yourself, if you want.”
“I guess, in a minute. It’s the police you should be showing it to. When are they arriving?”
“The police?” Julia said. “What can they do? It’s not as if she was snatched; she walked out of here on her own. Are you a hundred percent sure she’s not with Petra?”
“Julia—Ms. Salanter—you’re not thinking. You have to call the police and the FBI. You and your father must have discussed this terrifying eventuality.”
“I’ve called Thor Janssen. He’s on his way, but what can the police do? No one snatched my daughter, but why did she leave? Where did she go?”
“Thor Janssen?” I interrupted.
“The family lawyer,” Gabe answered for Julia.
“If someone phoned Arielle, the police can discover that instantly,” I said. “Trying to pretend that this is a normal event, it’s costing you precious time.”
Gabe nodded. “She’s right, Julia. Thor will tell you the same thing when he gets here.”
“And the one person who might know why Arielle left is Nia Durango. Maybe they’re off at some shape-shifter ritual together. Have you talked to Nia, or to Dr. Durango?”
“It was Sophy’s and my punishment to the girls that they couldn’t text or see each other for two weeks. They haven’t spoken since we did our TV show last week!”
“And you know this because?”
“Because Sophy and I ordered them not to! We blocked their respective numbers on their cell phones just to make sure!”
“Give me Nia’s or Sophy’s number,” I said. “If you think two girls as tight as your daughters paid any attention to a command not to talk for two weeks, you must have led the life of a cloistered nun when you were a kid!”
Gabe was typing onto a cell phone while I was speaking. “Gabe Eycks here, Diane. We have a high-alert situation here; do you know where Nia and Sophy are?”
After a pause, he spoke to Sophy Durango, explained the situation, asked that she send Nia to the Schiller Street house immediately. It was another instance of how central Gabe’s role in the household was. Doorman, crisis manager, what else did this houseman do? Arrange bodies on catafalques?
Julia took the phone from Gabe and began a longer conversation with Sophy, a distraught, detailed version of her crisis. I started to get agitated myself. The longer we waited to talk to Nia, the longer it would take to follow any trails she could lead us to.
“Dr. Durango’s housekeeper is on her way with Nia,” Gabe assured me. “It’s good for Julia to talk to Sophy. While we’re waiting for Janssen, let me show you the footage of Arielle.”
Gabe took me to the control room. The house had security cameras at every door, as well as in the security fence and on the corners of the roof and garage. They were expertly mounted, not readily visible, and the footage streamed to a backup system that ran frequent checks to see whether the same faces were peering through the fence on successive days. If anyone tried to climb the fence, a buzzer sounded on Gabe’s cell phone.