Chapter 14 - The Woman in the Red Coat Was Gone
By the time police reached Laura Reed's home, the front door was standing open.
The living room lights were on.
A cup of tea sat untouched beside the sofa.
Laura's red coat lay across a chair.
But Laura was gone.
Megan learned about the disappearance the following morning.
Elena told her in person.
For several seconds, Megan couldn't understand the words.
"No."
"I'm sorry."
"She was just here yesterday."
"I know."
"Did someone take her?"
"Investigators are treating it as a possible abduction."
Megan stood so quickly her chair scraped against the floor.
"Victor."
"We don't know for certain."
"Of course it was Victor!"
Elena waited.
Megan began pacing.
"Laura spent seventeen months looking for Avery. She finally got proof her daughter was alive, and now somebody takes her?"
Her voice broke.
"She didn't deserve this."
"No," Elena said. "She didn't."
Megan stopped beside the window.
An old instinct returned.
Do something.
Offer something.
Trade herself.
Rick had conditioned her to believe that making herself useful could stop harm from reaching other people.
Now she imagined contacting Victor.
Offering to meet him.
Demanding Laura's release.
Elena seemed to read the thought.
"Megan, whatever you're considering, don't act without speaking to investigators."
Megan turned.
"What if I can help?"
"Then help in ways that don't give the people who hurt you another opportunity."
Megan looked away.
She hated how sensible the advice sounded.
And how difficult it was to follow.
Detective Grant called that afternoon.
Laura's neighbor had seen a dark sedan outside the house.
The driver appeared to be a woman.
A second person entered Laura's home.
Several minutes later, Laura left with them.
There was no visible struggle.
But the footage was too distant to determine whether she went voluntarily.
"Do you think Victor threatened her?" Megan asked.
"It's possible."
"She wouldn't abandon Avery."
"We know."
Megan pressed a hand against her forehead.
"What can I do?"
"Tell us whether Laura mentioned meeting anyone unfamiliar."
Megan thought carefully.
Their conversations had centered on Avery.
The scarf.
The investigation.
Then she remembered something.
"She got a letter."
"When?"
"Three days ago. She mentioned someone claiming to know where Avery was being held."
Tessa became alert.
"Did she tell you who sent it?"
"No. She said it was from an old coworker of Avery's."
"Anything else?"
Megan closed her eyes.
Laura had sounded suspicious but hopeful.
She'd said the sender used a name Avery once mentioned.
A woman's name.
"Marlene," Megan whispered.
"What?"
"She said the person called herself Marlene."
Tessa thanked her and ended the call.
The name led investigators to a former Blackwater employee named Marlene Voss.
She had worked under Victor Kade before leaving the company the previous year.
Records connected her to a vehicle resembling the sedan seen outside Laura's house.
The discovery gave investigators a possible lead.
But it also raised a troubling question.
Why would Marlene help Victor abduct Laura?
The answer arrived through another witness.
Sophie Lin remembered Marlene.
"She was the one who brought medicine," Sophie told investigators.
"Did she supervise the facility?"
"No. She worked in the office."
"Was she cruel?"
Sophie shook her head.
"She seemed scared all the time."
"Did she help anyone escape?"
Sophie hesitated.
"She left doors unlocked sometimes."
Tessa considered the statement carefully.
Marlene might have been a willing participant.
Or she might have been acting under pressure.
Either way, Laura's safety depended on finding her.
Meanwhile, Damian sat in his attorney's office reviewing documents related to Pier Six.
The property had substantial commercial value.
Victor wanted control of its remaining port access and the records associated with the old leases.
But Damian couldn't simply sell it.
Court orders and ongoing investigations now restricted transactions involving several Caruso assets.
Damian's attorney explained the situation.
"Even if you wanted to transfer the property, you couldn't do it without scrutiny."
"I don't want to."
"Then Victor will have to change his demands."
Damian looked toward the window.
"Or hurt Laura."
Robert said nothing.
A message arrived from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of Laura sitting in a chair.
She appeared frightened but conscious.
A second photograph showed an older dock office overlooking water.
Then came a message.
FORTY-EIGHT HOURS. PIER SIX. NO POLICE.
Damian forwarded everything to Detective Grant.
Within minutes, investigators began comparing the photographs with known waterfront properties.
Damian's knowledge of the buildings helped narrow the possibilities.
The office had a distinctive triangular window.
Only two surviving structures from his father's old port network matched it.
One was abandoned.
The other belonged to a company connected to Marlene Voss.
The investigators requested the necessary search authorization and began surveillance.
But Victor wasn't finished.
That evening, a local news website published an explosive story.
CARUSO CRIME EMPIRE LINKED TO MISSING WOMEN AND SECRET HUMAN TRANSFER AGREEMENTS.
The article included security photographs of Megan entering Damian's mansion.
It also reproduced portions of the forged agreement.
The article stated that allegations were under investigation, but its presentation strongly suggested Damian had accepted a trafficked woman.
Within hours, the story spread across social media.
Megan's name appeared repeatedly.
Strangers speculated about her life.
Some called her a victim.
Others accused her of lying.
A few claimed she had willingly participated in an arrangement.
Megan stared at the screen with a familiar sense of humiliation.
Rick had always told people she was unstable.
Now strangers were doing the same thing on a much larger scale.
Nina called immediately.
"Don't read the comments."
"Too late."
"Then stop now."
Megan closed the page.
For several minutes, she sat motionless.
Then she opened her notebook.
On the page labeled Things I still want to do, she wrote another sentence.
Tell my story without letting strangers decide what it means.
Across Newport, Damian watched the same news coverage.
His attorney advised him not to respond publicly while the investigation continued.
Damian agreed.
He was prepared to lose his reputation.
But he wasn't prepared to let Megan become another casualty of his family's secrets.
He contacted Elena through counsel.
"Please tell Megan she doesn't need to defend me."
Elena paused.
"And if she asks whether you're innocent?"
Damian looked at the old family photographs lining his office.
"Tell her I'm innocent of accepting her as property."
May you like
He swallowed.
"But I'm not innocent of everything that helped bring her to my door."
Related Stories
