The Missing Link
Samantha sat at the small desk in Agatha Miller's study, her fingers lightly tapping the edge of the desk as she skimmed through the papers scattered before her. There was a coldness to the room, the kind that permeated a place long untouched by warmth. Despite the unsettling silence, Samantha's mind was focused on one thing: finding the missing link.
The apartment was unusually neat, a stark contrast to the chaos of the crime scene just a few rooms away. Agatha's personal items were methodically organized, almost too perfectly. There was no sign of a hasty departure, no indication that the witness had fled in fear. In fact, the absence of her belongings felt almost deliberate, as if someone had gone to great lengths to make her disappearance seem like an accident. The meticulousness didn't sit well with Samantha.
She reached for the phone charger, still plugged into the socket on the desk, and turned it over in her hands. The screen was cracked, but it was still functional. A faint glow of light flickered from the device when she pressed the power button. The phone had a passcode lock, of course, but Samantha had a way of bypassing that.
As she was unlocking the phone, Daniel entered the room, his footsteps echoing in the hallway before he pushed the door open.
"Any luck?" he asked, his voice low but tense.
Samantha didn't immediately answer. Instead, she glanced up at him with a thoughtful expression before returning her gaze to the phone. "I'm getting there," she said, her voice calm but with an undercurrent of urgency. "The scene didn't feel right. There's too much blood for it to be a simple abduction, and the place is too clean. Whoever did this wanted to send a message... and I think they're trying to cover their tracks."
Daniel crossed the room, leaning against the wall next to her. "So you're saying they're trying to mislead us? That it's not just a random act of violence?"
Samantha nodded, her fingers moving swiftly over the phone screen as she bypassed the passcode. "Exactly. The blood trail isn't consistent with an abduction, and there's no sign of a fight. Whoever did this had control. They knew what they were doing."
Daniel looked at the screen over her shoulder as she scanned through Agatha's messages. "What are you looking for?"
"Anything unusual. People close to her, anything out of the ordinary that could give us a hint about why she was targeted." Samantha tapped the screen, opening the last few messages sent from Agatha's phone.
The messages were brief, but one stood out—a conversation with someone named "A.T.". There was no contact name, just initials. The exchange seemed oddly innocent at first glance. The last message from A.T. simply said: "Are you sure you want to go through with this? It's not too late to back out."
Samantha's brow furrowed. "This is new. I didn't see this name mentioned in the case files."
Daniel leaned in closer, his eyes narrowing. "Who is A.T.? And why would Agatha be talking to them about backing out?"
"I don't know yet, but this could be our first lead." Samantha quickly took a screenshot of the conversation before continuing to scroll through the rest of Agatha's phone. There was nothing else out of the ordinary—no calls, no other texts from the mysterious A.T. However, Samantha could tell that Agatha had been deleting her messages. A pattern of conversation that was being erased.
"That's strange," Samantha muttered. "She was trying to cover her tracks, but it looks like she didn't get rid of everything."
Daniel paced the room, his mind clearly working through the puzzle. "So, we're dealing with someone who's not just trying to keep her from testifying... they're trying to keep her silent completely. If she was talking to someone like A.T., they could be tied to the case in ways we don't even understand yet."
"Exactly," Samantha replied, standing up and slipping the phone into her pocket. "And I think it's no coincidence that this person contacts her just before her disappearance."
Daniel turned to face her fully, his eyes intense. "You think she was in danger even before this?"
"I do," Samantha said with a slow nod. "It's too calculated. A.T. knew something. Maybe they were trying to protect her, or maybe... maybe they were pulling the strings."
He gave her a sharp look. "So you think A.T. is involved, and whoever took her is working with them?"
Samantha didn't respond immediately. She was already formulating her next move in her mind. The blood, the phone messages, the careful manipulation—it was all pointing to something larger, something more complicated than a simple witness protection failure.
"We need to find out who A.T. is. And fast," Samantha said, her tone firm. "Whoever they are, they're the missing link we need to solve this. They're connected to her disappearance, and they could lead us to her—or to whoever's responsible."
Daniel exhaled sharply, his fingers running through his dark hair. "Alright. I'll check the city's records, see if I can dig up anything on A.T. in the meantime. You?"
"I'm going to start with the rest of the building," Samantha said. "There's a chance someone saw something. No one leaves a scene like this without a trace. We just have to find it."
As Samantha prepared to leave the study, Daniel stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Sam... be careful. There's something off about this whole thing. It's not just a witness disappearing—it feels like someone's been playing us all along."
She met his gaze, her expression softening for a moment. "I'll be careful. You too, Daniel."
With that, they parted ways, each heading in a different direction but both acutely aware that the clock was ticking. The more they uncovered, the more they would realize just how deep this mystery went—and just how far someone would go to keep the truth hidden.
-end of chapter 2.