Now they were both missing.
«I'd love not being here. I am really sorry for what happened», I said taking a sip from the glass.
Frank shook his head and sat down in front of me.
«Let's move on.»
I did not dispute the haste of that big man with an intimidating appearance, rendered almost helpless by desperation.
«Is there any news from the police?» I asked no longer hesitating.
«No news, the investigations are stuck. Rose seems to have disappeared into the air», he reported, crossing his arms on the table.
«What was your daughter's relationship with Claire Harper?» I continued, crossing my legs.
Frank looked up at the ceiling and took a few moments to answer my question.
«They were friends. A bit like you and Hanna Ryder. They were always together. They almost had a gloomy relationship», he confessed with bitterness.
It was as if it costed him to talk about the two girls, he didn't seem to approve their friendship, even if I didn't understand why.
The Harpers were a simple family with no expectations, they enjoyed life in Hazycreek without disturbing or making people talk too much about themselves.
Like Rose, Claire wasn't a bad girl either.
I took notes and cleared my mind.
«Could they have run away together? At their age they are still a little unconscious, perhaps they made a rash and not calculated decision», I proposed thinking about it.
It was a bold hypothesis and perhaps it didn't even make much sense, but I had learned not to take anything for granted and to evaluate every possibility.
«Hard to think. Claire disappeared ten days before Rose», he replied in a whisper.
I couldn't blame him; his reasoning was correct.
«Maybe she reached her. Rose may have disagreed and then changed her mind at a later time.»
«I would love to believe your words, Reb. The hope that my daughter is still alive would not be in vain, but sadly, we are preparing for the worst», he said, drinking half of the water contained in his glass.
«I find it really strange that nothing has been discovered yet. Hazycreek is a small town, how is it possible to disappear without leaving traces?» I considered, reflecting aloud.
«It happens sometimes. More or less every ten years.»
A hard sentence that redundant in my head like an echo.
I was seventeen when three girls mysteriously disappeared into nothing. Even then I couldn't understand it, I had kept the newspaper clippings that reported the news in a locked box.
It could have been a trail.
I vibrated with excitement thinking I was close to a turning point. I could aim high, write a shocking article that would lead me to success. I wanted to fulfil myself in journalism, the ambition was great and now I could show everyone what I was really made of.
I thought about going to my old house and look for those items. I had left them there, I just hoped to find them in their place.
Why haven't I thought about it?
I reflected silently, amazed by how everything seemed to me closer.
«I didn't remember. Do you believe this could mean something?»
«Who knows, people here believe in strange beings, looking like persons. And the punctuality with which these disappearances occur, suggests something malignant. Hazycreek is superstitious, Reb. Look at my sister Mary, exiled from the city, mocked and disgusted by the people of this town. She is considered crazy, just because she is different. We no longer know what to think.»
Frank let out a flood of words difficult to pronounce, there was despair in his voice, resignation and sadness.
Mary Weather was Hazycreek's “freak”, she was considered by everyone a mad visionary with schizophrenia.
She was convinced she could talk to the dead.
She babbled about future predictions, painful events, and sometimes her ramblings were not even understood.
I knew that she had been interned for a long time in a center for mental illness and that she had come back to her senses, but it seemed not to be the case.
«Did Mary express any thought about it?» I dared asking.
Frank clearly needed to let off steam and maybe he wouldn't hesitate to confess some little secrets.
Was I sneaky?
Maybe, but that was my job and I loved it despite the downsides.
Since I was a little girl, I used to play the journalist, I loved investigating, solving mysteries and bringing out little secrets.
In high school, when a rumor was born, I had to go to the bottom, understand what was true to confirm or deny it. Then I reported everything in the school newspaper, my friends were waiting for nothing else but reading my articles.
I thought it was my calling and, in the end, I made it a profession.
«Yes, of course she did. I have never abandoned my sister.»
«Did she speak with... Rose?»
Mr. Weather stared at me for very long moments, I had exaggerated, but I was convinced that in life you had to take risks, sometimes it was better to throw yourself without thinking too much.
I looked forward to his response.
«Reb, my sister is mentally ill, she has always been since childhood. Mary claims that Rose and Claire are still alive and that they were taken by the Thirsty».
I didn't sleep that night.
I had the constant feeling of being close to something disconcerting.
An idea perhaps, a suspicion that was anchored in me, feeding my desire to keep searching.
Maybe mine was just hope because, let's face it, Hazycreek was boring.
It was the first time that the city's balance was altered to the point of being perceived in the air.
Something was really happening, that feeling was standing still in the pit of my stomach taking on more and more consistency.
Chapter 5
Rebecca
The next day I convinced Hanna to come along with me, to scour Elinor and Bryan Cross’ house. My parents.
When they weren’t there, I was just visiting to water the forest of plants they had. My mother had a green thumb, she loved flowers.
So, while they were traveling on their research missions, I took care of that home garden with meticulous attention.
Entering Cross' house meant entering a high-tech laboratory full of plants. A Victorian-style villa that inside was transformed into a spaceship, futuristic and super modern even in its furnishings.
My parents were two Cambridge-graduated researchers with a Biological Science degree.
Dr. Elinor Cross was a molecular biologist and Dr. Bryan Cross specialized in medical, veterinary and pharmaceutical biotechnology.
Their work was never really clear to me, they spent whole days in the laboratory or traveling in search of any subject to study.
They rarely talked about it and I never asked.
It had always been like that and with time I learned to accept their secrets.
They said they couldn't share certain information, so I made up my mind