Chapter 7
Chloe showed up at the forensics center again that afternoon.
This time, she didn't go inside. She stood right at the entrance to confront Samuel. "Samuel."
Samuel came out of the building, carrying a briefcase. When he saw Chloe, he frowned. "Why are you here again?"
"I've been looking for Emily for fifteen days," Chloe said, her voice lower than last time, but every word was sharp. "She hasn't shown up at her mom's, her classmates', or her old coworkers' places.
"Her phone is off. There are no new transactions on her bank card, and all her social media accounts have stopped updating."
"Why are you looking into all this?" Samuel asked.
"Because no one else is," Chloe said, staring him down.
"Samuel, you were with her for six years. She vanished, and you didn't even care to look for her?" she asked.
"I told you. She left on her own," Samuel said.
"Then what did she take with her? Did you bother to check your place? Is her suitcase still there? What about her ID? Her passport? Don't you at least know what she took when she left?" Chloe pressed.
Samuel didn't answer. He never even bothered to check. He didn't even open my closet door to check.
Chloe watched him stay silent and took a deep breath. "I'm reporting her missing."
"Suit yourself," Samuel replied.
"I already did. You know what they told me? Not enough to file a case. You're her husband. If you report it, they'll do something about it," Chloe said.
"That's because she's not missing," Samuel said, adjusting the strap of his briefcase and walking past Chloe. "She only doesn't want to come back. That's a whole different thing."
Chloe hurried after him and grabbed his arm. "Samuel, did they bring a female body up to the autopsy room upstairs?"
Samuel turned around. "What are you getting at?"
"I'm not getting at anything. I only want to ask. Can you confirm that the body isn't Emily?" Chloe pressed.
"Are you out of your mind?" Samuel snapped, shaking her hand off. "That body has been soaking in the water for half a month. It's so rotten that you can't match it to anyone. Just because it belongs to a woman, you think it's Emily?"
"I'm not jumping to conclusions. I'm asking you," Chloe said. Her voice was so low that it sounded like she was afraid her words might crush someone.
She added, "You're a medical examiner. You deal with corpses every day. Did it cross your mind, even for a second, that it could be her?"
Samuel was silent for three seconds. Then he reached up and tugged at his collar. He wasn't wearing a tie, but his hand moved like he was grabbing a tie that wasn't there. "Impossible."
Then he turned and walked away.
Chloe stood rooted to the spot, watching as he walked to the parking lot, got into his car, and started the engine.
The taillights glowed briefly in the dusk and then vanished.
Chloe lowered her head and scrolled through her phone, searching for a name in her contacts.
It wasn't my number. It was a contact saved as "Captain Carter."
When she reported me missing last week, the head of the criminal investigation team, Richard, gave her his business card and told her to call if she had any news.
She dialed the number.
The phone rang twice before someone picked up.
"Ms. Reed?" Richard answered.
"Captain Carter, I need to meet with you. The sooner, the better," Chloe said.
"What's up?" Richard asked.
"I have something of Emily's, a comb with her hair on it. If you can't do a DNA test with the body upstairs, I'll cover the cost," Chloe said.
There was a brief silence on the other end.
"Where are you? I'll come over right now," Richard said.
Samuel thought the body was another unclaimed case, nothing special.
They'd register the body and send out a notice. If nobody showed up in six months to claim it, they'd handle it by the book.