On the eve of her sailing, she was expected to visit the Johnsons for the last time. It was unusual for Clara to go anywhere without the Johnson's consent and basically whatever the Johnson's knew, the entire Clipp island would hear about it one way or another.
Clipp was an island of Latini locals who preferred life away from the city, life surrounded with nothing but peace, tranquility and blue sea as far as the eye could see. It was a small island where everybody knew each other. Nothing can be hidden for long in clipp island. They were mostly fishermen, sailors, and minor occupations. However, there were few millionaires like the Johnsons who had huge investments in the cities, and owned bars, restaurants on the island.
"Mrs Duke, when last did you see Clara?" I asked Clara's mom who was already in tears rolling on the floor.
It was difficult to make out her wordings amidst her sobbing. Dr Duke who noticed that I was struggling cut in.
" Detective, I think she is trying to say that she never saw her two days prior to her sailing. They were having issues or something. This is all my fault, I should have been home often."
The state of Clara's Family made it difficult to solve her case. Her father is a doctor in the city who barely visits the island, a mother who doesn't talk to her often because of their steady quarrels and a brother who is blind. There wasn't much information of her whereabouts I could get from her family members.
"Mrs Duke, you have to put yourself together and talk to me. What is the cause of your quarrels with your daughter?"
She managed to pick herself from the ground and sat on a chair next to her husband, after a minute she looked up at me and said.
"Today she wants to travel to the city, tomorrow she wants to elope with her lover. The next day she wants to be a city celebrity and starts posting half naked pictures on those useless apps on her phone."
I would have concluded that Clara finally decided to elope with her lover, but she won the battle, her mother finally gave in and allowed her to travel to the city. She could become all she ever wanted, why disappear on the day she was set to sail.
"Have you asked those heartless Johnsons." Mrs Duke continued. "She is always paying them a visit and lazing around with their son."
Strangely none of the Johnsons knew the whereabouts of Clara. According to their son Jude, he never knew she was missing until she failed to show up at the docks as planned. Clara has been missing for two days now, I am yet to find any leads on her case. With my head facing downwards clouded with thoughts, I walked home to get some rest. I didn't notice a man who have been following me for a while, immediately he touched me I reached for my gun.
"I don't mean any harm, you didn't seem to hear me calling you all the way from the market square." The man said with both hands in the air.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" I asked slowly lowering my gun.
"I hear you are the detective in charge of Clara's case. I have some information that might be helpful to you."
"Who are you again?"
"I'm Clara's true lover."
"What do you mean true lover, she was seeing Jude Johnson."
"Yeah, but not as lovers. She needed his money to help actualize our dreams. Therefore she played along as his lover. She was never going to get on that expensive ship with him. She was going to elope with me the previous night, but she never made it to our meeting point. I bet the Johnsons know more than whatever they told you."
"Are you saying the Johnsons found out about your eloping plans and did something to Clara?"
"All I'm saying is that you should have a closer investigation on the Johnsons. And for the record, I never told you any of this. Before they make me disappear as well."
Later that night, I couldn't sleep. I tried to dot the missing links and weigh the facts I had on the case. Could the stranger be right, or is he just a jealous lover trying to take down his opponent. Either ways, it was the only lead I had. I tried to get a warrant to search the Johnson's house, but it was denied. It is never easy getting warrant against the richest families in Clipp island, especially when there's no concrete evidence to back up my story.
"I have to do this without being a cop." I said to myself as I dropped my badge, grabbed my gun and left the house. I pulled up few miles from the Johnson's house. Their mansion was close to the shores. They owned several ships and their compound was full of shipment containers. If the strangers story checks out, then she might be in one of these containers. Silently, I scaled through the fence and started inspecting the containers. At a distance I heard some voices whispering.
"It's been almost three days, we need to get rid of the evidence."
"If the body washes up on the shores, it could still lead to us."
"With that detective nosing around, we can't keep her hidden forever."
It was difficult to make out who the voices belonged to, I decided to have a closer look. Lo and behold it was Jude Johnson and his father. I called for backup and in a matter of minutes, police surrounded the building and had them arrested, rescuing Clara who have been locked up in the container.