The Heiress Club (COMPLETED)

Chapter 26: There, and Then Not

She put her headphones back on her head, turning on the true crime video she was watching. It was the same story as that one episode about a guy who pulled off an art heist with his daughter. It was still debated how they had done it; the only footage the museum had was of the suspects looking at the painting (a genuine rococo oil from some wildly famous painter) during opening hours. There was still the mystery of how they had hijacked the museum's cameras, because one moment the painting was there, and the next it wasn't.

There, and then not.

This was a different channel. Their true crime leaned towards video essays. Noelise liked the visual additions. Podcasts were nice to listen to when she had nothing to do, but she was more of a visual person.

Huh, she thought, pausing the video to examine the zoomed in image of one of the culprits—the father. That looks kind of like Valentina's dad.

That was funny.

She unpaused the video. The commentator kept talking, an image of the two suspects side-by-side appearing. It was blurry and low-quality, but even then, Noelise had to pause the video and just look at it for a moment. Was she going crazy?

... that looks like Valentina.

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John Rochester checked his watch. It was five minutes past the time Marco was supposed to be here for their tennis lesson. Not once in their short friendship had Marco ever been late.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon," John told the tennis coach. He was an ex-pro, who'd been forced to drop his career because of a disastrous injury. Despite that, his coaching was amazing. His rates were always a premium, but John was completely willing to pay them.

They waited for a little longer. It was a sunny day in Manchester. They always took their lessons at a country club just a little way away from the city. It was pleasant here, and John's wife enjoyed socialising with their friends at the club.

As time ticked by, John gradually had to accept that Marco was either terribly late or not showing up.

"I'll call him," John said to the tennis coach with a quick smile.

He went to the side of the court, calling Marco's contact on his phone.

The phone rung once, twice, thrice. Then Marco picked up.

"Marco!" John exclaimed, trying to inject a jovial tone into his voice. He was actually kind of annoyed. Marco's punctuality was one of the aspects that John enjoyed about their friendship. "Where are you? Me and Coach are waiting on you—"

"Sorry, I think you have the wrong number," a female voice interrupted.

John paused. Wasn't this Marco's number? Yes, it definitely was. He still had the contact saved and everything. "Sorry, is this Marco Bianchi?" he asked.

A pause.

"No," the voice said. "I think you have the wrong number."

Oh. That was strange.

"Terribly sorry then. It must have been a mistake. Have a good day."

John hung up abruptly, frowning. He was very sure that was Marco's number. Had Marco changed his phone? He should have told him first.

"I guess the lesson will just be me today," he told the coach.

He went and called on Marco's Manchester penthouse later. The clerk was friendly, telling him that Marco wasn't expecting any visitors, but saying that he could call him. John agreed easily. Strangely enough, nobody picked up.

"I'm sorry," the clerk told him, smiling apologetically. "Must be out."

"Well leave him a note," John said, very irritated at this point. How hard could one person be, to get a hold of?

The clerk nodded. "Of course, sir."

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Teddy was a little worried.

Almost their entire friend group was. Valentina hadn't shown up to school in a week. It seemed like even the school administration didn't know. Teddy regularly had tea with the head of the English department (they were old family friends), and the head confessed that none of the faculty knew either.

He didn't like this, not one bit. Valentina was one of them. Arbourne was full of new money pretenders, the kind who made a lot of money off of crypto or tech, and came in thinking they were the best thing in the world. Teddy didn't understand them at all. He didn't interact with them at all. He only talked to the people in their little club (and even then, some people clearly didn't belong—Nandika for one), and the fact that one of them was missing was highly concerning.

He tried asking Jasper too. Jasper was her boyfriend, wasn't he?

When he asked Jasper though, he was so cagey about the entire thing that he practically pushed Teddy out of his dorm room.

That's really, really strange, Teddy thought. Now he was worried. Of course he was worried. He was a conscientious person. He cared about other people.

Well, at least the people in their club.

And Valentina counted. So he cared about her. He decided to call his mother. His father was no doubt handling state business, but his mother was probably less busy. "Have you talked to Mr. Bianchi recently?" Teddy asked his mother, once she picked up.

"No. Why?"

"Could you ask him where his daughter is? She's been missing from school. I'm sure they're just on vacation somewhere, but I do get worried. You know me."

His mother laughed indulgently. "Of course, of course. I'll call him."

Teddy hung up. Only a few minutes later, his mother called him back.

"I think he changed his number," she told him.

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"Thank you for the reports," Anathi Mnisi told his assistant, shuffling through the papers. "Is there anything else important?"

The assistant hesitated. They were a new hire. So far, they'd been great at their job—really proactive, really meticulous. A real gem. Anathi was thinking about giving them a raise. Their only flaw was that they tended to overload themselves with work. Anathi was working on encouraging them to take breaks. His employees shouldn't suffer.

"Well," they said slowly, "there's a report missing."

"Oh, if you didn't have time to print it, that's fine."

The assistant frowned. "That's not why though."

Anathi smiled. This assistant really needed to learn how to loosen up. It was fine if they missed something by mistake. Everyone was human. "Oh?"

"It's the returns report for your investment into Bianchi's company."

Anathi nodded. "Yes?"

"I couldn't find it, even though they were supposed to have it emailed it to me. I called their number, but it was someone's personal number, and they'd never heard of the company. I called the firm, and they said that they hadn't handled any data for that company. I called the bank and they said they had never processed any capital for that company. I couldn't find any official record for it anywhere. Are you sure you were meant to receive a report for that?" his assistant said, looking at Anathi anxiously.

Anathi paused his shuffling of the papers, looking up at his assistant. That wasn't right. Not at all.

"Pardon?"

꧁꧂

And just like that, Marco and Valentina Bianchi disappeared.

There, and then not.

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