Stolen Secrets

Stolen Secrets- Chapter 20

“Whoa!” Natalie exclaimed. She reached greedily for the papers she had just stacked on the desk.

“What? What did you find?” I asked. I tried to catch up to Natalie’s train of thought, but I was already lost and we had only been here a couple of minutes.

“Just something that Dad got delivered to here is strange,” she said flipping through the papers multiple times. “He never gets things delivered to the apartment, only to his work. He says it’s easier.”

“Um, weird how?” I asked. So her Dad had something delivered to him, it could always be some sort of surprise for her. But I didn’t say that. I didn’t want to ruin whatever roll Natalie was on.

“Just a sec,” Natalie said. She found a paper and laid it out on the desk next to her. She then started typing furiously on the laptop, looking at the paper often.

“Here,” Natalie said spinning the laptop so I could see the screen.

“It’s a...flip phone?” I said. I feared I was missing whatever point she was making.

“Exactly. Dad had a Blackberry, why would he need to order a flip phone?” Natalie spun the laptop back to her. “I have a phone, I don’t know why he would have ordered one.”

Natalie jumped up from the chair and was already down the hallway before I registered what was happening. As soon as I did, I got up and immediately followed her.

“Cheryl,” Natalie said when we were in front of her desk. “Why did my dad have this package delivered to him?”

Cheryl took the paper from Natalie’s outstretched hand and studied it. “Well, he gets lots of things delivered here if that’s what you’re asking,” Cheryl started. Natalie nodded. “I never really asked when he got packages in.” Cheryl looked up at Natalie’s expectant face and continued.

“He got this delivered probably Friday evening. As soon as he got it he said that he was leaving early and then that was the last I saw of him or the package.”

“He didn’t come in at all since this came in?” Natalie asked.

“No he didn’t. I’m sorry I cant tell you more,” Cheryl said with genuine concern.

“Oh okay, thank you.”

Natalie turned and went down the hall again. She brushed her hand over her eye and I knew she was wiping away tears.

“Angel, are you okay? We don’t have to do this today,” I reminded her once we were back in the office and the door shut behind us.

“You don’t understand!” Natalie said exploding suddenly. “Every day that he is there, something terrible can happen to him! Every day is a threat on his life! I haven’t done anything to find him until now, I am a disgrace as a daughter!”

I went around the desk and turned Natalie’s chair so she was facing me. The task was easy because the chair was one of those desk ones.

“Angel,” I said leaning in close so she was forced to look at me. “He went of his own free will, he knows the consequences. I know you want to find him as soon as possible, but we need to take our time and make sure we are looking at everything so it doesn’t end up taking longer than it should.”

Natalie shook her head, the tear tracks on her cheeks glistened. When had she started crying?

“I just want my daddy back,” she whispered so miserably I just wanted to sweep her up and carry her away from all of this. She didn’t deserve any of this, what had she ever done?