LUCIEN’S POV
“Is she coming?” Stacy asked me, getting up immediately she saw me coming from the stairs after the call from Monica.
“Yes. She will be here in a few minutes.” I replied, going to sit where I had been seated minutes ago.
“I’m really looking forward to where she’s going to say she is at. Adria said she has no friends so I’m really looking forward to knowing where she’ll say she is now that Adria is missing.” Stacy spat, looking into blank space violently.
“I’m more curious as to where she’ll say she was when Adria went missing. If she couldn’t meet up with Adria, why didn’t she call anyone? Does she have an alibi who can vouch for her innocence?” Daniel questioned and Zayne nodded.
“And what she was doing for the two days she had been absent from school.” Tommy added.
We waited for minutes before the door bell rang. I opened it, and Monica looked up at me with an expression I couldn’t seem to read well.
Then she walked in and paused when she saw everyone. Her wide confident shoulders immediately closed in and her hand rose to hold her arm. She had taken on the innocent appearance she always showed in front of them.
I led her to the sofa and she sat opposite everyone, looking like a kitten that had been drenched in the rain.
“Where are you coming from?” Stacy shot at her.
“From the library. But, can I know what’s going on?” She asked, and her wide eyes met mine.
“Don’t you know Adria’s missing?” Tommy asked, and her eyes went even wider.
“Adria’s… that can’t be. She probably…”
“After you called her out to meet you.” Daniel pointed out, completing Tommy’s sentence.
“What? That… so that was why she didn’t come. I… I thought she didn’t want to talk to me because we had a little fight about two days ago.” She explained, looking pitiful.
“What did you guys fight about?” Stacy asked immediately.
“I would rather not say. It’s something very embarrassing for me.” Monica replied sharply.
“This only makes you look more like the culprit.” Zayne chipped in and she locked eyes with him.
“I lied about having no friends so she’d be good to me and when she found out, she told me she hated liars and got really angry at me. So I called her up to apologize.”
“Where were you for two good days?” Daniel asked.
“My mum came to New Orleans so I stayed with her in her hotel because I was sad about fighting with Adria, however she advised me to talk things out, so I messaged Adria but she didn’t show up. “
“Where did you ask her to come to meet up?” Zayne asked.
“This next street. The one behind Lucien’s house.”
“Crazy nonsense!” Stacy shouted and Monica immediately took out her phone, and tapped furiously before showing the message she had sent to Adria, and Adria had replied saying she was on her way.
“She didn’t read thoroughly?” Zayne asked, and Monica nodded. “But the words ‘Lucien’ and ‘my’ are very different. You said let’s meet at the café on the street behind ‘Lucien’s’ house. How on earth did she misinterpret it as behind ‘my’ house?” He asked, and it was really obvious. Monica dropped her phone quickly, looking red and blinked.
“I… I don’t know about that too but I have people who can vouch for me. I was waiting for Adria in the café on the next street with my friends hoping to introduce them to Adria when we made up but she never showed up. They’re both boys. Andrew and Andy. I can call them up right now and put it on speakers.” She said earnestly and despite myself, I was forced to believe her.
It made sense that her mum came to visit her because Angelou was crazy about Monica and if she was willing to call up those two boys, then either she was really telling the truth or she had predicted all that would happen, and manipulated it. Monica was quite famous with men so she could pull it off but then there was also the possibility of her hiring that man because I didn’t see a reason as to why a random man would go after Adria unless…
Unless he was a vampire! A vampire that had watched me and discovered Adria was quite dear to me.
“You can leave, Monica. You all can also leave, I and Zayne will search the houses on the next street.” I said and her friends looked worried.
“I’m sorry Professor but if Adria’s not found today, I’m informing the cops. Every minute we waste here are minutes in which she can be in danger.” Daniel said, and I sighed.
“The cops will do the same thing.”
“They will have easier access to the surveillance cameras around the street and would be better at tracking her down because they are stronger in numbers.”
“Go ahead.” Zayne said, and I looked at him, puzzled.
The students including Monica all left and I turned to Zayne.
“Why?” I questioned.
“He looks like he labeled us as his new suspect. I’ll knock him out and throw him into the forest if I have to. A flimsy human cannot put things at stake. I also feel Monica is the culprit because of her rather loud heartbeat but we have no evidence against her, except you really want to meet everyone she mentioned as alibis.”
“It’s a waste of time. Her mother would die for her. What’s lying to her mother? It’s just a few words to keep her daughter out of trouble, and as for the boys, she could seduce them or pay them off to say things. I’ll search the woods around here, you search the houses on the off-limits street.”
Zayne stood to his feet and we made our way out of the house to search for Adria. I shared a picture of Adria with Zayne MD and he took off quickly in the direction of the off-limits street while I went the other way.
And I promised myself that if it was Monica who had taken Adria and if she had hurt her, I wasn’t going to stay back.