Uncovering the Past
With the jacket draped across my lap, I felt a surge of determination. I needed to understand who Gabriel was, beyond the man I loved and lost. A cautious soul, they’d said—someone who wouldn’t make rash decisions.
The first call was to an old coworker, Steven. His voice cracked when I mentioned Gabriel’s name. “He was always one to double-check everything,” Steven recalled. “Remember the time he refused to hike in bad weather? He had that weather app.”
My heart raced. This was the essence of Gabriel I knew, the man who wouldn’t gamble with his life. I moved on to others. Each conversation reinforced my conviction. One friend had even mentioned a fishing trip Gabriel had planned before Nick’s invitation, a trip he’d been excited about. “Just him and Dave,” she said. “I thought it was odd when he changed plans at the last minute.”
“Odd?” I echoed, my pulse quickening. “Why?”
“I’m not sure, but Gabriel was looking forward to it. He seemed… uneasy about going with Nick.”
Uneasy. The word echoed in my mind as I hung up. Did Nick know this? Was there something deeper at play? Nothing felt right anymore. The idea of Nick being involved, even in a small way, sent a chill down my spine.
Confronting Nick
When Nick arrived that evening, I feigned my usual smile, but inside, I was a storm of emotions. “I wanted to talk about Gabriel,” I said, guiding him to the living room, keeping the facts I’d learned close to my chest.
He settled into a chair, his easy demeanor faltering under my intent gaze. “What about him?”
“I’ve been speaking to people,” I began, watching his expression carefully. “I learned about Gabriel’s original fishing plans. Why did you change them?”
His face tightened. “Sometimes plans change, Sarah. You of all people should know that.”
I pushed on, urgency fueling my words. “This was different! He didn’t want to go with you, did he? Something told him it wasn’t right.”
“It was an accident!” Nick’s voice rose, a hint of panic breaking through. “He loved fishing; it was just bad luck!”
“Bad luck? Or bad intentions?” I pressed, feeling emboldened. The atmosphere grew thick with tension, his hands clenching on the armrests.
Before he could respond, his phone buzzed violently on the table. He glanced at it, the color draining from his face. “It’s a work call. I need to—”
“Wait!” I grabbed the phone before he could react, my heart racing. “You don’t get to deflect now!”
His eyes widened as I opened the screen to see a text message flashing ominously. “We know what you did. Stop digging.”
My breath hitched. What had Nick been involved in? The implications unfurled like a dark cloud, blotting out everything else. “Nick, what is this?”
Panic flared in his eyes, and he snatched the phone from my grasp. “It’s nothing! Just a stupid threatening message! You need to leave it alone!”
But my instincts screamed at me to dig deeper. This whispered danger hinted at a connection between Nick and Gabriel’s disappearance that was too significant to ignore.
As Nick’s voice escalated, a small piece of paper slipped from his pocket and fluttered to the floor. I instinctively bent down and grabbed it. A name. A date. My heart pounded as I read it over and over. It was a reminder for a meeting about finances, dated the week before Gabriel vanished.
The private investigator had just confirmed what I feared. Nick had been involved in illegal activities that directly related to Gabriel’s fate.