AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mona doesn’t know what I’m up to. When I get back to Grozny, I’m going to be sure to tell her. Currently, I’m parked in front of her uncle’s home, which is surprisingly outside of a small town. I wouldn’t call this area the suburbs, and the nearest neighbor is a good bit away.
There’s no better moment than the present one, so I get out of my vehicle and shut the door quietly. I slide my keys into the pocket of my trousers as I approach the cottage. It looks to be built in the early nineteen hundreds. It’s two stories but doesn’t seem overly spacious. From what I’ve been able to find out about Mona’s uncle, he’s a single man who doesn’t have any family besides her. It would make sense he’d have a smaller home. He doesn’t need the extra space.
Vines with pink flowers are growing up around the bay window, and to the right of the bay window is a small porch where the front door is located. I can tell it’s been recently painted because of how impeccable it looks. There isn’t one mark on the door, not one smudge, and the fixtures look to be made of iron. It’s interesting to me how this is very much a traditional Irish cottage, but there are some more expensive upgrades.
I inhale slowly through my nostrils and put my hand up to the door, then rap my knuckles against the wood. At first, there’s dense silence, but a few moments pass by, and I can hear someone shuffling around inside.
Eventually, the door is pulled open, and an older man looks me up and down. “Can I help you?”
“Possibly. Are you Sean Buckley?”
The older man licks his lips and nods. “Yes, I am. Who’s asking?”
“My name is Nazyr. I’m actually a friend of Mona’s.”
As soon as I say Mona’s name, his eyes go wide.
“Mona, as in my niece?” He’s looking for clarification, and I’ll give it to him.
“Yeah.”
Her uncle draws his brows together. He’s trying to understand what in the hell is going on right now, and I have no problem explaining it to him. “Mona is okay. I’m not sure if you knew what happened to her, but she was taken.”
“She went missing when we were on holiday in Portugal. Is… is she with you right now?” Her uncle looks past me, trying to find Mona, but he won’t.
“No, she isn’t. I was in the area for some business and thought I’d check in to make sure this was the correct Sean Buckley and address.”
“It is. It is. Please, come inside.” Mona’s uncle motions with his hand for me to enter his home, and I walk inside. My goal in coming here is to figure out if her uncle had anything to do with her kidnapping or if he’s in the clear.
He directs me to a sitting room on the right and shuts the door behind me. I take a seat on a plaid couch, and he sits across from me on another couch that matches the one I’m sitting on. “I… I have so many questions, but I don’t know where to start. I thought Mona was dead. I thought… fuck. The police told me they had no leads on where she disappeared to.”
“Oh, so there was a missing person’s report filed?”
“Yes, but it was so complicated. I felt like it was handled much differently than it would’ve been if she had gone missing here in Ireland. At least I can count on our law enforcement here. Portuguese officials didn’t seem to care too much. They told me she probably ran off when she went out for a little while by herself. They were trying to tell me I was overreacting, but I wasn’t overreacting. I knew she was missing, and they didn’t believe me.”
He shakes his head, but one of the last things he said is playing back in my mind. “I knew she was missing.” How did he know? Was it because he was involved with her going missing in the first place? At least, it’s what I’m thinking right now.
I came here to get answers, and I’m not going to leave until I have some. Whether they’re good or bad, Mona deserves to know the truth. She made it known to me that she wasn’t sure if her uncle had a hand in her disappearance or not, and by the end of the day, I will know the truth.
“You said you knew she was missing. What do you mean by that?”
“I only mean Mona would have reached out to me. It was never in her character to just disappear. The police kept trying to tell me it was normal for someone her age, but it wasn’t. I know my niece, and she’s always been a responsible lass. Especially since her father passed away. When that happened, it’s almost like she stopped living so freely. I hated that for her, and I really tried to make sure she was enjoying every bit of her life. But, losing a parent like that is hard.”
Sure, Sean is talking to me, but what he isn’t doing is asking me about Mona, which immediately throws a red flag up in my mind.
“She’s doing well, by the way. I find it worrisome that you haven’t asked me about her yet.” I make my internal thoughts known, and Sean’s eyes go wide. He averts his eyes from my own, and I notice one of his hands is shaking. He’s nervous, and it’s evident.
“I was getting to that. I just… I never expected that she’d be okay. The police made me think she was dead, especially when they said they should’ve found something at that specific point in their investigation.” Sean isn’t making any sense to me. If anything, he’s rambling on and on. “What happened to her? Where has she been all this time?”
“She’s been with a man who beat her nearly every day, raped her, and used her as an object until she came under my protection,” I state clear as day, watching Sean’s reaction.
He shuts his eyes the moment I say rape, and his hands begin shaking even more as I continue. “For years, she was suffering, and I’m trying to figure out if anyone contributed to the reason she was suffering. Right now, you look like the person with the most motive, considering she was on a trip with you when she was taken.”
Sean swallows hard, and his eyes are glued on me, but for a split second, he looks at the door. He’s thinking about making a run for it, which only proves he had a hand in this. If he didn’t, he would’ve been arguing with me, pleading his innocence, but everything he’s doing only proves he’s guilty.
“Why do you seem so nervous, Sean?” I already know why he’s nervous. I’m just waiting for this slimy ass fish to take the bait.
“You’re a man with connections, aren’t you, Nazyr?”
