*Farah's POV*
My breath caught in my throat as a shudder ran through my body as I took in the sight in front of me. Furniture was knocked over, various objects were messily strewn about the living room and broken glass crunched under my feet as I entered my now destroyed home.
"Elara!" I called out as I quickly ran upstairs, only to find she wasn't there. "Elara!" I yelled desperately, checking her room, finding it just as trashed as the living room, there was no sign of her.
I shakily dialed Saul's number, praying that he would pick up.
"Hello?" His voice came through the phone.
"Saul? Saul are you all right?" I asked, stumbling over my words. He let out a worried chuckle, "Of course I am, I'm just out at dinner with Ben, what's wrong?"
"You and Ben need to meet me at my office right away," I instructed, "Do not go home first, just head straight there."
"Farah, what is go-"
"Just go now! I'll meet you there, hurry!" I yelled in a panic before hanging up the phone.
I was about to head out, but something on Elara's door caught my eye.
A note was stuck to her door, hung by a piece of tape, beside it was a picture of Elara, a knife in the center, holding it to the door. I took the note off the door and read it over.
"An eye for an eye"
I took the note with me as I ran out of my house, not bothering to lock the door or be careful to preserve the crime scene. All caution and reasonable thought seemed to evaporate as realization dawned on me. Someone had kidnapped Elara. Kidnapped my daughter.
....
I ignored the looks from students. Ben and Saul were already there, and they stood at my desk; conversing, most likely about possible reasons I called them in.
Saul saw me first, his head snapping up, his face showed signs of worry and confusion. Ben followed suit, with the same expression, however is was Saul who spoke first. "What's going on Farah?"
I ignored his question as I walked straight past them, "Conference room. Now." I said, as I walked straight towards it.
Once we all filed into the room, I locked the door and closed the blinds, "Farah?" Ben asked, "You're kinda scaring me."
I took the note that was left on Andromeda's door and slammed it on to the conference room table. "When I got home, my house was torn apart and I found this note left on Elara-" I stopped mid sentence. The two didn't know I had a daughter, no one did.
"Farah come on, you gotta tell us what's going on." Saul said.
I took a deep breath, realizing I would have to tell them about Andromeda in order to find her.
"The note was left on Elara's door... my daughter."
The two stood in shock as they attempted to process what I had said. "Daughter? You have a daughter? How did we not know about this?" Saul asked, voicing what Ben was more than likely thinking.
"She was born just a few years after what happened in Aster Dell, I was young and scared, I thought if anyone knew about her she could be used against me. I knew my connections would be dangerous, so to protect her, I made sure she was a ghost." I began to explain, everyone listened intently.
"However, I'd been headmistress long enough that I no longer felt as if I needed to keep her a secret, but before I could figure out the best way to bring up the fact I had a daughter, Rosalind happened. I convinced myself the only reason she didn't go after her was because no one knew she existed, so I decided to keep her hidden in case it ever happened again."
"You could have told us," Ben said, a slight hint of anger in his voice, "We're your family, you can trust us with stuff like this."
I let out a sigh, "I was scared, I didn't know what to do! All I know now is that she's missing and the only evidence I have is a destroyed house and a stupid note that tells us nothing!" I yelled, slamming my fist down on the table, making Ben jump.
"Okay, okay, let's calm down and handle this case like we would any other," Saul said, "What would we look at first?"
"Who did this?" I said, trying to steady my breathing and calm down.
"Is there anybody that would want to harm Elara or have a grudge against you?" Saul said, grabbing a marker and walking to the white board, already writing things down.
"Elara? No." I said, "But me, I've either arrested or assisted in the arrest of many criminals, I doubt there's even one who doesn't have a grudge against me. I just don't understand how any of them would know about Elara."
"If this is about getting revenge on you then we need to look at anyone you arrested who got released from prison within the last six months," Saul said. "On it!" Ben responded, running out of the conference room, presumably to his office.
"Do you have a picture of her?" Saul asked. I nodded and reached into coat pocket to retrieve the picture of Elara I kept in my pocket. I always kept it there to make it easier to hide. Saul taped the picture to the white board next to the note.
"She's 8 and goes by the name Elara Dowling," I added, prompting Saul to write the information on the board below her picture.
"You know this note, though it's only five words has a lot of meaning behind it, 'An eye for an eye'." Saul piped up.
"The Code of Hammurabi." Farah said.
"Exactly," Said Saul, "The Code of Hammurabi was an ancient law system created to prevent crime that dates all the way back to 1754 BC, it was created by the sixth Babylonian King, Hammurabi; hence it's name. It's most well-known line being 'Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth'. Whatever crime you committed would be the punishment you received."
"If that's true, then we can rule out anyone arrested by Farah as a possible suspect, our kidnapper would more than likely be someone who was either a relative or close to someone Farah arrested or even killed." Saul stated. "I'll tell Ben," Saul said, picking up the phone to call Ben.
