Secrets and Snakes

Chapter 3

Roughly twenty minutes later Elio and Lara arrived at Carol Daine's house. When they stepped out of the car, Carol was already waiting for them in the doorpost. She was crying, tears streaming down her face, ruining the makeup she had put on before. Richard had noticed Carol looked rather stressed and restless without makeup.
Elio and Lara walked up to Carol. Lara took out her notebook and a pen and she flipped over the pages to find an empty one. She wrote 'Potential murder (?)' at the top of the page.
"Oh, I'm so happy you two are here," Carol said, more tears streaming down on her cheek as she talked to the two, "I think- I-," she started.
Elio and Lara waited patiently for the woman to finish her sentence, but she never did.
"Come in," she said instead.
Carol turned to the door, slowly walking back into her home, gesturing to Elio and Lara to follow her inside.
Elio looked at Lara, but she didn't look back. Elio noticed Lara looked slightly worried, on edge. He realised she must be less familiar with investigating cases of murder than him. He was used to it, having worked in the city for so long. Lara, a casual police officer in a way smaller town, had way less experience with such extreme scenarios.
They entered the home. A combination of an icy, cooling gust of wind from the airconditioning and the with stress, confusion and fear loaded air hit Elio as he walked through the door. He felt tension, like what was usually the case for a murder. That was, at least, if he really was dealing with a murder case. After all, the situation wasn't yet fully clear.
"Would you two like something to drink?" Carol asked almost robotically, like she was acting almost on an automatic mode. It felt as if she asked only because she usually would when someone visited her house. There was no emotion in her voice, it was just a normal question asked in a normal way for a totally abnormal situation.
"No need, thank you," Lara responded for the both of them. Elio didn't mind this, he would have said no anyway. Elio always told himself and the others on the team not to accept any drinks or food offered by a suspect or unfamiliar civilian. He always believed there was a small chance they would attempt to poison him, and there was no way he would let that happen. Lara said he was just paranoid and never made a big deal of accepting offers like that, she just wasn't thirsty at the moment.
"Thank you," Carol said quietly to herself, as absentmindedly as she was acting before. Elio figured she wasn't in the mood for making tea right now, being glad they didn't want anything.
When the two entered the living room, they saw the other three sitting on the couch. At the sight of them, Elio's eyes seemed to get a little bigger, his mouth opened slightly, and his cheeks even got a little extra color.
Lara noticed, gave him a strange look, meaning to say, 'What is up with you?' and then chose to ignore it.
Elio straightened his uniform and coughed a little. When he spoke, his voice was at the same time rough and soft, fierce and nervous, certain and embarrassed.
"Hi, my name is Elio Hensley. This is my colleague, Lara Goldman. We're here to inspect the situation you reported. I'll start by saying there are policemen on their way to locate the cabin you were talking about on the phone with my colleague. We're here to do some research while our colleagues do everything they can to find your husband," Elio said, shaking the hands of the three others on the couch. Shaking one of the three hands sent a shiver down his spine. He knew exactly why.
Adeline and Darian quietly nodded, with the same absent look on their faces as their mother had.
"Thank you for coming here," Richard said, rubbing his hand over his beard, not sure how to act and react to the situation. Elio noticed Richard's hand wasn't entirely steady, it was shaking a bit. He thought he must be genuinely scared, giving his best friend might now be in grave danger. Elio felt a wave of fear and sadness crashing into him, seeing the man in front of him in such a state of worry and uncertainty.
"So, why don't we discuss for a second what the situation's like," Elio said, gently guiding Carol to the couch, letting her sit down before the real discussing began. "We heard about the situation only partially. Our colleague you called told us the most essential parts and then took off."
"Yes, of course," Carol said. Again, it felt to Elio as if these words weren't meant for them, they were meant for her.
Lara took out her notebook and pen again, clicking on the top of the pen to make the pin appear. She held it against the paper to ensure she would be able to immediately start taking notes whenever someone was ready to talk.
"It began this afternoon, when I was waiting for the guests to arrive. Wait, no, actually, it began way before," the woman said, tapping her fingers against her chin. "It was this morning, when he left for work. No, actually, we invited them first, and then, then-" Carol tried.
"I'll do it, Carol," Richard interrupted. He smiled to Carol with a hint of compassion. Carol nodded and answered his smile with her own. "My name is Richard Prescott. These two are Darian and Adeline Daine, daughter and son of Carol and Larry Daine. I'm a friend of Larry's."
Lara wrote down all their names. She looked at the four in front of them, then looked back down at her notebook and put a little question mark next to Adeline's name.
"We were going to meet up this evening to catch up a bit. I was the first to arrive, Adeline and Darian came a bit later. We waited for Larry to come, but he simply never did. Carol texted him, asking where he was at. He didn't respond. Then, at some point, Carol finally received a phone call. It was Larry," Richard continued.
When Richard spoke those last words, the tears started rolling down Carol's cheeks again. She let out a quiet groan and got out her tissue from her pocket to wipe them away.
"I can't tell you word for word what he said, the shock made it just a little blurry, but he said something about being in a cabin in the woods, and- and-" He took a deep breath. Elio thought the pause made it feel even more extreme. "He said someone was trying to kill him."
Lara's eyebrows moved a little. They didn't shoot up, like would be the case for an expression of shock and surprise, they just moved up for a second before returning to normal. She swallowed.
Elio didn't move a muscle. His expression stayed sharp and serious, like he always tried to keep it during his work hours. He examined the four people in front of him thoroughly. Something feels off, what is it? He thought to himself.
"We heard a shot. A few seconds later the phone call was ended. We immediately called," Richard finished.
Lara looked sideways at Elio. Elio looked back. She tilted her notebook slightly for Elio to see. With her index finger, she pointed at the little question mark beside Adeline's name. Elio nodded lightly.
"So, Larry mentioned a cabin? Is this something you're familiar with at all?" Elio asked.
"No, it's not," Carol said in an almost baffled tone. She was clearly confounded by the cabin spoken about. She had not a single clue what this cabin was all about, and the tone in her voice made that clear.
"And he didn't give any indication of his location?" Elio asked.
"No, he didn't," Carol responded.
"I see," Elio said, still thoroughly examining their every move and expression.
"Considering Mr. Daine's life is in danger; we'll do everything in our power to locate the cabin as fast as possible," Lara said, closing her notebook and pressing the pen's top once again the make the pin disappear. She put them away.
"My colleague's right, we'll be focusing on finding the cabin for now. I can imagine it might be good for you all to seek comfort with one another until we have more news to tell you. You're free to leave, of course, we're not going to keep any of you here, but consider it might be nice for you to be here for one another. For now, we'll leave you four alone. That is, unless any of you has anything else to add that might be helpful?" Elio said.
They all shook their heads.
"When will we hear from you again?" Darian asked, his trembling voice stabbing Elio's heart. He hadn't heard a voice this hurt in a very long time.
"Soon, very soon. We are going to keep you informed on everything and anything we find out," Elio responded, sending a compassionate smile in Darian's direction. Elio could feel his pain from miles away.
"I sincerely hope everything is going to be alright for you all," Lara began. "I understand how uncertain and scary the whole situation must be for you all. I just want you to know the situation's in good hands with our team. I wish the best for you all."
Carol and Richard nodded, the deeply concerned look still engraved on their faces. Elio wasn't quite sure how to estimate the two Daine children, Adeline and Darian. Their look wasn't as revealing as that of the other two.
Elio and Lara gave a quick, serious nod and turned to the hallway to leave the house. Halfway through his way to the door, Elio turned with a quick "Oh!", walked back to the living room and stood in front of them once more. Lara followed him and stood by his side.
"Carol, may I see your cellphone for a moment? Just to check the phone call you received, nothing special," Elio asked, sending another one of his compassionate smiles in Carol's direction.
"Yes, for sure," Carol responded, taking her cellphone out of her pocket and handing it over to Elio after typing in the code to unlock it.
The first thing he noticed was the home page's background photo. It was a picture of Carol and what he assumed to be her husband, Larry.
"Is this your husband?" Elio asked, turning the phone back to Carol to point at the man.
"Yes, that's my Larry," Carol replied, her voice sounding to Elio as slightly nostalgic, like he had been gone for the last thirty years.
Elio turned the phone back to him. He opened the Contacts app, clicked on the little clock on the bottom and now saw all recent calls Carol had had. At the top he saw Larry's name followed by an emoji of a yellow heart. He looked at the time next to the phone call that would most likely change the four's life forever. It said 19:16.
"And at what time did you receive the call, if you had to name a time?" Elio asked.
"Uh, it must have been," Carol said, looking at the clock on the wall, "around twenty minutes past seven."
"Okay, thank you, Carol," Elio responded. "We're done here. Thank you for your assistance." He nodded once again, turning back to the hallway to leave for real this time. Lara followed him. The four were left behind in the living room, all still hoping for a good ending to the story. None of them were too sure about that. The phone call didn't make it look all too promising.

Lara and Elio stepped outside, closing the door behind them. The moment the door closed, the two of them let out a sigh.
"Shit," Lara simply said, "potential murder makes this all so much more exhausting. How did you live like this for so long in the city?" she asked, not sure if it was meant as a joke or a serious question.
"Now you know why I left," Elio responded with a quick wink.
"So, I think it's safe to say we learned some new stuff with this," Lara said. "I also think it's safe to say we have some new questions appearing." She walked towards the car, Elio right behind her.
"I agree. Let's sum things up," Elio said, sitting down next to Lara, who sat behind the wheel. They didn't start the car yet. "Richard arrived early this evening, right before Adeline and Darian. They waited for Larry to show up, but he didn't. Carol texted him unsuccessfully, before then finally getting a phone call. He talked about being in a cabin in the woods and someone wanting him dead. They heard a shot then. They called the police and then we arrived. That's the story we know."
"There was something wrong for me tho," Lara started. "Carol, the wife. Not to be rude, but I'm gonna be rude, she looked like she hadn't slept in days. I know the whole situation is stressful, but this recent stress won't cause such a restless look. To me, it seemed like there was more on her mind than just the mystery of her husband."
"I'm glad you saw it too," Elio said, nodding. "This restless look isn't caused by something so recent. Maybe we should ask her if something's wrong when we get back here."
"So you're sure we're going back here?" Lara asked, hitting the gas pedal to leave the with sadness and fear filled house behind them.
"I am. The way they describe the phone call, especially with a gunshot being heard at the end, doesn't make it look too good for poor Larry. Whether he's still alive or not, we're going to have to pay them another visit in the future."
"Okay," Lara responded. "I really hope this won't be my first murder case."
"Trust me, Lara, I really hope so too."
Elio's phone rang. Lara looked to the side, taking her eyes off the road for the first time since they left the Daine house, even if it was just for a second. Elio took his phone out of his pocket to look at the name on the screen.
"It's Julian," he said, accepting the call. When Elio hit the green button with the word 'accept' under it, he put the phone to his ear to listen to what his colleague had to say.
Lara chuckled when Elio jumped at the sound of Julian's voice. Elio jokingly gave her a dirty look. He returned his attention to the phone call.
"Oh," Elio said, his voice sounding somewhat concerned, "you have?"
Lara could guess what that meant.
"Oh, damn it," Elio murmurred more to himself than to anyone else. "We'll head your way right now, stay where you are. Leave everything as it is."
Lara's heartbeat raised as the thought of what she saw as the truth came to her. She felt the blood in her body flow towards her head, making it feel warm and heavy. She felt nervous.
"Okay, thanks," Elio said, right before tapping the call away and putting his phone back in his pockets. He let out a long sigh, one he felt like he had been holding in unconciously for the last hour.
"Let me guess," Lara said, breaking the silence that for only a moment hung over them. She never finished her sentence.
"They've found the cabin," Elio started, letting out another sigh, "and they've found Larry too. He's dead."