°Gone°

Chapter 1

Claire Scarpetta was driving in her car on her way to a suspicious crime scene. While she was driving, the detective call her.

“ Good morning Miss Scarpetta. I can only guess you're on your way to the crime scene?”

“ Well yes, sir. I am indeed. There is something about this disappearance of the suspect that is very suspicious for me but I just can't put my finger on it. Believe me, I'll try my best to find out what it is, sir.”

“ I'm definitely not gonna lie to you, Claire. Now that you mentioned that, there is definitely something more to this case. If I find anything that you should know, I'll inform you immediately. Have a great day, and, be careful, Claire.”

“ I'll appreciate it very much. Thanks, you must too. Don't worry much about me, Benton. You know how I am. And speak for yourself too. Bye”

Claire put her phone back into her handbag that she placed on the passengers seat. She started to drive a bit slower because she is very near to the scene where they have found the lake of a woman in her mid twenties, about twenty six years. She hold the car still and switched it off. She gathered all the stuff that of her that was important and put it in a safe place somewhere in her car. She closed the door and locked the car.

She was dressed in a dark blue jean with black ankle boots and a red long sleeve shirt with a grey jacket.

She was walking up to the other FBI's who was investigating the stall for any evidence they might find.

“ Good morning to all of you. Claude, please come to me. I need to speak to you about something.” 
Claude was walking to Claire and both was walking a bit farther for more privacy.

“ Morning, Claire. Didn't think you would be here so early. I thought Benton would come with you?"

“ Yes, I need to be here early. I don't want to miss anything. Benton could not be here. As I said, there is something I need to tell you.”

“ Oh of course. Yes, sure. Go ahead.”

“ I thought a bit about this case and I have a suspicion that there is something more to this case. Something suspicious. I told Benton too when he called me. He have the same suspicion.”

“ Well, I kind of have it too. We have a lot of investigation to do until we can tell what it is. We need to store the information in a security filing system. Not many people must have access to it. We can't trust everyone, you know.”

“ Yes, I agree with you on that one. I think it will be best if it is just you, Benton and I who have access to it. We must save it on our laptops so that we have more than one copy for in case we loose one.”

“ Yes definitely. You must just tell Benton when you can. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do.” he said sarcastically.

“ Yes of course. See you.”

Claude said good bye to Claire by giving her a tight hug. He turned his back to her and walked back to where the other FBI's were busy investigating.

Claire went back to her car, opened the door and sat in silence, thinking about the awful case that they have to work on. So many questions, yet no answers.

She switched the car on and decided to go to Benton who was at home, working on the case.

As she was driving to Benton, she thought about her having a crush on one of the detectives. She can't help but to give a small shy and guilty smile, and of course, she is blushing. The question is, who?

Quickly she shook her head to get her out of her thoughts. She is almost at Benton's house. Just another one kilometer and she is there. She hold still in front of the gate and pressed her hooter for Benton to open the gate. All of a sudden she saw the gate was opening and she drove in, parked her car, switched it off and climbed out.

She found Benton standing there and staring at her. Why is he staring at me like that? She thought.

Benton came walking up to her and gave her a tight hug like it is the first time they see each other in a long period of time. She can't help but to do the same in return. Once they were done, they went inside and they went to the kitchen first to make some coffee.

They went to the study where Benton was working on the case until Claire arrived. Claire made herself comfortable and sat on the couch.

“ So how far did you come with the case?" she asked out of the blue.

“ Well, not that far but I did found something.”

“ What? You must tell me. Something useful?"

“ I found that the body was refrigerated for a small period of time before she was being hanged.”

Claire was a bit surprised. “ Oh my. That's terrible. Anything else?”

“ Nope. That's all for now. Any news from your side?"

“ Yes. I spoke with Claude. I told him about the suspicion that you and I have and he said that he have it too. He also suggested that we must store the information in a security filing system and that not a lot of people must have access to it. I then said that only the three of us must have access to it and that all the information must be on our laptops so that we have more than one copy.”

“ That is a brilliant suggestion. I agree. Do you know anything about any photos that has been taken?"

“ Ummmm, as far as I'm concerned, Claude has everything with him. I'll asked him if I may get it.” she responded.

“ I'll appreciate that. Thank you, Claire.”

Afterwards they were just talking like normal friends...