###Untitled
####By Gabriel Mundo
[[Start|Intro]]  "Forlan? Henry Forlan?" I said as the door opened. "We talked on the phone. My name is Renly Bloom, you can call me Bloom, I'm the private investigator you hired."
  The man on the other side of the door was tall and dark haired. He wore thick horn-rimmed glasses and was skinny for his size.
  "Yes, I'm Henry Forlan. What time is it?" He said.
  "5. Sorry, did I wake you?"
  "Not like I've been getting much sleep anyways. Please come in.
  Henry was wearing a pair of striped pajamas, the kind you see in cartoons. His glasses magnified the dark circles under his eyes.
  [["We can talk here. Shouldn't take too long,"|TalkHere]] I said
  [[Follow him inside.|Follow]] <<set: $agression to 0>>
<<set: $trust to 0>>
<<set: $love to 0>>
<<set $professional to 0>>
  The house seemed to reflect Henry's appearance, everything was clean and perfectly placed. In the early morning darkness the house felt deathly still. He walked me into the living room and motioned me to sit.
  "Tea? Coffee?" He said.
  "Coffee would be great," I said.
  Henry called from the kitchen, just out of sight. I could hear the clink of cups and bags opening. "You're here early."
  "On missing children cases I try not to waste any time.
[[You know, the whole 72 hours thing."|72Hours]] I said
[[Don't like the idea of children being left alone,"|LeftAlone]] I said.  Henry shook his head as if to shake off the drowsiness. "If you wish," he said. "What can I help you with?"
  "I just need to ask you a few questions; about your daughter, Amber was it? About you, about how and when she went missing. Anything that'll help me find her," I said taking out my notebook.
  "About me?" Henry said.
  "Yes," my eyes caught his eyes. "Is that a problem?"
  "No, no problem."
  Henry's eyes shifted slightly. It was small shift, so small most people wouldn't notice. I've been in this job long enough to know that the body often reveals more than we'd like it to.
  [["Let's start there, tell me about yourself."|TellMe]] I said.  "What about myself?" Henry said.
  "General things. What you do for work? Your relationship with your daughter. Your relationship with your wife. Why, if any reason, did she go missing?" I said.
  "And this is going to help you find Amber?"
  "Maybe," I said. I had my pen pressed to my notepad. "Go ahead."
  "Okay," he said taking a second to collect his thoughts. "Well, I'm a teacher. I teach social studies to high schoolers. Not as exciting as PI but I enjoy it. I love Amber. Ever since we brought her home-"
  "-She's not your daughter?" I said.
  "No," Henry said. "She *is* my daughter, just not by birth. We adopted her 6 years ago."
  [["And how old is she now?"|Age]] I said.  It was pouring soft blankets of rain when I pulled up to the 423 Sheridan. The entire neighborhood was quiet asleep, no sound but the occasional thunder far off. All the houses looked identical. Red brick with white mortar like out of a Christmas card.
  Today was a missing persons case. A man lost his daughter. From my experience it's never that simple.
  I walked up to the dark cherry wood door. I pressed the doorbell but it didn't work. I started my rhythmic closed fist pounding on the door.
[[And waited.|Start]]  "What happens after 72 hours?" Henry said.
  "After 72 hours the police stop searching for person and start searching for a body." I said.
  The kitchen went silent.
  "But you called me early, that's good. I'm good at my job and we still have plenty of time." I added.
  Henry came back into the living room with two cups of coffee. His face tight and his eyes heavy. "Thank you Mr. Bloom. You have no idea what this means to me. I don't know what I'd do if I lost Amber."
"I am going to need a couple things from you before I get started." I said.
"Anything," he said.
  [["Walk me through the day she went missing."|Missing]] I said.  "Neither do I," Henry said. "Especially if it's my daughter." He came back with two cups of coffee. He took the seat closest to me and leaned in. "What do you need?"
  "Need for?" I said.
  "Need in order to find her. I'll give you whatever you need."
  Henry rested his head on his knuckles and his elbows on his knees, like a child waiting to be told some secrret. His head was bobbing up and down from his shaking.
  "Just need a couple questions answered. After that I'll just do my job," I said.
"Anything you need," he said.
  [["Talk me through the day she went missing."|Missing]]  "Well the day she went missing was about as normal as it gets. She's up by 7 and out the door for school by 7:45," Henry said.
  "And does she take the bus or do you drive her?" I said.
  "No, she walks. It's about a 10 minute walk. I ask her every day if she wants a ride but she always says no. I think she enjoys the time alone."
  "And how old is she exactly?" I asked.
  "14."
  "Yeah teenagers tend to like being alone. Go on."
  "Well, then went to work. I teach high school social studies. Went through my entire day, nothing out of the ordinary. Came back home and waited for Amber."
  [["And what time does she usually get home?"|Missin2]] I said.   "She's 14. Just turned," he said.
  "So you got her when she was 8. That's pretty old for adoption. Do you have any contact with the birth parents?
  "No, she's an orphan."
  "And can you think of anyone she might go live with? Maybe a friend of her parents or an aunt or uncle?
  "No."
  I looked up from my notes and saw Henry with furrowed brows. "Okay, and your family. How are you and your wife? Anything you two have been doing that might have made Amber feel unsafe at home?"
  Henry took a pause. "Well, considering she's been dead for a year, probably not."
  [["I'm sorry, Mr. Forlan. I didn't know,"|Sorry]] I said.
  [["And before that?"|Question]] I said  "I didn't mean any disrespect," I said.
  "Of course you didn't. Just doing your job." Henry said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get defensive."
  "No need to apologize, let's move on. Tell me about Amber, anything you think would be helpful." I said.
  "Amber," he said. "Amber, was a tough one to crack. She was real shy and hardly talked when we first brought her home. It was months before she would respond in full sentences to us and maybe a year before we could make her smile. Since then she's just been something we, I, couldn't live without."
[["And could you describe her appearance. Any outstanding physical features?"|Description]] I said.  "What do you mean before? Before she died?" Henry said.
  "Yes," I said.
  "Mr. Bloom," he said. "I don't see any reason why you need to know anything about my dead wife to find my daughter."
  People get so defensive about death. With more time I would break a man like Henry to tell make him tell me everything I wanted to know, but his girl was still missing.
  [["I apologize Mr. Forlan, let's move on. Describe Amber for me."|Description]] I said. Double-click this passage to edit it.  "About 4," Henry said.
  "She's not in any clubs or teams?" I said.
  "No, Amber likes the quiet things. She reads, does her homework, and that's pretty much it. I don't try to force her to do things she's uncomfortable with."
  "Well does she have any friends that might know where she is?"
  Henry shook his head no. I was chasing a ghost.
  "Can I take a look in her room?"
  "Her room? Why?"
  "Well if there aren't any people who can help me find her then maybe she can.
  [[With your permission of course."|RoomCheck]] I said.
  [[Mind showing me the way?"|RoomCheck]] I said.   "Yes, of course." Henry said with a shrug of the shoulders.
  Henry led me up a small staircase to a floor with only two rooms. One was a bathroom and the other was a bedroom. The room was surprisingly large for being hidden away. Amber's room reflected the personality her father described. Large bookcases lined the walls of the room. The only furniture was a bed, a nightstand, and a large desk. There was a window nook, I imagined she read here a lot, looking out onto the driveway.
  "Thank you, do you mind stepping out for a minute."
  "Why?"
  I turned to face Henry. He looked unsteady.
  [["Parents usually don't like a stranger rummaging around their child's room."|RoomCheck2]] I said.   He stood there a second. His body was still but his eyes paced around the room as if he was trying to see if he missed anything. "Okay, I'll be downstairs if you need anything." Henry said and he left.
  I looked around at the bland room of the missing girl. It seemed so ordinary that I almost didn't know what to look for. The bed is usually a good place to start. Nothing special about hers. It was a twin bed with a carved wooden frame, the matress was springy. The sheets smelled clean, freshly washed. Parents always neglect to look under the bed, that's where kids hide their secrets. For me it was old Playboys but everyone is different. It was a tight squeeze, hardly any room for a child let alone a grown man. I was expecting it to be empty but there it was, a shoebox decorated with colored paper.
  As I wiggled out from under the bed I heard the door open.
  [[Henry walked in.]]   "And why not?" Henry said approaching me. "Let me have a look at it."
  I moved the box behind my back. "No," I said. "Let me finish the room check first."
  "No that's ridiculous." Henry rose to his full size. "I have a right to see anything related to my daughter." He reached for the box.
  I moved the box even further back. "No. Not yet. In order to do my job I can't have you interfering."
  "Interfering? I hired you."
  "Yes, you did. So let me do my job."
  "Mr. Bloom, enough, seriously. Give me the box."
  [[I gave him the box.]]
  [["No, please wait outside."]] I said.   "Oh, I'm sorry. It's just, you forgot your coffee and I didn't want it to get cold. What you got there?" He said.
  "A box." I said.
  "What's in it?"
  "I don't know."
  "Are you gonna open it?
  [["Yes,"|I opened it.]] I said.
  [["No,"]] I said.   "Jesus Christ, thank you." Henry said. He hesitated to open it. The box was childish and poorly made. No writing on any of the sides, just pieces of colored paper poorly glued onto the sides. He lifted the top off. He let out a small sigh of laughter. "Ha, just pictures. Baby pictures of her, some pictures of her parents, old toys. Just memories."
  "May I see it now?" I said.
  He handed it to me without a word. I inspected it and found nothing out of the ordinary. Just the time capsule of a little girl. "Why would she hide this?" I asked out loud.
  "Why do kids do anything? I'm sorry I got so defensive. I didn't know what to expect."
  [["It's okay. I get it,"]] I said.   "Mr. Bloom, I'm starting to lose my patience."
  I could have made him leave. It wouldn't have been hard to push him out of the room, a small wind could do that. He had a look on his face. I wasn't sure if it was fear or sadness, maybe a bit of both. "We can open it together right now if you really want to."
  Henry nodded, placed the coffee cups down on the nightstand by the bed, and stood beside me. He towered over me and watched my every movement. "Go on," he said.
  The box was childish and poorly made, definitely a couple years old. No writing on any of the sides, just pieces of colored paper poorly glued onto the sides.
[[I opened it.]]  "Your daughter is missing, everything is a mystery. Please, for next time, let me do my job."
  He nodded.
    The box opened with a soft scrape. I was surprised with how much was inside it, letters mostly.
  "What is it?" Henry said taking a letter out and reading it. "There's nothing on it. Just dates. No writing, no address, nothing."
  He was right. That's all that was on it. Some went back a couple of years others as recent as the week before. "Do these dates mean anything to you?" I said. "Birthdays, vacations, anything special?"
  Henry looked up to think, searching every crevice of his brain. Then, a moment of recognition flashed on his face for just an instance. "No," he said.
  [["You're lying,"]] I said.   "Now don't start accusing me of things," Henry said. "Especially not now."
  "You're telling me the truth?" I said.
  "Yes," he said. He stood with his shoulders back and his face clenched.
  "Look me in the eyes and tell me that. This is your daughter's life."
  He dropped a bit to meet me at eye level and took off his glasses. "I don't know what these dates mean."
  He was lying, I was sure of it. The way his mouth twitched as he said the words. His excessive blinking. He had something to do with his daughter's dissapearance. I can't say I was surprised, it's always the quiet ones.
  [["Okay, Mr. Forlan. I believe you, I apologize."|Apologize]]  "I think I'm done checking the room. I think I have everything to start my investigation. Do you have a recent picture of her I can use?"
  "Mr. Bloom," he said. "I didn't have anything to do with her going missing."
  "Yes, Mr." Forlan. I already said I believe you. The picture please," I said.
  He reached into his wallet and pulled out a school photo of Amber.
  "Thank you," I said. I knew I couldn't turn him into the police with nothing but his facial expression as evidence. I needed to go find some proof. "Hopefully the next time we meet I will reunite you with your daughter."
  He nodded and walked me down the stairs. He said goodbye as he closed the door.
  [[I walked back to my car.]]
  [[I went around the back.]]Double-click this passage to edit it.Double-click this passage to edit it.