He drove there.
His heart hammered against his ribs immediately as the address led him to a sagging, two-story building on a quiet, neglected street. Windows were boarded, the front doorway sagged inward on its hinges, and weeds choked the concrete steps. The whole place felt wrong—dangerously forgotten, as though it swallowed secrets and never returned them. Standing on the cracked pavement, Adam imagined Clara running there, desperate and frightened. Maybe someone had chased her. Maybe she’d discovered something she shouldn’t have. Every stain on the faded siding, every boarded window, seemed to whisper a darker possibility, feeding the storm of fear he had tried so hard to control.
On the drive home, a cold guilt gnawed at him. If she had been scared, if she had been in trouble, then his stupid passport prank might have pushed her further into danger. He replayed her silence over and over until it became an unbearable roar in his skull. Later, the dread had swollen into something too heavy to carry alone. With hands trembling, Adam finally called the police, his voice unsteady as he explained that Clara had vanished, was completely unreachable, and was possibly at serious risk. He didn’t care how irrational or frantic he sounded. He needed help before the fear consumed him completely.
Two officers arrived within the hour. Adam recounted everything—her sudden disappearance, her perpetually unreachable phone, the strange bouquet, the ominous abandoned building. His voice wavered as he spoke, but he clung to every detail as though they were lifelines that might somehow bring her home. He showed them the few belongings she’d left behind: a toothbrush, a couple of T-shirts, and a half-empty shampoo bottle. The officers examined them quietly, taking notes. Nothing in the sparse collection suggested she had planned a long trip or had been interrupted mid-packing.
“Did she leave any note? A message? Anything at all indicating where she was going?” one officer asked. Adam shook his head helplessly. He had checked every drawer twice. There was nothing—no explanation, no hint. It was as if she had simply walked off the face of the earth. When they asked him about any recent fights between them, Adam faltered. He realized with a cold, sinking clarity that she had barely been putting up with him and his jokes for some time now. Haltingly, he explained how he had hidden her passport, imagining she would call him upset, that it would force a conversation.