And that is exactly what I did. This girl Marsha who was no thicker than a stick of asparagus and quite frankly looked as if she took drugs, appeared to be as much in the dark as I was about Daniella’s disappearance. In fact, she had not heard from Daniella since she took herself off to work as a nanny in Germany. She promised me that she would ask around but she was sure that she was either with this boyfriend or on a holiday. She seemed not the slightest bit fazed by her lack of contact. Young people are so strange.
As promised, Marsha got back to me several days later after asking around and she assured me that Dani had not been out and about locally, and that no one had heard from her. She did, however, give me an address for her boyfriend, so I decided to pay him a visit.
I pulled up and was firstly relieved to see that he lived in quite an affluent area. I took my driver, Burton, with me for protection because I had no idea what kind of man I was dealing with. I rang the bell and saw the shadow behind the miniscule spy hole in the door. “Hello!” I said a little too loudly, nerves getting the better of me.
The door opened and stood in front of me was a rugged-looking man, handsome in a tough looking way but he looked as if he was up to no good. I looked down at his hand and noticed part of his finger missing, I wondered if he had lost it at work in an accident or if there was another story behind it.
“Excuse me, I think you know my daughter, Daniella, I’m Eva, her mother. I wondered if I could speak to you.” I watch his face as it registers who I am and I see the colour drain from him. He looks nervous.
“Come in. Erm, excuse the mess though as I wasn’t expecting anyone.” He runs a hand through his hair and kicks a few cans out of the way as I follow him into the lounge.
I look around the apartment and I am shocked to see that he has nice furniture, and the apartment is well kept apart from the empty beer cans lying around. I choose to stand despite him asking me to sit.
“I need to know when you last saw my daughter, Luke.” He flinches slightly as I say his name. “We haven’t heard from her for weeks now, months actually. I’m worried and before I contact the police, I want to know if you’ve seen her or spoken to her recently.” He clears his throat while looking at the floor.
“I haven’t heard from her since she was in Germany.” He looks straight at me, but only briefly. “She told me we were over, finished, and there was no convincing her to come back with me so I left. I received a text message from her about one week later to say she was going backpacking in South America, and I haven’t heard anything from her since.”
I tried to figure out if he was being truthful but I had no idea.
“Just out of interest, why did she end the relationship, Luke?” I’m curious about this man that has spent time with my daughter and I wonder what part he played in her rushing off to Germany.
“Look, I’ll admit I messed up big time. I went on holiday with some friends and she found a picture of me with another woman sitting on my knee, in a compromising position. It was completely innocent, but understandably, she was upset. When I returned from Ibiza, she was gone off to Germany. It took me a while to track her down but when I did, like I say, she wasn’t interested. She could be a stubborn bitch.” He flushed a pale pink. “Sorry, that was disrespectful of me, I didn’t mean for it to sound like that.”
“Did you love my daughter, Luke?”
“You’re using past tense, Eva – I did, and still do love Dani.”
I left his apartment and sat in the car wondering what to do next. I knew that if I did nothing, I could end up looking like Cruella De Ville, and that would not be good for my social status, however, neither would the negative attention that could come from involving the police, but I had no option given the time that had lapsed since anyone had heard from Daniella.
“Burton, drive me to the police station please, it’s about time I spoke to someone in authority about this.”
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