Chapter 8 Finding Dalton

Sparkle

With a heavy heart, I returned to work. The weight of my divorce was crushing me down, how I wish I could turn back the hands of time, I wouldn't never have married Damien. He's the only man I have known all my life, how could he do this to me? If I hadn’t met that injured Husky, I would have died from depression. I believe healing that dog is healing me too.

Walking into the OPD a saw group of vets from my team gathered behind Mr. Wesley at the OPD, intently watching his phone screen.

I couldn’t help but be curious about what was going on. I mean they all had phones so I wonder what would make them crowd around Mr. Wesley. It must very insensitive if it made them leave their phones to gather around Mr. Wesley. Yearning to satisfy my curiosity, I tried to fuse into the small crowd, but Daisy grabbed my arm and pulled me aside.

“Girl, you’ve been gone for 5 business days and not even a call or text from you. How have you been?”

“Honestly, I’m good. Damien and I are still dividing our property, but I’m not stressed about it. He’s been reasonable so far.” I explained.

“Sorry to hear about that,” she apologised, but I wasn’t ready to get pitied over losing my marriage; this wasn’t the end of the world.

“What are you all watching on Wesley’s phone?” I quickly changed the subject.

“Oh, that… have you heard about the Roux estate disaster?” She asked, and I nodded eagerly.

“So, new information circulating is that the son

of the Roux estate developers Dalton Roux, was set to marry the daughter of the owners of Ross estates which is another real estate company. However, the accident happened the night before the wedding, and the groom is missing as we speak.”

“Dalton Roux?” I mouthed.

“Yes, him. Some people believe that he’s behind the attack on his parents; they are claiming he did it to stop the wedding and the potential merger of the two companies.” Daisy replied.

Though I don’t know who this Dalton guy is, I doubt he will do such a terrible thing to his own parents. The Roux estate is a large gated community where only a certain class of people live. It is owned by the Roux family, and they do not associate themselves with anyone who does not belong to their social circle. From the news, I learned that the Roux family was going to merge with the Ross family, and their gated communities would also merge and become one large estate, but I didn’t know that it was because their children were getting married. 

“Dalton wouldn’t have gotten engaged if he didn’t want to marry the lady in question,” I stated as if I knew him personally. As if I didn’t just learn about his existence a few hours ago.

Daisy shrugged, “It doesn’t matter if he did or did not, what we all want is the 3 million reward. Let's form a search team and go into the woods near the accident scene and try to find him. If we find him, we can share the money.”

She sounded so eager and persuasive and it also sounded like a great idea, but something kept bothering me. I feel like Dalton was purposely hiding; he knows that everyone is looking for him, but he has purposely chosen not to show up. I also feel like he’s lurking around my parents' outhouse. He was the one who broke into the house this morning. I can't prove it, but I know it was him. If this whole thing is on purpose, then it would be a very bad idea to look for him. Who knows what he's capable of doing to us?

“Great idea, but do you think we will find him before anyone else does?” I faked enthusiasm.

“There’s no harm in trying, and also, you don’t necessarily have to find him. If you are able to give accurate clues on where to find him, you will get the reward.” She informed me, which made my eyes wide with greed.

When it comes to accurate clues, I believe I am the best person to do that. He’s definitely around my outhouse, but wait… what if he already left after I almost walked in on him this morning?

“Let’s get to work. Enough of this Dalton Roux madness.” Daisy instructed as I followed her to our designated station. My phone beeped, and when I saw Albert’s name on display, I didn’t want to waste any time answering it. I dashed to ghe bathroom to answer it.

“Miss Engler, you won’t believe what I just saw.” He announced so enthusiastically that I stopped in my tracks, creating a gap between Daisy and me. “I was going through the security footage from this morning, and I saw a man jump out of the bathroom window. The camera didn’t capture exactly where he went, but I just paused the video, and I think the man I see is Dalton. I’ve sent it to you, please judge for yourself.”

“Okay, sure,” I replied and quickly hung up to analyze the video for myself. My hands shook as I zoomed in the video over and over. After several minutes of analysis, I still couldn’t tell if that was Dalton because I don’t know him personally, it was a naked man. Naked because he was covered in bandages and from what I was seeing, I had no doubts that it was him. But this only meant that his disappearance was deliberate and not some displacement due to the accident.

But I still can’t understand why he’s hiding, and most importantly, where he’s hiding. Is he in the outhouse with me? Is he lurking somewhere in the basement of my parents' home? If so, then the 3 million dollar price isn’t too far a goal to reach.

I was about to step out of the cubicle where I was hiding when I heard a group of girls from the other team trooping in while gossiping about the Roux estate issue.

“I heard Dalton is hiding because he thinks that those who attacked his parents will attack him, too. He won’t show his face until the police reaches a conclusion on this case,” one of them said.

“I feel like this had to do with his fiancée or her family; they may not have wanted the wedding to take place, and they may not have wanted the merger in the first place,” another one said.

“Then they could have just backed out; nobody had to die. In my opinion, his brother is behind it; he doesn’t want the family wealth to go to his big brother, so he got rid of his whole family,” another one chipped in.

“I doubt that. Mason is also fighting for his life at the hospital, and I believe Dalton is already dead. If he were alive, he would have shown up, now that everyone is looking for him.” another purported.

“Unless he is guilty.”

As I listened, my heart raced when I heard that. It sounded like Dalton was indeed, guilty of wiping out his entire family. But If he is capable of something so atrocious what is going to happen to me now that I have his dog and he's lurking around my yard? What is he going to do to me now? My heart began to pound wildly.