Chapter 12

Routine, routine and more routine, that was all; wake up go to class come back, there was nothing anyone could do.

Ilem's friends avoided her, Yelena who had been her friend for the past years was angry with her for not talking to her for a week, but it wasn't Ilem's fault; her mother had forbidden her to use the phone and Yelena had gotten sick. So now she was deep in math, but the professor's bald head was the one that captured all her attention.

"Hey, you should answer the questionnaire that he sent last week by email, it is the only way for any mortal to pass this unit."

Yelena whispered half a scream, Ilem smiled, she knew that her friend couldn't be angry for more than a day, she was going against all her nature.

I hought you weren't talking to me for not talking to you for a whole week, and not answering your messages.

Yelena stuck her tongue out at her like an infant, but she spoke again.

"You owe me, in fact, I want a detailed explanation of why you behave badly and I suffer, I think your voicemail fell in love with me after so many messages."

If something was true about the two of them, it was that they were not one of those inseparable friends; Lena was crazy, but she wasn't the crazy party girl, rather she was the crazy save the planet.

Protests, tree plantings and picking up trash, she was there. Her motto is "if you don't take care of it, pollution will kill us all" And Ilem didn't care about wasting time on the insurmountable, the world would end anyway.

"Well, which questionnaire? Yesterday I was checking my email and I didn't have any new messages."

Yelena made an annoyed face, she removed her black hair from her face, that fringe was recent, Ilem noticed.

“It's not new, she sent it a thousand years ago, maybe you deleted it by mistake."

You should check in trash; he would send it to you, but that means giving up my beautiful peace of mind of going to my cooking class for staying home to do homework.

Ilem threw a ball of paper at her, to which the teacher gave her a bad look and told her to calm down, Yelena made fun of her.

“You don't have to do more than press a button to send it.

Lena waved her hand away."

"I haven't done it either, so if he sent it to you I'll see it and I'll feel guilty, so I'll stay home to do homework instead of going to my cooking class and I don't want to."

That was Yelena, a bad girl who had never been caught or rather a good girl who wanted to be bad.

When Ilem got home she just wanted to sleep, but she knew she had to hand in that silly questionnaire if she wanted to get a fairly acceptable grade for the director's daughter, so she sat in front of the computer like someone going to the gallows .

The questionnaire was certainly in the bin of her email, but what caught her attention was that there was also an email from Friday November 9, the last Friday that Grace was seen and it was precisely an email from the aforementioned .

Ilem hurriedly opened the email, if there was something that could lead her to Grace it was that, the case had not progressed lately due to lack of evidence, there was no body and the suspects had nothing to say, Ilem had gone to testify three times after the first and always said the same thing, which gave the officers nothing to work with.

From: GraceF.16@gmail.com

To: IlemDream@gmail.com

I have something to tell you, do you know why your parents are about to get divorced? Do you want to know why your mother cries in the bathroom all the time and she can't look at your father without that expression of hate? I know the name of the woman who has been destroying your family, would you like to know? Meet me in the high school library at 9:00 pm there are things you need to know Ilem.

So her father was cheating on her mother and Grace knew it, maybe it was with someone from the office and she saw them, her mother had been devastated a few weeks before Grace disappeared, there had been screams from down the hall; claims and hints of divorce from her mother, but nobody understood why, now Ilem saw everything clearly because she went to see Grace against all odds.

She still wasn't clear about the reason she couldn't remember, but she would find out later, by the time she gave the mail print and she was ready to go to the police station.

Maybe this woman Grace was going to dirty had a lot to lose and she couldn't let him smear her.

Sometimes that happens when you get involved in matters bigger than yourself.

Ilem took the sheet of paper from the printer and left her room, her mother was leaving the office that she shared with her father there at home; she took a step back and hid her paper behind her.

"What's up mom? You're early, I thought you had things to do today."

Her mother gave her a sad smile and kissed her forehead, she hadn't done that since she was a child.

"It's nothing, Gabe is going to a competition to Qualify the other part of the classification for the open sea selection, she asked me to go for him; Ian was apparently going to talk to his father and couldn't bring him back."

Ilem was moved by her brother, she knew how much she wanted to go to the Olympic Games, since she was a child she did not stop practicing she was a fish in the water. After all this with Grace, it was good for him to concentrate on something else, she knew that he hadn't stopped looking, she kept calling the police station constantly to receive the same answer.

Nothing new.

"How was it?"

She asked her mother, the smile widening on her face.

"He was incredible, he was the second in the classification, a pity that your father was not, Marianna was there, apparently Roland did not bother to go either."

Poor Ian thought ilem, for some time he had been having problems with his parents, that's why he took refuge in the Fullers his family was having a bad time, ilem didn't know the nature of that evil, but Ian had been being miserable because of it, although he hide with smiles

"Where are you going darling?

Her mother apparently didn't let anything go and even though she had the intention of telling him the truth, but she didn't want her mom to find out that her dad was cheating on her, then she would face her father with those questions, now she just wanted to deliver that paper."

"I'm going for a walk, I'm a little tired and I want to go out."

She answered without giving more details, it wasn't like she was going to go very far either.

"I'm going to go get supplies for dinner."

“If you come back before I do, wake up Gabe and tell him not to forget to meet Ellen at her friend's birthday party, my car keys are in the kitchen."

"Will you take a taxi?"

Ilem was surprised, her mother hardly ever went out without her car.

“Yes, anyway I also want to go for a walk."

I assure you her mother, Ilem walked to the police station, the only one who was at the counter was super redheaded Amanda Cramer; she waved at him from her position, ilem approached and handed her the sheet of paper without saying anything.

"To be supposed to…?

Her words caught in his throat"

"That's why I went to the library, I lied, I didn't go to pick up any books, I don't remember most of Friday night and that email was sent to me by her."

Amanda's face was a poem after ilem's blow of sincerity, he did nothing but look at her role and back at her.

Amanda's gaze was stern and Ilem prayed that he wouldn't suspect her again. She was giving him information that was something.

"You did not have to lie, you complicated everything ilem, thank God Fieguera got it into his head to check the recordings of the service stations and the nearby streets."

After that accusation ilem shrugged his shoulders without saying anything until Amanda's words made more sense and he spoke.

“What do you mean, did they find something?"

Amanda took a deep breath and released what she had inside her.

"Grace was seen inside a car in the recording of Friday, November 9 with a man, the car has not yet been identified, so we have not given any news and we cannot see the man clearly either, he was wearing a cap, but the team of video is doing its job and soon we will be able to give information about it."

Ilem swallowed hard, this was getting more complicated, what at first seemed like an innocent disappearance could be something else. Her mind began to jump from place to place and try to make sense of everything. Until there was a little click and everything fell into place, the only car missing on Friday was Ian's, Ian was not at the party due to an alleged competition and she showed up unaware at her house on Saturday after she had been with Grace, What if Ian had more to do with this than anyone had imagined?

Ilem didn't say anything in front of Amanda, she wanted things to fall by her own weight, she wasn't going to point the finger, not yet at least.