Between the Spirit and the Dust

Chapter Eighteen

I listlessly flipped through another page of Tatler Magazine, circa 2000, which had an “exclusive interview” with Kenneth St. Clair, Gabriel’s father. The team was back at the FBI HQ, although we were still one member short because Jenna hadn’t returned ever since she ran out in the morning.

And even though I was supposed to be suspended, nobody said anything about my being there that Saturday afternoon. We only had five days to save another girl and they needed all the help that they could get. 

Max and Collins were currently charting the locations and identities of the all the victims. Evie was on the phone in another room, trying to speak to the other families that hadn’t responded previously. We were all hoping that they would be more cooperative now that she could say that she was working with the FBI to solve the case. 

As for me, I was supposed to find the mystery girl. I wasn’t entirely sure where I should start with the search and figured that maybe the Internet or some of the interviews that had featured the St. Clair family would be useful.

Having read more of these society magazines in one afternoon than I’d ever read in my own life before, I now knew all the gossip about the St. Clair family. Kenneth St. Clair, Gabriel’s father, had come from humble beginnings. He was the son of a bank teller and a nurse but twenty years ago, he entered into the shipping business with the aid of a mysterious investor and made a considerable profit.

From then on, Kenneth St. Clair expanded his empire until it became a global superpower. His businesses now included security firms, such as Brown University’s security team Zeus Consulting, and several other aviation companies. His peers thought of him as a shrewd businessman.

His personal life, on the other hand, was complete chaos as compared to his organized career. 

Gabriel’s mother, Karen, passed away ten years ago when he was ten years old. Before her death there were rumors of Kenneth cheating on her and it didn’t seem like their marriage was happy. The cause of Karen’s death wasn’t mentioned in any of the articles I’d found, but there was plenty of gossip about it. Some argued that it was suicide, others claimed drugs. Whatever it was, it was seemed that Karen was disturbed before her death.

All this gossip was interesting, in terms of learning about Gabriel’s family background but it was useless in finding out about his mystery girl. Gabriel never talked about his personal life in any of his interviews and he was never seen with the same girl twice. His face in each photo was always impassive, with his ice-cold façade never faltering or breaking.

Tossing aside the Tatler article, I grabbed another one. Kenneth St Clair, head of St. Clair Corporations, invites Luxury Lifestyles & Living Magazine into his abode. 

Rolling my eyes, I roughly turned through the pages of the magazine. A few seconds later, I realized that I probably should’ve been gentler because I heard a loud ripping sound. I’d ended up tearing a page right out of the magazine.

Wincing at the ripped page, I stopped and stared at it. It was a photo of Gabriel with his mother and an older, dark-haired girl. Gabriel was sitting in the middle. His mother had wrapped her arm around him, a warm smile on her face. The girl was next to Gabriel, her hand clasped in his. 

But what caught my attention was Gabriel’s face. The girl and his mother smiled straight ahead at the camera. Gabriel was smiling at the girl instead. 

The caption of the photograph read Gabriel with Karen, enjoying an afternoon at home. Gabriel’s young friend, daughter of the housekeeper, also pictured. 

My heart rate sped up. This girl had to mean something to Gabriel. Sure it was a long shot, because the photo was taken such a long time ago, but this was the first time I’d seen Gabriel smile in a photo. And he was smiling at the girl.