Sister Dearest (Mystery Horror Thriller)

Chapter 3

Alana went back to Clara's house the next morning. She saw the police leaving. They looked at her and gave her a nod. She didn't like how they were hardly doing anything. They weren't even forbidding her from going inside. 

She had asked if she could collect some things to help with the search.  She went inside and went back to the bedroom. She looked around as the police left. She saw something behind the dresser. 

She moved it and saw lose wallpaper. She gently moved it and saw a hole in the wall. Reaching in, fearing that there was drugs in there, she found a box. Grabbing it, Alana pulled it out. If it was drugs of course she would take it straight to the police. 

She pulled her shirt over her nose and mouth, she took a deep breath to hold, put the box on the bed, and then opened the box

The air left her as her eyes widened as she saw what was inside. It was a gun and two extra magazines. 

Alana and Clara knew guns, their uncle and dad were hunters, the twins went sometimes, but they used rifles or bows, never handguns. 

Did Clara get this, or did she hide it from a boyfriend? With what's written under the bed, Alana knew Clara only dated abusive men. Did she take this and hide it to keep herself safe from them using it? Or did she buy them to keep herself protected against them?

Closing the box, Alana took this to her car. Alana had a gun license, so she was ok with this in her car. Plus, she can just say she took it from her sister's place so no one can take it.

After being in the house during the day, showed how bad her sisters lived. You could tell she tried to make it a home. But there were holes in the walls from a fist, lots of fly tape filled with flies, and cockroach traps. 

Broken pictures as well.

Driving back to the hotel, she took everything she brought from the trailer into her room. She put the gun under the bed. She sighed and rubbed her face. 

What was happening to Clara? She wished she knew. She wished so much for her sister.

___

That night Alana went to the bar where her sister liked to go. She looked around her as she went to the bar. 

She sat down and waited. "I thought you were missing Clara." An Irish voice said. Alana turned to look at the man behind her. "I'm not Clara, and she is missing. I know she comes here a lot, and wanted to see if she could be hiding here." Alana said.

A man who was only a few inches taller than her raised an eyebrow and noticed Alana's lack of plastic surgery, knew that the woman in front of him wasn't who he thought it was.

"My apologies. I didn't know Clara had a sister. Or was a twin." He told her. "I'm Max. I own this place, and Clara didn't come here to drink. She worked here." He explained. Alana leaned on the back of the barstool.

"Are you available for me to ask questions?" Alana asked. He nodded and led her away to his office. "Clara told me she had to leave for a while to try and get away from her ex. I gave her time off. I then heard about her being missing on the news." He explained as they went into his office.

She sat down. "My parents were taking her to rehab." Alana said. "My name is Alana. If you can  tell me everything you can about Clara? I will be recording it so I can go back and listen if need be." She told him showing the recorder.

He nodded.

"Of course. Clara was a good employee." Max started talking about how Clara came to his bar and started as a shot girl after she quit making porn. "She took interest in being a bartender, and I had my best train her. She explained she had another job at night, so I had her working at noon." He explained.

"Have the police looked at her boyfriend?" Max asked. Alana looked at him. "They said they were going to talk to him." She informed. "So, they found him?" He asked. She raised an eyebrow. "Found?" He nodded.

"He worked for me as well. She got him the job. I fired him and had him beaten up when she came in with a busted lip and black eye. He got arrested but got out on bail. They lived together." Max explained. 

"Can you tell me more about this boyfriend? What was his name?" Alana asked. "Ceaser Monroe. He was a bouncer. When I got him in jail, I got Clara a gun to protect herself. I even trained her how to use it." He explained. 

That answered that question on who's gun that was.

"I found the gun." Alana said. "Was it used? Out?" He asked her. She shook her head no. "No. I checked it. There was a bullet in the chamber but all bullets were accounted for, and the gun was in a box in her wall." She told him.

He sighed. "Then she must've known the person who she knew or trusted. I told her to never answer the door without the gun." Alana looked him over. "It seems you really care for Clara." She noted. 

"I know what she's going through. My mother was a wayward soul. I would watch my father beat my mother. I watched her drink her pain away. Use drugs to help her pain. I then watched her work hard to get her life together after we ran away from him. I came from the bottom to owning multiple bars and clubs. My mother now lives a good decent life in a house she owns and can love on her grandkids." He explained showing a picture of a very skinny woman holding her kids.

"So, if a wayward soul comes in need to me, I try my best to help them." He continued. Alana nodded. "Your sister wanted my help. So, when she came to me to ask to put her job on hold so she could get away from her boyfriend, I agreed. You said something about Rehab?" He asked.

Alana nodded once more.

"Clara wanted to get clean. She begged our parents to get her the help she needed. They went to get her, she was missing. Her things still there, including her passport, ID, and wallet." She explained.

He sighed and shook his head.

"Please know that if you need anything at all to help in the investigation, let me know. I will give you my number. If you need anything. Please come to me. I want Clara back safe and sound. Everyone who worked with her here loved her." He said handing her his card.

She took it and shook his hand. She noticed him looking her face over.

"I always wondered what Clara would look like without all those fillers and surgeries." He stated. But he answered a phone call before Alana could ask any other questions on that.

Alana left and went back to the hotel to make some calls.