29: Gian (ii)

29: Gian (ii)
Jess was livid with anger.
“I can’t believe it… in all my years here, this is the first time something like this happened here. Nothing like this has ever happened, even to our neighbors. We’ve never even been robbed. What if it had been a person who got hurt? What if it had been Anna?”
“Uncle, I don’t think it was someone from around here. I know everyone here. No one local would do this,” Jason said.
“And you and Elise were on the beach when you heard Anna scream?” Jess asked me.
I nodded with clenched teeth. The nightmare was catching up on me, too. I hadn’t even realized there was someone else around. We could have suffered the same fate as Tootsie, and I couldn’t have done anything to protect Elise.
“But you weren’t the target. The intruder went up the balcony and…” There was a slight tremor in Jess’s voice, and he cleared his throat. I was with Elise. For all intents and purposes, Jess was thinking I was capable of protecting her. But Anna was practically alone in the house with old Aling Celia. They were easy targets. If not for Tootsie…
Jason and I looked at him. It wasn’t hard to think that robbery wasn’t the motive of whoever did this to Tootsie especially when the one worrying was a father.
Some of the security Jess hired for their seaside hotel arrived at dawn so we were able to rest. I accepted Jess’s offer to use the guest room, but I barely slept because each and every noise in the house seemed to wake me up, and I desperately wanted to go to Elise. Finally, I went out and had coffee alone in the kitchen as soon as light started to extend towards the beach from the horizon. It was quiet in the house. Everyone seemed to finally settle to sleep. 
After coffee, I went down to the beach to investigate again, wanting to confirm my suspicion.
There was a spot on top of the sand dune from our place last night where someone could stand unnoticed if it was dark. I reached the spot and stood there. There were tall strands of cogon grass up to my shoulders. I could clearly see our spot from last night from where I stood.
I felt cold to my bones. I didn’t know why I was sure someone had watched us last night, but I was. I wanted confirmation. 
Careful with my steps, I bent down and observed the sand. I couldn’t see any shoe or foot prints other than my own. But with the sand being loose, no one could really say if somebody was standing here last night. The wind could have blown strongly and flattened the sand.
I looked around, not intending to leave until I had scoured every surface my eyes could see.
Then my eyes caught something on the ground.
Lodged between two weeds was a familiar object.
It was the box of the rose I gave Elise last night. Elise mentioned she had dropped the box when Anna screamed. Carefully, I parted the grass strands while my chest pounded loudly. There were a few petals scattered beside the box. But the rose itself inside it was in shreds, as if torn by someone in a furious rage.
Something else made my blood freeze in my veins.
There was dried blood on the box. If it was going to get tested, I was sure it would be identified as Tootsie’s…
I didn’t know how hard I was clenching my teeth until I felt the ache on my jaw. 
After a moment, I stood up and called Jason.

ELISE
“For real? My God, Elise! Poor Tootsie! What kind of heartless person would do that to a poor dog?” exclaimed Alia on the other end of the line, shocked, her voice on the verge of tears. I had called her first thing when I woke up in the morning.
I sighed, massaging my forehead. “I don’t know. Anna was the first to find her and… god, it’s so bad. She had to take some pills to sleep because she couldn’t stop crying.”
“What about you, and Inay? And Itay?” That’s what she called my parents.
“We’re still in shock. But Tootsie’s already buried in the garden.” Tears were quietly flowing down my face. I had been so worried about Anna that my own grief over what happened to our pet was just catching up with me now. “Alia…?” I said, wiping my tears. “Is it okay if we… if we have a pet there at our house?”
“You’re thinking exactly what I’m thinking!” she exclaimed.
I smiled. “I want to take one of the puppies once they’re stronger. I want to adopt one of Tootsie’s puppies.”
“Please, pretty please?! I want to help, too. We’ll have something to baby here,” she said, now crying on the other end. “What’s happening? Why are all these tragic things happening? Something happened here, too. My cousin’s best friend, a nurse, went missing three weeks ago—and they found her body! I’d met her, Elise. She was beautiful. And shy, and kind. She’s also a daddy’s girl. They’re saying there might be a serial killer here in Manila. Do you know she’s the seventh to go missing with the same physical description?”
“My God… how… that’s awful!”
“Shae is the only one who’s been found among the missing. And according to the autopsy report, she was raped. Her father’s nearly gone mad. She hadn’t even had a boyfriend. It’s so tragic…”
“God…” I clutched my chest. “Alia, that’s terrifying. I remember when Jase and Gian went crazy when I went to Gwen’s without telling anyone because of those missing girls? I didn’t take it seriously back then, but now…”
“Exactly! Jeremy doesn’t even want to go back to his pad, and he’s practically sticking to me all the time.” Jeremy was her boyfriend. They started casually, but it was looking more serious by the day. “And Mama wants me to come home. She said we should just start a business there so I don’t have to be far away. It’s crazy, right? Like, I’m seriously considering it because I’m so scared. Those poor girls… where could they be…?”
After the call, I decided not to tell Inay and Itay what I’d learned from Alia. They didn’t need more reasons to worry. I went to Anna’s room to check on her. She was still sleeping deeply, thank god. She would surely cry again when she woke up. The others in the house were still asleep, too, exhausted from the previous night.
Next, I checked on the puppies in the laundry room. We had the four puppies in a tub filled with towels and two light bulbs providing them heat. The vet said Tootsie would have given birth to them any day now, so they were only a few days early.
But that wasn’t true. They were missing days. And a mother.
I started crying again.