Chapter 25:

Vivian ended the phone call with Jack and went back to the living room, which she had left just a minute ago to have some privacy while talking to Jack. Now she entered the room once again and gave a sign to Martin to come over to her. Then she addressed the Matthews in an apologizing tone.

"Would you excuse us for some more moments, please?"

She received a nod to her question from Mr. Matthews and guided Martin out of the room.

"What is it?"

"I have been talking to Jack. He has gone through Joaquin's file at immigration and he found out about a still living relative. It occurs that he has a sister, who had been transferred to Mexico. Jack believes they had been in contact and that he maybe disappeared because he wanted to pay her a visit. He wants us to question the Matthews if they know anything about her."

Martin nodded approvingly and the two went back to the living-room to interview the Matthews for a second time.

"Mr. and Mrs. Matthews – there is something else we need to ask you about..."

Vivian started the conversation and immediately received a concerned look from Mrs. Matthews. She tried to sound assuring and soothing when she went on.

"It's nothing bad. I just wanted to know if Joaquin ever talked about his corporal family."

The couple shared a look and Mr. Matthews answered the question. There was a hard, hurt tone in his voice.

"He has been talking about them all the time for the last couple of weeks, although we had agreed not to do so. But he wouldn't follow to our agreement."

"So – what exactly did he tell you?"

Mrs. Matthews took head of the conversation now, holding a sad expression on her face.

"Nothing in particular – actually. He just told us about them, because he wanted to hurt us, wanted to make clear, that we weren't - and never would be - his real parents, as much as we would try. "

"So he hasn't told you anything about his familiar background, his former living conditions – stuff like that?"

"No, nothing like that. He just told us, how wonderful they had been, how much they had cared for him and how much he had loved them. That they were the only real parents he ever had and that we would never achieve the same state in his life that they had..."

"I'm sorry..."

Vivian stated her empathy and Martin had another, the essential question for the couple.

"Did he ever mention a sister?"

"A sister? No, never. We didn't know he had any more living relatives! He has a sister?"

"Yes, he has. She's named as his only living relative and we assume that maybe he was trying to get in contact with her..."

"Did you ever scan his room? Did he receive letters from someone you didn't know?"

"No, we never scanned through his private stuff and as far as I know – he didn't receive any letters. But how can we be a hundred percent sure about that? We weren't even close enough to him to foresee he would run away."

"You shouldn't blame yourself – you haven't done anything wrong. May we have a look at his room? Maybe we'll find something."

"Is that really necessary? This is his privacy..."

"It may help us to find out where he has gone to or at least why he disappeared. I believe that's in favor with your wishes?"

"Okay, if you believe it may help you find him, I won't disagree. I only want to have him back and I want him to be healthy!"

Mrs. Matthews got up from the couch and guided them upstairs to Joaquin's room. She opened the door and allowed them to step inside.

"You will tell us if you find anything, won't you?"

"Sure, Mrs. Matthews – we will."

After she had left, the two federal agents started to scan Joaquin's private room. There was nothing special about it, it looked like any other messed up room of a 16 year old teenager. But somewhere in here, there must be a hint to solve this case and find the boy. Their only task was to find it.

They searched silently for about half an hour, when Martin finally addressed Vivian with slight excitement in his voice.

"Viv?"

She turned around and spotted the metal box he held in his hands.

"What is it?"

He opened it up and showed the envelope of a letter to her. She couldn't read the small handwritten words on the distance, but he told her.

"Anna Mantego, Baja Mexico. He was in contact with his sister!"

"I'm gonna call Jack. Would you please get down to inform the parents? Tell them we have to take the box with us."

Vivian could hear Martin step down the stairs as she flipped her phone open and dialed Jack's number.

"Malone?"

"This is Viv. You were right. Joaquin has been in contact with his sister – we just found a box filled with letters she has written to him. I don't know about the content yet, but I'll take the letters with me and we gonna find out."

"Alright, good work. We'll met at the office. Let's hope this is the connection we've been searching for."

She said goodbye and ended the call. She stepped down the stairs and assured the Matthews once again, that they would inform them as soon as they found out anything about Joaquin and then said goodbye. She and Martin headed back to the office.