Chương 8
“How?”
The question came from Evelyn.
Daniel looked at her.
“You arrived at her house claiming Caroline had contacted you.”
“She did.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Show us the call.”
His hesitation was tiny.
Ortiz held out her hand.
“Phone.”
“I’m not handing over my phone without a warrant.”
“That is your right.”
“Good.”
“But you can voluntarily show me the call log.”
“No.”
Sophie stepped out from behind Martin.
“Because she didn’t call you.”
Daniel looked at her.
Something passed between them that Evelyn could not read.
It was not simply fear.
There had been a family here once, however badly constructed.
Pancakes shaped like letters.
Flowers.
A man trusted enough to know where a child’s inhaler was kept.
Human beings did not become strangers cleanly.
They dragged pieces of each other into the new arrangement.
Daniel rubbed his mouth.
“Caroline is trying to make me look dangerous.”
“Then help yourself,” Ortiz said.
“Show me the call.”
“I said no.”
A chime sounded and the train doors began closing.
Nobody moved.
The ordinary passengers inside watched them through the windows as the train pulled away.
Evelyn became suddenly aware that her knee was trembling.
She hated it.
She hated Daniel for noticing.
She hated herself for caring that he noticed.
Martin shifted closer without making a performance of helping her.
Ortiz’s radio crackled.
Bell’s voice came through.
“Sergeant, we’ve got something.”
Ortiz answered without taking her eyes off Daniel.
“Go.”
“Transit security found Cross entering through the north concourse eleven minutes ago.”
“That tracks.”
“He wasn’t alone.”
Daniel went still.
Bell continued.
“Male, mid-fifties, dark jacket, baseball cap.”
Ortiz glanced at the photograph still inside the evidence sleeve in Evelyn’s hand.
“Can you get an image?”
“Working on it.”
Daniel took one step backward.
Ortiz noticed.
“Stay where you are.”
“I’m leaving.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Am I detained?”
“At this moment, yes.”
“For what?”
“Possible use of an altered court document and interference with a child-custody investigation.”
“You just said the order was medical.”
“I did.”
“So this isn’t custody.”
“No, Mr. Cross.”
Ortiz’s voice became very calm.
“This is rapidly becoming something else.”
Sophie tugged Evelyn’s coat.
“The phone.”
Evelyn had forgotten the prepaid phone in her other pocket.
It vibrated.
She pulled it out.
A new message waited.
HE IS NOT ALONE.
Evelyn looked at Daniel.
Another message arrived.
THE MAN WITH HIM IS MICHAEL.
Her eyes dropped to the photograph.
The father Sophie apparently had not seen in seven years was somewhere inside Union Station.
Evelyn turned the photograph over and showed the image to Sophie.
“Do you know this man?”
Sophie stared.
Her face emptied.
“No.”
Daniel said, “Don’t.”
Everyone looked at him.
Evelyn held the photograph higher.
“You recognize him.”
Daniel’s lips parted, but no answer came.
Sophie studied the man beside her younger self.
“I don’t remember that.”
“You were very small,” Evelyn said.
“I remember things from when I was small.”
“Not everything.”
Sophie looked at Daniel.
“Who is he?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Ask your mother.”
“She’s not here.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
Her voice cracked.
“I know she’s not here.”
Martin crouched beside her.
“You don’t have to keep asking questions right now.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
“If I stop, adults decide what I’m allowed to know.”
Martin’s face tightened.
He stood again.
Daniel looked away.
Ortiz’s radio sounded.
Bell said, “We have the image.”
A moment later Ortiz’s phone received it.
She compared the security still with Caroline’s photograph.
The years had changed the man.
His hair had thinned, his shoulders thickened, and the courthouse smile was gone.
But the face was the same.
“Michael,” Ortiz said.
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Michael what?”
No answer.
“Mr. Cross.”
“He doesn’t use that name anymore.”
Sophie stared at him.
“What name does he use?”
Daniel looked toward the stairwell.
Ortiz stepped into his line of sight.
“What name?”
“Michael Vale.”
Evelyn felt the name catch somewhere in memory.
Not a person.
A headline.
A lawsuit perhaps.
Something financial.
She reached for it and failed.
Martin did not.
“Vale Medical Systems?”
Daniel’s silence answered.
Martin looked at Sophie’s inhaler cap in his hand.
“Oh, hell.”
Evelyn turned.
“What?”
“Vale makes remote medication monitoring systems.”
Daniel said, “Not that one.”
Martin held up the cap.
“I didn’t say they made this.”
“No.”
Ortiz’s attention sharpened.
“You said they didn’t.”
Daniel stared at Martin.
Martin stared back.
“You really should stop helping us.”
Daniel’s shoulders sagged.
For the first time, he looked less like a threat than a man who had spent too long standing beneath something heavy.
“He modified it.”
Sophie whispered, “Who?”
“Your father.”
The words landed without drama.
That made them crueler.
Sophie looked down at the photograph again.
“No.”
Daniel took a step toward her.
Martin blocked him.
Daniel stopped.
“Sophie, your mother didn’t want you to know yet.”
“Know what?”
“That he came back.”
Evelyn’s voice was low.
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
“Why?”
Daniel laughed once, bitterly.
“You think I know why Michael does anything?”
“Try.”
“He wanted Caroline to sign something.”
“What?”
“I never saw it.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t care what you believe.”
“That is becoming mutual.”
Ortiz interrupted.
“Where is Caroline?”
Daniel looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
Sophie’s face hardened.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You always look at the floor when you lie.”
Daniel looked directly at her.
“I do not know where your mother is.”
Sophie’s certainty faltered.
The prepaid phone vibrated again.
This message contained only a number.
317-42-9.
Evelyn showed Ortiz.
“Does that mean anything?”
“No.”
Martin leaned over.
“Could be a code.”
“For what?”
“I have reached the limit of my usefulness around mysterious numbers.”
Sophie stared at it.
“Mom’s storage unit.”
Evelyn looked down at her.
“You know that number?”
“The first part.”
“Three-seventeen?”
“No.”
Sophie pointed.
“Forty-two.”
Daniel went pale.
Ortiz saw it.
“What is Storage Forty-Two?”
Sophie answered before he could.
“Mom keeps old furniture there.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
May you like
Daniel said, “Sophie.”
She ignored him.
