Chương 9
“She took me once.”
“What did you see?”
“Boxes.”
“Anything else?”
“A blue chair.”
Evelyn nearly laughed from sheer strain.
Of course there was a blue chair.
Somewhere in the middle of altered court orders, missing mothers, hidden fathers, and tracked inhalers, reality had provided a blue chair.
“Do you remember the name of the facility?”
Sophie squeezed her eyes shut.
“No.”
“Don’t force it,” Martin said.
“I’m not.”
“You’re making the face.”
“What face?”
“The one where you attempt to intimidate information out of the universe.”
Evelyn glared at him.
“That is simply my face.”
Sophie suddenly opened her eyes.
“There was a dog.”
Everyone waited.
“A picture of a dog on the sign.”
Daniel turned away.
Ortiz caught the movement.
“You know it.”
“No.”
“Floor again,” Sophie said.
Daniel looked up.
Nobody spoke.
Finally, he said, “Red Dog Storage.”
Ortiz radioed Bell.
“Find the nearest Red Dog Storage associated with Caroline Mercer.”
Daniel’s head snapped around.
“You can’t go there.”
Evelyn felt the entire platform change.
Not because he raised his voice.
Because he finally sounded afraid for someone other than himself.
Ortiz stepped closer.
“Why not?”
Daniel stared at Sophie.
Then at the photograph.
Then at the small device in Martin’s hand.
“Because that’s where Michael took Caroline.”
Daniel’s admission seemed to drain the noise from the platform without actually making anything quieter.
Ortiz stepped close enough that he had to look at her.
“You knew where Caroline was taken?”
“I knew where Michael wanted her to go.”
“That is not what you just said.”
“I saw them leave.”
“When?”
Daniel glanced at Sophie.
Ortiz moved slightly, blocking his view of her.
“When?”
“About six-thirty.”
Evelyn checked the station clock and felt sick.
More than three hours.
“You watched a man take Caroline somewhere and did nothing?”
“I followed them.”
“And?”
“I lost them.”
“You just identified the destination.”
“I figured it out afterward.”
“How?”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“Because I knew what Michael wanted.”
Evelyn stepped toward him.
“What does he want?”
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
“Something Caroline has.”
“What?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Then you are astonishingly well informed about things you know nothing about.”
“Evelyn,” Ortiz warned.
“No, let her.”
Daniel’s exhaustion sharpened into anger.
“She thinks I’m the monster because Caroline taught everyone to think I’m the monster.”
Sophie made a small sound behind Martin.
Daniel heard it and immediately regretted the words.
“Sophie, I didn’t mean—”
“Yes, you did.”
Her voice was flat.
He stared at her.
She moved closer to Evelyn.
Ortiz said, “Start at six-thirty.”
Daniel looked toward the tracks.
“I went to Caroline’s apartment.”
“Why?”
“She stopped answering.”
“You had been calling her?”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“Approximately.”
“Twenty.”
Martin muttered, “That usually improves things.”
Daniel ignored him.
“When I got there, Michael was outside.”
“With Caroline?”
“Not yet.”
“He was waiting?”
“I think so.”
“You spoke to him?”
“He told me to leave.”
“And you obeyed?”
Daniel gave Ortiz a look.
“No.”
For the first time, Evelyn believed something he said without reservation.
“I parked around the corner.”
“What happened?”
“Caroline came out maybe ten minutes later.”
“Voluntarily?”
“I couldn’t tell.”
“Was Michael touching her?”
“No.”
“Was she injured?”
“No.”
“Did she see you?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Yes.”
“What did she do?”
“Nothing.”
Sophie whispered, “She sent me away before that.”
Daniel looked at her.
“With Evelyn’s address?”
Sophie nodded.
His eyes closed briefly.
“That’s why she wouldn’t tell me where you were.”
Evelyn’s stomach tightened.
“You genuinely didn’t know.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I knew your name.”
“But not my address.”
“No.”
“Then how did you find my house?”
Nobody moved.
Daniel’s silence became an answer before he spoke.
“The inhaler.”
Sophie backed into Martin.
“You tracked me.”
“I was scared.”
“You tracked me.”
“I didn’t know where you were.”
“Mom told you to leave us alone.”
“I thought Michael might have taken you too.”
“So you followed me instead.”
Daniel reached toward her and stopped himself.
“I needed to know you were safe.”
“You could’ve called the police.”
“I didn’t trust the police.”
Ortiz’s eyebrows rose.
“You preferred forging a custody order?”
“I didn’t forge anything.”
“Who did?”
Daniel looked away.
“Michael.”
The answer surprised even Sophie.
Evelyn studied him.
“Why would Michael give you a fraudulent order?”
“To make sure I could get Sophie if Caroline disappeared.”
Sophie’s face crumpled.
“Disappeared?”
Daniel looked horrified by his own word.
“I didn’t mean—”
“You knew this could happen.”
“No.”
“You knew.”
“I knew Michael was threatening her.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“She made me promise.”
Sophie laughed once, a terrible little sound.
“You only keep promises when they hurt Mom.”
Daniel flinched.
Ortiz raised her radio.
“I need a unit sent to Red Dog Storage immediately.”
Daniel caught her arm.
“Wait.”
Ortiz removed his hand from her sleeve.
“That is your last free mistake tonight.”
“He’ll see them coming.”
“Good.”
“No, you don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand quickly.”
Daniel pointed at the prepaid phone.
“Michael watches the facility remotely.”
“How?”
“Cameras.”
“His cameras?”
“He owns the property through another company.”
Martin looked at the electronic cap.
“Medical systems, storage facilities, altered documents.”
“He owns hundreds of properties.”
“That was not comforting.”
Ortiz keyed her radio again and requested plainclothes response and surveillance rather than marked units.
Evelyn looked at Sophie.
The child was staring at Daniel as if trying to reconstruct every breakfast, every ride to school, every birthday he had attended.
“Why would Mom go with Michael?”
Daniel answered carefully.
“Because he told her he could make the guardianship permanent.”
“He can’t.”
“No.”
“Then why would she believe him?”
“She didn’t.”
Daniel swallowed.
“She believed he could make her spend years proving he couldn’t.”
Ortiz’s expression changed slightly.
That distinction made sense to her.
Money could turn nonsense into exhaustion.
A false claim did not need to survive forever if it could ruin someone before it died.
Evelyn looked at the photograph again.
“Michael is Sophie’s biological father.”
May you like
“Yes.”
“Why has he been absent?”
