Chương 10
“No.”
I pressed both hands against the back of my neck.
From inside, Tessa laughed suddenly because Miles had grabbed Mrs. Alvarez’s glasses.
The sound broke something open in me.
“I need five minutes.”
Shaw nodded.
I went inside.
Tessa was holding the glasses above her head while Miles reached for them.
“Dad, he’s a criminal.”
“Runs in the family, apparently.”
The joke escaped before I could stop it.
Tessa stared at me.
Then she snorted.
Mrs. Alvarez pointed at me.
“That was terrible.”
“I know.”
“You’re improving.”
I sat beside my children.
For five minutes, I did nothing useful.
I fed Miles two crackers.
I straightened Tessa’s sock.
I picked a crumb off the couch.
The world did not end because I stopped trying to solve it.
Then my phone rang.
Not Claire’s hidden phone.
Mine.
Unknown number.
Shaw, still outside, saw me look at the screen through the window.
I answered.
“Hello?”
At first there was only breathing.
Then Claire whispered my name.
“Grant.”
I stood so fast my knee hit the coffee table.
“Claire?”
Shaw was already coming through the door.
“Don’t say anything,” Claire whispered.
I put the phone on speaker without telling her.
“Where are you?”
“I need you to listen.”
Her voice shook.
Somewhere near her, an engine hummed.
“You have Tessa?”
“She’s here.”
“Take her and Miles somewhere else.”
“We’re doing that.”
“No, now.”
“Claire, where are you?”
A man’s voice said something in the background.
Too muffled to understand.
Claire sucked in a breath.
“Grant, the person you think took me didn’t.”
My eyes went to Shaw.
“Then who did?”
There was a long pause.
When Claire spoke again, her voice was barely audible.
“I got into the car willingly.”
I gripped the phone.
“Why?”
“Because he said he knew where Leah Brennan was.”
Shaw’s expression changed.
“Who is he?”
Claire did not answer.
A turn signal clicked somewhere beside her.
Then she said, “The problem is, Grant, I don’t think Leah Brennan is the person I’ve been trying to find.”
“What does that mean?”
Claire began to cry silently, trying not to make sound.
“It means Leah was the girl in the other room.”
My skin went cold.
“And she’s alive.”
The line went dead.
Shaw snatched the phone from my hand before I could call back.
“Do not redial yet.”
“That was my wife.”
“I know.”
“She called me.”
“I know.”
“Then call her.”
“She may not be alone.”
“She isn’t.”
“Exactly.”
The contradiction made me furious.
Shaw turned to Palmer.
“Get a trace request moving on that call and flag the number.”
Palmer was already reaching for his radio.
Tessa had gone completely still on the couch.
“Was that Mom?”
I looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Is she okay?”
I opened my mouth.
Nothing useful came out.
Mrs. Alvarez answered for me.
“She’s alive.”
Tessa stared at her.
“That’s not what I asked.”
I sat beside her.
“She sounded scared.”
Tessa nodded once.
“Okay.”
No tears.
No panic.
Just a child accepting another fact she should never have been asked to carry.
Shaw stepped into the dining room with my phone.
“Grant.”
I followed her.
She kept her voice low.
“Tell me exactly what you know about Leah Brennan.”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“I saw the name in Claire’s notebook with you.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“Did Claire ever mention a Leah?”
“No.”
“Brennan?”
“No.”
“School friend?”
“No.”
“Relative?”
“No.”
“I need you to be certain.”
“I am.”
She handed my phone back.
The unknown number had already disappeared from the recent-call screen behind a wall of notifications.
“Can you trace it?”
“If the carrier cooperates quickly and if the call wasn’t routed through something disposable.”
“English.”
“We’re trying.”
I nearly told her how much I hated that phrase.
Instead I looked at the front window.
Palmer was outside speaking into his radio.
Two more patrol cars had arrived.
The neighborhood had stopped pretending not to watch.
“What did Claire mean by the girl in the other room?”
Shaw did not answer immediately.
“That matches what Ryan told you.”
“It matches a memory.”
“A memory can be accurate, distorted, incomplete, or mixed with something else.”
“She said Leah is alive.”
“If Claire believes that.”
“You think she doesn’t know?”
“I think frightened people say what they believe in the moment.”
“She called me for a reason.”
“Yes.”
“What reason?”
“To warn you.”
“About what?”
Shaw’s gaze shifted toward Tessa and Miles.
“That is the part I’m interested in.”
I felt it then.
The call had not been about rescue.
Not primarily.
Claire had told me to move the kids.
She had called from wherever she was, while someone else was nearby, and used the few seconds she had to tell me they were still in danger.
“Whoever is with her wants something connected to Tessa.”
“Maybe.”
“The backpack.”
“Maybe.”
“The house key.”
“Maybe.”
“The red folder.”
“Maybe.”
I slapped my palm against the dining table.
“Stop saying maybe.”
Tessa flinched in the other room.
I lowered my voice immediately.
Shaw did not react.
“Then give me facts.”
I stared at her.
She waited.
I forced myself to separate what I knew from what I feared.
“Claire has been investigating her childhood.”
“Yes.”
“She was in contact with someone using R.”
“Yes.”
“That person knew she was leaving the children alone.”
“Yes.”
“Someone entered this house with a key after Claire left.”
“Yes.”
“That person removed Tessa’s backpack and had the red folder Claire took with her.”
“Yes.”
“The backpack ended up in Claire’s abandoned car.”
“Yes.”
“And Claire called to tell me to move our children.”
“Yes.”
I swallowed.
“That means the house matters.”
“Likely.”
“And something in it matters.”
“Possibly.”
I glared at her.
She almost smiled.
“Sorry.”
I did not smile back.
Tessa appeared in the doorway.
“Mom kept something in my room.”
Both of us turned.
“What?” I asked.
She looked at Shaw, then at me.
“In the closet.”
“What kind of thing?”
“A box.”
May you like
My stomach dropped.
“What box?”
