Chương 14
“Do it.”
That small practical decision gave me more confidence in her than anything else.
She asked where Arthur Kensington was.
Marisol provided the garage footage details and vehicle information.
Ortiz wrote them down.
Then she looked at Evelyn.
“You’re the fiancée?”
Evelyn swallowed.
“I was.”
Ortiz glanced at me once.
No sympathy.
No curiosity.
Just classification.
“Did you strike Genevieve Vance?”
“Yes.”
“Did she fall down stairs later in your presence?”
“Yes.”
“Did you cause the fall?”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“I grabbed a bag she was holding.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Evelyn looked at the floor.
“My action caused it.”
Ortiz wrote.
“Did you call 911?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I was afraid of what she would tell police.”
Ortiz looked up.
“Were you more concerned about yourself than her injuries?”
Evelyn’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
There was no softness in the room after that.
Ortiz asked about Arthur.
About the documents.
About the house.
About the hidden copy in the piano bench.
Daniel immediately cut in.
“That location came from Genevieve, not Evelyn.”
Ortiz corrected her notes.
“Good distinction.”
She asked about the car.
Toby’s mother’s car.
The blue tote.
The possible second phone.
When she heard that, her questions became faster.
“Vehicle make?”
I gave it.
“Plate?”
I knew the first three characters and not the rest.
Daniel found the full plate in Genevieve’s emergency contact paperwork on his phone.
Ortiz radioed it.
The answer came less than a minute later.
The car had not been found at Arthur’s property.
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It means it isn’t there now.”
“Who moved it?”
“We don’t know.”
Evelyn spoke from the chair.
“Arthur has a spare key.”
Ortiz turned.
“How?”
“Genevieve dropped the car at his house for Toby’s birthday last year.”
I frowned.
“What?”
Evelyn looked at me.
“Arthur hosted the family lunch.”
I remembered.
I had arrived late from Denver.
Genevieve had complained that Arthur insisted on moving cars around because the catering truck needed access.
“Arthur took the key to move it.”
Evelyn nodded.
“He made a copy.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw it in his desk drawer.”
Ortiz’s face sharpened.
“Why would he copy her key?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
The detective did not like that answer.
Neither did I.
She radioed again.
Then she looked at me.
“You said you’re going to the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“One officer will accompany you.”
Daniel said, “I’m going too.”
Ortiz nodded.
“Toby goes with you?”
“Yes.”
She looked at Evelyn.
“You stay.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Okay.”
I took Toby’s hand.
He looked back at her.
She did not reach for him.
That was the first intelligent thing she had done around him all day.
As we approached the elevator, she called my name.
I stopped but did not turn.
“Thomas.”
“What?”
“If Genevieve’s car is missing, Arthur has the phone.”
“Maybe.”
“No.”
Her voice changed.
“He has it.”
I turned then.
“How can you be sure?”
“Because that work phone has access to something Arthur needs.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
Evelyn looked at me.
“Your company’s internal audit archive.”
I felt my stomach drop.
“That phone doesn’t have that access.”
“Genevieve requested it two weeks ago.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me.”
“Why?”
“Because she was checking old vendor payments.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“The payments to Kensington?”
“And Halpern.”
I looked at Ortiz.
“If Arthur unlocks that phone—”
“He may not be able to.”
Evelyn interrupted.
“He can.”
“How?”
She looked sick.
“Genevieve wrote the passcode on a card in the blue bag.”
I stared at her.
“That doesn’t sound like my daughter.”
“It wasn’t for her.”
“Then who?”
“Toby.”
I looked down at him.
He was tracing the brass seam in the elevator door with one finger.
Evelyn said, “Genevieve taught him the numbers in case he ever got separated from her and needed to call Aunt Sarah.”
Daniel whispered a curse.
The elevator opened.
Before we stepped inside, Ortiz’s radio erupted with a burst of static.
She grabbed it.
A patrol officer’s voice came through.
“Detective, we located the Vance vehicle.”
Ortiz pressed the button.
“Location?”
The answer made Evelyn stand.
“Lower garage, Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital.”
I looked at Daniel.
Arthur had not gone back to his house.
He had gone to my daughter.
Ortiz was already moving.
“Lock down the hospital entrance and find that vehicle.”
The radio answered.
“Vehicle is empty.”
“Bag?”
“Nothing visible.”
“Any sign of Kensington?”
There was a pause.
Then the officer said, “Hospital security has a man matching his description on the fourth floor.”
My heart stopped.
That was Genevieve’s floor.
Ortiz pointed toward the elevator.
“Go.”
We stepped inside.
As the doors closed, Toby squeezed my hand.
“Grandpa?”
“Yeah, buddy?”
“Don’t let bad man get Mommy.”
I looked at the numbers lighting above the door.
For most of my life, I had believed protecting my family meant solving the problem before they had to see it.
That belief had helped create this entire disaster.
I squeezed his hand back.
“We’re going to tell the right people exactly where he is.”
The elevator doors opened into a lobby that smelled faintly of coffee, disinfectant, and somebody’s microwaved lunch.
Detective Ortiz stepped out first.
A uniformed hospital security officer was waiting beside the nurses’ station.
“He went toward room 417,” the officer said.
“That’s hers,” I said.
Ortiz turned to one of the police officers.
“Stay with Mr. Vance and the child.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Detective.”
“No.”
Her voice did not rise.
“You are a witness, you are emotionally involved, and you are holding a three-year-old.”
I looked down.
Toby was holding my hand with both of his.
I hated that she was right.
Daniel touched my shoulder.
“Let them do their job.”
Two officers moved quickly down the hallway with Ortiz.
Nobody ran.
That somehow made it more frightening.
Nurses stepped back from carts.
May you like
A man carrying flowers pressed himself against a wall.
An elderly patient in a robe stared after the officers while his wife kept asking him what was happening.
