Chương 9
“He lost me?”
“Possibly.”
“How do you lose a baby?”
Leah’s mouth tightened.
“Through something criminal and stupid.”
The answer came from Deller’s widow.
Her husband had told her pieces of the story years earlier during a period when he was drinking heavily.
He was supposed to move an infant from Manhattan to a private residence in Connecticut.
Not permanently.
He was told it was a family custody matter.
The driver assigned to the transport discovered the paperwork was false, panicked, and abandoned the baby at a church-affiliated emergency clinic in Queens.
The clinic transferred the child into protective care.
The driver disappeared before Deller could recover him.
Richard’s plan, if the records were accurate, had not been to erase Noah forever.
He needed two days.
Two days became thirteen years.
That truth was almost harder for Noah than a cleaner kind of evil.
He sat at Leah’s conference table reading the summary.
“He stole me for two days.”
Evelyn sat beside him.
“That appears to have been the plan.”
“So I was paperwork.”
“No.”
“That’s what it sounds like.”
Alexander was across the table.
His face was gray.
“He wanted the trust transfer delayed.”
Noah looked at him.
“Would it have worked?”
“For a short time.”
“And then?”
Alexander shook his head.
“I don’t know what he thought he would do next.”
“He thought he’d give me back?”
“Maybe.”
Noah laughed.
It sounded terrible.
“Like a library book.”
Claire stood abruptly and walked to the window.
Noah watched her shoulders.
The investigation had changed her.
At first she cried often.
Now she became quiet.
Sometimes frighteningly quiet.
She turned.
“He planned to return you.”
Nobody answered.
“He planned to return you after making us believe you died.”
Alexander said, “Claire.”
“No. I’m trying to understand.”
She pressed her fingers against her lips.
“Was he going to say there had been a mistake? A miracle? Was he going to let us bury another baby and then hand ours back?”
Noah looked at Leah.
“Another baby.”
Leah nodded carefully.
“The infant shown to your parents appears to have been an unidentified premature newborn who had died earlier that night.”
Claire left the room.
Alexander started after her.
Evelyn touched his arm.
“Give her a minute.”
He stopped.
Noah watched the closed door.
“I shouldn’t have come.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“This happened to you too.”
“I make it worse for them.”
“You exist. That is not making it worse.”
Noah stared at the papers.
He had spent years believing somewhere there might be a reason he had been given away.
Now he had a reason he had not been.
It did not feel better.
Richard requested a meeting.
Not through Alexander.
Through Leah.
His attorney proposed a private conversation with Noah and Evelyn, no press, lawyers present.
Alexander opposed it.
Claire opposed it more strongly.
Evelyn said the decision belonged to Noah.
For two days he changed his mind every few hours.
At school, Caleb told him not to do it.
“Why?”
“Because old rich dudes in movies always have poison rings.”
“That is the dumbest thing you’ve ever said.”
“You needed the laugh.”
Noah did.
That evening he told Evelyn he wanted the meeting.
“Why?”
“I need to hear him explain it.”
“He may lie.”
“I know.”
“He may blame other people.”
“I know.”
“He may try to make you feel sorry for him.”
Noah looked at her.
“Do you?”
“What?”
“Feel sorry for him.”
Evelyn considered the question.
“Yes.”
Noah stared.
She continued.
“And I think he did something monstrous.”
“How can both—”
She raised an eyebrow.
He sighed.
“Right. Two things.”
The meeting took place in a neutral office downtown.
Richard looked older.
Not weak.
Noah refused to give him that.
Just older.
His silver hair was perfectly combed. His charcoal suit was immaculate. There were dark half-moons beneath his eyes.
For several seconds Richard looked at Noah without speaking.
Noah hated being inspected.
“What?”
Richard blinked.
“You look like Alexander did at thirteen.”
“People keep telling me things like that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You should stop saying that before you tell me what you’re sorry for.”
Richard’s attorney shifted.
Richard ignored him.
“I did not intend for you to disappear.”
Noah felt Evelyn stiffen beside him.
He looked at Richard.
“That’s your defense?”
“No.”
“Sounds like one.”
“I needed time.”
“For the trust.”
“Yes.”
The admission felt smaller than Noah expected.
Richard folded his hands.
“My brother—Alexander’s father—was dying. He had built a succession structure that would have transferred control immediately when Alexander had a child. There were financial problems I had not disclosed.”
“You lost money.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Enough that I believed Alexander would remove me.”
“Would he?”
Richard looked toward the table.
“Yes.”
“Because you lied.”
“Yes.”
Noah waited.
Richard’s honesty was not comforting.
It felt strategic.
“You paid the hospital.”
“I paid an administrator.”
“To tell my parents I died.”
Richard closed his eyes for a moment.
“I told myself it would be temporary.”
Noah’s voice rose.
“You told people I was dead.”
Richard looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you give me back?”
“The transport failed.”
“That’s a weird word for losing a person.”
Richard flinched.
Good, Noah thought.
Then hated himself for thinking it.
“We searched,” Richard said.
“Police?”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
“If I had reported you missing, the entire arrangement would have been exposed.”
“So you protected yourself.”
“Yes.”
“And when you couldn’t find me?”
Richard’s jaw worked.
“I was told the most likely explanation was that the driver had placed you into emergency care under false information.”
“He did.”
“I know that now.”
“Why didn’t you keep searching?”
“I did.”
“For how long?”
Richard did not answer.
Noah leaned forward.
“How long?”
“About eighteen months.”
Evelyn made a quiet sound of disgust.
Noah stared.
“Then what?”
Richard’s eyes dropped.
“I stopped.”
That hurt more than Noah expected.
He sat back.
“Why?”
“I had no lead.”
“That’s not why.”
Richard said nothing.
May you like
“You stopped because your problem was fixed.”
Richard’s eyes lifted.
