Chương 4
“I clocked out.”
“You left without finishing side work.”
“My shift ended at eleven.”
“Monica had to refill the syrups.”
“I found a sick child.”
“I saw something online. Was that you?”
Lena closed her eyes. “What’s online?”
“You with those cars. You know who that man is?”
“I know his daughter was freezing in an alley.”
“Don’t bring this to my restaurant.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means don’t show up tomorrow.”
“You’re firing me?”
“I’m saying take a few days.”
“Am I being paid?”
Silence.
“Frank.”
“Take a few days, Lena.”
The line ended.
She remained at the table while the radiator clicked twice and stopped.
The rain weakened before dawn. Lena did not sleep. She searched her name online once, regretted it immediately, and turned off her phone.
The first video had been posted by someone in an apartment overlooking the alley. It showed three black SUVs, men in dark coats, and Dominic kneeling in the rain beside a woman whose face was mostly hidden.
The caption read: MAFIA PRINCESS FOUND? WHO IS MYSTERY WOMAN?
By six thirty, strangers had decided Lena was a mistress, a nanny, a kidnapper, a nurse, an undercover federal agent, and Dominic Rosetti’s secret fiancée.
One person said her shoes were too cheap to be a mistress.
Another replied that this was how rich men liked them now.
Lena made coffee, burned it, and drank it anyway.
At nine, someone knocked.
She checked through the peephole.
Detective Chen stood in the hallway holding two paper cups.
Lena opened the door.
“I wasn’t sure how you took it,” Chen said.
“Black.”
“That would’ve been useful five minutes ago.”
The detective handed her a cup with cream and sugar.
Lena drank it anyway.
Chen noticed the overcoat folded across a chair.
“Expensive souvenir.”
“He put it on me because I was wet.”
“Dominic Rosetti doesn’t usually put his clothes on strangers.”
“Maybe he was raised right.”
“That would be a new lead.”
They sat at the kitchen table. Chen did not comment on the final notice envelope, but her eyes touched it and moved away.
“The phone you found belonged to Lily,” she said. “Emergency device. Only three contacts. Her father, her housekeeper, and security.”
“Was it tracked?”
“Location services had been turned off.”
“By her?”
“Unlikely.”
Lena wrapped both hands around the coffee. “Do you know where she was taken from?”
“Her school’s underground pickup area. A driver arrived in the correct vehicle, gave the correct security phrase, and signed her out.”
“Was he one of Dominic’s people?”
“We’re still sorting that.”
“You already know.”
Chen studied her.
“I know the vehicle was registered to a Rosetti logistics subsidiary.”
“That means someone close to him.”
“It means paperwork can be useful when people aren’t.”
“What do you need from me?”
“I need you to remember anything Lily said before the SUVs arrived.”
Lena repeated the conversation.
Chen wrote the words he gets mad beneath the others.
“What about objects?”
“Her bracelet. Teddy bear. Torn dress. No shoes.”
“She had shoes.”
“Not when I found her.”
Chen looked up. “What kind?”
“I don’t know. I never saw them.”
“They were recovered near the dumpsters. White leather. Clean soles.”
Lena leaned back. “The alley was filthy.”
“Yes.”
“So someone took them off her after bringing her there.”
“Or carried her.”
Lena pictured the girl folded between the dumpsters, dress soaked at the hem but not higher, dirt on her face, no mud on her feet.
“The teddy bear was damp,” she said.
“It was raining.”
“No. The front was damp. The back was almost dry when I caught it. She’d been holding it against herself.”
Chen waited.
Lena saw the moment again. Lily’s fingers around the bear. Its cream fur flattened beneath her chin.
“There was something under its ribbon,” she said. “A little paper corner. Red or orange.”
Chen closed her notebook.
“I’ll have evidence take another look.”
“Did they not?”
“They looked for obvious hazards.”
“A paper corner isn’t obvious.”
“No.”
Chen rose.
At the door, Lena said, “Daniel told me to be careful who asked what Lily said.”
“Daniel Mercer?”
“I didn’t know his last name.”
“He’s been with Rosetti for eight years.”
“Should I be afraid of him?”
Chen considered the question.
“I don’t think Daniel would hurt a child.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No,” Chen said. “It usually isn’t.”
Dominic called at eleven.
Lena had turned her phone back on because the electric company sent a message threatening disconnection. His number appeared without a name.
“How did you get this number?”
“You called emergency services from it.”
“That doesn’t give it to you.”
“No.”
She waited.
“Lily is awake,” he said. “She asked for you.”
Lena looked at her work uniform hanging over the shower rod. “I’m not family.”
“She knows that.”
“Children get attached after frightening things. It doesn’t mean I should become part of her life.”
“She hasn’t spoken to the hospital psychologist.”
“That doesn’t mean she should talk to me.”
“No,” Dominic said. “It means she will talk to you.”
Lena rubbed her forehead. “You’re used to people agreeing because you lower your voice.”
“Does it work?”
“Probably too often.”
A pause.
“I’ll send a car.”
“I can get there myself.”
“It’s raining again.”
“It’s Chicago. That happens.”
“Lena.”
“What?”
“Please.”
The word sounded uncomfortable in his mouth.
She went.
Lily had more color in her face and a clear oxygen tube beneath her nose. Her hair had been washed and retied. The wolf bracelet was gone, taken as evidence, but a pale line marked where it had rested against her wrist.
Dominic stood near the window. He wore another black suit, though the absence of a tie made him look less formal and more dangerous.
May you like
A woman in a gray cardigan sat beside Lily. She introduced herself as Dr. Evelyn Shaw, a child psychologist.
“Lily understands that we want to know what happened,” Dr. Shaw said. “She also understands that she can stop whenever she wants.”
