Chương 3
Daniel stood against the wall with his arms crossed.
Her birthday was in nine days.
Rachel had done things like that.
Once, before a surgery she had been afraid she might not survive, she had ordered flowers to arrive on their anniversary six months later.
She had survived that surgery.
The flowers had made them both cry anyway.
So Sophie had believed the woman.
Daniel would have believed her too.
That realization hurt differently.
Sophie rode the elevator down alone.
When the doors opened, she saw Daniel’s sedan.
The rear door was open.
She walked toward it.
A man was sitting inside.
Martin.
She thought he was Daniel until he leaned toward the light.
Then she saw his face.
He told her to get in.
Sophie ran.
Victoria appeared from the stairwell.
At first Sophie thought Victoria was another stranger.
Then she recognized her from the ballroom.
Victoria grabbed her.
Sophie fought.
“She told me to be quiet,” Sophie said.
Ruiz asked, “Did she hurt you?”
Sophie considered it.
“She squeezed my arm.”
“Anything else?”
“She put my backpack on the cart.”
“With the lock?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She said I kept trying to run.”
“Where were you trying to go?”
“To Dad.”
“Where did you think your dad was?”
“In the car.”
Daniel looked away.
Ruiz noticed.
She noticed everything.
Victoria had dragged the shopping cart behind the pillar, locked Sophie’s backpack strap to it, then called 911. She had also called Daniel six times.
His phone had been on silent during the foundation chairman’s speech.
Six calls.
He had not seen them.
The fact sat inside him like swallowed metal.
“Why didn’t she just take Sophie upstairs?” Daniel asked.
Ruiz looked toward Victoria.
“That’s one of my questions.”
“Ask it.”
“I will.”
“Now.”
Ruiz studied him.
“Mr. Carter, your daughter needs you more than my interview needs an audience.”
He looked at Sophie.
The paramedic was placing an ice pack against her shoulder.
Daniel sat beside her.
Ruiz walked away.
Sophie leaned into him.
For several minutes neither spoke.
A tow truck arrived for another car on the far side of the garage, apparently unrelated to any of this. Its driver argued with a hotel employee about clearance height. Daniel watched them because watching two strangers discuss whether a truck was nine feet two inches tall was easier than thinking about Martin Vale.
Sophie said, “Are you mad at me?”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“For leaving the party.”
“No.”
“I knew I wasn't supposed to.”
“Sophie.”
“I did.”
He took the ice pack from her hand and held it gently against her shoulder.
“You made a mistake.”
She stared at her sneakers.
“So did I.”
“You were talking.”
“I should’ve been watching you.”
“You always say you don’t have to watch me every second.”
“I say a lot of stupid things.”
That almost got a smile.
Almost.
She picked at a loose thread on her skirt.
“Who’s Martin?”
Daniel’s hand stopped.
There were answers parents saved for later because later felt like a country they would eventually reach.
Sometimes later came downstairs and sat in your car.
“He knew Grandpa Jack.”
“The grandpa I never met?”
“Yes.”
“Was Grandpa bad?”
Daniel looked at the rain.
“That’s complicated.”
“That means yes.”
Despite everything, he gave a short laugh.
Sophie had learned that from Rachel.
Whenever adults used complicated, Rachel used to say, somebody was about to lie politely.
“Your grandfather did bad things,” Daniel said.
“Did you know?”
“Some of them.”
“All of them?”
“No.”
Sophie studied him.
“Does Victoria know?”
Daniel looked across the garage.
Victoria was speaking to Ruiz.
“Yes.”
That answer frightened him more than he expected.
Victoria Hale had known Daniel for seven years.
She had hired him when Carter Development was six weeks from bankruptcy and Daniel was selling furniture from the corporate office to cover payroll. She had invested twenty-four million dollars when no bank would touch him. Later, when the company recovered, she had become board chair.
Rachel had never trusted her.
Daniel had called it jealousy once.
Only once.
Rachel had not spoken to him for two days.
Now Victoria stood in handcuffs explaining why a supposedly dead man had been sitting inside Daniel’s car.
Daniel wondered how many conversations in his marriage he had misunderstood simply because the wrong interpretation had been more comfortable.
Ruiz returned.
She looked tired already.
“We need to go upstairs.”
“Why?”
“Hotel security found the woman who approached Sophie.”
Daniel stood.
“Where?”
“She’s not hotel staff.”
“I figured that out.”
“She’s in a restroom on the mezzanine.”
“Alive?”
Ruiz paused.
“Yes.”
That pause mattered.
“What happened?”
“She took something. Paramedics are treating her.”
Daniel glanced at Sophie.
Ruiz lowered her voice.
“We think she overdosed.”
“On what?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Did she talk?”
“A little.”
“What did she say?”
Ruiz looked toward Martin.
“She said she was paid two hundred dollars to bring Sophie downstairs.”
“By him?”
“She says she never met whoever hired her.”
“Then how was she paid?”
“Cash envelope left at the hotel desk under a false name.”
Daniel looked at Martin.
He was seated now, uncuffed, speaking to another detective.
“Why isn’t he under arrest?”
“For sitting in your car?”
“For abducting my daughter.”
“We don't have evidence he abducted her.”
“He told her to get in.”
“That matters. It isn’t the same thing.”
“He was in my car.”
“Do you know how he got in?”
“No.”
“Was it locked?”
“I thought it was.”
“Did he damage it?”
Daniel looked at the sedan.
“No.”
“Who has another key?”
“Me.”
“Only you?”
Daniel hesitated.
Rachel’s key had remained in the kitchen drawer for months after her death.
Then one day it had disappeared.
He had assumed he moved it.
Ruiz saw the answer before he gave it.
“Who else?”
“My wife had one.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did you last see it?”
“Maybe a year ago.”
Ruiz wrote something down.
Daniel hated the little notebook immediately.
May you like
“Victoria?”
“I never gave her one.”
