Chapter 3 - The Father Who Was Supposed to Be Dead)
David did not move.
Outside the interview room, someone walked past the glass.
Inside, the air seemed to disappear.
“My father died in Switzerland.”
Eleanor looked at the table.
“No.”
“I attended his funeral.”
“You attended a funeral.”
David stared at her.
The difference was monstrous.
He remembered rain.
A closed coffin.
His mother gripping his arm.
He remembered Chloe crying.
He remembered Mark was not part of the family then.
He remembered the priest saying Richard Carter’s name.
He remembered believing his father had died in a car accident outside Geneva.
“You lied.”
Eleanor swallowed.
“Yes.”
“For seventeen years?”
“Yes.”
David stood abruptly.
The chair scraped backward.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I haven’t seen him in fourteen years.”
“That is not seventeen.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
David leaned over the table.
“You saw him after his funeral.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Boston.”
“Why?”
“He contacted me.”
“For what?”
She hesitated.
“The case.”
David stared.
“What is inside it?”
“Insurance.”
“For who?”
“All of us.”
David’s patience snapped.
“Stop answering me in riddles.”
Eleanor’s eyes hardened.
A familiar transformation.
Fear replaced by control.
“You are not equipped to understand what your father was involved in.”
“I’m thirty-six years old.”
“You’re still my son.”
“And Maya is my wife.”
Eleanor flinched.
“You left her starving.”
“That was a mistake.”
“No.”
David shook his head.
“A mistake is forgetting groceries. You deliberately took food and formula.”
“I was angry.”
“At what?”
“She found something.”
David froze.
“What?”
Eleanor immediately realized she had said too much.
“What did Maya find?”
“Nothing.”
“Mother.”
“Ask your wife.”
David stared at her.
Then walked toward the door.
“David.”
He stopped.
Eleanor spoke with sudden urgency.
“If you go through that case, people may notice.”
He turned.
“People?”
“You think your father vanished because he wanted another life?”
“What are you saying?”
“He vanished because someone gave him a choice.”
“What choice?”
Eleanor looked toward the mirrored glass.
Then whispered:
“Disappear, or watch his children disappear first.”
David’s anger became cold.
“Who threatened us?”
“I never knew their real names.”
“Convenient.”
“I knew what they could do.”
“Then why keep the case?”
“Because your father told me never to destroy it.”
“Why?”
“He said one day someone would come looking.”
David opened the door.
“Someone already did.”
He walked out.
Hall was waiting.
“You heard?”
“Enough.”
“Is any of it true?”
“I don’t know.”
Hall guided him toward evidence processing.
They passed two uniformed officers.
David lowered his voice.
“What happened to the person who entered the hotel suite?”
“We don’t know.”
“You said they used a key.”
“Correct.”
“Hotel employee?”
“No.”
Hall handed David a still image.
A woman in a baseball cap entering Eleanor’s suite at 4:13 a.m.
Her face was partially hidden.
But something about her posture looked familiar.
“Who is she?”
“We’re trying to determine that.”
David studied the image.
Then another detail caught his attention.
The woman wore a bracelet.
Thin silver chain.
Small crescent moon.
His stomach tightened.
He had bought that bracelet.
Eight years earlier.
For Chloe.
His sister.
David looked up.
“Where is Chloe?”
Hall’s expression changed.
“That is another problem.”
“What?”
“When officers arrived at the hotel, your mother was there.”
“And Chloe?”
“Gone.”
“Mark?”
“Gone.”
David stared at him.
“When did they leave?”
“We don’t know.”
“Did they take a car?”
“No.”
“Flight?”
“No record.”
“Phones?”
“Off.”
David looked back at the image.
The bracelet.
“Maybe that’s Chloe.”
Hall nodded.
“We considered it.”
“Why would my sister break into her own hotel suite?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether she was actually trying to steal the case.”
David frowned.
Hall continued.
“Or trying to prevent Mark from taking it.”
David slowly looked up.
“You think Mark disappeared with my sister?”
“We think Mark left the hotel at 4:22.”
“With Chloe?”
“No.”
Hall showed him another security still.
Mark alone.
Walking through the parking garage.
No suitcase.
No Chloe.
But holding an envelope.
David recognized his father’s handwriting.
Hall pointed toward the time.
Nine minutes after the woman entered Eleanor’s room.
“Mark knew exactly what he was looking for.”
David stared at the photograph.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message from Maya.
Call me when you can.
I remembered something Eleanor said.
David immediately dialed.
Maya answered quietly.
“What did she say?”
“She was arguing with Mark.”
“When?”
“The night before they left.”
“About what?”
“I only heard part of it.”
“What part?”
Maya took a breath.
“She said, ‘Richard warned us about men like you.’”
David’s entire body went still.
“What did Mark say?”
“He laughed.”
“And?”
Maya’s voice lowered.
“He told her Richard didn’t warn her about him.”
May you like
David waited.
“He said Richard sent him.”
