Chapter 5 - A Child Disappears
Daniel did not let me go alone.
He also didn't let me go with him.
French investigators went instead.
The address led to a small hotel near Gare de Lyon.
Elise Laurent wasn't there.
But she had been.
The room contained a laptop charger, two coffee cups and a torn envelope with Dr. Hargrove's clinic address.
No original files.
No explanation.
Only another trail.
By morning, Adrian had been questioned but not formally charged with every offense we suspected. The legal situation was more complicated than the revenge fantasies my exhausted mind preferred.
But his travel documents had been seized.
Leo was not leaving France.
That was enough for one morning.
The next battle was custody.
An emergency hearing was scheduled.
Adrian's lawyers arrived with the original British temporary order.
My lawyers arrived with Dr. Hargrove's denial, evidence of the false report and proof Adrian had concealed Leo's location.
For two hours, adults argued about jurisdiction.
I watched Leo draw blue circles on paper in an adjoining room with Marta.
At one point, he drew three circles.
"Knots," he explained.
I had to look away.
The judge ultimately ordered Leo to remain with me under temporary protective conditions while the British order was reviewed.
I heard the words.
I didn't understand them.
Daniel touched my shoulder.
"Claire."
"What?"
"He's coming with you."
I stared.
"What?"
"Leo stays with you."
My knees almost gave way.
For the first time since the accident, I cried without trying to stop.
That night, Leo slept beside me.
The next morning, I made him toast.
He rejected it because it was cut into triangles.
I made rectangles.
He rejected those because they weren't squares.
I laughed so hard I cried again.
Normal problems.
Beautiful, ridiculous normal problems.
But Adrian was still there.
And Elise was still missing.
Two days later, the police confirmed the second passport contained falsified supporting documents.
One document was a birth registration amendment.
Another claimed Elise Laurent was Leo's legal guardian for travel purposes.
My signature appeared on it.
I had never seen it.
Forgery layered upon forgery.
Daniel spread the documents across the apartment table.
"He's creating alternate paperwork."
"For what?"
"Mobility."
"Say what you mean."
"To make it harder to stop him traveling with Leo."
I looked at the itinerary again.
Dubai.
"What happens if he gets there?"
"Claire."
"Say it."
"It becomes significantly harder."
I closed my eyes.
Leo was playing on the floor five feet away.
I lowered my voice.
"Why would Elise help?"
"We don't know that she did willingly."
That possibility hadn't occurred to me.
"What do you mean?"
"The message."
ADRIAN WILL SAY I HELPED HIM.
Not I helped him.
He will say I did.
Daniel continued.
"We found payments from Laurent Advisory."
"To Elise?"
"No."
"Then who?"
"Her brother."
I frowned.
"Does Adrian know him?"
"Apparently."
"How?"
"That's what we're trying to establish."
The answer came from Celeste.
She called that afternoon.
"I need to speak with you."
I almost refused.
Then she said, "It's about Elise Laurent."
We met in the lobby of a hotel with Daniel present.
Celeste looked different without the restaurant lighting.
Still elegant.
Still composed.
But exhausted.
She placed the engagement ring on the table between us.
"This is yours."
"No."
She looked surprised.
"It was never really mine either."
I pushed it back.
"Keep it, sell it, throw it into the Seine. I don't care."
That was almost true.
"What do you know about Elise?"
Celeste folded her hands.
"Adrian introduced us."
"When?"
"Eight months ago."
My heart sank.
Eight months.
Long before the accident.
"Where?"
"At a charity dinner."
"What did he say she did?"
"Private medical consulting."
Daniel leaned forward.
"Did they seem close?"
Celeste hesitated.
"Yes."
"Romantically?"
"No."
That answer came quickly.
"Business."
"What business?"
"I don't know."
I studied her.
"Why are you helping me?"
Her eyes moved toward the ring.
"Because yesterday I found out you weren't the only person Adrian lied to."
She reached into her handbag and produced her phone.
A photograph appeared.
Adrian standing beside a man outside a hotel.
The man looked vaguely familiar.
"Who is that?" I asked.
"Julien Laurent."
Elise's brother.
Daniel took the phone.
"When was this?"
"Four months ago."
"Where?"
"Geneva."
My skin prickled.
"What were they doing?"
"I don't know. Adrian told me Julien was an investor."
"Investor in what?"
Celeste looked at me.
"Your company."
Silence.
Bennett Atelier.
My inheritance.
The missing money.
The forged psychiatric report.
The fake passport.
They were all connected.
Daniel asked, "Did Adrian discuss Claire with Julien?"
Celeste swallowed.
"Once."
"What did he say?"
"He said you were becoming a problem."
I felt strangely detached.
"What kind of problem?"
"He said you had started looking at accounts you didn't understand."
I almost laughed.
Of course.
A woman asking questions was always confused in Adrian's version of reality.
"What else?"
Celeste looked ashamed.
"He said he might need to protect Leo from you."
"When?"
"Before your accident."
There it was.
Proof the custody narrative existed before the crash.
Daniel sat back.
"Would you make a statement?"
Celeste looked toward the window.
Then she nodded.
"Yes."
My phone rang.
Marta.
I answered.
"Hello?"
She was crying.
"Claire."
I stood.
"What happened?"
"Leo."
My blood turned cold.
"What about Leo?"
"He was with me in the courtyard."
Daniel was already standing.
"Marta, where is he?"
"I turned around for maybe ten seconds."
"No."
"I'm sorry."
"No."
"And then he was gone."
The entire hotel lobby disappeared around me.
Six weeks of terror returned in one breath.
I grabbed the table to stay upright.
Daniel took my phone.
"Marta, call the police. Lock the building entrances. We're coming."
I could hear her sobbing.
Then another sound.
A man's voice.
Behind her.
Daniel froze.
"Who is that?"
Marta stopped crying.
A second later, the call ended.
I stared at Daniel.
"Adrian."
He shook his head.
"Adrian is with his solicitor."
"Then who?"
Neither of us said the name.
We didn't need to.
Julien Laurent.
May you like
And suddenly I understood why Elise's message had sounded afraid.
Adrian wasn't the only person involved.
