Chapter 8 - The Missing Six Hours
Dante did not want to talk about Sofia.
That became obvious the moment Eli asked.
“Dad, what did Mom know?”
Dante put the photograph facedown.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
Nora watched Eli’s expression close.
The boy had spent weeks being lied to by an adult who claimed it was for his protection.
Dante was about to make the same mistake for different reasons.
“Tell him something,” Nora said.
Dante looked at her sharply.
“This is family.”
“So is he.”
Eli stared at his father.
Dante exhaled.
“You’re right.”
He sat beside his son.
“Your mom started questioning some of Uncle Victor’s business friends before she got sick.”
“Why?”
“She thought people were using our companies to move money they shouldn’t.”
Eli frowned.
“Like stealing?”
“Something like that.”
“Was Mr. Reed one of them?”
Dante hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Nora caught that.
Not no.
I don’t know.
“When did Sofia start investigating?” she asked.
“About six years ago.”
“Reed worked for you then?”
“Yes.”
“Did she trust him?”
“Completely.”
“Then maybe that’s why she found something.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
Eli touched the photograph.
“Mom wrote me a letter.”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Reed took it.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe she told me.”
The simple possibility silenced the room.
Dante stood.
“If that letter contained evidence, Reed would want it destroyed.”
“Unless he doesn’t have it anymore,” Nora said.
Dante looked at her.
“What?”
“Eli said he saw Reed in the hidden room three nights before he ran. Maybe Reed was looking for it then.”
“He stole it the night Eli disappeared.”
“Are you sure?”
“Inventory shows it missing.”
“That only proves it’s gone.”
Dante considered.
Nora continued.
“What happened during Eli’s missing six hours?”
“We don’t know.”
“Then start there.”
Detective Walsh joined them that evening with a map.
Eli disappeared from the Mercer estate at approximately 8:06 p.m.
He was found by Nora at 2:11 a.m.
Six hours.
Five minutes.
The estate sat nearly nine miles from Callahan’s Grill.
A barefoot child suffering medication effects could not have walked that far.
Someone transported him.
“We checked taxis and ride services,” Walsh said. “Nothing.”
“Buses?” Nora asked.
“We’re pulling footage.”
Eli looked at the map.
“I was in a car.”
Everyone turned.
Dante crouched.
“You remember?”
“A little.”
“What car?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who drove?”
Eli closed his eyes.
“A lady.”
Nora’s heartbeat quickened.
“What did she look like?”
“Dark hair.”
“How old?”
“Old.”
Dante almost smiled.
Walsh said, “How old is old?”
Eli shrugged.
“Like forty.”
Nora covered a laugh.
Dante murmured, “Careful.”
Eli frowned in concentration.
“She was crying.”
“Did you know her?”
“I think she worked at the house once.”
Dante looked at Marco.
“Staff list.”
Marco opened his tablet.
Photographs appeared.
Housekeepers.
Cooks.
Assistants.
Garden staff.
Former employees.
Eli scanned.
Then touched one.
“Her.”
The woman’s name was Teresa Alvarez.
Former housekeeper.
Employed eight years.
Quit six months earlier.
“Why did she leave?” Nora asked.
Dante looked at Marco.
Marco checked.
“Family reasons.”
Walsh called for an address.
Thirty minutes later they had more.
Teresa had not quit.
She had been fired.
Authorization: Adrian Reed.
Reason: theft.
No police report.
No documentation.
Nora stared at the screen.
“He got rid of her.”
Dante nodded.
“Find her.”
Police reached Teresa’s apartment at 10:40 p.m.
She was gone.
But her daughter lived upstairs.
After assurances that Teresa was not in trouble, the daughter called her.
An hour later, Teresa entered Lakeshore’s interview room shaking.
Eli recognized her instantly.
She cried when she saw him.
“Mi niño.”
Dante stood between them.
“What happened?”
Teresa looked at him with fear.
“Mr. Mercer, I tried to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“Mr. Reed.”
She clasped her hands.
“Six months ago I saw him putting something into Eli’s vitamin container.”
Dante went pale.
“I asked what it was. He told me doctor’s orders.”
“And?”
“I called the doctor.”
Nora held her breath.
“The doctor knew nothing.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“You told Reed?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Next day he accused me of stealing jewelry.”
Teresa began crying.
“I begged to speak with you. He said if I came near the family, police would arrest me.”
Dante looked devastated.
“I never knew.”
“I know.”
“What happened the night Eli disappeared?”
Teresa wiped her face.
“He called me.”
“Who?”
“Eli.”
Everyone looked at the boy.
Eli’s eyes widened.
“I forgot.”
Teresa smiled sadly.
“He remembered my number because I taught him a song with the digits when he was little.”
Nora looked at Eli.
Clever boy.
“He said Mr. Reed was going to hurt him,” Teresa continued. “I thought he was scared. I drove to the service entrance.”
“How did he get out?”
“Gate was open.”
Marco swore quietly.
Teresa continued.
“Eli climbed into my car. He was sick. I wanted to take him to police.”
“Why didn’t you?” Walsh asked.
“Someone followed us.”
Dante’s head snapped up.
“Who?”
“I don’t know. Black SUV.”
Teresa drove through side streets trying to lose it.
At one point Eli began vomiting and fading in and out.
She panicked.
Her phone rang.
Reed.
“He told me if I took Eli to police, he would say I kidnapped him.”
Nora closed her eyes.
“He knew about the theft accusation,” Teresa said. “He said no one would believe me.”
“What did you do?”
“I drove downtown.”
“Why?”
“I knew cameras were everywhere.”
Smart.
Very smart.
“But then the SUV hit my rear bumper.”
Dante’s expression became deadly.
“Were you hurt?”
“No.”
“Eli?”
“No.”
“I pulled into an alley. Eli got out while I was arguing with the other driver.”
Eli whispered, “I ran.”
Teresa nodded.
“I couldn’t find him.”
She began sobbing.
“I searched for hours.”
Dante’s anger disappeared.
He sat across from her.
“You saved his life.”
“I lost him.”
“You got him out of that house.”
Nora saw Teresa break.
Dante took her hands.
“You saved my son.”
It was the second time Nora had watched the feared man thank someone without pride.
Walsh cleared his throat.
“Did you see the driver of the SUV?”
Teresa nodded.
“Not clearly.”
“Anything?”
“A ring.”
Everyone waited.
“Large silver ring. Black stone.”
Dante stood slowly.
Nora noticed.
“You know it.”
He did.
Victor Mercer wore a silver ring with a black onyx stone.
Eli’s uncle.
The same man who met Reed after midnight.
Victor had insisted he knew nothing.
But according to Teresa, a man wearing his distinctive ring had chased Eli through Chicago hours before Nora found him.
Dante stared at his son.
The possibility he had refused to accept was becoming harder to deny.
And for the first time, the greatest threat to Eli Mercer no longer appeared to be a vanished employee.
May you like
It might be his own uncle.
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