Chapter 6
Elena asked to see me the next morning.
I said no.
Then she asked again through her lawyer.
I said no again.
Then Detective Reyes came to the hospital and told me Elena was offering information about Ben.
So I went.
Not because she deserved my face.
Because another parent might be staring at a bedroom that still had toys on the floor.
The interview room was small.
Elena sat in an orange jumpsuit, her hair pulled back, her eyes swollen from crying.
For one stupid second, I saw the girl who used to climb apple trees with me.
Then I saw Oliver’s hand reaching from the dark.
That girl disappeared.
“Where is Ben?” I asked.
Elena sobbed.
“I don’t know exactly.”
I stood.
Reyes put a hand near the door.
“Elena,” she said, “this is your chance.”
Elena wiped her face.
“Marcus used three places. The storage unit. The motel. And a farmhouse outside Pine Bluff.”
“Address.”
“I don’t have it.”
I turned to leave.
“Wait!”
She leaned forward.
“There’s a name. Sloane called it the Finch property.”
Reyes wrote it down.
“Who is Victor Sloane working for?”
Elena shook her head.
“I never met the top people.”
“Top people,” I repeated.
She flinched.
“Marcus said they found families with trust funds, estates, custody disputes. They made people disappear on paper first. Then in real life.”
My stomach rolled.
“And Oliver?”
Her face collapsed.
“He saw Marcus taking Rachel’s drive from the office. Marcus panicked. He said if Oliver talked, everything would come out.”
“So you let him hide my son.”
“I thought it would be one night.”
“One night?”
My voice broke.
“You sat beside me while I filed missing person reports.”
“I was afraid.”
“Oliver was eight.”
She covered her ears.
“Stop.”
“No. You don’t get to stop hearing about him. He heard me walking above him. He tapped until his fingers bled.”
Elena bent over the table, sobbing.
“I’m sorry.”
I stared at her.
Sorry was too small.
Too cheap.
Too late.
“Did you know about Rachel?”
She froze.
That was answer enough.
I stepped closer.
“What happened to my wife?”
Elena whispered, “Marcus said he only scared her.”
“Scared her how?”
“He paid Wade to force her car off the road. He said she would back off after that.”
I felt the room vanish.
Reyes’s voice cut through the roaring in my head.
“Did Marcus admit this to you?”
Elena nodded.
“After she died. He said accidents happen when people won’t listen.”
I sat down because my legs stopped working.
Rachel.
My Rachel.
My wife had not been taken by weather, chance, or a careless driver.
She had been murdered because she tried to protect children.
Including ours.
Reyes left the room to make calls.
I stayed staring at Elena.
She whispered, “I didn’t know he would kill her.”
“But you knew after.”
She nodded.
“And you still let him near Oliver.”
“I thought I could manage him.”
I laughed once.
It sounded empty.
“You thought you could manage evil.”
Elena looked at me like the word hurt her.
Good.
By afternoon, police had a warrant for the Finch property.
I was not allowed to go.
I begged.
Reyes refused.
“You have two children who need you alive and present.”
She was right.
I hated that.
I returned to the hospital and found Oliver sitting up with a tray of soup in front of him.
Maya was feeding him crackers one at a time.
“Too many,” Oliver said weakly.
Maya frowned.
“You need big strong.”
He almost smiled.
That almost broke me worse than crying.
I sat beside him.
“Detective Reyes is looking for Ben.”
Oliver looked at me.
“Will she find him?”
“She’s going to try with everything she has.”
He nodded.
“Ben said his mom sings when scared.”
“What song?”
Oliver thought.
“Moon river.”
My mother gasped.
I turned to her.
“What?”
She had her phone in her hands.
“There was a missing boy on the news last year. Benjamin Carter. His mother sang that song at a press conference.”
She pulled up the article.
Benjamin Carter, age six, missing from Fort Worth.
Mother last seen wearing a purple coat while handing flyers to reporters.
I called Reyes immediately.
She picked up on the first ring.
“We found the farmhouse,” she said.
My heart stopped.
“Ben?”
A long pause.
“We found evidence he was there recently.”
“Alive?”
“We’re searching the property now.”
Oliver watched my face.
I forced myself not to crumble.
Then Reyes said, “David, there’s a storm cellar.”
I gripped the phone.
In the background, I heard shouting.
Footsteps.
A door being forced.
Then silence.
Then a man yelled, “We’ve got him!”
I closed my eyes.
Reyes came back, breathless.
“He’s alive.”
The sound that left me was half sob, half prayer.
Oliver whispered, “Ben?”
I nodded.
“They found him.”
Oliver started crying.
Not from fear this time.
From relief.
Maya hugged him.
My mother sank into a chair.
For one moment, the hospital room filled with something I had almost forgotten existed.
Hope.
Then Reyes spoke again.
“David, Marcus wasn’t at the farmhouse.”
My relief vanished.
“He left something behind.”
May you like
“What?”
“A photo of your house. Taken today.”
