Chapter 8 - The Man Outside the Glass
Jo grabbed my arm. "Don't open it."
The stranger outside looked about twenty-five, with dark curls and a crooked front tooth. Under the photograph he'd written a name on cardboard: MATEO.
"He could be bait," Adrian said.
"He could be my brother," I answered.
"Both can be true."
The man at the glass pointed to a side door, then to the security camera above it. He mouthed, They can hear. Jo found a rear exit and circled around while Adrian waited by the lockers. I stepped outside with my hands visible.
"Who are you?"
"My name's Eli Mercer," he said. "I'm a court investigator. That photo is Mateo. He disappeared three weeks ago."
"How do you know him?"
"He came to our office trying to reopen the Bellwether case. He had a ledger showing fake foster placements. He said he'd found the man who ordered the fire."
My legs felt hollow. "Where is he?"
"I don't know. I was supposed to meet him last Thursday. He sent one message instead: If I vanish, tell Mara I'm sorry about the red mitten."
I took a breath so sharp it hurt. The mitten had not been proof of a death. It was a message between children.
Jo reappeared behind Eli holding a tire iron. "Cute story. Show identification."
He did. She photographed it, then searched his face online. Court investigator, yes. Suspended last week, also yes.
"Why suspended?" she asked.
"Because I refused to close a witness intimidation complaint. The complainant was Elena Reyes."
I swallowed. "My mother talked to you?"
"She did. And she said you shouldn't trust anybody who knows about B-14."
Adrian came through the door with the cassette and packet. "Then who told you to come here?"
Eli looked at him as though seeing a ghost. "Your father."
"My father died when I was twelve."
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"No," Eli said. "That was the story the Sterling family paid to print."
He took a second photograph from his coat. It showed an older man boarding a bus in Quebec two months earlier. The man had Adrian's unmistakable smile.
