Chapter 15 - The Call from Vanessa
Rosa had returned to her cousin's apartment after giving police a statement. When we tried her number, it went straight to voicemail. Her cousin said she'd left an hour earlier after receiving a message that I needed her urgently.
"I never sent anything," I said.
Daniel contacted the detective assigned to the earlier report. Nathan replayed Vanessa's call, which he'd recorded the moment he recognized her number.
"Martin wants the memory card and the locker contents," Vanessa said. "He says he won't hurt Rosa if Claire comes alone."
Rosa squeezed my hands afterward and insisted on telling the officer every detail twice so she wouldn't forget anything. She had been frightened, she admitted, but more frightened that I would believe she had abandoned me. "There is no paycheck large enough to make me stop caring about the child I watched grow up," she said. I apologized for the danger that had found her. She shook her head. "The danger belongs to the people who brought it, not to the person they wanted to frighten." I held on to that distinction while the police finished their questions.
I listened to my own breathing. The room seemed too bright.
"Nobody is going alone," Emma said.
Police traced the latest message to a vacant commercial property near the old riverfront. Officers organized a response while Daniel helped them review the building plans he'd obtained legally through public records.
I stayed at the command post, hating every minute I wasn't moving. Nathan sat across from me, elbows on knees.
"She looked after us," he said.
"She looked after me. You stopped noticing people when they weren't useful."
He accepted the sentence without argument.
An officer's radio crackled. A side entrance was open. Inside, they found Rosa locked in an office, shaken but uninjured. She'd been left with bottled water and a note threatening consequences if she contacted anyone.
When she came out, I hugged her so hard she laughed through tears. "Careful, mija. I still need my ribs."
Then she pressed a small key into my palm.
"The man dropped this," she whispered. "It has the same symbol as the envelope in Eleanor's desk."
Alder Management's silver tree logo shone beneath her thumb.
May you like
On the other side was stamped a second address.
