Chapter 11 - The Van at the Gate
Daniel ran to the upstairs balcony in time to see a gray van speeding through the service gate. Maya's unmarked car followed it.
"A boy was here!" he shouted into the phone. "Second floor. Someone took him out the window."
"Stay inside," Maya said. "We'll handle the vehicle."
He hated the order, but he obeyed. An officer searched the grounds while another detained Vanessa for questioning. She claimed the room had been prepared for a visiting cousin.
"What cousin?" Daniel demanded.
The scrape marks beneath the upstairs window were fresh. A flowerpot on the ground had broken, and a strip of fabric caught in the trellis fluttered in the breeze. The officer took photographs while Daniel stood well back. He imagined Ben being told to climb down, perhaps promised that his father was waiting. A child's fear could be manipulated with astonishing ease if the adult speaking knew what the child loved. Daniel wanted to call Colin immediately, but Maya asked him to let the identification process finish before raising anyone's hopes. So he waited beside the empty room, furious at a world where the careful thing was sometimes also the cruelest thing.
"You don't get to interrogate me."
In the locked room, Daniel found pencil marks beneath the desk. The boy had been keeping track of days. Nine short lines, then a gap, then four more.
An officer photographed them.
Beneath the mattress was half a folded worksheet. In careful block letters someone had written: MY NAME IS BEN. I WANT GRANDMA JOAN.
Daniel's throat tightened.
Maya called thirty minutes later. The van had crashed through a construction barrier. Its driver escaped on foot, but a child had been found safe in the rear compartment.
"Is it Ben?" Daniel asked.
"We're confirming. He's scared and asking for his grandmother."
May you like
For the first time that day, Daniel let himself breathe.
Then Maya added, "The driver left something behind. It's your company ID, Daniel. With your photograph on it."
