Chapter 14 - Three Taps in the Dark

"Caleb?" Ethan shouted.

Another tap came from the hull.

The boat rested in a fenced repair yard, far above the water, with a narrow hatch half closed. Officers secured the area while the dockworker found the yard manager and unlocked the gate.

Ethan climbed the maintenance steps slowly, talking the entire time.

"It's Dad. I'm not mad. Nobody's taking you anywhere."

"She said I had to go away," Caleb's voice answered from the dark. "I thought if I hid where Mommy took me, she'd find me first."

Ethan swallowed. "Mom knows you're missing. She's helping us look."

"Is she coming?"

"As soon as the police say it's safe. Right now I'm here. And I'm staying."

The hatch opened. Caleb sat curled beside a coil of rope. His knees were scraped, his sweater dirty, but he could move and speak. A paramedic examined him and wrapped him in a blanket.

Isabel arrived only after Price arranged permission for her to see him briefly in the paramedic's presence. She stopped several feet away, afraid a single wrong step might take this moment from her.

Caleb stretched out his arms.

"Mommy."

The paramedic looked at Price, who nodded. Isabel knelt, and Caleb fell against her. She held him without saying she would never let go. She had learned that promises were only worth what a person could do to keep them.

"I got scared," he whispered.

"You did. Then you found a way to ask for help. I'm proud of you."

He opened his fist. A small black memory card rested in his palm.

"I found it in the blue room before the lady in green cleaned up," he said. "I put it inside Seal because she always takes my drawings."

Ethan stared at the card. "You don't have to save evidence, buddy. That's our job."

"I know. I just didn't want her to make everyone forget again."

Price photographed the card, documented where it came from, and placed it in an evidence sleeve.

Hours later, a forensic technician recovered the first intact video file. It began with Sloane's voice saying, "If Ethan finds out who really moved the money, we're both finished."

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A man's voice answered from somewhere behind the camera.

"Then make sure the boy never tells him."