Chapter 10 - The Motel Room
Benjamin started for the elevators as if he could run the two thousand miles to Oregon. Ruth caught his arm.
“You won't help Grace by doing something reckless.”
“She's my daughter.”
“And we will find her.”
The agents at the motel secured surveillance video. At 6:14 that morning, Grace had left her room walking between two men. She was wearing a gray hoodie and carrying a canvas bag. On the footage she appeared conscious, but one of the men gripped her elbow too tightly.
Ruth replayed the video on her phone. “Zoom in on the parking lot.”
The vehicle was a gray utility van with a temporary plate. They could trace it.
Meanwhile, Naomi's brother Caleb called from his hospital bed. “I know that van,” he said when Naomi showed him a still image. “One came to the warehouse Friday. Different plate, same dent in the back door.”
“Who drove it?”
“Victor.”
Price put out a regional alert. By noon, officers had located the van abandoned near a bus depot. There was no sign of Grace. In the glove compartment, however, investigators found a dry-cleaning receipt from a hotel near the city airport.
“Somebody wanted us to follow the van,” Price said. “That could be useful or it could be bait.”
Benjamin watched the lobby fill with employees returning from lunch. They whispered about the deed and the money and the arrest that still hadn't happened. He understood their fear. A building wasn't made of steel and glass alone. It was made of paychecks, cleaning crews, cafeteria cooks, people who bought school shoes with wages earned between those walls.
He stepped onto a bench and raised his voice. “Nobody is being thrown out. Nobody's paycheck gets sacrificed so somebody can prove a point. We will keep this place running.”
Someone applauded. Then another.
Across the room, Ethan saw workers listening to the janitor in a way they'd never listened to him.
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He pulled out his phone and sent Victor a single message: END IT BEFORE SHE TALKS.
But Ethan didn't realize Naomi was standing behind him—and had photographed the screen.
