Chapter 11 - No More Secret Deals
I put Victor's note in an evidence bag and drove to the station with Abigail beside me.
"You know he'll hurt that child if I don't show up," I said.
"You don't know that. And you don't know he'll spare her if you do."
Detective Bell met us in an interview room with bad coffee and a clock that ran six minutes fast.
"Victor wants to put you where he controls the exits," she said. "We're not going to give him that."
I slid the cassette across the table.
"It records my father speaking to Victor before the fire."
She listened once, then again.
"This could matter," she said. "But it's not a confession to murder. We'll need the context, and we'll need whoever wrote the statement."
"My mother wrote it."
"Can she communicate?"
"On her good days. Slowly."
"Then we work at her pace."
A patrol officer knocked. Dana Finch had been found alive. She was hiding with a cousin in Annapolis, unaware Lucy had gone missing until the police called.
I watched Bell give Dana the news over the phone. Her voice didn't change, but she pressed her fingertips hard into the table.
Afterward Bell looked at me.
"Lucy may know something Victor doesn't want anyone else to know."
I asked to make one monitored call. Victor answered on the first ring.
"You're late," he said.
"I won't bring Teresa. She's not property."
"Then bring the tape."
"Let me hear Lucy."
There was a scuffle, then a small voice.
"Miss Elena said grown-ups aren't allowed to make me tell lies."
"She's right," I said. "What's your name?"
"Lucy. I want my mom."
"She's safe. People are looking for you."
Victor took the phone.
"Don't try to be noble, Rafe. Your father never was."
"Where are you?"
"Ask your mother what happened to the second girl."
The line went dead.
Bell had already stood up.
"What second girl?"
May you like
I thought of Camille, sixteen, missing in the smoke. There had only been one girl.
At least, that was what they had told us.
