Chapter 3
After she disappeared, I called Daniel.
“What did you find?”
“No entries after nine forty-two except Dr. Grant.”
“Employees?”
“All accounted for.”
“Cameras?”
“One outage.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Where?”
“East service corridor.”
Claire’s corridor.
“When?”
“Eleven twenty-eight to eleven forty-six.”
“Cause?”
“Working on it.”
“Find Victor Kane.”
Another pause.
“He attended a charity dinner downtown. Left around eleven.”
“Where is he now?”
“His driver says he dropped him at home at eleven twenty-seven.”
One minute before the camera went dark.
“Is Victor still there?”
“His car is.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No,” Daniel said. “I can’t confirm he is.”
I looked through the open door at Claire.
“Find out.”
I entered the apartment after Michael left to arrange transport.
For eight months, Claire had existed in my home without truly existing in my attention.
Now I saw everything.
A yellow blanket folded over the couch.
Tiny shoes lined neatly beneath a bench.
Children’s drawings held to the refrigerator with round magnets.
A purple sun.
A crooked house.
Two stick figures holding hands.
Above them, in uncertain letters, someone had written MOMMY LILY.
No father.
A framed photograph showed Claire beside an older woman with the same green eyes.
Another showed Claire in a nursing-school uniform.
Behind it sat a photograph facedown.
My instinct told me to pick it up.
My hand stopped before touching it.
It was her home.
Being unconscious did not make her privacy mine.
That thought would have surprised most people who knew me.
It surprised me.
Daniel arrived twenty minutes later.
“The camera wasn’t physically disabled,” he said. “Someone entered maintenance control and shut down that group remotely.”
“Who?”
“No login.”
“That terminal requires one.”
“Unless someone uses the administrator override.”
“Who knows it?”
“Me. Two senior supervisors.”
He hesitated.
“You.”
“Victor?”
“He knew an older version years ago.”
“Could he still use it?”
“Shouldn’t be possible.”
The estate suddenly felt less like a fortress.
“Victor’s whereabouts?”
“His house security shows a rear entrance opening at twelve fourteen.”
“He could have arrived then.”
“Yes.”
“He had almost forty-five minutes.”
“Yes.”
“To get from downtown to here?”
“Possible.”
I looked toward Claire’s room.
“You think Kane came here?” Daniel asked.
“I think a terrified little girl knew his name.”
“That isn’t proof.”
“No.”
Daniel looked surprised.
There had been a time when I considered proof something found after the decision.
Age had improved me marginally.
“I’m going with Claire to the hospital.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I looked at him.
Daniel lifted both hands.
“Just checking whether anyone kidnapped Adrian Moretti and replaced him with someone emotionally available.”
“Be careful.”
“There he is.”
The hospital transferred Claire into a private room.
Lily refused to remain behind.
So Mrs. Alvarez came.
So did I.
May you like
Nobody asked me to.
That bothered me during the drive.
