Chapter 2 - Seven Missing Seconds
Caleb arrived at eleven carrying coffee and an expression of practiced concern.
“Someone tells me we had excitement last night.”
Adrian stayed seated.
“A child had a nightmare.”
“Poor kid.”
Caleb set a paper cup on the desk. His cuff shifted.
Black watch face.
Silver bezel.
A small wolf near the bottom.
Adrian had given him that watch eight years earlier.
He remembered the jeweler wrapping it. Remembered Caleb laughing and saying it was too expensive for a man who spent half his life crawling under trucks.
Now he wondered how many memories could sour before they stopped belonging to him.
“Elena taking it hard?” Caleb asked.
“Why would she?”
“Single mother. Strange house. You know how people get.”
“No,” Adrian said. “Explain.”
Caleb smiled.
“Don’t start. You look like you haven’t slept.”
Neither man touched the coffee.
After a moment, Caleb asked about the Wisconsin wedding lodge.
Adrian answered.
They discussed schedules, drivers, a delayed shipment.
It was the most ordinary conversation Adrian had ever endured.
When Caleb finally left, Noah entered through the adjoining office.
“He asked a guard whether Elena had spoken to you.”
“Which guard?”
“One who knows to tell me.”
Adrian looked at the untouched cup.
“What did the doctor say?”
“Elena agreed to blood and urine tests. Initial screening suggests a sedative. The laboratory needs time to confirm.”
“Enough to explain why she couldn’t wake?”
“Possibly. We’ll wait for the doctor’s assessment.”
“And the cameras?”
Noah placed a floor plan on the desk.
“The hallway footage repeated for seven seconds. That doesn’t mean he was inside for seven seconds.”
“Explain.”
“Someone used an old maintenance setting. During the interval, one feed was temporarily replaced with another. The closet itself sits against a service corridor.”
Adrian looked up sharply.
“That corridor was sealed.”
“On the plans.”
Noah showed him a photograph.
Behind the closet’s cedar backing was a narrow panel with a recessed latch.
The fresh scrape marked the place where it had opened.
“Caleb supervised the renovation,” Adrian said.
“Yes.”
At the kitchen table, Sophie was drawing a yellow house.
Elena sat beside her, unable to stop watching the doors.
Noah approached carefully.
“Sophie, would you mind telling me about your closet?”
She looked at Adrian first.
He pulled out a chair.
“You can say no.”
Sophie thought about it.
“Will Mommy stay?”
“The whole time.”
Noah asked her to describe what happened, without showing her photographs or offering names.
She described the shoes.
The watch.
A smell like the sharp mints Caleb kept in his coat.
Then she added something new.
“He dropped Mommy’s red box.”
Elena went still.
“What red box, sweetheart?”
“The one with Daddy’s picture inside. It made a bump.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Adrian waited until Noah had finished before asking her quietly.
“Was anything missing?”
“I haven’t looked.”
They went upstairs together while Sophie remained with Mrs. Alvarez.
The red box was beneath folded sweaters in Elena’s closet.
Inside were Daniel’s wedding ring, photographs, a dried hospital bracelet, and a sealed envelope.
Elena reached for it.
“Don’t,” Noah said gently. “Let me photograph everything first.”
Her hand trembled in the air.
“That envelope wasn’t there.”
Adrian leaned closer.
On the front, in block letters, someone had written:
YOUR DAUGHTER GETS ONE WARNING.
Elena made a small, broken sound.
Adrian turned away before anger could become the first thing she saw.
“Noah. Preserve it.”
Then he faced her again.
“We’re moving you somewhere safe.”
“No.”
“Elena—”
“No more houses I can’t leave. No more people deciding where my daughter sleeps.”
He absorbed the words.
“All right.”
She looked startled.
“You choose the place,” he said. “Noah can arrange protection that answers to you. You keep your phone, your identification, and your keys.”
“I don’t have money for—”
“You won’t owe me.”
Her eyes searched his face.
Adrian took one step back, giving her room to breathe.
Downstairs, a door opened.
Vivian’s voice floated through the gallery.
“Adrian? The caterer sent samples.”
Elena stiffened.
Adrian glanced toward Noah.
“Take her through the east stairs.”
When Adrian entered the gallery, Vivian was arranging small white boxes on a console table.
She smiled.
Then she noticed the red evidence bag in Noah’s hand as he crossed the far doorway.
Her fingers stopped moving.
Only for a moment.
But Adrian was watching.
May you like
“Everything all right?” she asked.
“Tell me,” he said, “why you mentioned Daniel Bennett in my conservatory.”
