Chapter 9 - The Empty Back Seat
Tessa ran from the conference room before I could stop her.
I followed.
Her hands shook so badly she could not unlock her phone.
"Call Sam," she said.
I already was.
My driver answered immediately.
"Mr. Rossi."
"Where are the boys?"
"At school."
"No, they are not."
Silence.
"What?"
"You drove them."
"Yes."
"Did you see them go inside?"
"I dropped them at the student entrance."
"Did you watch them enter the building?"
Another silence.
"Sam."
"No."
Tessa made a sound beside me that I never want to hear again.
I put the phone on speaker.
"What happened after they got out?"
"A delivery truck pulled behind me."
"I had to move."
"Did anyone approach them?"
"I did not see anyone."
Aaron was already directing security teams.
School cameras.
Traffic cameras.
Transit stations.
Every known vehicle linked to Graham, Victor, Luca, and Harrow Bridge.
Tessa called Eli.
Straight to voicemail.
She called Noah's emergency phone.
Off.
She called again.
Again.
Again.
"Tessa."
"Do not tell me to calm down."
"I was not going to."
"Good."
Her voice broke.
"Because I will break your face."
"I know."
That almost made her laugh.
Almost.
We reached the underground garage.
Aaron intercepted us.
"School video shows both boys walking toward the entrance."
"Then where are they?" Tessa demanded.
"They never crossed the second camera."
"What is between the cameras?"
"A service lane."
My stomach tightened.
"Vehicles?"
"One white maintenance van."
"Plate?"
"Obscured."
"Company markings?"
"North City Mechanical."
Dana, who had followed us down, looked up from her phone.
"That contractor services South Halsted."
Tessa grabbed my arm.
"They took them."
"We do not know that."
She stared at me with fury.
I corrected myself.
"They may have."
"Better."
We drove toward the school with police already en route.
Halfway there, Tessa's phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered on speaker.
No one spoke.
Then we heard breathing.
Tessa gripped the phone.
"Eli?"
A voice whispered.
"Tess."
She folded forward.
"Eli, where are you?"
"I do not know."
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Noah?"
"He is okay."
A muffled sound came through the phone.
Eli whispered faster.
"We got in a van because the man said you got hurt."
Tessa closed her eyes.
"What man?"
"I do not know."
"Can you see outside?"
"Metal walls."
"Are you moving?"
"No."
I motioned for Aaron to trace the call.
He was already doing it.
"Eli, listen to me," Tessa said.
"Do not tell them you called."
"I found a phone under the seat."
"Good."
"Can you hear anything?"
He went quiet.
"A train."
"What else?"
"Beeping."
"What kind?"
"Like trucks backing up."
I looked at Aaron.
South Halsted was less than two blocks from a freight rail spur.
Tessa saw my expression.
She understood.
"Eli, do you smell anything?"
"Oil."
"Food?"
"No."
"Cold?"
"A little."
Then a door slammed on his end.
Eli whispered one word.
"Someone."
The call ended.
Aaron's trace had narrowed the signal to an industrial zone along the river.
South Halsted sat inside it.
Tessa looked at me.
"We are going there."
"Police first."
"No."
"Yes."
"Your people have been inside every system that failed us."
"Chicago police are not my people."
"Your company has contractors, lawyers, executives, security."
"And right now the best chance of getting your brothers out safely is not two furious adults kicking in doors."
She looked like she wanted to hit me.
Then she nodded once.
"Fine."
We reached South Halsted behind two police vehicles.
The facility manager met us at the gate.
His name was Nolan Beck.
I recognized it immediately from Katherine's recording.
He had been the supervisor she complained to.
Nolan was in his early fifties, broad-shouldered, nervous, and too eager to help.
"Mr. Rossi, I had no idea this was happening."
"Of course you did not."
He blinked.
Tessa stepped forward.
"My mother reported stolen wages to you."
Nolan's face changed.
"I do not know who your mother is."
"Katherine Cole."
Nothing.
Too much nothing.
"You told her to stop counting other people's money."
His mouth opened.
I watched the realization hit him.
There was a recording.
He had not known that.
"We need access to every loading bay, storage room, maintenance area, and contractor space," I said.
"Police can search with proper authority."
"This is my building."
"Actually, South Halsted is held by a property subsidiary."
I stared at him.
"Do not test me today, Nolan."
He stepped back.
"Of course."
Police split into teams.
Aaron showed me a map.
A maintenance wing on the west side sat closest to the rail spur.
North City Mechanical had a storage lease there.
We moved in that direction.
Tessa kept pace beside me.
Then she stopped.
"What?" I asked.
She pointed toward the ground.
A torn piece of notebook paper lay beside a yellow bollard.
She picked it up.
The handwriting was Eli's.
He had written one word.
BAY 12.
We ran.
Bay 12 was locked.
Nolan claimed he did not have a key.
I took a steel bar from a nearby cart and smashed the small window in the door.
Aaron reached through and opened it from inside.
The storage bay was empty.
Except for a white maintenance van.
The back doors stood open.
A cheap prepaid phone lay beneath one seat.
Tessa climbed inside.
"Eli!"
No answer.
Aaron pointed toward another door at the rear of the bay.
It led into a service corridor.
The corridor connected to an older section of the warehouse no longer shown on current floor plans.
We followed it fifty yards.
Then we heard a child crying.
Tessa ran past everyone.
"Tessa!"
She ignored me.
The crying came from behind a locked utility room.
Police forced the door.
Noah was inside.
Alone.
Tessa dropped to her knees and wrapped him in both arms.
He was frightened but unhurt.
"Where is Eli?"
Noah sobbed against her coat.
"The man took him."
"What man?"
"The one from Grandma's picture."
Tessa froze.
"What picture?"
Noah pointed toward the hallway.
"The man with Uncle Zo."
I stared at him.
"I am not your uncle."
It was not the time, but the words escaped me.
Noah blinked through tears.
"The man in the office picture."
I looked at Tessa.
"What office picture?"
She wiped Noah's face.
"Can you show us?"
He nodded.
Back at the estate, there was a framed photograph in my library from the company's twentieth anniversary.
Me.
Victor.
Luca.
Graham.
Several board members.
Noah had looked at it the night before.
I pulled the photograph up on my phone.
"Which man?"
His small finger moved across the screen.
Past Victor.
Past Graham.
Then stopped.
Luca Rossi.
"That one."
Tessa looked at me.
My cousin had her twelve-year-old brother.
Then my phone rang.
Before I answered, Noah grabbed Tessa's sleeve.
"Do not let him know I told."
Tessa crouched beside him.
"You did the right thing."
"What if he gets mad?"
"At you?"
Noah nodded.
"He told me rich people always win because they can keep paying until everyone else gets tired."
I felt my face harden.
"Who told you that?"
"The man in the picture."
Luca.
Tessa looked at me.
I looked at Noah.
"He was wrong."
Noah studied me.
"You are rich."
"Yes."
"Do you always win?"
"No."
"Did you win when you took Tessa's bag?"
The question was so clean that it hurt.
"No."
"What happened?"
"I learned I was wrong."
Noah considered that.
"Is that losing?"
"Sometimes it is better."
Tessa gave me a look that said I was becoming philosophical with an eight-year-old because I was nervous.
She was correct.
A detective approached Noah gently.
"Can you tell me anything else about the man?"
Noah rubbed his nose.
"He smelled like the blue room."
Tessa frowned.
"What blue room?"
"At Mr. Rossi's house."
I thought through the estate rooms.
"The library?"
"No."
"The billiard room?"
"No."
"The wine room?"
Noah nodded.
Cedar shelves and a particular cologne I kept for guests.
Luca used it constantly.
He had taken bottles from my guest cabinet for years.
Another small detail.
Another confirmation.
The detective wrote it down.
Tessa kissed Noah's forehead.
"You were brave."
"I was scared."
"Those can be the same thing."
I remembered that sentence later.
It explained Tessa better than almost anything else.
May you like
Then my phone rang.
Luca's name appeared on the screen.
