Chapter 7 - THE BOY IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Paul Mercer was found at a roadside motel outside Newark.
He tried to escape through a bathroom window when Daniel's men arrived. They caught him before he reached the parking lot.
At first, Paul refused to speak.
Then Daniel showed him the laboratory report and the security access logs.
“I didn't touch the inhaler,” he said.
“Who did?” Daniel asked.
“Victor.”
“Why?”
Paul looked down.
“He said the boss was getting weak. He said the family needed someone who could make hard decisions.”
“Did he tell you to erase the cameras?”
Paul nodded.
“Did he arrange the attack at the Jersey warehouse?”
Paul's eyes filled with fear.
“I didn't know what would happen that night.”
“Answer the question.”
“He told us the warehouse was going to be hit. It was a diversion. The real target was the boss's family.”
Daniel went completely still.
“Isabella and Daniel?”
Paul nodded.
“Victor said the boy wasn't supposed to be in the car.”
Daniel's voice lowered.
“What happened to him?”
Paul began to shake.
“I don't know. I swear I don't know.”
“You were there.”
“I saw the car. I saw the fire. But when the men checked afterward, the child wasn't inside.”
Daniel grabbed the edge of the table.
“Where was he?”
“Victor said the boy had died somewhere else. He told us never to ask again.”
Daniel left the room and called Lucas.
The news struck harder than the inhaler report.
For three years, Lucas had mourned his wife and son. He had built a wall around the memory because there was no other way to survive it.
Now he was being told that Daniel might not have died in the crash.
“Bring Paul to me,” Lucas said.
“I'm bringing him to the police first. We need to protect the evidence.”
Lucas's anger rose, but he forced himself to listen.
“Fine. But I want to know everything.”
Back at the guest apartment, Lily was drawing at the kitchen table.
She had drawn a large house, a man in a black suit, and a little boy standing beside him.
Grace looked over her shoulder.
“Who's that?”
“The man who couldn't breathe.”
“That's Mr. Moretti?”
Lily nodded.
“And who's the other little boy?”
Lily pointed to a small figure standing beside the man.
“I don't know. I saw him in the big hallway picture.”
Grace looked more closely.
The picture showed Lucas, Isabella, and a young Daniel standing in front of a Christmas tree. Lily had seen it during her first visit to the mansion.
“Why did you draw him?”
“He looked lonely.”
Grace put an arm around her.
“Maybe he misses someone.”
Lily thought about that.
“Maybe he needs a friend.”
At the mansion, Lucas stood in front of the same family photograph.
He had not looked at it in months.
Daniel's smile was wide and unguarded. Isabella's hand rested on Lucas's shoulder. The three of them looked like a family that had never heard of fear.
Lucas touched the frame.
“Where are you, son?”
His phone rang.
It was Daniel.
“Lucas,” his cousin said, voice strained. “Paul gave us a name.”
“Whose?”
“A private clinic administrator. He says Victor paid the clinic to keep a child under a false identity after the crash.”
Lucas stopped breathing for a moment.
“Daniel?”
May you like
“We're checking records now.”
“Find my son.”
