Chapter 5 - The Woman They Tried to Blame
Judith Crane looked almost nothing like me from the front.
From behind, in a blonde wig and my uniform, she looked close enough to ruin my life.
She raised both hands.
Detective Alvarez drew her weapon but kept it lowered.
“Don’t move.”
“I’m not armed.”
Harlan stepped forward.
Lena blocked him.
“Stay back.”
Judith was crying.
Not dramatically.
Quiet tears.
Exhausted tears.
“I didn’t want the child hurt.”
Harlan’s voice turned cold.
“You took my daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Conrad said no one would be hurt.”
I stared at her.
“You stole my uniform?”
She nodded.
“Neal gave it to me.”
“Why me?”
“Because you were supposed to find Elsie.”
Everything stopped.
“What?”
Judith looked at me.
“Conrad chose you.”
I laughed once.
It came out wrong.
“He chose a waitress he’d never met?”
“He knew exactly who you were.”
Harlan looked toward the ledger.
“My mother.”
Judith nodded.
“Conrad found Evelyn Ellison’s name years ago. He never found the ledger. He believed she had passed it to Mara.”
“Why stage Elsie’s disappearance?” Lena asked.
“To force Harlan into contact with Mara.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if Conrad believed Harlan would investigate her.”
Harlan understood first.
“He wanted me to lead him to the ledger.”
Judith nodded.
“He searched Mara’s apartment. Her storage records. Her employment file. Nothing worked.”
My anger turned icy.
“So he bought the restaurant.”
“Yes.”
Neal had been watching me.
For seventeen months.
Every late shift.
Every break.
Every complaint about rent.
All of it.
“He had Neal keep me late that night.”
Judith nodded again.
“The plan was for you to walk through the garage.”
“And Elsie?”
“She was supposed to be there for six minutes.”
Harlan’s face was terrifying now.
“Without her medication?”
Judith started crying harder.
“That wasn’t the plan.”
“Whose decision?”
“Neal.”
“Why?”
“He panicked. Elsie started asking questions. He thought if she was weak she’d stay quiet.”
Harlan moved.
Lena put a hand against his chest.
“No.”
He stared through her.
“Where is Neal?”
Judith shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Where is Conrad?”
“I don’t know.”
“You came here for a reason,” Lena said. “What changed?”
Judith looked at the ledger.
“Conrad told me to burn the hotel.”
I felt sick.
“This hotel?”
“Tonight.”
Harlan’s expression hardened.
“He knows the ledger is here.”
“He knows you found something.”
“Who told him?”
Judith looked at Victor.
The room went silent.
Victor’s face drained of color.
Harlan turned slowly.
“Victor?”
“No.”
Judith took a step backward.
“It wasn’t him.”
Victor exhaled.
“Then who?”
She whispered a name.
“Mateo.”
Harlan’s other security man.
The quiet one.
The man who had stood in my apartment.
The man who had driven behind us.
Victor immediately called his team.
No answer.
“Where is Mateo?” Harlan asked.
Victor checked his tracker.
“Your house.”
Harlan’s face changed.
“Elsie.”
We moved.
Police first.
Harlan behind them.
I should not have gone.
Lena told me not to.
I went anyway.
Because Elsie had asked for me.
Because I could not forget her small hand clutching mine.
Harlan’s home stood behind iron gates in Palmer Woods.
The house itself was enormous.
Not gaudy.
Old stone.
Dark windows.
Security lights.
The front gate was open.
That was wrong.
Victor knew it instantly.
“Stay in the vehicle.”
Harlan ignored him.
So did I.
Inside, the house was silent.
Too silent.
A nurse stood in the foyer.
Terrified.
“She’s gone.”
Harlan stopped.
“Who?”
“Elsie.”
His face went white.
“Who took her?”
“Mr. Mateo said you wanted her moved.”
Harlan closed his eyes.
One second.
Then opened them.
“Vehicle?”
“Black Suburban.”
Victor checked security.
“Garage exit twenty-six minutes ago.”
Lena radioed dispatch.
I walked toward the staircase.
Something sat on the bottom step.
The stuffed bunny.
“Wait.”
Everyone turned.
I picked it up.
One ear had been ripped.
Inside was a second tiny device.
Not a tracker.
A memory card.
Harlan stared at it.
“Elsie did that?”
“She said Bun knew secrets.”
Victor inserted the card into a secured tablet.
One audio file.
Eight minutes.
We listened.
Conrad’s voice.
Clear.
Calm.
Talking to Mateo.
“If Harlan finds the ledger, we move to the second option.”
“What about Elsie?”
“She’s leverage.”
“And the waitress?”
“Disposable.”
My stomach dropped.
Harlan looked at me.
The recording continued.
Mateo asked, “Where do we take the girl?”
Conrad answered.
“Back where it started.”
The audio ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then I understood.
“The garage.”
We drove faster than I had ever moved through Detroit.
Police units converged ahead of us.
The Jefferson Meridian structure had been closed.
Emergency lights painted the entrance.
Lena ordered me to stay behind the line.
I didn’t.
Harlan and Victor entered with officers.
I followed at a distance.
The garage looked different now.
Same lights.
Same concrete.
But crowded with police.
Level three was empty.
Level four.
Nothing.
Then I remembered the photograph from that first night.
Elsie against the wall.
The black-and-yellow safety post beside her.
Something about it.
A seam.
A door.
I ran toward it.
“Mara!” Lena shouted.
Behind the bench was a narrow maintenance panel.
Its lock had been broken.
I pulled.
A steel door opened into a service corridor.
Stairs led downward.
“Harlan!”
He came running.
Victor tried to go first.
Harlan stopped him.
“No.”
“Harlan.”
“My daughter.”
He descended.
Police followed.
The corridor led beneath the garage to an old mechanical level.
We heard voices.
Mateo.
Then Elsie.
“Daddy!”
Harlan ran.
Lena cursed and followed.
The final door opened into a concrete utility room.
Elsie sat in a chair.
Alive.
Scared.
Mateo stood across the room.
He wasn’t holding a weapon.
He looked defeated.
Harlan moved toward his daughter.
Mateo lifted both hands.
“I’m done.”
“Move away from her.”
“I’m done, Harlan.”
Police took him into custody.
Harlan reached Elsie.
She launched herself into his arms.
He dropped to his knees.
For the first time since I met him, he cried.
Silently.
Face against his daughter’s hair.
I turned away.
Then Elsie saw me.
“Mara.”
I came closer.
“You found me again.”
“Apparently that’s becoming my job.”
She smiled.
Harlan looked at me over her shoulder.
Something had changed between us.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Trust.
Fragile.
Earned.
Then Lena’s radio erupted.
She listened.
Her eyes snapped toward Harlan.
“What?”
“Conrad’s vehicle was found at City Airport.”
“Did he leave?”
“No.”
“Then where is he?”
Lena looked toward the corridor.
“Police just received a call from your office.”
“My office?”
“Your board is meeting right now.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Conrad called an emergency vote.”
Harlan stood.
“On what?”
Lena’s expression hardened.
“Removing you as CEO.”
Victor’s phone rang simultaneously.
He answered.
Then held it toward Harlan.
“It’s the board chairman.”
Harlan took the call.
Listened.
His face went still.
“When?”
He ended it.
“What happened?” I asked.
He looked toward the garage exit.
“Conrad doesn’t want my company.”
“What does he want?”
Harlan stared at me.
“Everything.”
Then a notification appeared on every phone in the room.
Breaking news.
HARLAN VOSS ACCUSED IN DAUGHTER’S DISAPPEARANCE.
May you like
Beneath the headline was my photograph.
And the article identified me as his alleged accomplice.
