Chapter 3 - WHAT MATTHEW LEFT BEHIND
Elena stared at the message until the words blurred.
Daniel noticed.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
He reached toward the phone.
“That didn’t look like nothing.”
Elena pulled it away.
“Stay out of it.”
His expression hardened.
“My wife kidnapped your child.”
“You still call her your wife.”
Daniel flinched.
Elena regretted the words for half a second.
Only half.
Officer Grant returned with a detective named Laura Kim.
Kim was calm.
Too calm.
The kind of calm that made Elena feel like panic had finally entered the hands of someone useful.
They moved to a private room inside the park administration building.
Mateo stayed near Elena.
Daniel sat across from them.
Kim placed a recorder on the table.
“Start from the beginning.”
Elena took a breath.
“My husband was Matthew Reyes.”
Daniel looked up.
The name meant something to him.
Elena noticed.
“You know that name?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Reyes Biomedical.”
Elena nodded.
Matthew had founded a small medical technology company.
Not famous.
Not flashy.
But very successful.
Then, three months before Mateo’s birth, Matthew died in what police ruled a boating accident.
“Elena,” Daniel said carefully, “Reyes Biomedical was bought out.”
“After Matthew died.”
“For nearly eighty million dollars.”
Elena’s eyes hardened.
“I never saw that money.”
Kim leaned forward.
“What happened to it?”
“My husband had a trust.”
“For Mateo?”
“For both of us.”
Daniel stared.
Elena continued.
“But Matthew changed something shortly before his death.”
Kim asked:
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never saw the updated documents?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because his attorney disappeared.”
Daniel frowned.
“Disappeared?”
“Left town.”
Elena shook her head.
“That’s what I was told.”
Kim tapped her pen.
“Who told you?”
Elena already knew how bad the answer sounded.
“Vanessa.”
The room became silent.
Daniel leaned back.
“Jesus.”
Elena looked at him.
“She was around constantly after Matthew died.”
Kim asked:
“Did Vanessa know Matthew?”
“Through the hospital.”
“Was she involved with him?”
Elena’s expression sharpened.
“No.”
“How certain are you?”
“Very.”
Daniel looked down.
Elena caught it.
“What?”
Daniel rubbed his thumb against his wedding ring.
“Vanessa has a safe.”
Kim looked up.
“At your home?”
Daniel nodded.
“I thought it contained jewelry and family documents.”
“And?”
“I saw something inside once.”
Elena waited.
“A picture of your husband.”
Elena stopped breathing.
Daniel continued.
“He was standing beside Vanessa.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“What kind of picture?”
“A hospital fundraiser.”
Elena sat back.
She remembered the event.
She had been pregnant.
Matthew had disappeared for almost an hour that night.
He said he was meeting investors.
A memory surfaced.
Vanessa bringing Elena ginger ale.
Vanessa laughing.
Matthew looking irritated when Vanessa approached.
Elena had never thought about it again.
Kim asked Daniel:
“Can we access that safe?”
Daniel nodded.
“If Vanessa hasn’t emptied it.”
They drove to Daniel’s home under police escort.
Elena refused to let Mateo out of her sight.
The house was enormous.
Mateo pointed toward a window.
“My room.”
Elena almost broke.
Daniel saw it.
“He was safe here.”
Elena looked at him.
“You don’t know what safe means anymore than I do.”
He lowered his eyes.
Inside, police photographed everything.
Daniel opened a concealed safe in his bedroom closet.
It was almost empty.
Almost.
There were three passports.
One belonging to Vanessa.
One bearing Mateo’s photograph under the name Marco Cole.
And one belonging to Elena.
Elena picked it up with shaking hands.
The passport had been issued two years after her supposed death.
Someone had used her identity.
Kim opened a small envelope.
Inside was a key.
A number was printed on it.
Bank locker.
Daniel found a photograph beneath the passports.
Matthew stood next to Vanessa.
But they weren’t smiling.
Matthew looked furious.
Written on the back in his handwriting were seven words:
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, FIND ELENA.
Elena stared at it.
Then she noticed something else.
Matthew’s hand was gripping Vanessa’s wrist.
And half-visible beneath Vanessa’s sleeve was a tattoo.
A small black triangle.
Elena’s skin went cold.
She had seen that same symbol yesterday.
On Dr. Pierce.
May you like
And suddenly the kidnapping no longer looked like one woman’s crime.
It looked like an organization.
