Chapter 3 - Bay Nineteen
The county courthouse smelled of wet wool and burnt coffee. Lena sat at a folding table beside June Han while a judge reviewed photographs of Eli's bruises. Across the room, Cole Mercer wore a charcoal suit and an expression of patient sorrow.
His attorney, a silver-haired man named Glenn Pike, spoke first. "My client is a devoted father who reported his son's disappearance. Ms. Ortiz, by contrast, concealed the child overnight and resisted returning him."
"He broke my window," Lena said.
"After you refused to release his son."
"After his son told me he was afraid."
The judge, Miriam Alvarez, raised one hand. "I will not conduct a trial in a temporary hearing. Mr. Mercer, you will have no unsupervised contact until the department completes its investigation."
Cole's eyes never left Lena. "My son has been coached."
Eli sat in a side room with a court advocate. Through the glass, Lena could see him drawing a house with no doors.
The judge granted June temporary protective custody and ordered Cole to submit to supervised visitation. She also approved Lena as an emergency placement candidate pending inspection and a background check.
Outside, Pike intercepted Lena near the elevators.
"You are making a dangerous mistake," he said quietly.
"Protecting a child?"
"You are not equipped for the people involved."
"Then equip yourself to stop them."
His face tightened. "You think this is about bruises. It is about a missing shipment and a ledger that can put men in prison. Your brother's name is in that ledger."
Lena felt the old scar inside her open. Nico had been dead for six years, though nobody in Grayhaven used the word dead when they spoke of him. They said serving time, gone away, not coming home.
"My brother is in a state prison," she said.
"That may change."
Pike walked away before she could ask what he meant.
Darius waited by his tow truck. "The garage got searched while you were in court."
"By whom?"
"Two men claiming to be from the insurance company. They left when I asked for badges."
Lena unlocked Bay Three. Nothing appeared disturbed until she checked the delivery van. The chain had been cut and rewelded poorly. Inside, a sour chemical smell clung to the metal floor.
"This van belongs to Mercer Logistics," she said.
"Which is why it was dumped at your shop."
Lena pulled the blue tag from her pocket. "Bay Nineteen. There is no Bay Nineteen here."
"There is at the old ferry terminal."
Grayhaven's ferry terminal had been closed since the river ice crushed the loading platform. The storage lockers remained under the passenger hall, though most had been stripped bare by vandals.
They drove there in Darius's tow truck, with Lena's .38 locked in the glove box and a police detective following three car lengths behind. Detective Anika Rao had introduced herself at the courthouse. She was short, composed, and carried a notebook with an elastic band around it.
"You are not authorized to investigate this," Rao said as they entered the terminal.
"We are looking for a locker," Lena replied.
"That is one definition of investigate."
"Then arrest me after we find it."
Rao gave her a look that might have been amusement. "I have a better idea. Let me stand close enough to prevent you from doing anything reckless."
Bay Nineteen sat behind a collapsed ticket booth. The blue key fit the lock.
Inside was a canvas tool pouch, a disposable phone, and a flash drive taped beneath a rusted shelf. There was also a photograph of a teenage boy standing beside a red motorcycle.
Nico.
Lena picked up the photograph with shaking fingers. On the back, someone had written: HE DID NOT STEAL THE TRUCK.
Rao took the flash drive and bagged it. "Where did you get this?"
"A seven-year-old gave me the key."
"Then we need to know what he saw."
The disposable phone buzzed in the pouch.
Rao answered on speaker. No one spoke. A man's breathing filled the terminal, slow and deliberate.
Then Cole said, "You opened it."
Lena felt the temperature drop. "Where is Eli?"
"Safe, for the moment."
"If you touch him—"
"You are confusing the boy with the evidence. I need one thing. Bring me the drive, and I will stop looking for you."
Rao gestured for silence.
Cole continued, "Ask Detective Rao what happened to the last witness who trusted her."
The call ended.
Rao's face remained still, but her hand had closed around the notebook so tightly the knuckles showed white.
"What did he mean?" Lena asked.
"He means he knows how to make a threat sound like a prophecy."
Footsteps echoed from the far end of the terminal.
Rao drew her weapon. Darius shoved Lena behind a concrete pillar. A bullet struck the ticket booth, showering them with plaster.
The shooter vanished through a side door before Rao could reach him.
On the floor beside the shell casing lay a child's red shoelace.
Lena stared at it.
May you like
"That came from Eli's shoe," she said.
Rao looked toward the river. "Then Cole is not waiting for the court to give him another chance."
