Chapter 6 - The Supervised Hour
The emergency placement order lasted three days. On the fourth, Judge Alvarez required a formal review and authorized Cole's first supervised visit with Eli.
"A visitation room is not a home," Lena said outside the courthouse.
"It is not supposed to be," June replied. "It is a controlled environment with two cameras, a panic button, and a monitor trained to end the visit at the first threat."
"What if he doesn't threaten him?"
"Then we observe what he does."
Cole arrived with Pike and a new bruise along his jaw. He claimed police had attacked him during the search of his house. The judge denied the claim and ordered him to remain fifty feet from Lena outside the hearing room.
Eli refused to enter the visitation room until Lena promised to wait in the hallway.
"I will be right there," she said.
"Can you hear me?"
"If you shout, I will hear you."
He nodded, though his eyes remained fixed on Cole.
Through the observation glass, Lena saw Cole sit across from his son. He brought a paper bag of pastries and a plastic dinosaur. For five minutes, he played the role of patient father.
"I brought your favorite," Cole said.
"I don't like those anymore."
"You did last year."
"Last year you made me eat them."
Cole's smile flickered.
"People are telling lies about me," he said. "They want to take you away because they want what belongs to us."
"I don't belong to you."
The monitor, a woman named Carla Mendez, leaned forward.
Cole lowered his voice. "Tell them you found the blue key in the garage. Tell them Lena made you steal it."
Eli's hands folded into his lap.
"You remember the basement?" Cole continued. "You remember what happened when your mother disobeyed?"
Lena pressed the panic button before Carla could reach it.
The door opened. Carla stepped between Cole and Eli. "Visit terminated."
Cole stood slowly. "This is parental alienation."
"You threatened a child," Carla said.
As officers escorted him out, Cole looked through the glass at Lena. His expression held no anger now. It held satisfaction.
In the hallway, Eli came straight to Lena but did not touch her.
"He said Mom hid something," Eli whispered.
"What?"
"She put it in a red toolbox. Dad said if I told, he would hurt you."
Rao met them at the courthouse doors. She had been waiting in an unmarked car.
"I need to ask you about the toolbox," she said.
Eli stared at the pavement.
Lena knelt. "You can tell Detective Rao. She writes things down so people cannot pretend they did not hear."
Eli nodded. "Mom had a red toolbox under the porch. Dad took it away after she got sick."
"Did you see what was inside?" Rao asked.
"A little camera. And a piece of paper with numbers."
"Where is the toolbox now?"
"At the old house."
The old house was forty miles north, in a town where Sadie Mercer had lived before marrying Cole. Pike had told the court she abandoned the family. If she had left evidence behind, the story might be different.
June received a call while Rao was arranging a warrant. She listened, then frowned.
"The foster agency says someone requested Eli's medical records using my authorization code."
Rao's eyes narrowed. "Who has access to your code?"
"My supervisor and the intake coordinator."
"Names."
June hesitated. "Helen Voss."
Darius swore under his breath.
"Gideon Voss's sister?" Lena asked.
"She runs the regional placement office," June said. "But she has no direct connection to the Mercer case."
"Everybody has a connection," Rao answered.
That night, someone left a pastry bag outside Lena's apartment. Inside was a single sheet of paper covered in numbers.
It looked like nonsense until Eli saw it.
"Those are Mom's numbers," he said.
"What do they mean?"
"She said they were the times Dad came home bleeding."
Lena spread the paper across the table. Dates and times formed a pattern. Every entry followed a shipment scheduled at the port.
May you like
Sadie had not been documenting domestic violence alone.
She had been documenting the thefts.
