Chapter 7 - THE DISAPPEARANCE
The next six hours were a nightmare.
Every road was searched.
Every airport was monitored.
Every hospital in the county was alerted.
But Alora had vanished.
The detective found one clue.
A security camera captured a white van leaving the hospital forty-seven minutes before the vineyard operation.
The driver was wearing a mask.
But the passenger wasn't.
Mara recognized him.
“That's our uncle.”
I looked at her.
“Which uncle?”
“My mother's brother.”
I had never met him.
Apparently, he had been living overseas for years.
His name was Victor Hart.
And according to Mara, he had been Kareen's closest accomplice.
We traced the van to a private airfield.
An aircraft had departed six hours earlier.
Destination unknown.
I nearly collapsed.
Then my phone rang.
Victor.
“Thane.”
“Where is my wife?”
“Safe.”
“If you touch her—”
“I won't.”
“Then let her go.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother made a deal.”
“What deal?”
“She promised us the trust.”
I closed my eyes.
“You don't understand.”
“I understand everything.”
“No.”
Victor's voice changed.
“You don't understand what happens if your child is born.”
“What?”
“The trust doesn't just contain money.”
I froze.
“What else?”
“Evidence.”
“Evidence of what?”
“Thirty years of crimes.”
My heart pounded.
“Whose crimes?”
“Kareen's.”
“Then why help her?”
“Because she owns me.”
“How?”
Silence.
Then Victor whispered:
“She killed my son.”
I couldn't speak.
“She threatened to blame me.”
His voice broke.
“I've spent twenty years doing what she asked.”
“Where is Alora?”
“You'll know soon.”
The call ended.
Mara looked at me.
“What did he say?”
I told her.
She stared at the floor.
Then suddenly said:
“Wait.”
“What?”
“My father kept an old storage unit.”
“Where?”
“Santa Barbara.”
We drove there.
Inside, we found boxes of documents.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Letters.
And one videotape.
I inserted it into an old player.
My father's face appeared on screen.
He looked older than I remembered.
Tired.
Afraid.
“If my son is watching this,” he said, “then I failed.”
I sat down.
He continued.
“Kareen is not alone.”
The screen flickered.
“She has people in law enforcement, banking, security, and politics.”
Mara covered her mouth.
“My death will be ruled accidental.”
My father looked directly into the camera.
“But it won't be.”
He paused.
“The person who can destroy her is my son.”
Then he said something that changed everything.
“Thane, your mother knows about the child.”
I stopped breathing.
“Not your unborn child.”
The screen went black.
Mara stared at me.
“What child?”
I replayed it.
Again.
Again.
Then we heard a noise outside.
Someone was inside the storage facility.
I grabbed a metal bar.
Footsteps approached.
The door burst open.
A man rushed inside.
We fought.
He escaped through the back.
But he dropped something.
A hospital bracelet.
Alora's name was printed on it.
And beneath her name was another.
BABY HART — FEMALE
Mara stared at me.
“That isn't your baby.”
I looked at the bracelet.
Then at the date.
It was six years old.
My father hadn't been talking about my unborn child.
He had been talking about another child.
A child who had already been born.
May you like
And suddenly I realized:
Someone had been searching for that child for six years.
